I don’t remember the specs of your Deuce.
Steel? Chassis, etc?
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Fiber Glass body - Dart block (350); 383 stroker ~ TBS blower; dual quad 750 Quick Fuel; TCI 700R4 trans… just a fun car to mess around with… going FiTech EFI with low profile air plenum to get the engine cover to close. I redesigned the cooling system; had fun with that, just nice to have my son’s car back in the garage.
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Dart heads?
Keeping the blower with the efi? Tuning with a laptop is great.
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since you asked… yes on the TBS blower w/ EFI… I have all the parts to convert to EFI, just need the time and garage. Now I have the garage, need to carve out the time. First, I want to just get her running nice w/ dual quad, then convert. Have not run it in a year so that will take a little time.
At Al’s shop, pulling numbers:
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I love to watch the Pro Modified drag racers. There is always some whiz kid with the laptop getting every single ounce of performance out of the car while the money man or a hired gun drives the beast. They are really fun to watch on 10.5" tires.
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Ugh. Let’s not talk about how an EV battery releases 10X more CO2 into the atmosphere than driving a gas car in a year.
You have to drive the EV about 100,000 km just to break-even with CO2 emissions from a gas car!
Don’t believe me?
Source is the World Economic Forum:
We had an early Tesla Model S my father gave us (when he bought another one). Sold it and bought a 1955 TR2 for not that much less than I got for the Tesla. Now that’s driving! The Triumph is way more fun.
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Oops, thought I was in the midst of Tesla discussion. Never mind
Electric can have shocking performance, but also shocking limitations. Presented properly, all is well as the user isn’t surprised. The in use envelope is big enough to fit in-use user’s needs so why not have them?
For me the cost and use envelope is still too small and too expensive. Things can change and alternative (not just batteries) energy storage methods can further shrink the existing overlap of performance and range. I see no good reason to get in the way of that technical progression. This also means electric, or even the batteries tech, SHOULD NOT be artificially favored as “the only” choice for alternative transportation. Winners pick themselves far better than we look ahead and “see the light” through the darkness of tech. No, we don’t see in the dark.
For me, and right now, I chose what is still the best for my needs and budget. Next time the choice will be harder to see. That’s called progress.
Best,
Galen
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Finally autocrossed the MX5 this past weekend. Astounding how different the experience is in this vs the 2004 VW R32 I sold to get it. The R32 is a great car, and I autocrossed it a few times last year. But it’s much heavier. This is like a paper airplane compared to it. I’m not super competitive, but it was great fun improving my time over the course of the day.
But the funny thing? I’m not addicted. It was fun, yeah, and I might do it again. But I’m not chomping at the bit.
I sold the R32 to get this car to DO THIS. But I prefer driving this on back roads more than around cones. So, do I regret selling the cultish MKIV VW to get this car? No way. I absolutely love it.
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Totally agree. I think carmakers will have a somewhat rude awakening over the next few years, when EV sales are much lower than forecast (despite all the subsidies).
I love to drive long distance. I don’t want my 500 mile trip length increased by ~50% because I have to recharge every 2-3 hours.
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We’ve had a Nissan Leaf EV for about 2 years. It is primarily for local driving. My wife loves it. In London, UK it costs about $23 per day just to take a petrol/diesel car within 4 miles of the centre of town and then it’s about $8 per hour to park. For an EV it’s free and parking is $1 for 4 hours. It does a timed charge starting at 12:30am when the electricity cost is reduced by two-thirds.
There are also increasing restrictions on commercial vehicles, excluding large vehicles from town, and many smaller commercial vehicles are electric or LPG.
The end result is that air quality in our city has improved dramatically, there are less vehicles on the road, the roads are safer, it is a lot quieter, on-street eating promoted by Covid19 is can be enjoyed without fumes and generally it is a much nicer place to spend time.
We also have a small petrol car, a 1.2 litre Nissan, that we have just taken on a 1,800 mile trip, it averaged 50 miles per gallon and goes anywhere.
