I understand that safety is now a major concern and safety drags down mileage. But the numbers are not far fetched.
from the article
"The CRX HF got an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 57 mpg gallon in highway driving. Today, the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Civic you can buy gets an EPA-estimated 34 mpg on the highway. Even today's Honda Civic Hybrid can't match it, achieving EPA-estimated highway mileage of just 45 mpg. The Toyota Prius, today's fuel mileage champ, gets 46 mpg on the highway."
Re:Life savings?
on
Designer Babies
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
As some earlier posters have pointed out, this is a good opportunity for couples to diagnose and remove genetic diseases. Many families have known genetic ailments they would like eradicated.
Hair colour and eye colour are often advantages/disadvantages in life. Shallow or not im sure most parents will simply do whats best for baby.
If you examine the pictures closely you can see the wheel pods have space all around the suspension arms. This indicates the car steers in the usual manner. The 3rd arm (black in the picture) is probably the tie rod*. The single back wheel i am guessing will be to remove drag. one less wheel reduces 25% of the tyre resistance.
*it may even be a combined tie rod and drive axle.
1. go to radio shack/fry's/wherever to get your satellite broadband hook-up equipment. It doesn't matter if the equipment costs you $5000 2.Set up Internet access in your cabin 3.Wonder why its not working 3.Spend time trying to resolve issue 4.Organise to change Cabins 5.Spend more time trying to resolve issue 6.Realize you have spent first 10 days at sea in your cabin fiddling with cables and software settings. 7. Write in paper based log at sea "no girls yet" 8. Give up 9. Loss
Ispecting the damage that is caused to a vehicle is not how safety works.
Let me give you an example. If you crash a 30 tonne tank into a 2 foot oak tree at 30mph the tank will get a small dent and the tree will also get a small dent. The occupants of the tank on the other hand will be splattered inside the tank (i got this from another slashdotter, great examplt though). Cars are dsigned to deform, this disapates the energy that kills people. SUVs dont deform, so provided you dont hit anything that weighs close to your SUV (lampost, median-barrier - truck - line of parked cars - buildings - other SUVS) you *should* be ok. When a vehicle deforms easily everwhere except the passenger cell, people live. When a vehicle doesnt deform (1950's era cars, SUVs) people die. simple!
and you guys seem to have a lot of accidents, maybe you should drive vehcles that avoid accidents. Turn them into a "that was a close call, we nearly hit that guy" vs a "Yeah we are alright thanks to our SUV, the other guy though is in critcal care"..
Have a look through these documents.
Although I agree a Tahoe is safer than a hatchback. You will find simple mid sized cars like maxima's are safer for your little girl and other road users, next time you buy a car think of your little girl and dont get swept in by irrational fears. good luck...
Although what I think this report has missed is what kind of people drive what types of car. Are Tahoe drivers more likely to kill themsleves than Accord drivers.
You might not have even got injured had your Suzuki been hit by another Suzuki. You will still die if your SUV gets hit by a truck. The weight of your SUV will not save you from an 18 wheeler, your SUVs bad chasis design will aid in your demise.
SUVs are just plain badly desgined.
They have a ladder chasis just like all cars from the pre 50's, this is a must if you did actually need to tow great weights (most people dont)
Because of this Chasis design the impact of an accident is not diverted around the passenger cell. The only safety in an SUV has is its weight.
Because SUVs are classed as a light truck bumper height regulations dont apply, this means the bumper will miss the impact zones built into modern cars. ie instead of colliding with the side-impact bar of the family sedan the SUVs bumper will ride over it and into the passengers shoulder or head.
In order to offroad properly suspension must be soft, thus handling at speed will be crap.
The greater the weight the greater the stopping distance, obviously conditions apply here but as a gerneral rule of thumb.
You are correct. Im a classic car enthusiast and have had much dealing with older vehicles. Older vehicles (even when new) definatly require(d) more tuning/tweaking in order to remain reliable. However because of their simplicity they tend to suffer less from age and so break down less often. Modern designs are definatly less reliable after the 200,000km mark - but many people argue a vehicle should be scrapped by this time anyway.
Its common to install fuel injection in older cars (cult cars) though, because fuel injection creates HUGE gains in reliabilty/efficency/performance.
Infact I dont find it very interesting. However I still found this article rather informing and quite fun
It covers the basics of Nascar that a outsider would never spot..
So your idea of italian cars is based on fiats
well then i must make my idea of russian engineering based on the lada my brother had years ago.
every car has a comprimise.. like toyotas are boring
yet reliable. American cars a both (kidding)
italian cars are often beutiful
pls dont reply this comment if your a kid
whos idea is that a car is that it must look like its going to make a soft moon landing and has ten billion horse power because all that ads up to nothing.
this is just stupid. why bother with that when you can have [a Porsche Carrera GT]..
