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GM has a cold-weather test facility at Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada http://www.wheels.ca/news/nort... Ordinary batteries tend to lose power when cold. Cold weather doesn't just happen in Canada, but also in a lot of the US "Northern Tier" states. E.g. Minnesota, Wisconsin, the North+South Dakota, etc. And let's not forget Alaska. Is there noticable power/range loss in cold weather with GM's electric cars?

The company insists they've received only positive feedback from law enforcement officials and police officers regarding their products. 'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson."

Riiight. The main purpose of speed traps, photo radar and red light cameras is not to improve safety, but to generate revenue.

Where I live (Toronto, Canada), motorists have actually been ticketed for warning drivers about speed traps: http://www.wheels.ca/article/asset/167046

However, the ticket for warning is complete BS - if you actually go to a judge, the judge will throw it out, since there is no law against warning other drivers. Of course, you have to take time off work to fight it, which is more expensive than paying (for some of us).

What a strange analogy.

[. . .] the original Fiat 500, launched in 1957, still holds a place in the heart of most Italians similar to the original Mini for the Brits, the Citroën Deux Chevaux for the French, or the VW Beetle for the Germans (and many North Americans, too).

Cinquecento was really the car that put Italy on wheels. In short, it's a cultural icon.

[. . .]
The original's 500 name came from the displacement of the air-cooled, rear-mounted two-cylinder engine. Slow? Oh my dear God yes.

But cute as a bunny and tough as nails. You still see these collector's items in every Italian city. I'd have one in a heartbeat.

  --Some car magazine.

I wonder if a classic car buff would really want to convert their beloved collector's piece into a modern consumerist status symbol for power and wealth?

In any case, while one is fast, and the other is slow, the Fiat was originally made small so that it could navigate the teeny one-lane streets featured in many Italian cities, whereas the Ferrari needs some serious hubcap room. It could be argued that the analogy should be reversed since the smaller car is more agile and able to deal with small details whereas the other cannot and is in fact primarily focused on flying through as many kilometers as quickly as possible and isn't terribly concerned with counting them off in smaller quantities.

Of course, this kind of observation is the reason why I would be irritating at parties. Carry on. I'm listening.

-FL

What is with you and the hostility?

Heck, I just did a Slashdot search and found a link from an article on Slashdot.

One of many.

Stop asking others to do searches when the info is already on slashdot and you just haven't been paying attention ...

There was an article in a local Toronto newspaper yesterday concerning an electric motorcycle at a drag race in Portland Ore. http://www.wheels.ca/article/30277 "PORTLAND, Ore. - Straddling a 280-kilogram motorcycle, Scotty Pollacheck tucks in his knees and lowers his head as he waits for the green light. When he revs the engine, there's no roar. The bike moves so fast that within seconds all that's visible is a faint red taillight melting in the distance. Pollacheck crosses the quarter-mile marker doing 156 m.p.h.(251 km/h); he's traveled 1,320 feet (402 m) in 8.22 seconds, faster than any of the gas-powered cars, trucks or motorcycles that have raced in the drag sprints on this weekend at Portland International Raceway" "The fastest quarter-mile time by an electric vehicle is the KillaCycle's 8.16 seconds - that's 2.36 seconds off the nitromethane world record for drag bikes set by Larry "Spiderman" McBride last year." " In December, the KillaCycle will receive a second-generation battery pack that will have twice as much juice as its current 374-volt system, giving it close to 1,000 horsepower. Fulop said he believes the KillaCycle can break the drag racing motorcycle record within the next year. Electric drag racers are test-driving the technology that will eventually spill over into mass production cars, analysts say." " The Chevrolet Volt, which is expected to be released in 2010, is a consumer hybrid that uses gas to power a charger and can travel 1,030 km on a tank of gas and up to 64 km on one electric charge. Dube and other EV racers say electric cars aren't just about 2-cent-a-mile transportation, lessening reliance on foreign oil or curbing global warming. They're also about performance. For electric cars to matter, people have to buy them," he said. "If you have a car that is faster than everyone else's, if it's electric so be it, but people will buy it.''" CH

TOYOTA FINE-X ... Like the Nissan Pivo, the Fine-X is designed for incredible manoeuvrability, with a system for rotating on its axis a full 360 degrees. Unlike the Pivo, the entire body of the Fine-X rotates instead of just the cabin, made possible by wheels that turn 90 degrees. This means you can parallel park the vehicle sideways (just turn the wheels 90 degrees and slide into the parking spot).

Drive one myselve...