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Erik, you make some good points. My hope (however foolish) is that efficient automated mass transit will come into play before we run out of gas. It might be possible, but we're not far from a million Chinese people with H2s, so we're pretty much fucked.
I love the idea of solar. Ironically, a Chinese firm is building a large factory here in the valley to build solar panels. Meanwhile, our biggest university - ASU - is focused on real estate growth more than turning out innovative entrepreneurs, so I don't see Phoenix becoming its own solar center. Arizona has massive potential for solar, but we're just not investing in it. Just real estate and tourism because, well, get rich quick and get out is the order of the day.
I think an electric 2G would be cool, actually. I don't like the idea of cars being limited by charge though. This is a big country and we need to be able to go 300-500 miles at a time. It's not hard to see how the airlines are reducing flights, overbooking the flights that remain, continuing to be unprofitable, and treating people like cattle. If fuel goes away, the country will come to a grinding halt without diesel trucks moving freight. Rail will become crowded with freight trains because delivery vehicles could only go so far on a charge. Bureaucracy will result in decades for new, passenger rail to be implemented, leading to people being packed into passenger cars like cattle in the skies. The days of freedom within America will be over.
A bit pessimistic, but to prove a point. Even if America cuts its energy consumption my 90%, burgeoning new markets like China and India will continue to suck the planet dry. For that reason, vehicles need to become more lightweight (remove all the heavy saftey equipment and driving aids - if you need them to drive, you shouldn't be driving in the first place) and battery technology needs to be advanced dramatically.
Hybrids just piss me off. The additional weight of the batteries hampers any semblance of performance, rendering any hybrid vehicle a sloppy turd of a glorified golf cart. The technology required to integrate dual modalities makes for a ridiculously complex machine which is constantly evolving. (If computers are obsolete within 18 months, much of a car would be obsolete in the same fashion.) And the cost to implement such technologies outweighs any advantage of mileage, which is often, even in the case of the poseur Prius, barely better (if not worse) than that of simple, small displacement turbo diesels.
Consider how Honda Insight owners (in California, go figure) recently sued Honda for misrepresentation when their precious hybrids failed to deliver 50mpg as suggested in marketing materials. Yet everyone who's tested the simple Audi A3 TDi raves about how it's a great driving little car that you'd be hard-pressed to get less than 40mpg around town in it. Compound that with the common praise VW gets for their diesel Golf and Jetta, which advertise 35mog, yet consistently average closer to 47!
I ramble. Where is noboost when we need a 'tldr' reply?
Back on topic, Terry and I casually spoke a while back about a small displacement turbo diesel 2G DSM. Old school muscle car guys are dropping Powerstrokes in Chevelles, making 500hp/1000lb-ft and still getting 30mpg around town, why aren't we trying this with a DSM?
It's not like Chrysler/Mitsubishi don't offer diesels in other models or markets. Consider the Mitsubishi 4D55! 2.5L turbo diesel which essentially shares the same block form factor as the 4G63! It makes something like 130hp at 5000rpm, but it makes 220lb-ft at 2000rpm. That's 20lb-ft more than a 4G63 makes period!
That would be my ideal dream project. 4D55-powered DSM. Maybe a larger turbo, but I like to think that it wouldn't be hard to make 300hp and over 400lb-ft with one of those and still get upwards of 30mpg.
Anybody else have any random ideas? Hope my long winded diatribe got some wheels turning this evening...
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