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Happy Noodle Boy posted:I just got a '12 Elantra and if I could have afforded to wait longer before getting a new car I would have probably taken a look at the Veloster at that price point. They look fun. Hey there '12 Elantra buddy! Amazing car, isn't it? 
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Aug 26, 2011 02:35
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So I drove a (prepro) Jetta GLI and a Golf R last week. Don't ask questions about how or why please. Start with the GLI. It was actually pretty good. In my mind it basically fixes all of the problems with the Jetta. The one I drove was DSG. I didn't get to drive it too aggressively. 1. lovely interior - the GLI interior is basically like the GTI. Black, red stitching. The seats are pretty nice, a lot more bolstering than stock. The quality might be slightly down in a couple spots but still. 2. lovely engine - the 2.0T is as nice as ever, and the DSG programming is spot on. 3. Soft handling - IRS and a more aggressive wheel/tire fitment solve most of the problems. Still not quite as agile as the GTI due to more weight, but pretty drat close. 4. Boring looking - stock wheels are tasteful, eggcrate grille and some subtle exterior (lip spoiler, front chin spoiler) interesting the thing up a fair bit. If you're looking for a Jetta that doesn't suck, it's a good bet. Or if you like the GTI but wish it had a trunk and was more "adult" looking. Golf R - this was pretty disappointing. Take a GTI and make it ever so slightly better - nicer interior trim, more power, neat blue needles on the speedo, fancier seats. It didn't fix any of the poo poo I didn't like about the GTI; namely, the long and terrible shifter throw and the awful clutch. The car was seriously undone by the gearbox. If anything, the box is worse than the GTI, especially with the clutch (I think this is due to AWD). The positives: It's a faster GTI, and the AWD is really nice. Hooks up great with traction control off and dropping the clutch at like 4500. It is also incredibly comfortable, and will be far too expensive. The exhaust tuning is a little loud for my tastes; it's sporty, but I don't think the car has enough balls to match the exhaust note, and the wastegate is excessively loud. The GLI actually did way better in this respect - sedate and quiet until you bury it, and then a nice growl and some turbo noises. If you'd like to ask me questions, I will try to answer them, but no how or why questions. edit: if I was going to spend my own money on one it would be the GLI and that is sad and disgusting and an indictment of how loving bad the gearbox on the R is. I would probably prefer DSG, and I am a terrible manual purist.
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Aug 30, 2011 02:17
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How preproduction was it? Seems like they could hook the R up with a short shifter, at least.
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Aug 30, 2011 04:49
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jiggaman0204 posted:Hey there '12 Elantra buddy! Amazing car, isn't it? Haha yes it is. Then again, I'm coming from a 2000 Cadillac Catera that has no right to be running at all when I got it 2 years ago so I'm just happy with poo poo like air condition and a working radio. And not having to be moving to open the fuel door and trunk The only thing I don't love is the iPod integration because it's strictly iPod and not just general iPhone playback of other apps like Pandora or even YouTube.
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Aug 30, 2011 17:26
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I'm surprised the french got that right, the newer renaults have phono input plugs, you could plug in pretty much anything.
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Aug 30, 2011 21:49
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Boiled Water posted:I'm surprised the french got that right, the newer renaults have phono input plugs, you could plug in pretty much anything. That's great, but speaking for the SYNC system on my Mustang, one of the best parts is being able to use voice control to direct playback. It has line-in too, but I've never seen a reason to use it. Still, not having line-in is a significant error of omission.
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Aug 31, 2011 02:08
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kimbo305 posted:How preproduction was it? Seems like they could hook the R up with a short shifter, at least. I will bet a lot of money that the shifter won't be changed, which is a real shame.
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Aug 31, 2011 04:11
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Sorry if this in the worng spot or already been discussed. I found this and I cant wrap my tiny non automotive mind around it. Can anyone explain how this is feasible in any way? http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/motoring/5532874/Worlds-greatest-hypercar-hoax http://rotarysupercars.de/new/english/about_us.html Theres some laws of physics being broken here. 0-100 in 0.9 seconds? 0-600 in 7 seconds? But its such an outlandish lie to make. Why do this Germans? Why lie to me?
