As my Readers all know, I’m not a fan of electric cars, especially the mini-ecowagons like the Prius.
But what if your neck-snapping torque monster electric engine resides not in an ugly box or the industrial Tesla design, but in something more to an old car lover’s heart?
Ex-Bandmate Knob supplies the answer, sending me this review. Go ahead, make your day for a little over a quarter of an hour. Just ignore the silly pajama pants.
All I can say is that it has me thinking…
I’m pretty much the opposite of a car guy: to me, they’re simply a necessary tool to move me & my stuff around and most of what causes aficionados to wax poetic barely elicits a “meh” from me.
That being said, that video did indeed make my day!
I don’t know. There’s something wrong about that.
The sound a Ferrari makes is half the experience.
I know, right?
Not exactly a long range, though.
308 holds 22gl, and if you baby it (as every Ferrari owner does) you might be able to get 14-16mpg, whereas if you’re Mario Andretti-ing all the time, it’s more like 8-12 – so, 200 miles on a charge with that much of an improved performance envelope, isn’t anything to scoff at.
OK, so I get 8-12mpg whilst gas guzzling in Andretti mode. It takes me less than 5 minutes to re-fill and do it all over again. With the battery-powered abomination I’d be tied to a recharging point for at least 8 HOURS before I could go and play again.
I quite like my Kia Soul EV.
It’s comfortable, decent performance, plenty of interior space.
Which is what I want from a car.
And yes, I quite like the looks.
Go away. Go far, FAR away, you heathen.
😉
I was an early model s owner and I gotta say, the instant torque and neck snapping acceleration are really addictive. You don’t miss the lack of engine noise, and I never had any issues with range. I’ve been a petrol head all my life but I’m a convert now. Driving my wife’s Mazda feels like stepping back in time. And as for maintainence, it’s just tires every few years, that’s it.
Do you ever drive more than 100 miles in icy-cold conditions, with the heater on full-blast? What’s the range of your toy Mazda then?
First, one less wrong side drive 308 is not a big deal. 308’s don’t sound right anyway. Proper Ferrari sound requires a flat plane 12 cylinder wound out to a zillion RPM.
The roads in our area are flooded with pods of Bicyclists who not only think they own the roads, but are highly unpredictable when being passed so the idea of approaching and passing a group in a silent car only adds to the danger.
But — I’m steadily warming up to the idea of a high performance electric car. I’ve yet to ride in a Taycan but Ken Blocks latest tire smoke generator give me hope https://hypebeast.com/2020/7/ken-block-hoonicorn-ford-mustang-mach-e-1400-hp-prototype-drift-watch
“the idea of approaching and passing a group in a silent car only adds to the danger”
For the cyclists, that is. There are those among us who might see that as a feature, not a bug.
Those people’s cars would be the ones with heavy brush guards affixed to the hood.
my 1st buy after winning a lottery will be a wrecked 3rd gen RX7 then converted to electric …
The nice thing is that, in an RX7, the electric motor is even smaller than the original Wankel was. Won’t even need a transmission, either.
A step up in automotive beauty powered by electricity could be this:
https://media.jaguar.com/news/2017/09/jaguar-e-type-zero-most-beautiful-electric-car-world
Of course we must be certain that the Prince of Darkness, Joe Lucas did not perform the change.
Utter, total and completely unacceptable SACRILEGE!!
Nothing, but nothing can replace that twin overhead cam straight six with three SU carburetors nicely balanced.
The concept has its appeal. Once they solve the range, and heat/air conditioning issues, this is the future whether we like it or not. It’s too simple to fail. All wheel drive would be trivial to add.
“Too simple to fail. That’s what they told me too.” – H Clinton
Air conditioning, especially here in the South and Southwest, is not the same issue as it is in chilly Britishland.
You could offer a free blowjob from Salma Hayek with each purchase of an electric sports car down here, and you’d still get no takers if the car didn’t have sub-polar A/C.
Okay, maybe a few takers — but only a few.
In February in Englandistan you need a heater that is good enough to fry eggs to drive more than a couple of miles. That’s going to chew through your battery power in very short order.
Not Even Salma Hayek could find it in order to give a free blowjob, it’ll be that cold!!
I disagree, at least with current recharging time. I think electric drive and regenerative braking are realistic…and note that electric drive makes it feasible to size the engine for cruise power requirements. As well as putting things like gas turbines into play – turbines are great at 100% power, but lose their shirts at lower power settings.
That’s why a turbine would operate as a range extender in the same way a diesel locomotive works. The turbine would only charge the batteries when the range gets low, and it would operate at its most efficient speed. Totally computer controlled so it would be automatic, as long as there’s fuel for the turbine.
The regenerative breaking is “free”, but the operative phrase in engineering is KISS, keep it simple stupid. The Prius is a technological tour de force in that the hybrid drive works so smoothly and so well, but it violates the KISS principle.
Electrics won’t be feasible until there’s a standard battery pack that can be swapped out in ten minutes or less. Then they could be treated like the Rhino propane tanks.