Emissions Laws FAQ by Katech Performance
Racer
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 287
Likes: 2
From: Bay Area California
Where do we even start with someone as ill informed as you ...... ?????
DIESEL turbines ?????????????
How freakin dumb are you ....
The majority of America's electric power comes from coal .... see ....
http://www.energy.gov/energysources/electricpower.htm
Much of the rest comes from hydroelectric (water), natural gas, and nuclear power. A very small percentage comes from "green" sources such as wind power, solar, and geo-thermal power ...... name me a power plant in the US (other than emergency back-up systems) that use diesel to produce electric power ......
Batteries can be (and are) recycled .... whether lead acid or other types .... disposal is an issue .... but it can be managed .... it's not rocket science.
Range ..... the EV1 (back in the 1990's when GM made them available) had a range (depending on type of driving) of over 100 miles ..... but even with ... say .... a 50 mile range .... the vast majority of Americans drive their vehicle to work in less than 50 miles .... where they could then plug in and recharge for the drive home .... businesses could either pass on the electric cost to the employee or absorb the cost as "part of the cost of doing business". A 50 mile range would work quite well for many American's ..... but most electric cars have a range greater than that .... AND .... there is at least one company looking at the idea that you "lease" your batteries .... when they need replacing they are swapped out .... if they are low on charge and you don't have the time to wait for a charge ... swap them at a charging station for a charged set ......
There are LOTS of answers ..... you have your head shoved up your ### if you can't see that petroleum based transportation has a finite life ..... we cannot keep burning off billions of barrels of oil just to drive cars every day ...... makes no sense economically ... environmentally ..... or in any other way .....
DIESEL turbines ?????????????
How freakin dumb are you ....
The majority of America's electric power comes from coal .... see ....
http://www.energy.gov/energysources/electricpower.htm
Much of the rest comes from hydroelectric (water), natural gas, and nuclear power. A very small percentage comes from "green" sources such as wind power, solar, and geo-thermal power ...... name me a power plant in the US (other than emergency back-up systems) that use diesel to produce electric power ......
Batteries can be (and are) recycled .... whether lead acid or other types .... disposal is an issue .... but it can be managed .... it's not rocket science.
Range ..... the EV1 (back in the 1990's when GM made them available) had a range (depending on type of driving) of over 100 miles ..... but even with ... say .... a 50 mile range .... the vast majority of Americans drive their vehicle to work in less than 50 miles .... where they could then plug in and recharge for the drive home .... businesses could either pass on the electric cost to the employee or absorb the cost as "part of the cost of doing business". A 50 mile range would work quite well for many American's ..... but most electric cars have a range greater than that .... AND .... there is at least one company looking at the idea that you "lease" your batteries .... when they need replacing they are swapped out .... if they are low on charge and you don't have the time to wait for a charge ... swap them at a charging station for a charged set ......
There are LOTS of answers ..... you have your head shoved up your ### if you can't see that petroleum based transportation has a finite life ..... we cannot keep burning off billions of barrels of oil just to drive cars every day ...... makes no sense economically ... environmentally ..... or in any other way .....
Then I recommend you start a trend and QUIT DRIVING YOUR CAR. You know, put your superior environmental outlook into practice.
By the way, I believe it is forum policy to not conduct personal attacks towards others which you seem to have done. Unfortunately, I live in the same region with enough name-calling crazed environmental activist that demand we "do as they say, not as they do" all too often.
Back on topic, kudos to Katech for being very wise at conducting business in this overly-regulated environment which the US has become. Their notification is part of the unfortunate business climate we voters have nurtured and allowed to prevail. Just my opinion...
A1
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 982
Likes: 18
From: Seattle WA
I have to say, I've been much more excited about electric cars recently. Not because of fuel prices, simply because electric cars are becoming exciting for those of us that are car enthusiasts.
Seeing cars like Plasma Boy's run 0-60 in under 3 seconds and 11 second quarter miles is pretty darn cool. On 'Supercars Exposed' this week on SpeedTV they also had a AC Shelby Cobra that was converted to electric power. They were doing donuts in the parking lot with it. And it even weighed less than a stock 427 Shelby Cobra.
Maybe by the time my LS6 gives up the ghost, electric conversions will have come down in price and someone will have figured out how to stuff one into a Corvette
Seeing cars like Plasma Boy's run 0-60 in under 3 seconds and 11 second quarter miles is pretty darn cool. On 'Supercars Exposed' this week on SpeedTV they also had a AC Shelby Cobra that was converted to electric power. They were doing donuts in the parking lot with it. And it even weighed less than a stock 427 Shelby Cobra.
