Show us your Cars

[thewas]

Cars are together with good audio reproduction my 2 most important hobbies since my childhood, cannot and don't want to imagine my future without one or even worse both of them.

 

[Blumlein 88]

1964 Impala SS. Original other than the radio.

 

[MRC01]

Wow, what a well restored piece of cruise-mobile history. Is that a daily driver?

 

[Blumlein 88]

Wow, what a well restored piece of cruise-mobile history. Is that a daily driver?

Not hardly a daily driver. Has 40,000 miles on it. 3rd owner, the first owners kept it most of its life. Apparently been stored indoors whenever not in use since 1964.

 

[Wes]

I see you have a period correct radio too...

 

[Blumlein 88]

I see you have a period correct radio too...

Well sort of. It is a JVC unit that fits in the original opening on the dash. However its all digital and even has remote. A power amp and CD changer are hidden away in the trunk. The original had the extra speaker (in the rear seat).

 

[Frank Dernie]

Interested to read that the first car Ferdinand Porsche designed was electric and he only went IC engine because of battery limitations. This was in
Reflecting on my experience with my plug-in hybrid I can see why he was so keen, the characteristics of electric motors are much more suited to vehicles than IC engines (as my electrical engineering lecturer had told me 53 years ago to great scepticism from me).
Batteries are still the problem but the one I tried a while ago had such perfect throttle response it eventually convinced me he was right.
Almost silent too so more relaxing on long runs.
My screaming flat plane V8 with 6-speed manual is great fun for hooliganing about but I hardly ever use it.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Interested to read that the first car Ferdinand Porsche designed was electric and he only went IC engine because of battery limitations. This was in
Reflecting on my experience with my plug-in hybrid I can see why he was so keen, the characteristics of electric motors are much more suited to vehicles than IC engines (as my electrical engineering lecturer had told me 53 years ago to great scepticism from me).
Batteries are still the problem but the one I tried a while ago had such perfect throttle response it eventually convinced me he was right.
Almost silent too so more relaxing on long runs.
My screaming flat plane V8 with 6-speed manual is great fun for hooliganing about but I hardly ever use it.

Diesel electric locomotives are an interesting hybrid. I thought that sort of drive train would prevail among IC powered cars in time. Maybe petrol powered electric drive systems.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Diesel electric locomotives are an interesting hybrid. I thought that sort of drive train would prevail among IC powered cars in time. Maybe petrol powered electric drive systems.

I suspect the days of any IC engines are numbered (and maybe even cars, in reality).
The best compromise seems to be a hybrid with both driving but contributing differently depending on load, speed and throttle conditions.
The electric motor can bring throttle response and fill in the lag of a petrol turbo - high boost turbos are much more efficient than NA engines and superchargers are lossy so for overall efficiency a high boost turbo engine with electric hybrid gives both best efficiency and driving response.
However giving car fans the bst solution may not be welcome because they miss the noise.
Current F1 cars produce the same power with 100kg of fuel than they used to with 160 kg of fuel but the noise has been complained about a lot.

 

[JJB70]

I think IC engines will continue in ships simply because the demands for power, range, efficiency and flexibility are difficult to achieve with alternative technologies. However they will be fuelled by carbon free fuels such as ammonia. The best alternative is nuclear, and from a strictly technical perspective the small modular reactor is probably the best solution available but political resistance is a major issue.
I can't criticise IC engines too much as they have basically paid my mortgage for much of my life but why would people want an engine, really? The power/torque characteristics of electric motors are ideal for transport application, an all electric power package is much simpler, very quiet, much cleaner, requires far less maintenance and avoids trips to the gas station. Ignore environmental arguments and I would just much rather have an EV anyway as they are much nicer to drive
However I am moving to a place where few own cars and public transport is excellent and am happy about that.

 

[JJB70]

On Porsche and electric drive, his tank designs used gasoline-electric power trains but they were heavy, complex and seemingly unreliable.

