RE: Lightning strike

Author
Discussion

Dr S

4,997 posts

226 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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IPAddis said:
MD: "Err, you'd better get the styling team to work on this new concept"
Styling Manager: "That's Ok boss, we'll just graft the front end of the Jag F-Type concept onto a Bristol Fighter".

Still, I like it!

Ian A.
With a Veyron backend...

arcbeer

485 posts

263 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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Interior looks good with Cerbera-esque curves. What ever happended to that red shopping trolly 'leccy car which claimed 1000bhp?

twistedsanity

493 posts

238 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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i wonder how much a new set of batteries will cost, £120k maybe?, kreality check needed with the pricing methinks

varsas

4,013 posts

202 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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I thought current electric cars used nickle-metal-hydride batteries (which are awful), not Li-ion? I'm sure the current prius does (i know, it's a hybrid but still, same technology, no?), they are moving to li-ion for the next one though (it might actually be worth it then!). Or is it just the expensive ones (tesla etc) that are already li-ion?

Horse_Apple

3,795 posts

242 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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Fabulous looking car and good power stats.

I have to say that I am intrigued to know what it would be like to slap down a country road at TVR speeds with no engine noise. I suspect it would be seriously cool.

Nacnud

2,190 posts

269 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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fredtonge said:
i would buy one if it had a sound track to match the looks ? woooops what sound track
Lotus have the answer..... ICAAT

Saw this on telly a few years ago and remember them dramatically altering the car engine sound; most impressive.
Only works for the car interior though....

dingocooke

670 posts

220 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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More vague promises, shaky maths, and quirky styling; another one for the great white hope files me thinks?
Now; Im not being cynical, I just dont understand how current (excuse the pun) battery and motor technology can deliver any where near the 'promised' preformance and recharge times. Would anyone want a silent sports GT car? Or are they going to give it a 1000 watts hifi with outside speakers to play an engine MP3 track of your choice??

Filed with TVR rescue plans, and all Al Melling projects....

oagent

1,784 posts

243 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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Sounds great. Snowball in hells chance of the finished product meeting the marketing babble.

On a more realistic note, I have never understood why these hybrid cars are petrol electric? The technology has been used in trains for yrs (ok without the batteries) but they are diesel electric. I thought diesel had a higher thermal efficiency. Surely running what is essentially a generator would be ideal for a high torque diesel. With the batteries acting as a surge buffer between generator and electric motors there would be even less need for something that can pick up revs quickly. Run on bio-diesel or chip fat it would be ideal or am I missing something?

gizmo.mp3

18,150 posts

209 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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97octane said:
Why, exactly, does an electric car need a gear lever?????????
Good question.
Perhaps because it requires more oomph to get a car moving than to cruise at constant speed: and therefore you could increase the range by using less power when cruising?

I don't know, just a thought really.

NiallOswald

326 posts

206 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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gizmo.mp3 said:
97octane said:
Why, exactly, does an electric car need a gear lever?????????
Good question.
Perhaps because it requires more oomph to get a car moving than to cruise at constant speed: and therefore you could increase the range by using less power when cruising?

I don't know, just a thought really.
I'd have thought it would be something more mundane like the need to select reverse wink

Also, like a petrol engine, electric motors can benefit from gearing to give enhanced acceleration at low speeds. CVT would be the obvious answer. Depending on motor type and controller system, an electric motor will typically deliver constant (peak) torque up to a particular speed and constant (peak) power beyond that. If the car is geared such that the boundary between these two regions occurs at Vmax, then compared to a similarly powerful, geared, petrol car, the electric car will be less rapid off the line. It would be akin to pulling away in top gear, only an electric motor delivers torque smoothly from a standstill unlike a petrol engine.


annodomini2

6,861 posts

251 months

Tuesday 12th June 2007
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gizmo.mp3 said:
97octane said:
Why, exactly, does an electric car need a gear lever?????????
Good question.
Perhaps because it requires more oomph to get a car moving than to cruise at constant speed: and therefore you could increase the range by using less power when cruising?

I don't know, just a thought really.
The article states that they make a petrol version with a ford V8, so the interior must be from one of them.

Silver993tt

9,064 posts

239 months

Wednesday 13th June 2007
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I think the great advantage of electric power is in the city. Any traffic jams, waiting at lights, crossings etc would cost no fuel whatsoever and the streets would be much quieter.

varsas

4,013 posts

202 months

Wednesday 13th June 2007
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OAGENT

I presume it is because hybrids have been developed in America/Japan so far. With diesel cars being banned from most of America (california at least) and large parts of Japan (Tokyo) due to there high levels of pullution; they can only have petrol cars. I believe Peugeot is working on a diesel/electric car. I think they made a berlingo van that could do 100mpg?

Also, yes, i've always thought that using a small engine (500cc, turbo charged 2 cylinder should do for most cars) running under high load and charging a battery would dramatically increase the mpg.

Lutz

236 posts

245 months

Wednesday 13th June 2007
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Car looks nice enough...but is it just me wondering about the following:

1) Nanotechnology, 4 motors, 700hp, 0-60 in under 4 seconds....not very impressive acceleration for an electric motor....not when a guy can take his old golf, piles in some batteries and an electric motor and has nearly the same result

2) Ahem, ecology? when this guy goes onto the mains to charge, the whole are has no light. And where does electricity come from? from the socket, alright, but wherefrom really? Nuclear and thermal power stations...great ecologic thinking...

3) True, at 250miles, the touring cannot be very grand

darmis

12 posts

212 months

Wednesday 13th June 2007
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Trenchtown said:
Am I the only one who thinks this is a late april fools joke?

- 700 bhp
- Ten minutes charging
- Battery life expectancy of 12 years

COME ON!!!
Yup, yesterday was March 31 - or it's an unfortunate coincidence. NanoSafe battery technology, with it's 10-minute charge time, is made by a company called Altairnano; the president and CEO happens to be A. Gotcher. http://www.altairnano.com/corp_management.html

Hope I'm wrong about it being a joke. If we back these alternatively-powered cars now every manufacturer might actually get their development teams seriously on the case. Does it matter how the future supercars - or just cars - are fuelled providing they do what we want them to do? Yeah, ok, other than the sound of a fat V8, V10, flat-6, etc. But I'd not mind driving the back roads from JoG to LE in my future Ferrari, stopping only to let the sun's rays catch up and 'refill the tank'...

Skodaku

1,805 posts

219 months

Wednesday 13th June 2007
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Same old same old. Where's the market for it ? How many new cars over about £20k are purchased with private money ? Not a lot is my guess, so virtually no market. Lambo, Ferrari etc are hardly volume producers and Lambo would probably be gone by now except for VAG. Bugatti "went" a number of times and are only back as a VAG technology showcase.

Nice idea but just that I think.

sliverserfer

4 posts

202 months

Thursday 14th June 2007
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Excuse me for being pedantic, but with so much torque at 0revs, why does it need a gearstick?

Chrome Orange

140 posts

257 months

Wednesday 4th July 2007
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fuoriserie

4,560 posts

269 months

Thursday 6th March 2008
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The design looks really good now, they did a nice restyling job.

http://www.lightningcarcompany.com/gallery.php

bimsb6

8,041 posts

221 months

Thursday 6th March 2008
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looks very aston meets elise .cool !