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Aug 31, 2011 05:15
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Jehovah C Clarke posted:Can anyone explain how this is feasible in any way? It's not. A new "company" makes absurd performance claims based on some computer calculations and never even delivers even a prototype. Transtar did the same a while ago, and before that there was the Mosler with a 2500hp engine or whatever.
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Aug 31, 2011 07:27
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Did they change their webpage or something? It says much more reasonable numbers than what's listed in the article.
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Aug 31, 2011 08:31
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Completely ignoring speed claims or horsepower claims, my biggest concern would be hooking up with anything even remotely close to being considered a streetable tire.
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Aug 31, 2011 08:56
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Lowclock posted:Did they change their webpage or something? It says much more reasonable numbers than what's listed in the article. Go to "Specifications Prototype" and scroll down, it's under Revised Specs.
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Aug 31, 2011 09:01
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Peppi posted:Go to "Specifications Prototype" and scroll down, it's under Revised Specs.
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Aug 31, 2011 09:25
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This crazy 4-gullwing door plug-in hybrid Ford EVOS will never be remotely like the concept if it ever sees production, but I'd be very interested in it either way. Real funky looking backside though.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:32
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Jehovah C Clarke posted:Sorry if this in the worng spot or already been discussed. I found this and I cant wrap my tiny non automotive mind around it. Can anyone explain how this is feasible in any way? quote:The RSC website states the car will be powered by a 5.2-litre, quad-turbocharged, eight-rotor rotary engine producing 2089kW of power and 3494Nm of torque – or roughly five times the power and torque of a 911 Turbo S. Oh those poor apex seals. It's going to be a bloodbath.
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Aug 31, 2011 16:37
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Lowclock posted:Oh, I see. Well in that case, I am building an eleventy billion rotor megacar that will do 0-light in .0000008 seconds and actually rearranges matter around it to suit its course. It's coming next year guys, I swear! Ask about our bridges. The numbers themselves aren't that ludicrous, Funny cars already do that type of acceleration. But funny cars also produce 5000+hp.
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Aug 31, 2011 17:27
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davebo posted:This crazy 4-gullwing door plug-in hybrid Ford EVOS will never be remotely like the concept if it ever sees production, but I'd be very interested in it either way. Real funky looking backside though.
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Aug 31, 2011 17:38
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davebo posted:This crazy 4-gullwing door plug-in hybrid Ford EVOS will never be remotely like the concept if it ever sees production, but I'd be very interested in it either way. Real funky looking backside though. ford has always done design stuff like this that while it doesn't always completely make production, it's usually an indication of the general design trend. see: iosis concept vs current mondeo, super chief concept vs current f-series, interceptor concept vs current taurus, iosis max concept vs b-max, verve concept vs focus ST. The only way they could have been more transparent with where the design elements of the evos will end up, would be if there was a pony emblem on the grille, stretch it out, tone it down, put normal doors on and you're probably looking at the next mustang. Call me crazy, but i see some similar features here.  
Powershift fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Aug 31, 2011 |
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Aug 31, 2011 18:48
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When I see that Ford concept the first thing that comes to my mind is "baby jag"
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Aug 31, 2011 18:54
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One problem with plug-in hybrids: the people who will benefit from the plug-in-ness of it probably live in a big city, possibly in an apartment building. I don't know about other buildings (except those in cold climates with outdoor parking), but the parking garage in mine doesn't have an outlet for every space (or any space, for that matter). People who live in locations where they have an outlet near their parking are more likely to have longer commutes that, round-trip at least, cannot be satisfied by the stored energy of a battery on its own. Furthermore, what happens when existing places with powered parking (for block heaters) now have people drawing orders of magnitude more power without the ability to collect payment for it or track it in any meaningful sense?
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Aug 31, 2011 19:11
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I'm sure apartments will be more than willing to retrofit some spaces for charging. Well, I'm sure they would for a nice $150/month extra parking fee that is.
