From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Date: Sat Apr 26 1997 - 20:45:33 MDT
James Rogers wrote:
>
> I've driven a turbine powered car before, and they are very nice. Lots of
> power and very smooth acceleration. Supposedly some company is working on
> a prototype turbine that can idle nearly as efficiently as a vanilla
> internal combustion engine. Turbines actually make a lot of sense if you
> are looking for a lot of power in a compact package. The turbine car that
> I drove put out in excess of 600 horsepower, but was as fuel efficient as
> most sports cars in the 400 horsepower range.
>
A 15 kW turbine generator is only the equivalent of about 12 hp (
corrections anyone?), which is considered the nominal needs of
overcoming rolling/ atmospheric friction for a normal car, plus
accessory power needs. WHile your objection of idling while topped off
is true, that would not be a normal case, and the turbine would
typically be shut down. Additionally, you are right that a hybrid
vehicle is a highway/long commute/trip/vacation/rural area type vehicle.
In the case of an urban commuter, such a vehicle would not have any
need, as a normal electric vehicle would be optimal for that, with a
commute of less than 20 miles and accessible power jacks on either end
of the trip for recharging. The hybrid is being developed for those
non-urban markets where electric vehicles still have power and range
problems.
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
------------------------------------------------------------
mailto:retroman@tpk.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com
Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/
Mikey's Animatronic Factory
My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA)
MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday
Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH)
------------------------------------------------------------
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]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256;
&S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}
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