Wrightspeed Article
A car that could save the planet — fast: Here’s an in-depth CNN article about the electric car Dave posted about a while back. All of this on batteries? Insane.
Last November, Wright towed the X1 to a racetrack near Sacramento to see how his prototype would do against a Ferrari and a Porsche. On paper, a win seemed guaranteed. But he hadn’t yet run the car full out.
In the first matchup, the X1 crushed the Ferrari in an eighth-mile sprint and then in the quarter-mile, winning by two car lengths. In the second race, against the $440,000 Porsche, the two cars were even after an eighth of a mile. But as the Porsche driver let out the clutch in a final upshift, his tires briefly lost traction. The X1, blazing along in its software-controlled performance mode, beat the Porsche by half a car length.
It never occurred to me that I would lose,” says Kim Stuart, the Porsche’s driver. “It was like a light switch. He hit the pedal and was gone.”
What This Links To
Wrightspeed EV
Take one Ariel Atom, pull the lame GM Ecotec 4-banger out and replace it with an AC-150 Drivetrain from AC Propulsion (you remember them; they make the T-Zero) and what do you get? 0 to 60mph in 3 seconds and a ride that shows you what it must feel like…
Comments
I don't know about saving the planet; that electricity has to come from somewhere, and around these parts I believe it's derived from burning coal.
Even so, there really isn't much reason that car manufacturers can't be building short-range commuter vehicles that run solely on electric power. My daily commute, including errands, is only about 20 miles, and I would hazard to guess that there are a lot of people like me who would be willing to pay between $3,000 and $5,000 for something that'll get us where we need to go cheaply and keep us out of the elements.
Like Dean Kamen once said, nobody needs a 5,000lb vehicle to haul their 200lb asses around town. But the Segway is definitely not the answer for me.
This company makes golf carts that are dressed up like cars.
My prior company had two locations in the city, about a mile apart. They had a nice enclosed golf cart that people (mostly the facilities staff) would drive back and forth on city streets.
I personally think there should be a ratio of vehicle weight to average weight of contents. Find out what the average weight over a month is of stuff you haul around, including your own weight and that of your passengers. Then don't buy a car that weights over X times that.
The receptionist for another company I worked at weighed maybe 110 pounds. She always drove alone, and never hauled anything around. She drove a GMC Tahoe XL.
This receptionist have a phone number? ;)
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