Simply having the fastest car does not garentee enjoyment.
One example I can think of, a car journalist driving the godzilla (skyline) stating "its like a really really fast pulsar(similar to civic)".
I wouldnt know but maybe these 959s are simply sh*t loads
of fun, maybe faster or more easily tweaked.
if you need an analogy maybe its like the old Amiga OS
you used to love. Only in the car world somtimes
the lastest can be bettered by it's predecesor because the roads change so
much slower than electrics.
dont put your time and money in simply because its
shiny and new or youl be the one
who shows everyone else whats a lemon
I agree completely with your post. If i made it sound as though im a street racer im not. I personely own two vehicles. One is a reasonably late model celica the other a 30 year olb BMW. The celica is no fun and therfore i drive around like an old man, its my daily beater, its wonderfully reliable and i always drive it cautiosly. The BMW spends most of its time in the garage being worked on - most of the time it doesnt need it, its just simply fun to modify.
As many posters have said there is a greater need for driver education, both in car handling and road reading.
Traction control and abs breaks are not necessarily an advantage for most profesional drivers. WRC rally cars and most high level racing cars still use standard shifts or driver controlled automatics, ie the car pyhsicaly makes the change yet the driver designates when.
Your comment on spark timing is simply stupid - think about it.
All in all, you've missed the original posters point. The automatic transmissions, abs, power-steering and even seating positions we get in road cars a very much dumbed down versions. Unfortunatly with this ease of use, pure driving enjoyment is also lost. Your comment makes me think you enjoy cars from afar and have never really had a serious interest in anything more than the latest gimmick.
Most modern cars are designed to sell to all people - including clumsy people. Great example's of how simpler driver orientated cars are best often come from lotus - espicialy the recent elise. Its a shame these cars are USELESS for mr lack of co-ordination, the old and the lazy because the keep the driver alert - which is sorely needed these days with lazy boy suspesion, cell phones and exeptional sound profing which leaves a human relaxed when traveling at deadly speeds.
I live in NZ and read the original article. + the followups.
The original article was in the national paper The Herald, around two weeks ago. The original article was only a moderatly sized peice at the back of the paper (IT section). The author had simply had enough of the spam and was also worried for his daughters exposure to things such as viagra. So he went about tracking the spammer down. He eventually found him, rang him and organised an interview. Thus the spammers name appeared within the paper and thus harassemnt began.
So then the spammer become worried for his family .
Gas Pump - Drop phone - spark - boom -
on
Flaming Cellphones
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I used to work in a Gas Station. Sparks where the reason phones are not permitted on the premises. Its the same reason you cant leave your car idling there.
I know everybody ignores it. I do.
although, the detonation that occurs within a combustion engine is slightly diferent in that the shock wave is produced by multiple explosions being produced at the same time with in the cylinder. These explosins then collide and cause the shock wave. These excess explosionts are often caused by too much heat and pressure.
I think the detonation the article talks about is somthing similar with the exeption that the shock wave compresses the gas/oxygen mixture causing it to detonate simultanously. ie the shockwave proceeds the actual flame compressing the mix which then ignites under the pressure this continues until such time as the mix runs out.
If your car is detonating its not gonna last long. When a car engine detonates the shock wave produced often destroys the engines internals, or atleast causes some damage.
A cars combustion engine when working normally uses deflagation to produce power. Its easy smooth and works well. The octain or lead (1980) in petrol helps prevent detonation.
I havnt managed to read the article itself yet. due to being at work, lazy, you name it its me.
I interperated the article to mean, you purchase the shell and ontop of that you select the parts you wish to fit. Now the parts are all made by third party vendors. This way all the third party vendors compete for your money, so prices are low and parts plentiful. All the said parts are constructed to specific dimensions preset by the shell manafacturer.
The car is constructed for you by the factory.
I think it would be nice if you also had the optioon to put your own car together. I do this with old cars and its much nicer to work with brand new parts..
A good example of a car like this is all the lotus seven replicas, they are fast simple efficient cheap and generally made from third party or existing parts.
Slashdot Mirror
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/17/autos/honda_civic_hf/index.htm
I understand that safety is now a major concern and safety drags down mileage. But the numbers are not far fetched.
from the article
"The CRX HF got an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 57 mpg gallon in highway driving. Today, the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Civic you can buy gets an EPA-estimated 34 mpg on the highway. Even today's Honda Civic Hybrid can't match it, achieving EPA-estimated highway mileage of just 45 mpg. The Toyota Prius, today's fuel mileage champ, gets 46 mpg on the highway."
