This seems like a cool idea to me.
Printable View
"...all glue construction..."
With all this rain lately, that might be sort of fun to watch...
".....MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi....."
::Blowup::
Or, you could have your Miata converted like this Mini Cooper
Doesn't the Elise use something similar?Quote:
Originally Posted by Treibenschnell
Weird.
That door design is scary. I hope you don't have front and rear seat passengers both trying to exit in a hurry...
I know that a lot of the hellicopters are held together by Hot Bonding(i.e. Glue). I used to work for a company that built the fuselages for Bell.
The big benefit I see to the compressed air over electric is the flexible filling options. You get the ability electric cars have by being able to "charge" each night in the garage, but you still retain the convenience of a gas car by being able to fill up the air quickly from a filling station.Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio-Active
Yeah... I really don't care about the car... I just want the engine technology.Quote:
Originally Posted by altiain
And here I thought it was going to be a flying car. ::Rant::
I guess you would'nt have to worry about how to fill up that flat tire. ;)
The technology has been around for a long time. The engine is the same as a Steam engine, just using air to propel it instead of steam. You would'nt even need a transmission on the vehicle itself, just some method of diverting the direction of air like they did on the old steam cars. The pressure that it talks about is 4350 PSI, which is about 1000 psi more than a typical tank of aviators breathing oxygen. :!
That would be an AerocarQuote:
Originally Posted by MadMonkey
http://www.aerocar.com/images/elise.jpg
http://www.aerocar.com/images/NEWGRE~5.jpg
Except that your average filling station compressor is lucky to hit 100 psi, let alone 4350 psi. :wink:Quote:
Originally Posted by Titus
This technology still suffers from the same lack of infrastructure that plagues most other alternative fuel technologies.
Yep, but unless we can run off of sun or water, any gas replacement is going to require infrastructure.Quote:
Originally Posted by altiain
My Great Uncle(now deceased), told me of a car that ran off of flash steam in the 1950's.
By modifying a V8 internal combustion engine of the day, this guy had been driving around his new invention of a flash steam car. He had managed to install tiny screens in between the cylinder head and block and had them charged at a precise moment, kind of like a spark plug. Water would spray on the screens and be heated into steam inside the cylinders. Of course, running the engine also charged the generator which in turn caused it to be able to run on water.
One of the oil companies supposedly paid him off to shut him up.
If it did actually happen, I guess you could eliminate the need for the radiator, unless you were using it to condense the water for reuse.
paintball stores charge $1 ever 1000psi... i fill ripped offQuote:
Originally Posted by POS Racing
correct. the elise/exiege do not have welds its all glue.Quote:
Originally Posted by Titus
Watch the documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car.Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio-Active
Yeah, I know Ed Begley Jr. is in it but it raises some interesting point and theories of why Alternative Fuel Vehicles, especially electric powered are a long time in coming.
Not only do the large oil companies block it but also the large automotive parts suppliers also have a tremendous amount to lose. Without an internal combustion engine, there is little need for many replacement parts, oil pumps, water pumps, etc...
The infrastructure is very doable. This country has surmounted many infrastructure issues including the National Highway System and the logistics of WWII.
That's not really a valid argument. We sell both diesel and electric powered machines, and our aftermarket parts sales are just as robust for the electric machines as they are for the diesel ones. Electric motors are far from zero maintenance.Quote:
Originally Posted by black roadster
Cost is the number one, super sized, grandaddy-of-them-all reason that alternative fuels haven't been developed any further than they currently have. Without huge government subsidies and incentives alternative fuel research wouldn't even be where it is today, and these fuels will never be a viable alternative to our current fossil fuel-powered transportation system until they are cost competitive.
Alternative fuels that require a different infrastructure (compressed air, hydrogen, etc.) will not only have to be cost competitive, they'll have to be substantially cheaper than current technology to provide an incentive for the capital development required to create that infrastructure.
That day is coming, but it's a lot further off than you think it is.
What if the air tank ruptures in an accident? Wouldn't that make one hell of an explosion?
i would say soQuote:
Originally Posted by Jeff_nc
http://www.paintballstar.com/pn/modu...21&page_id=390 (it was a high presser air tank not CO2)
http://www.paintballstar.com/pn/modu...s/blownhpa.jpg
That's why the air tanks are made of carbon fiber. It may split but wont create shrapnel like a steel tank.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff_nc
Heh. How many gallons of highly explosive liquid are you carting around in your car just behind you right now? :wink:Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff_nc
Not much, Diesel is not considered highly explosive.
Those tanks won't exploded like in the movies; and they are very difficult to penetrate even with an armor piercing round. In part because they are rounded everywhere. It is more likely that the valve will break off and the tank will suddenly lose pressure in that area and then the tank itself will become a projectile. However, it would more than likely be tied and strapped down in a secure part of the vehicle. So I really don't think the car exploding will be an issue. But hey thats just my opinion. I suppose crash testing should provide some excellent information.Quote:
Originally Posted by black roadster
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff_nc
Let's go one further. ::Banana::Quote:
Originally Posted by altiain
So you buy you an Air car and are testing it's limits when all of the sudden you come over a hill and realize all too late that everyone ahead is stopped. You smash into the back of a Ford Crown Victoria which causes the fuel tank to rupture an catch fire instantly.
A few seconds later, someone come up and rearends you and causes the air tank to rupture! You just blew out the fire on the Ford Crown Victoria.
Your a HERO!!!:rolleyes:
Sadly, you are also propelled straight up in the air! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio-Active