Fun, Amazing, Etc.

This is the official blog of indie author / adventure writer Andy R. Bunch, author of the fantasy book, "Suffering Rancor." As always, I'll post funny or amazing things I find in my travels or from poking around online. This is a great place to kick back and relax a bit. You may note that I’m not too clean or too dirty. For more information on my book, go to http://andyrbunch.weebly.com/. Here are links to first two books http://goo.gl/iHP1i and http://goo.gl/kK13W

Monday, April 2, 2012

71 mpg

I'm frequently commenting on the horrid state of econuts in America. What's got my goat now is hybrid cars. I'm not anti-hybrid completely, my dad designed a hybrid in the late 70's with 4 wheel drive, and 4 wheel steering. My dad was an inventor and a mad genius. He envisioned a car with 4 induction electric motors, 1 over each tire and a super efficient 2 cycle gas engine to keep the batteries topped off. His car actually recharged the batteries when you hit the brakes. Anyway, he abandoned the project because gas prices weren't quite bad enough to get people to buy it AND because you've got to mine the lithium for the batteries so its really not that eco-friendly anyway.

Modern hybrids are ridiculous. They don't actually get better gas mileage than a standard car. I call that a failure. Then theirs the all electric vehicles with 100 mile range. Completely impractical. Say you want to go 105 miles. You've got to stop and charge your car for 8 hours. With power rates being what they are you actually pay more per mile.

Everytime I turn around someones talking about how smart they are in Europe, well for a change I agree. Europe has been investing in clean diesel for a long time and they are very close to making it. Ford now has a new Fiesta that goes 71 mpg. Can you get it in the US...nope. Econuts have green washed our economy. Pop culture environmentalism says hybrids are the way to go so you don't get to have the option of something that works.

I have a dream folks, that one day the news media will stop propgandizing for the left and cover what's really out there that's news worthy.

http://www.gizmag.com/ford-fiesta-econetic-technology/21943/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4483461352-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

Perhaps the answer is to make the car small. Here's a couple ideas from MIT I do think are ingenious.



The smallest car ever made for production was the P50 which originally sold for just over $300. The Peel Company will be releasing replicas of the classic soon, but thanks to the unionized workers and massive safety restrictions, and just plain greed on behalf of automakers it will now sell for $12,676.

http://www.gizmag.com/ford-fiesta-econetic-technology/21943/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4483461352-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email



And here's an alternate fuel for you:

1 comment:

Dan Larson said...

Back when the "Smart" car was announced in the US, VW had a turbo diesel that got 75mpg. Available only in Europe! Instead we got a silly little car that gets what....35mpg?