As some earlier posters have pointed out, this is a good opportunity for couples to diagnose and remove genetic diseases. Many families have known genetic ailments they would like eradicated.
Hair colour and eye colour are often advantages/disadvantages in life. Shallow or not im sure most parents will simply do whats best for baby.
If you examine the pictures closely you can see the wheel pods have space all around the suspension arms. This indicates the car steers in the usual manner. The 3rd arm (black in the picture) is probably the tie rod*.
The single back wheel i am guessing will be to remove drag. one less wheel reduces 25% of the tyre resistance.
*it may even be a combined tie rod and drive axle.
57 mpg? That's so 20 years ago
You are more on the money than you know.
I have always liked this article
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/17/autos/honda_civic_hf/index.htm?postversion=2007122013
and the real world version
1. go to radio shack/fry's/wherever to get your satellite broadband hook-up equipment. It doesn't matter if the equipment costs you $5000
2.Set up Internet access in your cabin
3.Wonder why its not working
3.Spend time trying to resolve issue
4.Organise to change Cabins
5.Spend more time trying to resolve issue
6.Realize you have spent first 10 days at sea in your cabin fiddling with cables and software settings.
7. Write in paper based log at sea "no girls yet"
8. Give up
9. Loss
You're welcome
Ispecting the damage that is caused to a vehicle is not how safety works.
Let me give you an example. If you crash a 30 tonne tank into a 2 foot oak tree at 30mph the tank will get a small dent and the tree will also get a small dent. The occupants of the tank on the other hand will be splattered inside the tank (i got this from another slashdotter, great examplt though). Cars are dsigned to deform, this disapates the energy that kills people. SUVs dont deform, so provided you dont hit anything that weighs close to your SUV (lampost, median-barrier - truck - line of parked cars - buildings - other SUVS) you *should* be ok. When a vehicle deforms easily everwhere except the passenger cell, people live. When a vehicle doesnt deform (1950's era cars, SUVs) people die. simple!
and you guys seem to have a lot of accidents, maybe you should drive vehcles that avoid accidents. Turn them into a "that was a close call, we nearly hit that guy" vs a "Yeah we are alright thanks to our SUV, the other guy though is in critcal care"..
Have a look through these documents. Although I agree a Tahoe is safer than a hatchback. You will find simple mid sized cars like maxima's are safer for your little girl and other road users, next time you buy a car think of your little girl and dont get swept in by irrational fears. good luck...
Although what I think this report has missed is what kind of people drive what types of car. Are Tahoe drivers more likely to kill themsleves than Accord drivers.
Just remember a station-wagon often has more interior space than most SUVs.
You might not have even got injured had your Suzuki been hit by another Suzuki. You will still die if your SUV gets hit by a truck. The weight of your SUV will not save you from an 18 wheeler, your SUVs bad chasis design will aid in your demise. SUVs are just plain badly desgined. They have a ladder chasis just like all cars from the pre 50's, this is a must if you did actually need to tow great weights (most people dont) Because of this Chasis design the impact of an accident is not diverted around the passenger cell. The only safety in an SUV has is its weight. Because SUVs are classed as a light truck bumper height regulations dont apply, this means the bumper will miss the impact zones built into modern cars. ie instead of colliding with the side-impact bar of the family sedan the SUVs bumper will ride over it and into the passengers shoulder or head. In order to offroad properly suspension must be soft, thus handling at speed will be crap. The greater the weight the greater the stopping distance, obviously conditions apply here but as a gerneral rule of thumb.
You are correct. Im a classic car enthusiast and have had much dealing with older vehicles. Older vehicles (even when new) definatly require(d) more tuning/tweaking in order to remain reliable. However because of their simplicity they tend to suffer less from age and so break down less often. Modern designs are definatly less reliable after the 200,000km mark - but many people argue a vehicle should be scrapped by this time anyway.
Its common to install fuel injection in older cars (cult cars) though, because fuel injection creates HUGE gains in reliabilty/efficency/performance.
Im not getting defesnive of nascar or anything.
Infact I dont find it very interesting. However I still found this article rather informing and quite fun
It covers the basics of Nascar that a outsider would never spot..
nascar basics
good read if your into motorsports.
Rally for me too..
So your idea of italian cars is based on fiats
well then i must make my idea of russian
engineering based on the lada my brother had years ago.
every car has a comprimise.. like toyotas are boring
yet reliable. American cars a both (kidding)
italian cars are often beutiful
pls dont reply this comment if your a kid
whos idea is that a car is that it must look
like its going to make a soft moon landing
and has ten billion horse power because
all that ads up to nothing.
crappy old porche??????
it may be old but far from junk, Id much prefer
a 959 to a rx8
wait 10 years and tell me if you still feel the same
way, i know i will.
this is just stupid. why bother with that when you can have [a Porsche Carrera GT]. .
