Enterprising students at MIT have turned a gas-guzzling 1976 Porsche 914 into an eco-friendly electric car, able to reach a top speed of 100 mph with a range of 130 miles on a single charge.
The student project took off last year when Valence Technology Inc. donated 18 lithium phosphate rechargeable batteries valued at $2,030 each, plus a battery-management system. The team began by removing the original engine, exhaust lines and fuel tank and installing an electric motor and motor controller, the batteries and battery-management system, a battery charger and various smaller components. Each of the batteries is equipped with a built-in computer that monitors its conditions--ideal for the data-gathering task.
However, getting all the computers to communicate with one another and with the battery-management system--a separate computer--proved a challenge. While the students had made great strides with a commercial converter kit, they ultimately had to scrap it because it was designed to handle 12 conventional lead-acid batteries rather than 18 lithium ion batteries. They subsequently redesigned the wiring and reprogrammed both the motor controller and the battery controller.
We all know how James Bond prefers his drinks, but which car does he truly prefer, the Aston Martin or the Bentley? This is apparently the question of our time, evidenced by a growing feud between car manufacturers.
In this corner, Richard Charlesworth, director of royal and VIP relations at Bentley Motors:
"Fleming himself was a Bentley fan and a Bentley driver," continues Mr Charlesworth, who also oversees Bentley's heritage collection. "He was brought up at a time when the Bentley brothers were winning a lot of races. The way he wrote it, James Bond almost had a love affair with his Bentleys, almost more important than his conquests of women."
In the other corner we have the chief executive of Aston Martin, Ulrich Bez:
In the films, Commander Bond "requires the best of British", insists Mr Bez.
"And that's an Aston Martin."
I seem to remember Bond driving a few American cars, notably the Lincoln Continental, though Lincoln is conspicuously missing from this heated debate.
My Money Blog has posted a rather awesome collection of fuel saving strategies you can use on hybrids and standard cars, which in some cases will earn you an impressive 30% boost in fuel economy.
Use an real-time fuel economy meter. If you don’t have a hybrid with a built-in meter, get yourself something like the ScanGuage II.
Inflate tires to much higher pressures. Higher tire pressures -> Lower rolling resistance -> better fuel economy. They recommend not just inflating to the psi recommended by your car, but the maximum sidewall rating allowed by your tire manufacturer. Some members even take advantage of the “factor of safety” that engineers use and pump it up to 25% over the max rating. 50+ psi is not unheard of.
Switch to a special motor oil. Using low kinematic viscosity oil helps improve mpg.
Forced Autostop: Turn off engine whenever possible. If you’re slowly stopping to a red light or just coasting, turn off your combustion engine completely (”force” it to “stop”). Keep the engine off while idle, and only start it up when you’re ready to go again. This reduces losses due to running the engine at idle.
If it's true that the purpose of traffic tickets is to deter speeding and promote public safety, then local municipalities and law enforcement should be ecstatic over the recent launching of the website Trapster.com. So what is it? For those who sign up and participate in the free service, it turns their mobile phone into the modern-day equivalent of a CB Radio and every other member into a respective Daisy Duke or Cooter, ready to help you avoid Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrain's speed traps.
No, participants aren't expected to wear distracting cut-off jeans or use a tow truck to "accidentally" block the Sheriff's path. Instead, once someone detects a sneaky cruiser hiding behind a bend in the road or, as happens in my neighborhood, a motorcycle officer parked behind some bushes on someone's private driveway (!), they enter a numerical code into their phone which uses it's GPS chip to map the trap. Later, other members who drive by will get an audible alert on their phone warning them of the hidden public safety promoter. Of course it's no help against Boss Hog's remote control speed limit signs nor does it change the real motivation behind speeding tickets.
Want to fulfill all you boyhood fantasies of racing around like Batman? Well, if you've got the cash then you're in luck. There is a site that will help hook you up with your very own kit.
Sadly this isn't a way to buy a fully built batmobile, as you're gonna have to provide your own chassis, engine, and tranny. But who can argue with the results? Cruising around the city Michael Keaton style is just too tempting to pass up.
More promising, is the site's inclusion of a full set of blueprints for the winged stretch vehicle. I'm scraping the dimes together right now so I can roll up to the Dark Knight premiere in style.
As a bonus treat I've put up a video after the break of the Batmobile in action, as if you needed any more convincing.
There are two types of people in the world: those that think Hummers are cool, and those who'd like to drag the owners out of their gas-guzzling vehicle and beat them to death, Grand Theft Auto style. If you happen to be the militant-hater type then you'll want to check out FUH2.com and its nearly 500 pages of photographs showing people flipping off Hummer drivers. Yes, I said 500 pages of photos. That's a lot of pent-up hostility.
