Race Car Stuff

Since the increase in gasoline prices the past year or so, Hybrid cars have been a major subject of discussion in just about all circles. At least in our current environment they are proving to be the next practical step towards an alternate fuel world. Even the staunchest lover of fossil fuels realizes that at some point our supply will run out and we will have to resort to some other energy source to fuel our society.

I am a true lover of fast cars that consume more than their share of oil products. It is not necessarily the consumption of these petrol products that I love; it is the going fast that I like. So if there are alternative fuels that can still run my racecar around the race track faster than someone else, I am all for it.

But as I stuck on a narrow urban street in Norfolk, VA, stuck behind one of their NET buses (full electric powered city buses) that can only make 5 mph because the batteries are about to die prematurely, I have my doubts about current alternate fuel experiments.

Now I know some things about electric motors. They have a torque curve that any racer would die for. Power one by a combination of an engine driven generator, and you might still have something that will get the attention of a racer. The current marketing environment has swung from the performance minded market to the fuel economy market. So we will not see television commercials about the acceleration curve of a hybrid, which is a shame.

What I do know is that racing rules makers are not looking forward to the complexities that a hybrid will bring to their job. In various forms of grassroots racing hybrids will be part of the picture. They have already entered a few local autocrosses. Currently the cars entering are your basic economy car, and will have little impact on the big picture of racing. But if there is a sportscar designed to optimize performance, the record book may have to be re-written in some cases. Expect to see some hybrids entered in racing series like the GrandAm Cup cars where close to showroom stock cars are raced. It could be a wake up call for the racing community.

Here is a link to a pretty good article about hybrid myths.

The Top Ten Hybrid Myths

I would like to address a few of these point by point.

1) You need to plug in a hybrid car. I don’t think anyone is that ignorant these days. But I also don’t think the public will ever accept a car that you do have to plug in somehow. Most can’t remember to plug up a cell phone to recharge it.

2. Hybrid batteries need to be replaced. Sorry, I gotta disgree here. The batteries will need replacement. The resale value of a hybrid that needs new batteries is going to be pretty low. If the battery does last 100k miles, don’t forget there is also a piston engine that probably needs a rebuild as well. We haven’t touched the waste disposal problem of old batteries for a nationwide fleet of these cars. There are still significant issues to be concerned about.

3. Hybrids are a new phenomenon. There have been many experiments with this sort of car for many years, but it hasn’t really been feesible until the recent improvements in battery technology, and the increase in gasoline costs.

4. People buy hybrids only to save money on gas. Well, DUH! Is there really another reason anyone would get one. The argument of making some sort of political statement has justification, but that is in addition to saving money. Why is this motive so demonized?

5. Hybrids are expensive. The author of that article makes various excuses that hybrids are not expensive, but the truth is that they cost about $10,000 more than a similar conventional powered car. Sorry, they are expensive.

6. Hybrids are small and underpowered. There is a large GM SUV hybrid out there now. There is also the Ford Escape hybrid, as well as a Honda accord. I think the technology can be applied to anything. The first ones were intended to be economy cars so they have a very small electric motor driving he car. But they are moving more into the mainstream, and there is performance potential. I honestly think that a well chosen hybrid might be a good autocross car.

7. Only liberals buy hybrids. The liberals who own them are the attention whores. They get in front of the cameras and try to make some sort of “statement” with the car. But the truth is that they are working their way into the mainstream and re being owned by a cross section of American society.

8. Hybrids pose a threat to first responders. This is truly a problem at this point. Not all rescue people have had training on all hybrids. In spite of safety features, you can’t plan on all types of accidents. You have a potential hazard in the battery and electrical cables. As they work their way more into average america, first responders will learn how to work with the special requirements of a hybrid.

9. Hybrids will solve all our transportation, energy, and environmental problems. Well, they are only cars. They will help some, but those are big problems.

10. Hybrid technology is only a fad. They will work their way into mainstream America. I do agree that there will be many research paths. Some will be successful, some will not. At some point some Americans may find themselves in the Sony Betamax situation, with all their investment in a better technology that just doesn’t have the following.

lastly, I have to point out that current hybrids have a weakness. It turns out to be a problem caused by the size of our country and the way our roads have developed. If you set the hybrid on cruise on the interstate, it gets similiar fuel economy as a conventional powered car. This is how most of us do the majority of driving. The minority of us drive constant stop and go traffic (a hybrid’s strong suit). So the true fuel savings may be small enough that you never pay off the premium price that you would pay for the Hybrid.

I think hybrids will come into society. Their development is still in its infancy. But it does have potential, even if it is not a gasoline/electric.

Off topic from racing, but the past few days I have been paying very close attention to the senate judiciary committee confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Just as a point of reference I have paid fairly close attention to all of the hearings since the Jimmy Carter administration. When possible I’d rather not listen to the media’s interpretation of what went on in the hearings. The media seems to have an agenda in what they present from these hearings. It seems to me the reporters are listening to a completely different set of hearings.

