Re: Non-Audi Five Cylinder Engines, Honda!

[Igor Kessel <e6941tb@ix.netcom.com>]

Brendan wrote:

> Sorry, but I have to disagree with you here.  Electronic cars (in general;
> there have been some exceptionally designed electric cars with impressive
> acceleration figures)

Ditto that. Electric motor = almost flat efficiency distribution in it's RPM band, hence->
no need to have a gearbox->hence no time is lost on switching gears and no energy is 
lost due to friction in the said gears->hence a mind numbing acceleration.
Those who have ever raced a *determined* young female trolley bus driver would agree with 
me here. I tried -- and lost miserably.

The only need for a gearbox arises from the fact that an internal combustion engine has any 
appreciable efficiency ( and a very low at that) only in a very narrow RPM band (a.k.a. - a 
*sweet spot*).

A modern fossil fuel burning car as we know and love it - is a technological dinosaur.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not exactly planning to cancel my A4TQ delivery and haul the 
coin to buy that sorry bastard - a brainchild of GM and EPA. I am only saying that the 
future is, most likely, electric. After the egghead crowd figures out 2 things:
1. A controlled thermonuclear synthesys on a commercial scale (not in some gazillion-dollar 
lab in Princeton).
2. A principally new type of batteries, light, non-toxic and with a capacity to deliver 
400mi range @ sustained high speeds of travel.

-- 
Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ - 18psi (TAP)
'97 A4TQ - on the boat
Philadelphia, PA
USA