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Technology: Cars

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRGwLDLRp8

    Transparent bonnet - very useful
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      CommentAuthormaryyugo
    • CommentTimeApr 11th 2014
     
    Posted By: Andrew Palfreymanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRGwLDLRp8

    Transparent bonnet - very useful
    Now that is very cool. As car windshields and windows get more and more like gunslits (what the idiot designers call a "high waist line") this concept will get more necessary. Soon, our only view out of cars will be through cameras. The entire car will be made of opaque sheet metal without glass. Cheaper. And better collision test results, I'm sure.
    • CommentAuthorLakes
    • CommentTimeApr 12th 2014
     
    I was expecting to see the engine. :D

    Hmm, drive by camera?, what could possibly go wrong? :)
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    I parked next to a brand new Toyota Tundra. The usual USAn monster nightmare. 14 mpg. Pathetic.
    http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/tundra?engineconfig_id=6423&bodystyleconfig_id=&submodel_id=
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      CommentAuthorAngus
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    Strange. Mrs A's Toyota SUV gets 8.1 l per 100 km which I make out as 28 miles per US mini-gallon. I'm surprised that the cobbled together hybrid system on that thing works so well.
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    "Synergy" is not cobbled together. Ford spent $400M developing their hybrid drive system only to have the patent attorneys congratulate them on re-inventing the Synergy Hybrid drive system:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Synergy_Drive
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    Too late to the party. I trust the engineering managers were fired.
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      CommentAuthorAngus
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    Posted By: magic moment"Synergy" is not cobbled together. Ford spent $400M developing their hybrid drive system only to have the patent attorneys congratulate them on re-inventing the Synergy Hybrid drive system:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Synergy_Drive


    OK I'm being disrespectful. Having owned both a Prius and now the Hybrid Highlander I can tell you that the Prius' ground-up hybrid design meets my taste better than the Highlander's add-on hybrid design. Still, I'll give it credit for actually working.
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    Technically speaking, how does Highlander's system differ?
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    From what I read, there is no difference. The HH uses an Atkinson cycle engine, two electric motors and the same style CVT as the Prius.
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    After Nissan heard about the Ford hybrid debacle, they simply licensed Toyota's technology.
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      CommentAuthorAngus
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2014
     
    That is indeed what WIKI seems to say. The mechanics at the dealership tell me there is a difference, required by shoehorning the hybrid system into an existing SUV design, but I don't know exactly the details. One obvious difference is that it is a four wheel drive system and the rear wheels are electrically driven. It accelerates like a bat out of hell, spinning the rear wheels, whereas the Prius is a pretty wimpy front wheel only drive.
  14.  


    I wish I didn't sound like a whiner most of the time, but when I have passions (e.g. Alfa Romeo) which are disappointed (505 HP, most ever for their road cars) because it looks like every other bloody car on the road, it's unreasonable to expect dancing on the ceiling.

    I drove an Alfa Spyder for many years
    • CommentAuthortinker
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2015
     
    And I still have a 3-litre V6 GTV, one of only a 1000 or so built before they changed engines to 2.6L. Had it from new (13 years) and it still looks and sounds amazing. Also almost entirely trouble-free till this year, when it needed an engine rebuild to replace the O-rings at the bottom of the cylinder liners, a new radiator and a new oil-cooler. But now it has reached the inflection point for value. I notice that clean ones are going up in value, instead of down.

    ps- Forgot - did have anew clutch 3 years ago. Apart from that its just been brakes, tyres, and servicing. For 70k miles.
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      CommentAuthormaryyugo
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2015 edited
     
    Yikes. I had a slushy GM Belchfire (mid size family style sedan-- think Toyota Camry) V6 with a supercharger for a while and it did not need any of that type of service in more than 100K miles. At the end of that time, all it needed was a rebuilt supercharger -- the old one worked fine but it made a noise like a coffee grinder due to the bearings being shot. Brakes were fine but steering was atrocious with a dead fish feeling, poor self-centering, overly assisted, and generally sloppy and numb.

    I now drive a current model Belchfire V6 with a "refined and sophisticated" GM-Northstar style engine with VVT. And while it also is trouble free and smooth as silk, I miss the willing surge of the supercharger (not a turbocharger, but engine-driven with a belt). Power is there but it seems distant and reluctant by comparison. This newer GM car does have constant transmission issues and some of the underhood connectors corroded out, so I'd put it overall on a par with the Alfa minus the handling characteristics which I imagine are great but minus the bone-jangling, tooth-rattling ride. And with 18" wheels and Michelin tires, Ms. Belchfire actually corners OK.

    I have no idea why I wrote that. Something to do while between tasks and sipping a second kawphy?
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      CommentAuthorDuracell
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2015
     
    How many miles per gallon do you get?
    • CommentAuthortinker
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2015
     
    Will Belchfire do 160mph on the Autobahn? And the Alfa steers, corners and brakes with all the precision of a swiss watch. For boring and trouble free I have a Merc A160.
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      CommentAuthormaryyugo
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2015
     
    Posted By: DuracellHow many miles per gallon do you get?
    Ha. Meant to include it. Supercharged Belchfire was about 18 mpg highway and 14 mpg city. A heavy foot would make it worse. New VVT Belchfire is 26 highway and 18 city. I rented a Prius and got 45 mpg city with no effort. Highway we don't know for sure but more like 40. All are miles per gallon, using the built in mileage computer. It's been many years since I measured mileage from the odometer reading and replacing fuel to full.
  20.  
    It's a wrench converting to litres per 100 Km

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