Maybe by the time my LS6 gives up the ghost, electric conversions will have come down in price and someone will have figured out how to stuff one into a Corvette
6th Gear
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Hello Everyone,
From Vettenuts:
>Sorry, got to ask. How safe are lithium batteries? There are many we >don't allow in my business, but I am also not the expert on them >either.
The sarcastic answer...a whole lot safer than sitting on top of an explosive tank of liquid fuel!
Seriously though....Yes, the whole laptop-lithium battery fire thing was a problem, but keep in mind, those were old tech type lithiums, designed ten years ago but still used up to a couple of years ago.
Today's new lithiums do not have the same issues, due to completely different chemistries. One such battery is a company called 'A123'. Their lithium iron nanophosfate cells do not explode into fire when interior electrodes are exposed to oxygen (that's what happened to the old tech type laptop batteries). These tiny A123 cells are amazing! A single 3.7V cell the size of a stick of LifeSavors candy, can belt-out 170 continuous amps of juice, and even more for very high bursts of power! Consider this...four of the 3.7 cells fit in the palm of your hand, weigh about a pound, and wired in series make a nifty 12V battery (actually 14.8V)...it will crank-start a full sized highway tractor! A factory packaged 12V battery made from 16 cells for long life service, might weigh 5 lbs. ...it could eliminate the 40 lb. starting battery in your Vettes and easily crank-over the high compression engine you could stuff under the hood! How's a 5 lb., 800+ CCA 12V battery sound to all who want to lighten their Vettes a little? Before you all begin to salivate, such a battery would be about $500 right now...ouch! It is something to keep in the back of your minds, however, because - write this down...sub-ten lb. lithium based starting batteries will some day help to lighten cars.
What product are these super A123 lithium cells used in? DeWalt's fantastic 36V lithium-ion cordless tools! Expensive? Yes! But wow, what power and run time! The 36V A123 powered drill actually makes 'more power' than DeWalt's corded drills. It is these exact little cells that we EVers are using in our drag EVs...lots of them :-) The 374V pack of 880 cells that White Zombie ran with in 2007 temporarily replaced the car's 360V 844 lb. pack of lead acid batteries (the lithium pack was on loan to me for a weekend) and only weighed 175 lbs. ... it made 1400 amps! Allowing for the sagged voltage under the full 1400 amp load, the pack generated 350 hp that pushed my Datsun coupe to an 11.4 ET. That airline carry-on suitcase-sized pack was the first of three packs built for the electric drag bike 'Killacycle' and had become their back-up pack since their current 3rd generation pack is now a 1200 cell unit that makes a staggering 1800 amps! Killacycle has run a 7.8 second ET @ 168 mph with this latest lithium pack!
This year, we have our own lithium sponsor and will be trying out a new 'lithium manganese super polymer' pack that will make over 400 hp, plus, take White Zombie to 100-150 miles per charge! The pack will weigh about 300 lbs., so (as it was when we borrowed the motorcycle lithium pack) a huge amount of weight will be dropped from the car...to the tune of 540 lbs. less weight! This year’s White Zombie should weigh between 1950 lbs. - 2000 lbs. and will be packing 400 'battery hp'. Actual 'delivered hp' will be around 300 accompanied by nearly 800 ft. lbs. of torque!!!
With the loaner motorcycle lithium pack, we ran an 11.4 after bad loss of traction at launch (lost nearly 2/10 second in our normally terrific 60 ft. time) due to not enough time to experiment with controller settings or launch techniques with a much lighter car (dropped from ~2550 lbs. to ~1860 lbs.). All who were there that night, pretty much agreed that if we could have had a few more runs, a very low 11 to maybe even a high 10 was possible (we got thrown off the track when we broke through 11.5 without the roll bar and fire suit - we now have both).
With our very own lithium pack this year capable of an extra 100 amps (1500 amps max), I expect high 10 second ETs with this newest design and will be on the hunt for that guy with the red Z06 that beat us last year at PIR (that race was after we had reinstalled the heavy lead acid pack and were running in the 11.8 -11.9 range)....ah, those pesky Z06's!
See Ya...John 'Plasma Boy' Wayland
From Vettenuts:
>Sorry, got to ask. How safe are lithium batteries? There are many we >don't allow in my business, but I am also not the expert on them >either.
The sarcastic answer...a whole lot safer than sitting on top of an explosive tank of liquid fuel!
Seriously though....Yes, the whole laptop-lithium battery fire thing was a problem, but keep in mind, those were old tech type lithiums, designed ten years ago but still used up to a couple of years ago.
