Peter Twydell wrote:
In message , The Natural
Philosopher writes
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

snip

PS what DID cause hemel hempstead to go 'woosh'? anyone know?


We were living just under 5 miles away at the time, and it didn't go
'woosh', it went BANG, and a bloody big loud BANG at that.

One mans bang is another mans whoosh, as Talluah used to say...

The message
from Simon Hobson contains these words:

The actual weight of an IC power trains is massive.
In the electric, its only the batery that really weighs

The controls, and motors have a not inconsiderable weight. Less than an IC
engine and gearbox, bot not negligable. As for the weight of the
conventional
plant, well I think 600kg will cover the entire drivetrain (engine,
gearboxes, and axles) of a Land Rover - and it's most definitely a LOT more
than the engine & gearbox of the sort of small economical car that certain
people would have us drive.

FWIW the Kerb weight of a RWD Lotus Elan is about 700kg and I would have
thought the drive train would have been no more than half of that at the
most.

--
Roger Chapman

Simon Hobson ) gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying :

Well, Lithium is about half the density of water, so taking a
previous posters estimate of 600Kg, thats about 300 litres of water,
approaching 70 gallons of space, 5 petrol tanks, plus the cooling
space required, say another(6th) petrol tank.

Oops, 600kg is 600kg, which would be 600l of water. If Litium is half
the density, then you'd need twice the volume for the same weight, so
1200l of space - 4 times the sizes suggested above.

600kg is also roughly the kerb weight of any one of the majority of my
"fleet" of petrol powered cars.

Simon Hobson ) gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying :

The actual weight of an IC power trains is massive.
In the electric, its only the batery that really weighs

The controls, and motors have a not inconsiderable weight. Less than
an IC engine and gearbox, bot not negligable. As for the weight of the
conventional plant, well I think 600kg will cover the entire
drivetrain (engine, gearboxes, and axles) of a Land Rover - and it's
most definitely a LOT more than the engine & gearbox of the sort of
small economical car that certain people would have us drive.

I can lift the entire engine and gearbox of a 2cv on my own.
I am hardly musclebound.

600kg is more than the kerbweight of an entire 2cv.

IIRC the complete engine and gearbox out of a 2-litre petrol turbo Cit XM I
broke weighed around 200kg, palletted and ready for shipping.

Sorry to dredge this up, from the depths of the thread from hell...

Back in mid January, we were talking about the Prius (still) when Dribble
asserted that the Prius was

silent and brill to drive

To which I replied :-

Like that's relevant to Grandma who just pootles down the shops... If
it's true - which many (less biased) people dispute. I haven't driven
one.

Well, I have now. I've just done a 10-15mile test drive from a local
dealer. Mix of small-town-large-village roads, twisty country roads, and
fast dual-carriageway A-road.

The most obvious thing is that it is FAR from "silent".

In EV mode, it is certainly quiet. EV mode automatically cuts out at ~
30mph, however, and it's actually fairly difficult to tell (apart from the
annoying bingly-bongly) when that happens, due to the road noise - it
starts to become audible at just about the point at which the car starts to
move, and is definitely audible by 10mph+. As I said, EV mode kicks out at
30mph, but also kicks out if you require any acceleration more than
glacial. Once it's dropped out of EV mode, you need to press the (hidden)
button again to get it back into EV mode.

Once you get on the move, though, it is certainly not quiet. It's a typical
CVT, in that once you get any form of acceleration going, it sits at peak
torque, making you think that the clutch is slipping really badly, and
dulling the sensation of acceleration. And it sounds bloody thrashy while
it's doing it. Massively intrusive.

Most entertaining was the instant MPG on the display. No *way* is that
thing going to get 50mpg averages. Accelerating brought it below 15mpg,
cruising at 80mph was roughly 35mpg.

Is it "brill to drive"? You have to judge it on that as a normal car. If
you do, then it's beige personified. It's just bland.

The ride is mediocre - it's OK most of the time, but then it just
embarrasses itself, especially on cat's eyes as you change lane. That's
about as much of the dynamics as I can remember. It's that... bland.

Dribble also asserted that it's hugely roomy inside - claiming it's Camry
sized rather than Avensis or Corolla. It's certainly got plenty of rear
legroom - I'm 6'2" and could comfortably sit "behind myself" - but it's
cramped on width (shoulder and, strangely, thigh/leg for the driver) and
the back seat was HIDEOUOSLY cramped in headroom. The boot is long and
reasonably wide, but very shallow. In all, it's not as spacious as the
Avensis, but better than the Corolla.

It's quite claustrophobic to drive, too - the thick pillars and steeply
raked screen draw the roofline in badly, and that's with a pale grey
headlining. The rear view is just plain limited because of the two-part
rear window.

Finally, Dribb's claims of huge waiting lists - The dealer I popped into
reckoned no real supply problems, but there's no stock new ones - so six
weeks for a Japan order. As well as the 55-plate demo I drove, they had two
pre-reg 05-plate 4k mile top-spec cars in stock at £19k.

Adrian wrote:
Sorry to dredge this up, from the depths of the thread from hell...

Well why do you, then, and on uk.d-i-y as well? FFS!!

In article . 170,
Adrian wrote:
Sorry to dredge this up, from the depths of the thread from hell...

Back in mid January, we were talking about the Prius (still) when
Dribble asserted that the Prius was

silent and brill to drive

To which I replied :-

Like that's relevant to Grandma who just pootles down the shops... If
it's true - which many (less biased) people dispute. I haven't driven
one.

Well, I have now. I've just done a 10-15mile test drive from a local
dealer. Mix of small-town-large-village roads, twisty country roads, and
fast dual-carriageway A-road.

The most obvious thing is that it is FAR from "silent".

Strangely, I've just finished a drama shoot which involved recording some
scenes inside a Prius - both stationary and on the move. And I immediately
noticed external noise to be more of a problem than usual. Probably due to
weight saving measures like thinner glass and less sound insulation. But
in any case poor for a 20 grand car. Can't comment on the mechanical noise
from the car itself - we towed it on an A frame. ;-)
We were very pressed for time so wildtracks of the car interior on the
move will be done later.

--
*If God had wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Simon Hobson wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:02:14 +0000, Capitol wrote
(in message ):


Well, Lithium is about half the density of water, so taking a previous
posters estimate of 600Kg, thats about 300 litres of water, approaching
70 gallons of space, 5 petrol tanks, plus the cooling space required,
say another(6th) petrol tank.


Oops, 600kg is 600kg, which would be 600l of water. If Litium is half the
density, then you'd need twice the volume for the same weight, so 1200l of
space - 4 times the sizes suggested above.


I think you may be correct, but I can't quite remember the full
reasoning I used! The energy density came into if I recall correctly, so
you only need half the weight. Suffice to say, it doesn't look a goer.

Regards
Capitol