Simply having the fastest car does not garentee enjoyment.
One example I can think of, a car journalist driving the godzilla (skyline)
stating "its like a really really fast pulsar(similar to civic)".
I wouldnt know but maybe these 959s are simply sh*t loads
of fun, maybe faster or more easily tweaked.
if you need an analogy maybe its like the old Amiga OS
you used to love. Only in the car world somtimes
the lastest can be bettered by it's predecesor because the roads
change so much slower than electrics.
dont put your time and money in simply because its
shiny and new or youl be the one
who shows everyone else whats a lemon
The eather gear knob in my car has only worn out after 15 years. Leather works well, very durable and it breathes unlike plastic.
plus it feels and smells good -- unlike plastic
and the flood is like 200,000 stampeding elephants.
sorry
I agree completely with your post. If i made it sound as though im a street racer im not. I personely own two vehicles. One is a reasonably late model celica the other a 30 year olb BMW. The celica is no fun and therfore i drive around like an old man, its my daily beater, its wonderfully reliable and i always drive it cautiosly. The BMW spends most of its time in the garage being worked on - most of the time it doesnt need it, its just simply fun to modify.
As many posters have said there is a greater need for driver education, both in car handling and road reading.
ps. the bmw is fun at 50kph....
Once again i couldnt agree more with your post.
Traction control and abs breaks are not necessarily an advantage for most profesional drivers. WRC rally cars and most high level racing cars still use standard shifts or driver controlled automatics, ie the car pyhsicaly makes the change yet the driver designates when.
Your comment on spark timing is simply stupid - think about it.
All in all, you've missed the original posters point. The automatic transmissions, abs, power-steering and even seating positions we get in road cars a very much dumbed down versions. Unfortunatly with this ease of use, pure driving enjoyment is also lost. Your comment makes me think you enjoy cars from afar and have never really had a serious interest in anything more than the latest gimmick.
Most modern cars are designed to sell to all people - including clumsy people. Great example's of how simpler driver orientated cars are best often come from lotus - espicialy the recent elise. Its a shame these cars are USELESS for mr lack of co-ordination, the old and the lazy because the keep the driver alert - which is sorely needed these days with lazy boy suspesion, cell phones and exeptional sound profing which leaves a human relaxed when traveling at deadly speeds.
I read the original article and all the followups. The important part here is the spammer in question agreed to being interviewed...
I live in NZ and read the original article. + the followups.
The original article was in the national paper The Herald, around two weeks ago. The original article was only a moderatly sized peice at the back of the paper (IT section). The author had simply had enough of the spam and was also worried for his daughters exposure to things such as viagra. So he went about tracking the spammer down. He eventually found him, rang him and organised an interview. Thus the spammers name appeared within the paper and thus harassemnt began.
So then the spammer become worried for his family .
I used to work in a Gas Station. Sparks where the reason phones are not permitted on the premises. Its the same reason you cant leave your car idling there. I know everybody ignores it. I do.
although, the detonation that occurs within a combustion engine is slightly diferent in that the shock wave is produced by multiple explosions being produced at the same time with in the cylinder. These explosins then collide and cause the shock wave. These excess explosionts are often caused by too much heat and pressure.
I think the detonation the article talks about is somthing similar with the exeption that the shock wave compresses the gas/oxygen mixture causing it to detonate simultanously. ie the shockwave proceeds the actual flame compressing the mix which then ignites under the pressure this continues until such time as the mix runs out.
however this is all spectulation..
If your car is detonating its not gonna last long. When a car engine detonates the shock wave produced often destroys the engines internals, or atleast causes some damage.
A cars combustion engine when working normally uses deflagation to produce power. Its easy smooth and works well. The octain or lead (1980) in petrol helps prevent detonation.
I havnt managed to read the article itself yet. due to being at work, lazy, you name it its me. I interperated the article to mean, you purchase the shell and ontop of that you select the parts you wish to fit. Now the parts are all made by third party vendors. This way all the third party vendors compete for your money, so prices are low and parts plentiful. All the said parts are constructed to specific dimensions preset by the shell manafacturer. The car is constructed for you by the factory. I think it would be nice if you also had the optioon to put your own car together. I do this with old cars and its much nicer to work with brand new parts.. A good example of a car like this is all the lotus seven replicas, they are fast simple efficient cheap and generally made from third party or existing parts.
hmmm. All eyes on you Black Parrot :)