 

[Willem]

I admit I loved my big American car with beefy V8 that I got when I was working in North Carolina in the 80s. However, the scientific consensus on global warming is overwhelming (see the recent IPCC report) and sadly that means we shall have to change our ways whether we like it or not, and not just with cars. The good news is that it is precisely electric propulsion that will give the same kind of high torque response as the big V8 engines of yesterday. My father was an electrical engineer who predicted more than half a century ago that one day we would move to electric propulsion, once the battery problem would be solved. City busses in our town are now all electrical, for much reduced emissions (also of small particles) and much less noise. Our next car will undoubtedly be an all electrical one (or maybe none at all since our public transport is excellent and we mostly use our bicycles to get around locally).
But this is not the only thing we shall have to do: driving with an internal combustion engine is only responsible for a relatively small proportion of all emissions. At home we already have solar panels that produce about as much electricity as our annual consumption, and in two weeks' time our house will get an upgrade with much improved insulation of the roof and the crawl space under the ground floor. The next step after the insulation is to investigate a solar boiler and a heat pump for warm tap water and for heating.
None of this is cheap, and some of it is inconvenient, but I fear there is no alternative.

 

[thewas]

The best compromise seems to be a hybrid with both driving but contributing differently depending on load, speed and throttle conditions.

I agree, at least at the current moment. A clever hybrid needs only relatively small batteries and uses the IC engine at its optimal load and RPM range. and can even use a different more efficient cycle like the Atkinson one which otherwise is not suitable for a care due to its torque characteristic.
Some current Toyota do so and are stunningly efficient in real life, their longest experience in hybrid drivetrains pays out:
https://www.spritmonitor.de/de/die_sparsamsten_autos.html
The new Corolla hybrid even looks and drives nicely, I almost bought one for myself and I used to find Corollas so boring in the past...

 

[JJB70]

Transitional technology is always a bit problematic. It can ease technology transition but how much money is it sensible to invest in such solutions? The main problem is the risk that what was supposed to be a transitional step becomes a long term fixture

 

[Willem]

I agree, at least at the current moment.

But I don't think this will be much longer. Hybrid systems such as by Toyota are very clever, but also complex. A fully electrical car is far simpler and a more elegant solution. I notice that many car manufacturers have stopped investing heavily in the developement of internal combustion engines or platforms for them. I also notice that battery range is getting better quite quickly.

 

[thewas]

But I don't think this will be much longer. Hybrid systems such as by Toyota are very clever, but also complex. A fully electrical car is far simpler and a more elegant solution. I notice that many car manufacturers have stopped investing heavily in the developement of internal combustion engines or platforms for them. I also notice that battery range is getting better quite quickly.

Till the problems of large mass, rare and hard to obtain battery raw materials, production and recycling, electricity generation, transportation, storage and distribution are not solved I see pure electric engines at this point only as a reasonable partial solution for cities of tech advanced countries, but not for long distance drives, trucks etc. In any case its a very exciting field to observe how the market will evolve in the next 20 years, some people with good understanding say that a mix of hybrid, pure electric, hydrogen drives might be the future.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Oh, me I was hoping for fuel cell powered electrics. Don't know if those will be a thing one day or not. Toyota and Honda thought so. Apparently they think there isn't enough lithium for the whole world to run on BEVs. I think they might be right.

 

[bloodshoteyed]

The new Corolla hybrid even looks and drives nicely, I almost bought one for myself and I used to find Corollas so boring in the past...

that was the reason i got it (the TS, actually)
it looked the part, unlike the Prius and/or the Auris and even though it's technically pretty complicated underneath (interestingly enough, cheaper to maintain than a diesel), in everyday usage scenarios it's a fire-up & don't think about it car, which i appreciate wholeheartedly

 

[thewas]

Oh, me I was hoping for fuel cell powered electrics. Don't know if those will be a thing one day or not. Toyota and Honda thought so. Apparently they think there isn't enough lithium for the whole world to run on BEVs. I think they might be right.

Fuel cells might be a quite good transitory solution as they have quite some advantages on the points I mentioned above, their only real problem is their lower theoretical efficiency compared to a battery drive.
Currently Toyota and Hyundai offer here in Europe each a model you can normally buy.

 

[thewas]

that was the reason i got it (the TS, actually)
it looked the part, unlike the Prius and/or the Auris and even though it's technically pretty complicated underneath (interestingly enough, cheaper to maintain than a diesel), in everyday usage scenarios it's a fire-up & don't think about it car, which i appreciate wholeheartedly

View attachment 147105

Very good choice, my work colleague got the same one (also colour).