The Car of the Future

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  • Posted By: MrGreen23 @ 06/20/2008 9:47:08 AM

    There are similar technologies that are more readily available, including supplemental hydrogen. There are some fairly simple systems you can use that will significantly increase the effeciency of your engine. The best I have found is www.h2ofuelboost.com

  • Posted By: Dausuul @ 06/20/2008 7:21:25 AM

    Hydrogen a renewable fuel? How's that again? The author clearly hasn't done his homework. Hydrogen is a means of storing energy, not an actual energy source - to get hydrogen, we have to break down water, which consumes more energy than we get by burning the hydrogen later. If you've already got a clean energy source and you want to make it portable for use in cars, hydrogen is great. But if you don't, hydrogen won't help you.

  • Posted By: BrownFoxNine @ 06/20/2008 7:08:31 AM

    LOL, boys will be boys now wont they?

    JT
    http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

  • Posted By: onepatriot @ 06/20/2008 3:12:35 AM

    Forget about hybrids all thoes gas and corn feed pigs and go electric and solar cars leave the fuel to the big rigs that haul 80,000 lbs down the road.
    I feel we have the technology to do it within for all in 7 to 10 years at the most and keep the cost down, don't make it a fad just do it.

    • Posted By: barbara474 @ 06/20/2008 4:49:39 AM

      Big rigs have green fuel technology available to them right now, not 7 to 10 years from now. The problem is and has always been one of public awareness not availability. Bio-diesel, grown here, refined here sold here is the one technology on the ground that you hear so little about. School systems use it for busses, public transportation uses it, even the US Military which is slow to migrate to any new technology is moving at an excellerated pace toward it. The average family vehicle, if it is diesel, can also use this technology today. And.....it is no fad.

  • Posted By: Bass Pro @ 06/19/2008 4:42:06 PM

    Do you know how many exceptions there will be? Do you think a hybrid will tow any real weight? What about the 18 wheelers, the Rvs, the largers boats, etc, etc.? I was considering a hybrid pickup truck. the towing capacity was less than 1000 pounds.

    • Posted By: barbara474 @ 06/20/2008 4:35:51 AM

      Bass: You don't have to sacrifice anything in regard to power.......you don't even have to change your current vehicle, if you own a diesel, to be totally green and tow whatever you want (I will come back to this point later). Deisel engines were originally designed (by Dr R Diesel in 1890) to run on unrefined vegetable oil. Today there are hundreds of US Companies that produce refined bio-diesel. This is only one technology that the pro-oil Powers That Be(companies, cartels, Vice Presidents et al) have hindered.
      These are end to end technoligies and infrastructures that are in place, in use in our current public transportation systems, in use in other countries who would buy this US product and can be produced by American firms. How is that for taking the 5 years down the road for green vehicles and making it today?
      Getting back to my earlier reference of towing (or hauling) whatever you want...let's talk about that 18 wheeler. Deisel right? Same as most military and other commercial vehicles. Just a note that the US Army is right now looking into placing bio-diesel refineries on Military installations. There are so many internet sources about where, who, how and the benefits of this particular technology it would take too much space to supply you with the links. Just do a search.

  • Posted By: Ron Paul For Pope @ 06/20/2008 1:24:44 AM

    My fellow carpoolers and I have saved a lot of money since we traded in our car for a Radio Flyer. We're all getting in shape, too, as we take turns pulling it along our 20-mile commute!

  • Posted By: walterbrown@satx.rr.com @ 06/20/2008 12:47:08 AM

    Here, have a hanky - you seem to have sneezed on your crystal ball. The lastest technology puts upward of 90% of the battery energy in the wheels and accessories. That's 6 times a gasoline engine. About 40% of that wheel energy can be recaptured by regenerative braking, using fast-charge batteries and/or ultracapacitors (the other 60% is lost to hysteresis and drag). Plus, plug-in electricity is cheaper and 90% cleaner (point source vs. tailpipe emissions, with the potential to use wind or solar). And for all the muscle car maniacs, a Cooper Mini fitted with electric wheels can out-drag a porche. The bottom line is that electric vehicles will be a quantum leap, not a marginal improvement. The changeover will be much faster than you imagine.

    • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/20/2008 1:21:42 AM

      unfourtunatly so does cost.. the less profit to be made the more expensive the car. Besides at my income i have time to see who, wha,t when, and where, before i can afford. So maybe a the kinks will be delt with by then.

  • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/19/2008 11:31:25 PM

    Hell, rebuild the stanly steamer, put it in a 55 chevy body, or one of a million hot rod bodies, and use water 1gl per 1000 miles, in a 47 Ford Coup Chopped I WOULD BUT THIS IN A HEARTBEAT! Todays metals and our kids imagination would make a great parring! 63 chevy 3 piece window shortbed truck, that get 1000 miles per gl of water, ya buddy! let the good old day bodies see roads again, they were if any thing but sweet! Stock or Chopped! They did clock a steamer at 120mph! Tweek with todays tech and there you go. Now somebody with money, will do this, 5 years from now, and I'll say where is my cut? If it gives this planet another greneration or two, fair trade!

    • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/19/2008 11:33:09 PM

      CORRECTION
      I WOULD BUY THIS IN A HEARTBEAT!

  • Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/19/2008 11:17:34 PM

    What will i drive in 5 years,mmm lets see! Today I make 700 per month fixed, 5 years from now I will be making 760 per month! So what will I be driving?WHAT I CAN AFFORD!!! WITHOUT PMTS!! BECAUSE INS, IS LAW! Any more questions?

  • Posted By: AntiCitizenOne @ 06/19/2008 10:14:57 PM

    All known earthly reserves of petroleum are finite, but that doesn't mean we should totally surrender ourselves to the fact that it will be gone forever - while the main focus should be on renewable energy, why not try and find other ways to regenerate petroleum, for example, using algae or bacteria? Complete surrender is nothing but wasted opportunity.

  • Posted By: wyomingite @ 06/19/2008 6:10:22 PM

    The diesel-electric plug-in hybrid is surely the solution and the technology is nothing new. Look at what VW is coming out with (Golf diesel-electric) and Mercedes: diesel-electric SUV that actually has improved gas milage. Notice that gas-hybrid SUVs really don't offer much improvement at all. The diesel combines the torque and efficiency of a diesel engine with the torque and stop-and-go efficency of electric motors, with the pollution reducing technology of a plug-in. (even with coal-fired power plants the pollution is less). Also, consider the possbilities of using diesel engines to power an all-electric drive (like a locomotive or a modern military tank, or the old WWII submarines).

  • Posted By: notroubleatall1963 @ 06/19/2008 3:49:54 PM

    These changes can't happen soon enough. We should ALL be driving HYBRIDs and ELECTRICs by 2013 - the old school cars and trucks should be phased out. There should be more high-speed, ultra-modern trains to take us from city to city, from suburb to city, etc.

    Petroleum is FINITE. It will run out some day. We have probably peaked out on oil production globally since 2006, but that's quite debatable... Some analysts say 2011. Read Matthew Simmons' book, "Twilight in the Desert" and other experts on peak oil (geologists, petroleum engineers - those actually in the business - say we will peak out pretty soon - meaning that supply gets increasingly more difficult and more expensive to produce....eventually, the reservoirs around the world will be depleted)...

    We are starting to see the End of the Oil Era. There is no bubble - analysts and government officials are just trying to "break it to us gently" - our dependence on imported oil far outweighs our national production and even if we start drilling now on the shelf or in ANWR we are doomed to consume way more than we can ever hope to produce. Imports will slow up as the largest oil companies are owned by Countries like Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Brazil, etc. and as their production gets tighter over the years, they will want to keep their oil for their own people rather than sell to the American guzzlers.

    Get over oil - the sooner the better - and start conserving it dramatically today. We can't. Unfortunately. But we should start thinking about reducing a LOT MORE DRASTICALLY than we are.

  • Posted By: Bass Pro @ 06/19/2008 1:08:22 PM

    If it doesn't pull my boat, forget it!

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