Feeling lazy but slightly irresponsible too

So here's a post gathered from other sources.

4Car is an English site and therefore a good source of Euro centric car news and reviews. Recently they covered the launch of Tesla's sports car and followed with a retrospective of notable electric cars. I especially like the Sinclair which incorporated a number of construction techniques pioneered by Lotus. Read about it here.

The New York Times had a pair of interesting articles. (Note: registration may be required to view these links but it is well worth it.) First is a slide show of dream cars from GM. These images I found took me right back to my youth.

Nice huh? Actually it seems a little retro contemporary. For more go here.

Times are tough for automakers in the US. Even mighty Toyota has taken a hit after gearing up to steal the truck market from US builders. Honda however appears to be weathering the storm with a small profit. Credit their long standing commitment to a "do more with less" design philosophy which sometimes put them at odds with their US dealers. It also put them ahead of the curve when gas prices rose. A neat synopsis is available here from the NYT business section.

Happy Motoring.

Why I love Lotus redux

Probably of interest to engineering geeks only but once again I've fallen under the spell of Lotus Engineering. When they aren't out tending the hemp field they are inside designing for the future; always with the idea that less is more. Want the most efficient crossover powerplant for the near term? How about an engine that will run efficiently on any combustible liquid you pour in the tank? All it takes is a willingness to stand at least three fixed assumptions about internal combustion engines on their heads!

This article courtesy of Jalopnik via Automobile Magazine.

Lotus Engineering is starting up a project they're calling "Omnivore," a task which, if successful, could see traditional internal combustion engines go the way of the dodo. Lotus is planning to meld the two-cycle engine with new technologies — direct injection and a variable compression ratio — to create an engine able to run on almost any fuel. If you've ever wondered what the future of the internal combustion looked like, you're getting a peek now. Put your propeller cap on and join us for a pocket protector talk after the jump.

Used to be that a gas engine was a gas engine and a diesel was a diesel. With the advent of reliable direct injection, variable displacement cylinder heads that don't turn into grenades, and incredibly sensitive monitoring and control systems, it's now possible to run an engine in ways would have never worked in the past. Consider the main barrier to high-compression gasoline engines in the past — preignition. High octane numbers were a band-aid for that problem, but that also caused fuel economy to plummet. Direct injection virtually eliminates the issue, allowing engineers to put the fuel right into the chamber exactly when it's needed, high pressure be damned. It's even conceivable to run a gasoline engine on the diesel cycle with direct injection.

Now add the idea of operating with a two-cycle engine to the mix and things get really weird. Two-strokes are traditionally dirty, dirty engines to run. The huge amount of fuel used and inelegant combustion leads to lots of pollution but huge amounts of power, since you've got twice as many power strokes compared to a four-stroke. However, a two-stroke with direct injection and a variable compression ratio would be able to burn almost anything under super-high compression ratios, resulting in temperatures and pressures sufficient to completely burn almost any fuel. Of course, that assumes you can build powerful enough injectors and internal components that don't turn into Swiss cheese in extreme conditions. Let's just say this: Lotus is setting out on a path that's going to get a lot of powertrain engineering PhD's hot and bothered. If they succeed, future car engines will shrink and be more powerful as a result.

Truth or Dare

Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to say. Especially if you are running for president.

We're addicted to oil. Pretty much everything in our economy is produced using what used to be cheap energy. Energy isn't cheap anymore. We have no alternative sources of energy available right now. The price of everything is going to go up. It isn't inflation, it's a lifestyle changing,paradigm busting,cataclysmic cultural event. We should prepare to be a part of it. We can reduce the pain but there will certainly be a good deal of pain involved.

I for one think that if this message were delivered honestly, Americans would respond positively to it. Fossil fuels are limited even if you don't believe in global warming. There are more people using larger amounts of them every day. Think of them as the batteries the planet came with. We've only got a little time to create a sustainable substitute. If we don't the consequences are really unthinkable, if not for us for some future humans.

Expensive energy really does have the ability to change people's choices. Witness Ford and GM shutting down truck assembly lines in a heartbeat. People respond when the truth is delivered in the market- with a price tag. A positive narrative does help to ease the pain. It can be our little project.

And we really have a vast reservoir of conservation that remains untapped. Here is a small chart of per capita energy use compiled by the World Resources Institute.

2003 Total energy consumption per capita
Units: Kilograms of oil equivalent (kgoe) per person

Brazil 1,067.6
China 1,138.3
Finland 7,218.1
France 4,518.4
Germany 4,203.1
India 512.4
Italy 3,127.2
United States 7,794.8

Somehow those damn Italians manage a modern lifestyle using less than half the energy of Americans. Even the relatively profligate French use just slightly more than half. The US has a lot of room for improvement. The longer we dawdle the more world resentment is likely to grow.

Crazy Quilt Future

Sitting in the United States in 2008 its compelling to imagine an automotive future much like the automotive present only with a different fuel. ( Well actually there are those who think the present fuel is just fine if we could only pump more of it but we will leave them at the curb for the moment.)The future is a world full of personal cars powered by hydrogen or switchgrass ethanol or hemp seed diesel or windmill electricity available at the home outlet. All of these are worthy successors to fossil fuel but no single one is likely to take the mantle of king of fuels. In fact I think in the long run a major overhaul in our concept of transportation and the design of our living spaces is going to sneak up and render the personal car rather quaint.

