Think your SUV is big ? by Fremdfirma

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Think your SUV is big ?

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 02:50
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VIEWED: 2820
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Monday, May 12, 2008 12:24 PM

King Kong, the SUV from hell
http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/NEWS01/4
33653458/-1/NEWS

Bear in mind, this guy lives down the road a ways from here and thus I've seen that horror in person.

It's just not the same in a picture, I am simultaneously impressed, horrified and bewildered at the sheer overblown AUDACITY of the thing...

King Kong is about right.

-F

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Monday, May 12, 2008 12:28 PM

CITIZEN

I didn't know penises could get that small.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

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Monday, May 12, 2008 12:42 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:
I didn't know penises could get that small.

Now that's funny.

Looks like the off spring between a big rig and a R.V. Probably has its own dance club inside.

It is not those who use the term "Islamo-Fascism" who are sullying the name of Islam; it is the Islamo-Fascists. - Dennis Prager

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Monday, May 12, 2008 12:45 PM

DEADLOCKVICTIM

...should make a nice planter.....

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Monday, May 12, 2008 2:20 PM

KIRKULES

They'd all be saying how awesome it was if it burned Biodiesel and got 40mpg. In a few years you'll be able to get the hybrid biodiesel version that will get 60mpg and come with a lifetime supply of male enhancement pills.

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Monday, May 12, 2008 3:05 PM

FOSTER

Well at least he is having fun with it. I think the comments under it were more interesting than the article though.

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Monday, May 12, 2008 3:19 PM

FREMDFIRMA

I dunno about hybrid, but you can pull a Duramax conversion on a Hummer, reduce the weight with some carbon fiber and re-step the transmission shift points, and wind up with 25-27mpg out of it even with current tech available to the general public.

Or you could take it to Johnathan Goodwin, who's absolutely crackers, but crackers in a useful kind of way.

There's a few folk in and around detroit like that too - the technologies are there, but US automakers are too mired in the tar pits of their own dinosaurhood to actually use em.

GM used to play this game where they'd submit an electric or hybrid design they KNEW wouldn't work, get Gov't grants and subsidies, and milk those for all they could while making sure the vehicle would never be viable, even if they had to munge the testing deliberately, in one notorious instance pulling the driveshaft and replacing it with one made from aluminum under the guise of weight saving, but in fact because they knew it would come apart during the test run, and boy did it ever, damaging an employee vehicle in the parking lot quite a bit.

I knew the girl in charge of procuring most of the parts for that debacle, and they didn't even hide the fact that they were just milking the subsidy and had no intent to even try to produce a viable vehicle out of it.

And now they get to play catch-up, having slacked on R&D while sucking up corporate welfare, so I don't much feel very sorry for them.

If they were SMART, they'd be rolling out a high efficiency subcompact to test the waters, there's a big market niche right now for an in-town or light use vehicle, and that would be the fastest and cheapest way to go since Ford could do it at the Ypsilanti plant where the Focus was produced without even significantly retooling - and if they got on it in any reasonable amount of time, which they won't cause of the endless levels of corporate inertia, they MIGHT be able to secure market lock before Honda and Toyota proceed to kick their ass by being the only provider to fill that niche, which will expand rather rapidly as fuel prices go up if any viable car can be produced TO fill it.

Do you really think if someone produced an itty bitty four banger with bare minimum equipment that got 35+ mpg right now, and priced it under 10k, that it *wouldn't* sell like hotcakes ?

Especially up against the Prius, which costs more off the lot, and has the additional headache of finding a mechanic willing to deal with it ?

US automakers still got a chance, if they'd only get off their ass and DO it.

-F

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Monday, May 12, 2008 6:54 PM

VETERAN

Don't squat with your spurs on.

Goodwin. I was just thinking about him as I read this thread. Did he ever finish creating his 60 mpg H3?

He was going use a military diesel turbine capable of turning 60,000 rpm to charge the battery and a setup of super capacitors. Predicted it would get 60 mpg and do 0-60 in 4 secs.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 1:01 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Apparently he's decided to try the dot-com standby of forming a company with few or no actual products in hopes of being bought out to prevent his competition in the market.

Why he did that, I dunno, but the idea seems to have come from his business partner - it looks to me like Goodwin probably cannot produce his projects on a cost effective scale, and they wanna recoup their investments.

I guess they figure being bought off will make them more money for less work, but the primary thing that had them positioned as a threat worth buying off was the Duramax conversion, and many other places have taken to doing it now.

I suspect what they need most is an engineer capable of translating Goodwins wacky ideas into something that can be produced and marketed cost effectively, and his little company doesn't seem to have that - they're just buyout bait right now, from the looks of it.

-F

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:30 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Do you really think if someone produced an itty bitty four banger with bare minimum equipment that got 35+ mpg right now, and priced it under 10k, that it *wouldn't* sell like hotcakes ?

Kinda makes me love my li'l ol' Honda CRX that much more. I did NOT build that one for economy - I built it for reliable, cheap speed and good handling, and I still have to beat the living snot out of it in town with the A/C on to get it down to 30mpg. On long trips, I typically show anywhere from 42 to 46mpg, cruising at 80mph with the A/C on.

And the funny thing is, this ISN'T the HF model, which WAS designed for high fuel mileage. People with those models routinely get 50mpg or better.

The funnier part is, the government will give me a nice subsidy to by a hybrid vehicle that gets more than 40mpg - but it has to be new. Doesn't matter to them that I could buy an 18-year-old car that gets BETTER mileage, because buying used cars doesn't stimulate the economy in the proper way...

Mike

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence[sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero, Real World Event Discussions

I can't help the sinking feeling that my country is now being run by people who read "1984" not as a cautionary tale, but rather as an instruction manual. - Michael Mock

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:19 AM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Ahh - you know what they say - you can sleep in your car, you can't drive your house. Maybe he's got one of those weird mortages and was planning for the day.

***************************************************************
"Global warming - it's not just a fact, it's a choice."

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 12:26 PM

VETERAN

Don't squat with your spurs on.

Makes me think of a Steven Wright routine...

I put the key in the door to my apartment....

..... and it started right up. So I took it around the block. A policeman pulled me over and asked, "Where do you live?"

I said, "Right here."

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008 2:50 AM

DUN

nods head

Thumbs up too hat Citizen said.Now that was funny,nearly wet myself

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