'I'll be damned if I'm letting my wife get to the finish line first'
http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/motoring/motoringfeatures/car-vs-speedboat-husband-vs-wife-11363919623432 Car vs speedboat, husband vs wife By Matt Kimberley 18 July 2014 [image http://home.bt.com/images/the-renault-zoe-piloted-by-matt-kimberley-on-his-cardiff-to-bristol-challenge-136391962337410401-140715125031.jpg The Renault Zoe piloted by Matt Kimberley on his Cardiff to Bristol challenge. ] Can an electric car get from Cardiff to Bristol faster than a speedboat? Our husband-and-wife team put the two to the test. A good husband encourages his wife to do as well as she can. He graciously congratulates her when she wins at Monopoly and he will always let her win a friendly race. I, however, am not a good husband. I'll be damned if I'm letting my wife Laura get to the finish line first today, and as she wanders cheerily off towards a blue RIB-style speedboat I'm left eyeing 'my' Renault Zoe electric supermini. She's with some competition winners from Radio Cardiff, while I'm in the wheeled corner with the guys from Pod Point, who are 'charging' around the UK (geddit?) in the Zoe to prove the electric car power network is usable. I'm meant to be talking more about this but my driver for the day has just jogged up with the news that the harbour master has said the RIB needs to leave in five minutes or it won't get to leave at all. So much for interview time, but there are more important matters at hand, like intra-house bragging rights. Wet and wired The race is from Cardiff's Mermaid Quay to the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol, a distance of 47 miles for the car and significantly less for the Wifemobile. The Zoe should average a higher speed, though, and the RIB also has to negotiate the tricky – and slow – Bristol waterways. Game on. Although this isn't a race, because that would be irresponsible and risky. A devastating klaxon sounds, several people minding their own business in nearby cafés spill their drinks over themselves and my driver Rory and I leap into the Zoe, only to find that the Quay staff have put the bollards back in place after allowing the car into its starting position by the waterside. We're stuck, and as the RIB disappears out of the harbour I can just imagine Laura's glee. It must be close to 10 minutes later when, slightly red-faced, we're on our way and the ra... I mean challenge, is back on. The Zoe barely makes a sound as its low-rolling resistance tyres purr smoothly over the town centre tarmac towards the M4, reeling it in like a fish that broke our first line. The car is nowhere near fully charged when we leave Cardiff, which is testament to Rory's confidence in it. He and the Pod Point team have been involved with all sorts of bizarre challenges and open events with the Zoe over the last week, and this is just another to add to the list. It's probably better that he's driving, though. I'd be too tempted to pin the throttle to the speed limiter. We must be way behind Laura and the competition winners. This is going to be worse than the time she beat me at Words With Friends and we barely spoke for two days. I try to distract myself with the car's extremely pleasant interior and lack of vibration, but as amiable as the car is, 70mph just can't be fast enough to make up the lost time. The Severn Bridge is a technological behemoth that dwarfs the Zoe, but it's a perfect juxtaposition of old versus new. The Zoe is a pathfinder, a toe dipped wholesale into the minutely complicated waters of electric propulsion tech, while the bridge is a lasting figurehead of engineering complexity on a monumental scale; as ready to carry cars of any type across the Severn as it always has been. No limits We round the top of the motorway into Bristol, and Rory calls his counterpart on the RIB. They were held up at the Severn crossing, we're told, but the authorities have lifted a speed limit on the Avon for them. Well, that's hardly fair! I can't exactly just ring the Highways Agency and ask them to apply autobahn rules to the M32 for a few minutes, can I? Maybe we shouldn't turn up at all. The shame will be too much. Maybe I'll ask Rory to drop me off at home. Apparently I'm not allowed to do that, so it's onwards to the Arnolfini. We get a reasonable run through the traffic lights, manoeuvre the supermini around to the waterside by the finish line and get out to congratulate the victors. Only... they aren't here. Now, a good husband should not pump his fist into the air when hearing the news that his wife is stranded on a small island in the River Avon. But... well, you get the idea. The RIB couldn't make it past an unfilled lock at the end of the Avon's entrance to the managed waterway running past the Arnolfini. Game over. Bragging rights secured (for once). Well done, little Zoe. I always knew you could do it. Honest. [© bt.com] ... https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Cardiff,+UK/Bristol,+City+of+Bristol,+UK/@51.5266904,-3.1325787,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x486e02d434ec53f5:0x143406db6586670e!2m2!1d-3.17909!2d51.481581!1m5!1m1!1s0x4871836681b3d861:0x8ee4b22e4b9ad71f!2m2!1d-2.58791!2d51.454513 Cardiff to Bristol route For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_442b75ae-119d-11e4-94b3-0017a43b2370.html 1st Lady’s + Past&Future EVs @edithbollingwilson.org Wytheville, VA http://www.autoevolution.com/news/2015-acura-honda-nsx-prototype-burns-to-a-crisp-on-nurburgring-84343.html 2015 Honda NSX Protohybrid Burns to a Crisp @Nurburgring.de http://www.motoring.com.au/news/large-passenger/honda/nsx/spy-pics-honda-nsxs-incendiary-performance-44946 http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140723/AUTO0103/307230062/ GM scraps European Chevy Volt pih version ... http://www.autoevolution.com/news/opel-ampera-to-be-discontinued-chevrolet-volt-lives-on-for-another-generation-84205.html Opel's Volt-pih, Ampera, to Be Discontinued ... http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/07/25/The-very-expensive-death-of-the-Chevy-Volt The very expensive death of the Chevy Volt http://www.worldcarfans.com/114072378643/audi-wont-race-bmw-and-tesla-in-evs---report Audi CEO sez they will sell pih and not EVs http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/2014/07/new-electric-hybrid-refuse-collection-vehicles-displayed-by-geesinknorba.html New Electric & Hybrid Refuse Vehicles @IFEMA.es Convention Centre http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tesla-motors-opens-supercharging-station-on-b-c-s-sea-to-sky-highway-1.2709794 Video Tesla supercharger on B.C.'s Sea-to-Sky Highway is a 1st for Canada + EVLN: EV Engineer's 6k-mi UK Trip on a 3-Wheel Solar-Tuk-Tuk (video) {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-EV-vs-speedboat-husband-vs-wife-race-tp4670552.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