I have also looked into the court cases of significance that the potential judge has been involved in. I am not lawyer, but I can understand the decisions and usually why they were decided in the way they were. Doing this I have always been able to tell how these people really do their job.

But I have realized that one of the true bad things about the 24 hour cable news channels and the wall to wall coverage of these types of all sorts of congressional hearings is the fact that these events are not about confirming a judge, it is all about face time for the members of Congress, specifically the Senate in this case. The Senators want to try to say something profound that will end up on the evening news, generating “face time” for them on national TV. This gets votes, recognition, campaign contributions, etc.

The enjoyable thing about these confirmation hearings is that these Senators are trying to trip up the judge nominee. Problem is these judge nominees are some of the quickest thinking people in the country. In trying to trip up the judge nominees, the Senators end up looking really stupid and petty. It is apparent that there is no new information that comes from these hearings. The intent is for the Senators to try to corner the nominee into admitting something, anything that can be turned into a sound byte to make the judge nominee look bad. But the Senators are mental midgets compared to the people they are grilling. It is like they brought their checkers to a chess world championship tournament.

The funny thing is the media is always on the side of the Senators. The news reports attempt to hide the pettiness and stupidity displayed by the Senators. So if someone only watches the evening news, they never get the true story. This is just another example of why the mainstream media can’t be trusted to give you the truth. It seems like they truly have an agenda.

Just to clarify, this has nothing to do with parties. Both Democrat and Republican Senators come off looking like fools. Granted the ones in the part opposite the president end up looking more foolish. It just makes me want to have term limit legislation. I have so many thoughts about how pathetic our legislators are that I just have to quit now. I will organize my thoughts a little more in the near future.

Sorry we have such idiots in Congress.

This is the 10th anniversary of an event that every driving enthusiast should be thankful for. The National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL) was one of the accomplishments that every person with socialists’ leanings was proud of. It permanently enforced the 55 MPH speed limit across the entire USA “for our own good”. It was one of those well-intended regulations that just get abused by government organizations. It was originally instituted as a response to the OPEC oil embargo of the early 70’s, but when the oil crisis ended many organizations realized they profited in many ways from the NMSL and they managed to convince Congress to make it permanent in 1975 as a “life-saving measure”.

Through the efforts of the National Motorists Association and other groups, the limit was raised to 65 MPH in 1987. The predictions of death and carnage on the highways proved to be false. The supporters of the NMSL tried to twist statistics, mislead, and just flat out lie about the fact that the roads were safer with the higher speed limits. The truth was exposed, and the public realized that the only benefits from the NMSL were the speeding ticket revenues of local and state governments.

Finally on December 8th, 1995 legislation repealing the foolish law was signed. Speed limits were raised in most areas, but the important thing was that state and local governments had control, as opposed to the same maximum limit being enforced for Montana and Rhode Island.

The seldom mentioned side effect of the NMSL “experiment” was that it made the general public more comfortable with the idea of breaking traffic laws. Before the 55 limit, the overwhelming majority of the public stayed within the speed limit. The 55 limit was a bad law, and before long more than 95% of people ignored it. The occasional speeding ticket was accepted as just one of the costs of driving (as were the proliferation of radar detectors). The local governments saw what this did to the coffers of the police along the interstates, and they applied the lower speed limit philosophy to setting speed limits on local roads. Before long, most of the motoring public drove above the speed limit as a regular rule. Truth is the speed limits were ignored everywhere. My personal opinion is that the NMSL was a very significant factor in general lawlessness attitudes in many other areas.

Here is the NMA’s better-written history of the NMSL:

10th Anniversary of the Repeal of the 55 NMSL

The technological driver aids that have been developed over the years have always been a double-edged sword. As cars (and other things) have improved and gotten more refined, we as a society have lost certain skills. In horse and carriage days, a blacksmith was a well-needed skill. Today there are a few blacksmiths that keep the trade alive as an art form. I know that at some time driving will become one of these lost skills.

Mass transit has been forced down our throats by the urbanites. These people think we should all live in cities and depend on some sort of government sanctioned mass transit. Needless to say this does not sit well with those of us that are driving enthusiasts. We take pleasure in the drive, and treat it with the correct amount of responsibility.

As cars develop traction control, anti-lock brakes, and other driver aids, the enthusiast in me just feels like some of our skill and our feeling of personal responsibility is taken away, in the name if the general good. I have never liked these automatic convoy experiments, where the idea is that driving of our car is given up on an interstate environment, and cars are packed tightly in a computer-controlled train. I remember these experiments in the early 50’s and they were probably tried long before then. In about 50 years since then we still have not perfected the idea. There will be a huge loss in personal responsibility, in the name of the common good when these systems are perfected. I just hope that day comes long after I no longer drive. In the mean time I take certain pleasure in the following:

Mercedes’ Brake Assist PLUS pile up

Mercedes S-Class crash - the truth comes out