After you've inflated your tyres.......Follow

A pikey is - not a racial group, the term is used to describe anyone who lives in a caravan or shares the same values and "culture" of "the travelling community", and whose main sources of income are as follows:

Yeah, there's no American equivalent. Gypsy means both. Just as "limey" means Nobby and Margaritas.

The technology has potential. My main issue is that a standard motor isn't going to take much advantage of it. There are a number of car companies designing cars specifically to use this sort of system right now, and they are seeing some pretty impressive numbers.

Really, more impressive than, oh, I don't know, storing the excess electric energy in some sort of battery then using that to power the vehicle?

I wonder how much gas we'd save if all cars used a continuously variable transmission. I believe the Honda Civic Hybrid comes with CVT standard, but not many other models have it available.

Hmmm, I've never driven a car with CVT before. I'd imagine it'd be a very different feeling. Not having your engine speed scale the same with with your vehicle's speed...

It's sad, but I use my engine RPM to estimate my speed, since I have a '95 Neon with a gimped instrument cluster. The tachometer is the only reliable gauge.

When ever I'm borrowing or renting a newer vehicle I always find myself doing 90+ mph on the freeway by accident because they drive so much smoother and quieter. I'd image I'd catch myself speeding all the time with a CVT.

Key point being that you don't need a battery with the hydrogen systems. And if you do it right, you don't need a large quantity of hydrogen either. So. Less tanks/weight == more efficient process. More significantly, the only components to the hydrogen system is water and borax. Compared with the need to replace batteries completely every 3-5 years and the toxic materials they're made of, there are some benefits to that.


Ask yourself why almost all hybrids on the road are of the "battery assist" type. They get most of their power from the internal combustion engine and only use the battery for additional power as needed. In practice the most efficient form of hybrid uses a purely electric motor to drive the wheels, and a small gas powered generator to charge the battery (typically about 50 horsepower tops). The advantage is that you can operate your generator as the optimum rpm for maximum fuel efficiency since it only needs to produce as much power as the average you use. It's by far more efficient then how we're running most hybrids today. We don't build them in as great numbers for exactly the reasons that the battery systems involved need to be much more powerful. Which means more expense and more toxic materials in their construction. In otherwords the same problems we run into with fully electric cars. The second you're using a pure electric motor to run a car, the problems with existing battery systems crop up. I know you seem to want to ignore those problems, but they're really what's keeping us behind on this.

Rate ups for me then, 'cos I drive one.

You've all got it wrong.

We shouldn't waste money on developing cleaner modes of transportation. We need to instead put all our money into developing instant teleportation. Then we wouldn't need to drive anywhere.

Even if generating hydrogen from water could produce energy, it can't by the way, you'd have to have a sealed system to pump that hydrogen into the cylinders. You're not burning it in the engine, the second it hits the intake it's turning back into water. You're basically pouring water, albeit a small amount, into your engine not hydrogen. All this is going to do is get little pieces of mayonnaise glass all over your engine, which has the added benefit of making your car smell tangy when you turn the heat on in the winter.

You'd need a spark (like lightning) or combustion to turn hydrogen into water.

Well, "combustion" is just being in the presence of oxygen under the right conditions. A hot intake manifold probably suffices.

How hot does gasoline burn after it's ignited?