Cool cars
-
gordonrussell
- admin
- Posts: 269
- Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:26 am
- Location: Glasgow UK
Plug-in electric car? That’s so 2013. The electric sedans of the future will also generate their own photovoltaic power. That’s the philosophy behind a new class of competition in this year’s World Solar Challenge. Since 1987, the challenge has had solar-powered cars racing across the parched Australian outback every couple years. But the solar-powered vehicles that have competed in the challenge, while exciting and innovative, have been anything but consumer-friendly. They have typically carried only an uncomfortable driver in a craft shaped like a sheet of aluminum foil precariously perched over three wheels.
This year’s challenge, scheduled for October, will push teams to go even further. The new Michelin cruiser class has been created for vehicles that could conceivably be marketed as family sedans. Ten teams have entered, and they will compete against each other for points awarded based on such criteria as practicality, attractiveness, and energy consumption.
On Thursday, one of the those teams unveiled its entry, taking a car it dubbed Stella to cordoned-off Dutch streets to strut its photovoltaic stuff. And it’s pretty as a pug. The team of 22 Eindhoven University of Technology students behind Stella has vowed to register the car for on-road use, helping to demonstrate its potential commercial viability. From a press release:
‘Stella’ is the first ‘energy-positive car’ with room for four people, a trunk, intuitive steering and a range of 600 kilometers. By combining aerodynamic design with lightweight materials like carbon and aluminum, a very fuel-efficient car has been designed, which also has ingenious applications like a LED strip and touchscreen that make all the buttons and knobs we know today superfluous. Intuitive driving is enabled by a steering wheel that expands or contracts when you are driving too fast or too slowly. STE will have the car officially certified for road use to prove that this really is a fully-fledged car.
This year’s challenge, scheduled for October, will push teams to go even further. The new Michelin cruiser class has been created for vehicles that could conceivably be marketed as family sedans. Ten teams have entered, and they will compete against each other for points awarded based on such criteria as practicality, attractiveness, and energy consumption.
On Thursday, one of the those teams unveiled its entry, taking a car it dubbed Stella to cordoned-off Dutch streets to strut its photovoltaic stuff. And it’s pretty as a pug. The team of 22 Eindhoven University of Technology students behind Stella has vowed to register the car for on-road use, helping to demonstrate its potential commercial viability. From a press release:
‘Stella’ is the first ‘energy-positive car’ with room for four people, a trunk, intuitive steering and a range of 600 kilometers. By combining aerodynamic design with lightweight materials like carbon and aluminum, a very fuel-efficient car has been designed, which also has ingenious applications like a LED strip and touchscreen that make all the buttons and knobs we know today superfluous. Intuitive driving is enabled by a steering wheel that expands or contracts when you are driving too fast or too slowly. STE will have the car officially certified for road use to prove that this really is a fully-fledged car.
Man converts Reliant Robin into working fire engine
31 Jul 2013
metro.co.uk
He spent four months converting the three-wheeler, which has a top speed of 60mph, to accommodate a 50-litre water tank. The vehicle features a brass bell, red and blue lights and fire extinguishers for tackling, well, small blazes and other minor hot spots. It has two water cannons on the roof, two on the bonnet and two on the back of the car, which are all operated by a button on the dashboard.
Mr Ward modified the car following government plans to merge fire forces and use retained staff on call at home. ‘With all these cuts to the service I wondered how small you could go, and there isn’t much smaller than a Robin, unless you go down to a bike,’ said Mr Ward, from Spalding, Lincolnshire. ‘It is all street legal with an MOT, tax and insurance. I take it for drives and get lots of grins and beeps from other cars. If you have a fire in a phone box, we can put it out for you.’
Mr Ward is using the rare Robin to raise money for the Firefighters’ Benevolent Fund. The fire engine can seat two and carries the motto: ‘You’ve not been put out until we put you out.’ Mr Ward, who says he is ‘in his 70s’, has spent ‘several hundred pounds’ on the conversion, collecting bits and pieces from car boot sales. He spent £2 on the bell and £20 on the ladder. ‘I’ve done some speed trials with it and it handles well up to about 60mph,’ he said. ‘The reaction is unbelievable.’