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Aug 31, 2011 19:14
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"I would get one of those new horseless carriages but where on earth will I buy fuel?" -- Person in 1911
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Aug 31, 2011 19:47
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Seriously though I think this guy is right and the real answer are batteries under the car that can easily and quickly be changed out at a battery station. Of course this would require different manufacturers to agree on some sort of standard, but it's still a good idea: http://www.ted.com/talks/shai_agassi_on_electric_cars.html
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Aug 31, 2011 19:49
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I am seeing EV charging stations slowly appearing in DC, both at shopping complexes and in parking garages attached to office buildings.
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Aug 31, 2011 20:15
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heat posted:Seriously though I think this guy is right and the real answer are batteries under the car that can easily and quickly be changed out at a battery station. Of course this would require different manufacturers to agree on some sort of standard, but it's still a good idea: That really is the only way that we will get electric vehicles that are practical for 100% of personal transportation needs in the US. I believe there is a standard for them already actually. The Tesla S is supposed ot be the first vehicle to support it.
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Sep 1, 2011 04:52
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On the surface, quick replaceable batteries sound like a great solution, but consider the logistics. I'm not talking about the actual physical swap, I'm talking about vehicle throughput. How many cars does a moderately busy gas station see in an hour? Even using the 45 minute quickcharge at 480 volts, will they realistically be able to keep up with traffic? How many batteries can they quickcharge at once before the station requires commercial power on the scale of a small factory? Granted, station demand should be lessened by people charging at home. However, it's still going to require some pretty significant upgrades to the power grid and some creative thinking to handle traffic.
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Sep 1, 2011 05:44
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bull3964 posted:On the surface, quick replaceable batteries sound like a great solution, but consider the logistics. Of course, there is a practical solution, but it rather defeats the purpose. 
grover fucked around with this message at 10:55 on Sep 1, 2011 |
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Sep 1, 2011 10:53
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Plug-in hybrids certainly seem to be metropolitan-suburb friendly. I would be a prime candidate personally. I work in Detroit and live just outside the city. I might drive 40-50 miles tops in one day between going to my job and going wherever when I get out of work. Certainly would be no problem for me or most of my neighbors to recharge in the garage and go a full day on electric alone. I'm also a poor goon who can't afford to go on any long distance vacations so... I hate being poor. 
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Sep 1, 2011 11:13
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bull3964 posted:On the surface, quick replaceable batteries sound like a great solution, but consider the logistics. Well since it will certainly be much cheaper to recharge at home, most people will, but the battery station comes in for longer trips between cities.
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Sep 1, 2011 15:32
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grover posted:How many times would the average commuter need to "refuel" if they could make it to work and back home on a charge? I think we'd see far fewer stopping for a charge than for gas. Major highways at holidays would be a different story, though... Well, I did say that the demand should be lessened by people charging at home. At the same time though, these stations were mentioned as an alternative to wiring up every urban parking garage space. If people can't charge at home, demand for those switching stations would remain high. It is a good step and an excellent solution to range issues on long trips, but at the same time it isn't going to be nearly as easy as replacing every gas station with a battery change station where people can swap out for $50 a pop. I would be willing to bet that a better solution with these change stations would be a subscription service you would pay for to entitle you to use them. Pay a base $75 /month fee for access and then pay the cost of the electricity used to charge the battery when you swap out. Alternatively, you could maybe have an unlimited swap level pricing with lower pricing levels for more limited amount of swaps. The reason why I think a sub fee will probably be necessary is that these stations are going to require significant infrastructure upgrades so that they have enough power from the grid, but at the same time there are going to be a lot of places that NEED a station that probably won't get a ton of traffic. Think about all the lonely highway roads through less populated areas. People are going to need the ability to refuel their vehicle, but some small town gas station owner probably won't see enough traffic to be able to run a station on traffic alone. It'll be interesting to see how things shake out.
