Out With A Bang: we should really know better, but we cant help oursel

[Vindekarr]

I attended the Melbourne international motorshow recently, and I had gone there expecting to see the begining of the transition towards electrical, hydrogen, and alternate fuel vehicles.

 

Though I'm a cynic, I expected that the still weak global economy, the impending dual crises of now oil and drastic, harmful global warming would have influenced car design. It aint done nothing.

 

Nope, what I found was several hundred of the fastest, sleekest, most high performance PETROL powered cars in existance. It seems that the closer we get to running out of oil, the more speed records are contested. Now, I understand wanting to be the fastest petrol car in history right now, i really do-petrols wont be around much longer, whoever makes the record stick will be immortalised as the last great hurrah of a great epoch of motor racing. But it's getting ridiculous.

 

Ten years ago, when I was a kid, you really had three choices if you wanted a hyper fast, hyper luxurious car. You had the italian duo, the Ferrari F-50 and the Lamborghini Diablo, or the British monstrosity that had dominated motor racing for nearly a decade, the Mclaren F-1 LMR. They all had about 400-800 horsepowel, they all had 5-8 litre V-12 engines. they all did about 300-370 KMH.

 

Over the last ten years, probably a hundred comapanies have started up with their only goal being to make the fastest, most beautiful, most impractical car in existance. Pagani, Radical, KTM, Ariel, Veritas, Koenigsegg, B-Engineering, Halo, Dagger, Salleen, Shelby SSC, Spartan, Mitsuoka, Zytek, and dozens more have opened their doors just in a matter of a few years, heedless of that we're almost out of all, all determined to be remembered as the fastest petrol car ever.

 

And the all time top Speed record is usualy smashed three times a year. It's gone from 344 KMH, to 388, to 398, to 407, to 413, to 433, to 480, to now a ridiculous 550 KM/H. Now, that's five times the speed limit, virtualy no race track in the world exists where you could do that either, and the car that can is so heavy and poorly thought out that it can do virtualy nothing but go fast.

 

I cant help but wonder, with thinking like this, just how screwed are we?

[Genzel]

As long as they can still make exorbitant amounts of money, they will continue to do what works for themselves. Its sad, but greed ends up ruining just about everything.

[TheTerminator2004]

The main reason you don't see electric cars, for example, at races etc is because the technology just isn't good enough. Sure, electric or hydrogen powered cars may be better for the environment, but petrol and diesel powered cars are still better in almost every other way.

 

Once technology has advanced enough for electric cars to become a viable alternative to petrol, expect things to change. Until then, nobody's going to buy them, and therefore almost nobody's going to make them.

[Vindekarr]

Well hydrogen fuel cell cars outperform their petrol counterparts both in accerlation and speed.

 

I think stupidity really has to play some part in this-the technology ecists already to make even the most inferior contender, electricity, viable.

[bben46]

In 1968 I saw a battery powered dragster at the Memphis Tenn dragstrip. 1/4 mile straight - None of the other cars would race against it. - Because they knew they didn't have a chance. It could out accelerate and had a better time and top speed than any other car on the track, either gasoline or exotic fuel it didn't matter.

 

However it wasn't very popular with the fans - Because it was dead silent - no loud engine noise, no squealing tires, no flames coming out of exhaust stacks - it just wasn't exciting - just faster than every other car on the track. - Link: http://www.speedace.info/lead_wedge.htm Note - his record is from a standing start.

 

Electric racers are just starting to make a comeback http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrHXdM9f13k

[TheTerminator2004]

So how much do these hydrogen cars cost to make? I'm guessing they're not cheap.

 

And electric cars are great, except they tend to either run out of batteries after a few hours, or can only go at 40-50mph. So while there may well be some prototypes already in existence, none of them are really feasible for use as a production car - people just won't buy them.

 

Since motor shows are as much an opportunity for car manufacturers to show off what great cars they make as anything else, they're mostly only going to enter cars which people will buy. When they start making electric cars which will appeal to consumers, you can bet they'll start showing them off too.

 

In 10-15 years, when the technology has matured to the point where it becomes a good alternative to petrol cars, I expect electric or hydrogen power will become the norm for new vehicles. But right now, neither the technology or the infrastructure needed for that to happen exists.