We were driving in a fairly remote area and there were quite a lot of Tesla, as their range is so good. They are rather big, not good for very windy roads that are only 2m wide in places.
In the UK the average car mileage is 7,400 miles per annum. I suspect a lot of Europe is similar. Millions of people don’t do any long trips and those that do can chose hybrids.
Over here, a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles has been brought forward to 2030.
None of this can work without government-led infrastructure development, but many countries have this in place.
The main problem is that demand far exceeds supply, and the greatest demands is for electric commercial vehicles and vans.
In the UK electric vehicles are not subsidised and EVs are relatively expensive. A subsidy is available for installing a charging point.
In the UK we are phasing out all domestic use of fossil fuels, including natural gas (and we have a lot of it). The main issue is domestic electricity infrastructure for older houses. It just cost me $6,500 to upgrade mine, which was about 80 years old. I now have 300A 3-phase and new, safe cabling.
Besides global warming, the more immediate cost in cities is pollution that causes large amounts of illness and death.
Electric vehicles contribute more to CO2 emissions than even diesel cars. Read the article from the World Economic Forum below. The reason is the battery production.
You need to drive 125,000 km just to break-even with CO2 emissions vs a diesel car. The trouble is, by that point, you will need to replace the battery, starting the cycle again. So you are likely to be adding CO2 to the environment, not reducing it.
It’s great that you love EVs, there are many reasons to prefer them to gas cars, but please don’t be misled into thinking you are reducing global warming by driving them. You’re not.
And this is just battery emissions. We haven’t even addressed emissions from generating the electricity.
Batteries powering electric vehicles are forecast to make up 90% of the lithium-ion battery market by 2025. They are the main reason why electric vehicles can generate more carbon emissions over their lifecycle – from procurement of raw materials to manufacturing, use and recycling – than petrol or diesel cars.
Firstly, producing an electric vehicle contributes, on average, twice as much, to global warming potential and uses double the amount of energy than producing a combustion engine car. This is mainly because of its battery. Battery production uses a lot of energy, from the extraction of raw materials to the electricity consumed in manufacture. The bigger the electric car and its range, the more battery cells are needed to power it, and consequently the more carbon produced.
For example, in Germany - where about 40% of the energy mix is produced by coal and 30% by renewables - a mid-sized electric car must be driven for 125,000 km, on average, to break even with a diesel car…
Yes, the pollution has been moved from your city to where the electricity is made. Now those in your city can pretend pollution no longer exists.
The solution to pollution is not dilution.
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That German report was an exception and has been largely rebutted, but was picked up by the gas industry. A lot of the research can be found referenced here.
It refers to my car: “In the UK in 2019, the lifetime emissions per kilometre of driving a Nissan Leaf EV were about three times lower than for the average conventional car, even before accounting for the falling carbon intensity of electricity generation during the car’s lifetime.”
A lot has been done to reduce emissions from electricity production, it has been much reduced in the UK, and Tesla’s plant in the USA is dramatically more efficient than the Chinese alternative.
All of which excludes the huge benefit for heath and quality of life for those living in cities with fewer if any fumes.
The solution to pollution is better electricity production, and we are a long way down that road.
From the above article: " For example, in the UK, emissions from electricity generation have fallen 38% in just the past three years and are expected to fall by more than 70% by the mid-to-late 2020s, which is well within the lifetime of electric vehicles purchased today."
I don’t know what reducing “emissions from energy production” means. How are you generating electricity without emissions? The only way is from water, solar, and wind; none of which are practical in widespread use.
There’s also nothing “renewable” about batteries or energy production (other than the 3 sources above, which are not practical (at present), for widespread use).
The answer is better public transport and we use it more often than not. The train system is electrified and the bus system is being electrified. Make it unnecessary to own a car.
My kids are aged 24 and 21. Neither have driven or owned a car. A friend from Malta moved to London, then Manhattan. She and her family then moved to Pelham Manor and she finally had to learn to drive - at age 43.