[ExI] Electric cars without batteries

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Keith Henson
> ...
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Turbine_Car
> 
> The fourth-generation Chrysler turbine engine ran at up to 
> 44,500 Revolutions per minute (rpm)... The 1963 Turbine's engine generated
130 
> brake horsepower (97 kW) and an instant 425 pound-feet
> (576 N.m) of torque at stall speed...  Keith

Ja.  A lot of what we see proposed today are ideas that have been around for
a long time, have been tried.  I can see that we aren't talking about the
same thing here, as shown by the subject line.  What I was thinking was a
very small turbine, 20kw (roughly 30 horsepower for those who prefer that
rather absurd unit.)  The turbine does not connect to the rear wheels
mechanically, but only spins a generator, so this notion would definitely
require batteries, a lot of heavy and costly batteries actually.  The
turbine would run at a constant speed and load, so it would go at max
efficiency, but that means a big heavy noisy gear train.  So it isn't a
great solution, isn't a breakthrough.  

Regarding breakthroughs in automotive technology: don't count on it.  That
is one area that is so well studies by so many professional and amateur
mechanical engineers, with even impractical designs sometimes used for the
sake of novelty, there is no reason to expect any revolutionary new idea to
come along.  The two things that have improved cars in the past, well, my
lifetime, is introduction of microprocessors and lighter materials.  I can
extrapolate into the near future, the next decade at least, and confidently
predict that the coming improvements will be in still more extensive use of
plastics, composites and better embedded software.

Downer: if we manage to do stuff like electric Detroits with small turbines,
we will not like the cars.  They will use less fuel perhaps, but will likely
be less fun to drive than their predecessors.  

Those of us who are old enough to remember those old enormous heavy torquey
Detroit V-8s know that they were not just transportation, but rather they
were rolling toys.  They had a lot of shiny unnecessary decorative metal
hanging on them.  Those of us on the losing side of the sexual revolution
used to have geek orgies in those cars, by stuffing a dozen kids in there
and groping each other, hoping that one got a handful of the correct gender.
This was how we nerds entertained ourselves in those uncomfortable years
after herpes and before computers.

spike