Petrol price to jump in the weeks ahead

<applause>


regards,
CrazyCam

 

That would have been the Greeks... The Romans gave us Italian
motorcycles to ride on the roads they invented.

 

It's a very small amount in a very large place and it'll never surface
at all, let alone within the period when it's a danger to health.

New generations of reactors will be able to feed on today's waste,
leaving only 1% of the waste of the reactors in use today.

It's clean and green, moreso, it's the only practical way Australia
would be able to lower it's CO2 output, it you think that's important.

We are to Uranium as Saudi Arabia is to oil. We could mine it, process
it, use it, sell it, store the waste and reduce our dependence on fossil
fuels.

 

I sincerely doubt that. Designing an internal combustion engine that
is able to work across a wide enough rpm range to be viable for
automotive use causes a number of efficiency compromises. Until we can
have infinitely variable inlet and exhaust tract lengths, infinitely
variable valve ports and infinitely variable combustion chamber shapes
etc, maximum volumetric efficiency will never be achieved and still
leave the engine (diesel or petrol) able to be used in the way we
currently do.

By designing an engine to be utilised only within a very narrow rpm
range you get measurable improvements in efficiency through being able
to remove many of the compromises.

I'd be gobsmacked if the losses in converting to electricity and
storing it were significantly different to the losses inherent in the
compromised IC design.

Thank you for your patronising assumptions, I'm truly honoured to be
in the audience of such a mighty intellect.

One thing I've noticed, any time anyone uses the the phrase "may I
humbly suggest" they really mean "you plebian moron genuflect to my
stellar intellect.

As if that is particularly germane to discussing the design at hand,
please don't try and blame me for the fact you stopped reading at the
point where you saw a word in the sentence that had a specific meaning
to you. If I have used the term incorrectly the context would still
have adequately explained what I was communicating - the fact that
several other people understood the point proves that it wasn't that
opaque.

JL

 

Ta, mate.

Like Jesus at Easter. (Waiting for resurrection)

Seriously, if work would cough up the OT they owe me and back pay for
last July's pay rise, I'd have already started on it. Maybe next payday...

 

Yeah point taken, it didn't come out well. My apologies.

 

Ummmm close, but no banana.

 

On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 00:21:16 -0800 (PST), JL wrote:

[...]

Never the less it's true. There are plenty of 1000 kw double turbo V12
diesels driving 500 kva generators on long duty cycles. I've nor seen
any of them driving 1500kva or even 1000. And yes, those V12s started
life as slightly blown 500 HP truck or bulldozer engines.
As I have repeatedly said, I agree that limiting rev range gives
designers the ability to increase power, and that's exactly what's
being done with hybrids. Cool things like regen braking and over-run
regeneration are expensive add ons. The major part of the gain is
through increased efficiency in the IC engine.

I'm not seeing any evidence that many people know the difference
between a motor-generator system and a hybrid system, so your rant is
pretty much beside the point. I agree that my post was obnoxiously
worded and I've apologised for that. I do not agree that I am wrong,
though I understand that it's pointless to pursue this any further.

 

People become really defensive when their choices are pointed out to
be less than smart, and mostly made so they can point to themselves
and say "look, see, I'm better than you!" (neglecting the embodied
energy associated with shipping hundreds of kg of batteries and tonnes
of steel across the ocean).

A guy at work drives his prius to work (ontop of a mountain). The
batteries charge completely within the first km of descent, which
means the rest of the energy as the car brakes going down the mountain
just goes to waste. Coming back up the mountain, this obviously then
means the ICE has to run flatout within the first km (in reality, it
started well before then because there's a gently upslope for 20km
before the start of the mountain).

He believes he emits far less CO2 in driving his prius than if he was
to take the work-provided bus that drives past his door at the right
time. After several of us tried to explain the marginal costs of his
90kg self jumping on an old innefficient diesel bus *that is already
going that way at the time he needs it*, vs his 90kg self jumping in
his ~1.4tonne fairly-efficient-but-not-quite-as-good-as-my-motorbike
prius, he got all blustery and told us that we were wrong, QED.

 

And the police usually do exercise that right to make a sensible
decision. My point was that if you don't set that line by law, then a
drunk idiot climbing into his car who hasn't started the car up yet
but cops have spotted him, they can't do a damn thing til he starts
the car and drives off, possibly running over a pedestrian within the
first 20m. Sorry, you haven't convinced me that the law should be
changed.

And the centre of Melbourne is totally different to a surf/fishing
beach. That's hardly a relevant example. Christ I'd be locked up for
1000 years for breaking that one.

 

You think people should be charged for drunk driving if they aren't
driving? I think that that is a ridiculous law. It's only a very short
step from there to charging everyone in the bar who is over the
arbitrary limit, has a car in the ccarpark, and the keys in his
pocket.

You will trust Police discretion? Geez Kevin, how stupid is that?

Theo

 

He sounds like a total wanker



Daryl

 

You think people should be charged for drunk driving if they aren't
driving? I think that that is a ridiculous law. It's only a very short
step from there to charging everyone in the bar who is over the
arbitrary limit, has a car in the ccarpark, and the keys in his
pocket.

You will trust Police discretion? Geez Kevin, how stupid is that?

Theo

+++++++++++++++++++

The charge Theo, would be drunk whilst in charge of a vehicle
If you had the keys in the glovebox, then that is another
argument/discussion

 

It's been a long time since this was a motorcycling newsgroup. It's
now an argument forum for people who have once owned or ridden a
motorcycle (and hatz who has only ever had wet dreams about it).

JL

 

And apparently the combined cycle for the Ford Econetic diesel is
about 3.7L per 100K ... and it's currently 25k on road atm

I had a test drive of one the other day and it was pretty nippy, not
the least bit smelly or noisy -- very nice and entirely suitable for
commuting and no battery to dispose of in landfill.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come in an auto, so a large slice of the
potential market will give it a miss.

Fran

 

No - I don't trust police discretion. I just have to hope that it
happens when I do it.

I still think it is better than Johnny Drunkwit killing someone
because the cops had no ability to get him out the car. Drunk in a bar
is totally different. You aren't about to project 1.5 tonnes of metal
at people. And you _can_ het pulled up for bein drunk and unruly in a
bar or public street.

Sorry, no. Still haven't convinced me. If you are drunk, don't go near
your car. Catch a cab, sleep in the park, give your key to someone
else, don't drink, whatever.

 

True but I think you're missing JL's point that comparing two vastly
different engines just because they have the same swept capacity is
fairly pointless. A far more reasonable comparison would be to compare
fuel usage ($ per mile) or some sort of compound power + torque figure.
Mind you; I think your example of the BMW 320 would still be a win for
the TDI for both of those comparisons too!

 

I would've thought the very fact that people AREN'T arguing about how it
works demonstrates that they do quite clearly understand the difference
between a direct-drive Prius-type hybrid and JL's electric-drive
Volt-type hybrid.

Who do you think has it wrong?

 

Oh no you don't - I've posted enough about this. If you are genuinely
interested go back and read what I've written. If you are on a fishing
trip, this is the only bite you are likely to get.

 

[shrug] So it's just the imaginary choir is it?