T, et.al.: Here's an interesting little article from an Electric Vehicle website, which can give you a feel for what's going on in that sector. Did you ever play with slot-cars when you were a kid and remember the torque associated with the toys "get up and go"? And hell, let's not confine it to slot-cars...how about all those radio control jobs now out there?? Well, if you did, or had(or have) kids that did/do, then you'll read this article while thinking..."Like there was any doubt who'd win....?"
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evworld.com
TZero Stings Its Competition
By Tom Gage
January 29, 2000 -- AC Propulsion' s tzero out-accelerated a Ferrari F355, a new Corvette, and a Porsche Carrera 4 in a series of impromptu 1/8 mile drag races held last weekend at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, and at Calstart' s northern facility at the former Alameda Naval Air Station. The tzero was driven to the Bay Area from southern California last week. That journey spanned more than the geographic distance between those two areas, it spanned two cultures as well. Hot rodding, coming from the garages of Los Angeles, and high tech, growing from a garage in Palo Alto, are combined in the tzero.
The tzero is a silicon hot rod. It starts with the hot rodder's holy grail, horsepower - 200 of them. But the tzero harnesses the power with 120 IGBTs, equal to 7200 square millimeters of silicon-based control. The result is acceleration to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, efficiency equivalent to 70 mpg, and emissions equal to zero. The tzero is an electric car.
The trip to Silicon Valley was planned to demonstrate the tzero to entrepreneurs and investors interested in the concept of a high-performance, environmentally-sensible, silicon-intensive automobile. As word of the tzero visit spread, the planned demonstrations took on an edge when a Ferrari-owner challenged the tzero to a race.
The race became reality when both Moffett Field and Calstart made their facilities available for the politically correct contest of speed. Saturday, January 22 dawned bright and sunny and an eager group of exotic car owners, high-tech gurus, venture capital investors and electric car enthusiasts gathered along the 4000-foot north taxiway at Moffett Field. Cones were set to mark the start and finish lines, and the tzero, with AC Propulsion vice-president Alec Brooks at the wheel, pulled up to the start line and sat silently. The Ferrari made glorious sounds as Rick Schick, a race car driver assigned to drive the Ferrari for the event paced the high-strung Italian thoroughbred up and down the track, warming its complex internals with nervous blips of the throttle and heating the tires with sudden burnouts. Finally the race was on. Immediately the crowd saw what it had not expected to see. The tzero leapt ahead at the start. The Ferrari' s 32-valve, 4-cam V8 engine screamed its delicious song in vain effort against the mute power of the tzero' s 120-IGBT-fed 3-phase induction motor. The spectators gasped at the sight of the tzero driving away from the automotive icon from Modena. At the end it was tzero by eight car lengths.
A Corvette C5, the newest example of American V8 muscle from Chevrolet stepped up to defend the honor of combustion power. Considered opinion had the Corvette, with its large displacement, high torque V8, putting up a good fight in the short 1/8 mile sprint. But against the tzero, the result was the same, proving in equally convincing fashion that American brawn fares no better than European sophistication against the tzero' s combination of light weight, high-current lead-acid batteries, and electric propulsion.
More races were run.
Different drivers wheeled the tzero. The result stayed the same. A Miata driver, unfamiliar with high power levels, got into the tzero and immediately blew away the Ferrari. She wants a tzero now. The Ferrari owner took a turn and was astounded by the continuous surge of smooth power. A newspaper reporter who arrived in an Escort allowed himself to be talked into driving the tzero and he beat the Ferrari. An investor from Sweden, after one victorious run in the
tzero decided make a second run when challenged by his friend and investing partner who was proudly driving a brand new Porsche Carrera Cabriolet. By now everyone was surprised when the tzero lagged behind. Was the tzero battery dead? Was it collusion between two friends? Neither actually. The tzero inadvertently ran the whole race with its hand brake on, and the Porsche won by seven car lengths.
Sunday, more races were scheduled on the 6500-foot runway at Calstart' s Alameda facility. The day was as rainy as Saturday had been sunny. The rained poured down as a few hardy individuals gathered. Finally a single challenger arrived in an all-wheel drive Porsche Carrera 4. The rain never let up, but there was a track, there were cars, and there was a video crew, so there was a race. Amid much anticipation that the Porsche' s sophisticated all-wheel drive system would provide a winning edge in the adverse conditions, the tzero shrugged off its Porsche jinx from the day before and drove right away from the Teutonic technology marvel. As before, different runs and different drivers confirmed the results. After driving both cars, the Porsche owner agreed that the tzero felt more stable through the running water even as it accelerated more rapidly. The Porsche owner' s wife took a turn in the tzero after standing in the rain watching her husband in run after run. In an important development for domestic tranquility she emerged from the tzero smiling.
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So...the technology is catching up to what I knew as a kid...that is, if you could develop the technology far enough, there wouldn't be an internal combustion engine driven car on the planet capable of catching an electric vehicle, from a standing start, in a drag race. Now....if they can get the mileage, and "chargeability" aspects down....well...let's just say I'm gonna have to have one of those!
As for doing the 'ol VLNC flip....LOL!! Well, set your systems up to monitor according to yer parameters....have it page you accordingly....and VIOLA!!! A quick round-trip ka ching!! ;-)
John~ |