In the short run we face a sort of patchwork quilt of solutions that move us toward a sustainable future. After all, if the perfect car went on sale tomorrow; you know the one with a negative carbon footprint that was powered by the sun; just changing over the automotive fleet would take years. What is more likely to happen is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. A true plug-in hybrid that was affordable would be a huge step but right now its a bit of an oxymoron. Also with the current electrical generation realities it would really be running on coal. Hydrogen currently implies much the same scenario. Thanks to big agriculture biofuels seem likely to displace food crops and require lots of oil driven fertilizers and intensive motorized farming. That's not a winning formula.

The stark facts indicate the car as we know it is likely to be the transport of choice for some time to come. Current engine technology is extremely clean. Fuel economy can be improved dramatically by downsizing, down powering, saving weight and using diesel. Simple known technology. The problem for the most part is we are addicted to driving alone and the current design of most habitable regions requires the use of an automobile to perform the functions necessary to sustain life. I'm talking about going to the grocery store, any store actually, the bank, the doctor, the daycare center. Did I mention going to work? Unless you live in New York City you probably aren't going to abandon your car for taxis and public transportation. It's just too inconvenient and time consuming.

If I could implement one technology to reduce car use or eliminate it all together in most urban areas it would be something like this. You call a number. You tell them where you are and where you want to go. If you don't like cell phones you do this on your computer or at a dedicated kiosk. Within five minutes a nice diesel powered van arrives. One that has plenty of space for your groceries. It takes you where you need to go picking up other passengers using dynamic routing that allows it to pick up nearby travelers going to local destinations along the way. No long waits. No long walks to the bus stop. Just a charge of perhaps a dollar a mile and an opportunity to meet the community or listen to your iPod. As you wish.

All of this is easily possible using existing technologies. It's just that we are inside the public transportation prison of the past. This is a simple, affordable, economically feasible and desirable solution. Of course taxi franchises and public transport will resist mightily. It just requires thinking outside of the current parameters. For those interested in an elaboration of this idea that describes a current pilot system in operation visit www.taxibus.org.uk and start talking it up.

I hope you enjoy the next ride as much!

Behind the Beat prefers not to get involved in electoral politics. In fact I think its very likely we live in a time when government can only respond to the critical problems facing us after the fact. For better or worse the changes that must be made will need to be made personally and en masse. Nonetheless, I can't keep my eyes off this photo or my mind off its many unspoken narratives, real and imagined. Enjoy.

Down on the street-Boulder Edition

With apologies to the ongoing feature at the blog Jalopnik

A few days ago I was shopping at the Safeway near my house when what to my wondering eyes should appear but one of these motoring through the parking lot.

I have to say I frantically dug into my pockets in an attempt to activate the camera in my phone before it disappeared. No Luck. My head is full of a lot of old English cars and I recognized the DNA but for the life of me I couldn't come up with a name. Bugged the hell out of me to tell the truth. So imagine my surprise when I pulled into Costco for the weekly stockup and saw this at the pumps.

I quickly pulled to the curb to interrogate. Turns out there was a good reason I didn't recognize it. This was a true Vanden Plas Princess nee Austin A90. And there are less than 3400 of them in creation. Probably far less given that most of them stayed in the UK (the queen had one for a limo), sheet metal in the 50's and 60's had a shelf life of about 5 years and the activity of the tinworm in that clime is relentless.

This survivor has had the British lump of a six removed and replaced with the drivetrain from a Nissan 280Z thus making life a lot sunnier for all but the purists. My favorite part was the interior. With a real bench seat in front! I'm such a sucker for that.

Now it would be hard to advocate the use of obscure, low volume English cars as a green solution. Or even a reasonable transportation solution. But if you think about the amount of energy involved in making a new automobile you might make a case for automotive recycling of this sort. You can read more about this car at BritishV8.org where there are a large number of strange transplants revealed in exquisite detail.

Globe Trotting

Back in the day it was said rather famously that what was good for General Motors was good for America. The Big Three were in the driver's seat of the US economy and oil poured into America's fleet on one end and spewed out the tailpipe at the other. When the Japanese began to make credible and virtually unbreakable passenger cars the Bigs all but gave them the small car market and sat by while they relentlessly grew larger and stole more market share. Sometime in the Carter years they hitched their wagons to SUVs and pickup trucks and began a very profitable 25 year ride. Size was everything, fuel economy irrelevant and using truck platforms insured development costs were low. A true cash cow. Now their indolence and lack of investment has come full circle and lots full of vehicles languish like dinosaurs in another era of climate change.

Fortunately Ford and GM have had to develop cars for a European market that had no interest in trucks. Adversity has forced them to fill their US market gaps with cars from overseas and to get those idle truck assembly lines back to work making 5 door hatchbacks (YEAH). Perhaps this explains the absence of my favorite Chevrolet Malibu Maxx from the newly remodeled lineup. These models are also figuring in the rebirth of the Saturn and Mercury lineups. You can read more about that here.