On Mon, 24 May 2004 12:21:58 -0400, you wrote:
murdoch wrote:
The show is From Tactical To Practical. This particular show, they
were examining all sorts of hybrids and alt-fuel vehicles.
After the Prius-Insight hybrid segment, they did a segment on the
tzero, where they had it do a 1/4 mile drag against a 500 hp Dodge
Viper. The tzero won. At the end, the Viper was catching up a bit,
but it was not able to overcome the tzero's advantages in low-end
torque that manifested themselves at the line.
I saw it too, didn't it look like they were going really slow, perhaps a
mock race?
It's possible they would take it easy, but there would be no reason to
do so. There are videos around the net of a tzero dusting similar
street cars (Ferrari, etc.), and I've seen it accelerate from zero
(though I haven't been in it when it did so), and I don't have much
trouble believing Gage's claim of 0-60 in 3.6 seconds. I don't
personally like super-fast cars as street cars (though I've not driven
one) for safety reasons, and I'd classify the tzero with the faster
Porsche 911 variants in my thinking on that matter.
On the other hand, having seen the tzero accelerate from stop, yes, I
must admit there was a moment when I thought I wonder if this is for
real. Also, note that the other driver turned and spoke to the
camera at some point, making me wonder if they shot the 'race' more
than once, maybe with a camera person in either car at some point.
One thing I liked about the episode was the cutaway of the car so you
could see where they put some of the batteries, how they clarified
that they were supposedly laptop batteries (when I attended a Gage
lecture, the claim he made was that the batteries were ones used for
other things, such as the model-airplane people, but it's certainly
possible they've tried others) and the explanation of the low-end
torque issue for some EVs. I also liked Gage's summarizing statement
as to how things have come a long way in the variety of areas from
battery to motor to wheel, because this helps put some perspective on
the various behind-the-scenes technology areas that have gone
better... the various weak link points that could cause an EV not to
do as well? Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
Then there was a segment on a diesel-electric hybrid military vehicle
and then a diesel-electric 2004 Dodge pickup (Is such a thing actually
available to consumers, or was this just Daimler-Chrysler vaporware,
or more military-only who-cares-about-consumers-ware?)
The hybrid dodge pickup is being made available to fleet customers right
now. It should be available in a year or two for regular customers.
The military hybrid (Hybrid Humvee?) was said to use Lithium-type
batteries. Cool.
I think it's mainly for stealth mode. The military rarely cares about
fuel consumption.
I don't watch the whole episode carefully, but didn't they talk, at
some point, about why such a vehicle would be important, about the
750,000 gallons per day of fuel used by the troops during the
invasion, of how the speed of the invasion was limited by the supply
lines for fuel? I may be confusing this with a segment on afterwards
about something else.
MM
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