tagged w/ Cars and Automobiles
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What if you could drive onto the highway, take your hands off the wheel, and sit back and read a book? That might not be as far-fetched as you might think if an EU-financed research project is successful. The project, dubbed SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) wants to link vehicles together in eight-car “road trains” led by a professional driver. The project, which is aimed at commuters traveling long distances, could drastically cut travel time, congestion, and fuel consumption.
Source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/11/10/wireless-road-trains-keep-highway-vehicles-linked-together/What if you could drive onto the highway, take your hands off the wheel, and sit back... more
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A GOooooooooooo! Green Showroom That Flores It!
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MINI's efforts to spring a 50th birthday surprise here in Frankfurt were squashed two week s ago when news leaked to the press that it would reveal two new models during the show. But the folks at MINI are not ones to pass up an opportunity for a party, so from beneath a giant, inflatable birthday cake they revealed these sweet-looking coupe and roadster concepts.
Based loosely on the standard MINI's floor pan, the two concepts use an adaptable platform designed to speed up production at the company's factory in Oxford, England. Consequently, you can forget the "concept" tag - these cars are definitely heading to MINI showrooms soon. And there aren't many carmakers who could simply chop the roof off an existing car to make an exciting all-new one.
Obviously, what MINI has done here isn't quite that straightforward. These cars have bespoke suspension setups, enhanced interiors and so on. But many of the major features are carried over from the regular hatchback and convertible models. Not something you can say about the forthcoming MINI Crossover, which is expected to make its debut in Geneva.
The roof design of the MINI Coupe Concept was apparently influenced by a baseball cap. But we won't hold that against it. Made out of aluminum (hmmm, doubt that'll make production), it swoops gracefully toward the rear, encompassing a large, aggressive-looking spoiler and new hatchback tailgate along the way.MINI's efforts to spring a 50th birthday surprise here in Frankfurt were squashed... more
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Cars cars cars. I used to think you had to be a guy to be into cars. Right up until that moment when I started really caring about my carbon footprint, and then all I could think about was freaking cars. I got obsessed to be true. I looked into veggie cars. That’s cool, but my friends who were doing it were spending hours gathering oil and then creating the fuel in their garages and that didn’t work for me. I checked out biodiesel, and considered getting an old diesel car and converting it. But when I looked at the kind of car I could afford, and added up the amount of repairs that car would also need, that was ironically expensive. Then I looked into converting my car into an electric. One long drive down to LA later I soon realized that that epic procedure was out of the question for me as well.
And then I started looking into newer cars, which led me on a massive hunt to find and understand what went into making a car green, which took me on a epic hunt to learn about new technologies and what actually went into defining a car as green. This entire process has only been two years in the making and has taken hours of scouring listservs and barely managed sites, and frankly, turned out to be a source of torture for this non-caraphile. At the end of the day, the process made me want to ride my bike more. But it doesn’t change the issue: I still need a car, and I still want it to be a good one that is using the latest technologies and within my price range.
While embarking on my latest search for a green car I learned something I didn’t expect to hear: If you want to reduce your carbon footprint no more making out in the back seat of your car. Wait. I mean, you can make out, just don’t go all of the way. No wait. IF there the back seat of your car is big enough, you can go all of the way, but you have to use a condom. So if you really want to reduce your carbon footprint. Look in your..uhh..wallet, and not at you gas tank. That’s what I recently learned while checking out an article reporting on the Frankfurt Auto Show: I should start using condoms to lower my carbon footprint. The facts are coming out, if you want a car that has a small carbon footprint (we’ll skip over the argument that you wouldn’t have a car) than you should have a small car. A very small car. The kind of car that would make you get out of it if you wanted to…discuss… the birds and the bees. The kind of car that doesn’t need to carry a large family.
That is what The London School of Economics suggests, that condoms and other forms of birth control would be a good first step. A new report, Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost, suggests that family planning should be seen as a primary method for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions.
John Voelkecker, editor in chief of GreenCarReports.com asks the very simple question: “Suppose all the money we’re investing in better gas mileage and auto emission controls could be used to cut greenhouse gases more productively? What would we spend it on?
Turns out that family planning services are remarkably cost-effective at cutting carbon emissions. Contraception and family planning can cut 1 ton of carbon for $6.70, the report says, against more conventional low-carbon technologies (including more fuel-efficient cars) at up to $31.70 per ton.”
Does this change the fact that reproducing is part of our genetic design, and that I happen to really like small children? Nope. This is beginning to be the heated debate of our time, and the conversation will only get more heated as the temperatures rise (or rather, sporadically changes). Meanwhile, to distract myself, I’ll keep fantasizing about getting a better and greener car.Cars cars cars. I used to think you had to be a guy to be into cars. Right up until... more
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leahl
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added this
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2 years ago
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Love learning more about this: I actually took my little ford focus to Reverend Gadget (remember who killed the electric car?) to see how much it would cost to convert my car to an electric. The answer: 5K.
"Kudos to our colleagues at Popular Mechanics, who found four great green conversions for keeping clunkers out of the scrapyard, two to electric power and two to diesel engines.
Technically, two of their four cars wouldn't qualify as clunkers; they were built before the 1984 cutoff.
Greener diesel drag cars
They weren't all built as green cars, either. In fact, both diesel conversions are very competitive drag racers (all that torque, you know).
Mike Cook's fitted his 1994 Mustang with a hot-rodded GM Duramax diesel engine that gave him 33 miles per gallon on a recent road trip. David Murad's Buick Regal (made of parts from an '81 Regal, an '82 Regal, and an '81 Oldsmobile Cutlass--read the story) gets 25 to 35 mpg."Love learning more about this: I actually took my little ford focus to Reverend Gadget... more
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leahl
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added this
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2 years ago
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Enough Bullshit, The time has come to Get ER DONE.... I have to finish it,,, AS ALWAYS!!! Jeff Your Walking On Thin ICE!!!!Enough Bullshit, The time has come to Get ER DONE.... I have to finish it,,, AS... more
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swrnc
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added this
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3 years ago
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Jeff is starting to get on my NERVES-It's Late and I want to go home... I want this thing DONE!
Will it ever happen??????Jeff is starting to get on my NERVES-It's Late and I want to go home... I want... more
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swrnc
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added this
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3 years ago
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So the clowns finally get the floorpan unloaded and in the paint booth it goes... The first step is to put the sand blasted frame in epoxy primer to keep it from rusting... Can they do it---I sure hope so!!!!So the clowns finally get the floorpan unloaded and in the paint booth it goes... The... more
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swrnc
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added this
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3 years ago
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