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Sep 1, 2011 15:51
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You're assuming battery electric vehicles are ever going to be suitable for 100% of what we currently use petrol/diesel cars for. In reality I don't think that is going to happen for a very long time. 95% is much more attainable
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Sep 2, 2011 00:16
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bull3964 posted:How many batteries can they quickcharge at once before the station requires commercial power on the scale of a small factory? That's actually a really good question that I didn't think too much about. So I decided to look into it. A short range Telsa Model S battery is 42kW/h (the approximate average electricity usage per day in the U.S. is about 50kW/h per day). So, a gas station that supplies 4,000 customers per day is going to require ~1.7 MW/h per day. I'm not sure what is typical for a gas station, but I think that 4,000 seems pretty close to the median number. A typical Wal*Mart uses 1.5 million kW/h per year, which is roughly 41 MW/h per day. With the abundance of strip malls in this country, power should be readily available for many these stations. The rural ones may have a bit of an issue initially, but I think that people in eastern Kentucky might be slow adopters anyway.
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Sep 2, 2011 03:15
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oRenj9 posted:That's actually a really good question that I didn't think too much about. So I decided to look into it. I would say you are far too high with the 4000 estimate, but I don't know what an electric charging station could realistically provide...
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Sep 2, 2011 04:29
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oRenj9 posted:That's actually a really good question that I didn't think too much about. So I decided to look into it. Total daily consumption isn't so much an issue as point in time load. Say a medium size station is simultaneously quick charging 30 Tesla S batteries. That's 30 480v 3 phase 100 amp circuits at a constant 80 amp power draw. What is required to supply that?
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Sep 2, 2011 07:16
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bull3964 posted:Total daily consumption isn't so much an issue as point in time load. The problem isn't going to be service stations, though. It would be an investment, sure, but power can be relatively easily upgraded. The problem is going to be the residential grid; homes just don't draw all that much current right now, so the infrastructure is pretty light. The national average is 1000kWh/month, which works out to an average consumption of 6 Amps. If you start putting in 240V chargers in every garage, when everyone gets home from work and plugs there cars in simultaneously, load on the residential grid will literally double. Sure, they can put in meters that charge exorbitant prices for charging at peak hours to force people to charge their cars overnight (kinda like what they're doing already in California), but the increase in load is simply too high to sustain, and it's going to cost the utility companies poo poo-tons of money to upgrade all that undersized infrastructure and build new power plants, and those costs are going to be passed along to us. Case in point: distribution transformers that step line voltage down to 120V are typically 50kVA (208A @ 240V) and feed 5 or so homes. If each home was drawing 15A of "normal" early evening load with the AC running and laundry drying and dinner cooking and hot water heater warming and all the TVs on, and then you add two cars plugged into 30A chargers in every garage, that's about 90kVA of power through the 50kVA transformer. They're going to be popping left and right, and oh by the way, not only are you out of power for 2 or 3 days while the POCO replaces it, you can't charge your cars to get to work, either. So, yeah, I'm not keen on EV-only, but I think plug-in hybrid is actually a really good idea. grover fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Sep 2, 2011 |
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Sep 2, 2011 11:54
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Grid tie solar. If you're not trying to get it *right now*, you're just uninformed. With government subsidies, you can pay back a grid tie array in 5ish years.
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Sep 2, 2011 12:05
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Skyssx posted:Grid tie solar. If you're not trying to get it *right now*, you're just uninformed. With government subsidies, you can pay back a grid tie array in 5ish years. Also, I think the federal solar subsidies just expired. And there were only a few geographic areas where solar made actual financial sense even then. Edit: we should probably stop this derail before sigtrap gets angry. grover fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Sep 2, 2011 |
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Sep 2, 2011 12:10
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The awful electric car chat almost killed this thread. Back on topic, Bob Lutz has been re-hired at GM as a consultant. http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110902/OEM02/110909956/1427 I'm hoping he can revive the supercharged (LS9?) Escalade-V and get it into production as a final swansong for the GMT900. Shouldn't take too long since they already have all the tech and engines. 
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Sep 5, 2011 00:30
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A new Jag  http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/jaguar-cx16-revealed-frankfurt-motor-show-2011-09-07 It's very pretty. E: Pics! http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/272278/new_jaguar_cx16_sports_car.html
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Sep 7, 2011 20:11
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STICK SHIFT JAG WOOO YEAH BOYEEE I want one real, real bad.
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Sep 7, 2011 21:29
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