Today's new lithiums do not have the same issues, due to completely different chemistries. One such battery is a company called 'A123'. Their lithium iron nanophosfate cells do not explode into fire when interior electrodes are exposed to oxygen (that's what happened to the old tech type laptop batteries). These tiny A123 cells are amazing! A single 3.7V cell the size of a stick of LifeSavors candy, can belt-out 170 continuous amps of juice, and even more for very high bursts of power! Consider this...four of the 3.7 cells fit in the palm of your hand, weigh about a pound, and wired in series make a nifty 12V battery (actually 14.8V)...it will crank-start a full sized highway tractor! A factory packaged 12V battery made from 16 cells for long life service, might weigh 5 lbs. ...it could eliminate the 40 lb. starting battery in your Vettes and easily crank-over the high compression engine you could stuff under the hood! How's a 5 lb., 800+ CCA 12V battery sound to all who want to lighten their Vettes a little? Before you all begin to salivate, such a battery would be about $500 right now...ouch! It is something to keep in the back of your minds, however, because - write this down...sub-ten lb. lithium based starting batteries will some day help to lighten cars.
What product are these super A123 lithium cells used in? DeWalt's fantastic 36V lithium-ion cordless tools! Expensive? Yes! But wow, what power and run time! The 36V A123 powered drill actually makes 'more power' than DeWalt's corded drills. It is these exact little cells that we EVers are using in our drag EVs...lots of them :-) The 374V pack of 880 cells that White Zombie ran with in 2007 temporarily replaced the car's 360V 844 lb. pack of lead acid batteries (the lithium pack was on loan to me for a weekend) and only weighed 175 lbs. ... it made 1400 amps! Allowing for the sagged voltage under the full 1400 amp load, the pack generated 350 hp that pushed my Datsun coupe to an 11.4 ET. That airline carry-on suitcase-sized pack was the first of three packs built for the electric drag bike 'Killacycle' and had become their back-up pack since their current 3rd generation pack is now a 1200 cell unit that makes a staggering 1800 amps! Killacycle has run a 7.8 second ET @ 168 mph with this latest lithium pack!
This year, we have our own lithium sponsor and will be trying out a new 'lithium manganese super polymer' pack that will make over 400 hp, plus, take White Zombie to 100-150 miles per charge! The pack will weigh about 300 lbs., so (as it was when we borrowed the motorcycle lithium pack) a huge amount of weight will be dropped from the car...to the tune of 540 lbs. less weight! This year’s White Zombie should weigh between 1950 lbs. - 2000 lbs. and will be packing 400 'battery hp'. Actual 'delivered hp' will be around 300 accompanied by nearly 800 ft. lbs. of torque!!!
With the loaner motorcycle lithium pack, we ran an 11.4 after bad loss of traction at launch (lost nearly 2/10 second in our normally terrific 60 ft. time) due to not enough time to experiment with controller settings or launch techniques with a much lighter car (dropped from ~2550 lbs. to ~1860 lbs.). All who were there that night, pretty much agreed that if we could have had a few more runs, a very low 11 to maybe even a high 10 was possible (we got thrown off the track when we broke through 11.5 without the roll bar and fire suit - we now have both).
With our very own lithium pack this year capable of an extra 100 amps (1500 amps max), I expect high 10 second ETs with this newest design and will be on the hunt for that guy with the red Z06 that beat us last year at PIR (that race was after we had reinstalled the heavy lead acid pack and were running in the 11.8 -11.9 range)....ah, those pesky Z06's!
See Ya...John 'Plasma Boy' Wayland
6th Gear
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Hello vette fans,
Recently from 'efranzen':
>Seeing cars like Plasma Boy's run 0-60 in under 3 seconds and 11 >second quarter miles is pretty darn cool. Maybe by the time my LS6 >gives up the ghost, electric conversions will have come down in price >and someone will have figured out how to stuff one into a Corvette
I see you're from Seattle. I will have White Zombie on display at the BIG Seattle car show this June 28th, Saturday on Greenwood Avenue, if you'd liek to stop by to say 'hi'.
See Ya...John Wayland
Recently from 'efranzen':
>Seeing cars like Plasma Boy's run 0-60 in under 3 seconds and 11 >second quarter miles is pretty darn cool. Maybe by the time my LS6 >gives up the ghost, electric conversions will have come down in price >and someone will have figured out how to stuff one into a Corvette
I see you're from Seattle. I will have White Zombie on display at the BIG Seattle car show this June 28th, Saturday on Greenwood Avenue, if you'd liek to stop by to say 'hi'.
See Ya...John Wayland
