jdome

They had to "widen the exhaust pipe" in order to dissipate the enormous heat from operating the engine, so as to avoid melting the street asphalt - if the car remained stopped for too long a time. It doesn't get that hot. A turbine is a simple engine. It has one set of fans that suck in a large volume of air and compresses it into a chamber with a blow tourch that heats the compressed air so it expands with more force on the drive fan. The "exhaust pipe" (or better yet exhaust outlet with no pipe) has to be large enough to allow the expanding exhaust air to exit without any restrictions. As the air expands rapidy it also cools rapidly. It would be warm to the touch at the end of a ten ft tail pipe but not hot enough to melt asphalt. My Dad tried to get one of the turbine cars during the trial but was not selected. He did get to test drive one for an afternoon though and I got to ride in the back seat. I was a young kid at the time and was fasinated by all things trains, planes and autos and this was a real thrill to me at the time. In the mid 70's I started a project to convert a car to electric drive. I ran across a guy that had several small military surplus turbines for sale so I bought one. It is 100 HP and only weighs about 100 lbs. I lost interest in the electric car and sold that project before I barely got started. I never did anything with the turbine engine but I still have it. I used to fire it up once in a while just for the fun of it. You have to wear ear protection when working around turbines because they suck in so much air that it lowers the air pressure around the intake enough to pop an eardrum. The biggest engineering problem to overcome with using turbines in cars is that they have to run at a near constant speed. You can't vary the RPMs very much. My engine for example has to run at a constant 30,000 RPM. That's at idle too, so they waste a lot of fuel at a stop light. Chrysler got around the constant high RPM's by using a torque converter and the the throttle pedal controlled the amount of fluid that was pumped in and out of the converter which caused the noted delayed or sluggish acceleration waiting for the fluid to pump in. The speed of the car was controlled by the amount of coupling between the torque converter halves by varing the amount of fluid. I found a big old 50's Buick auto trans torque converter I was going to modify for my car. I also bought an industrial TC from junked wood chipper that I thought I could experiment with but That is about as far as I got. A new family and a career got in the way. There is a turbine car in Indiana that has been in private hands for a long time. I have seen and heard it run several times. The last time I saw it was when they trailored it to the Glenmoor Concoor in Canton, OH about 2 years ago. They played around with it all day but couldn't get it started.

I used to have a 39 LaSalle coupe. One of the cars I wish I still had. I still have a 41 Cadillac. The 40 Cadillac and LaSalle shared the same flathead V8 engine, chassis and drive train with some hardware differences. LaSalles were geared higher and generally lighter & quicker. The engines are the same but the Cad was bored out more with a bigger displacement and 150 HP vs 130 HP in the LaS. I believe they used the same carb but jetted differently. If your LaSalle is the 50 series, it has the smaller & lighter B body used on all other GM lines. If it is a 52 series it has the larger & heavier C body used on the Cadillac 62 series and big series Buick & Olds. Chevy & Pontiac did not use this body. The best design feature of the 40 LaS (IMO) is that the headlight pods are almost dissapeared into the fenders. Cadillac still had separate buckets in 40. These late 30's & 40's Cad & LaS's are great driving and reliable cars. Plenty of power and good enough brakes to keep up with modern city traffic and can cruise at 60 or 65 on the highway (if you have the high rear ratio). NOS, used & Repro parts are available. The biggest issue with these cars is that the carb sits in the center of the V with the exhaust manifolds also on the inside with a cross over pipe so the carb is surrounded by exhaust heat on 3 sides and the fuel line runs in the middle of all this heat too. This engine is prone to vapor lock problems, especially with ethanol laced fuel. The best thing you can do is insulate the fuel line, up the chassis to the pump and between the pump and carb. You can also cheat by replacing the pre war carb with the post war version that looks like the same carb but it has anti-percolation. Good luck

My nephew stopped by to show his buddy my old cars and they were driving his buddies french fryer truck. He makes his own fuel and I was impressed that this 25 year old kid who said he almost didn't make it through high school had all the science figured out.

And 25 cent gas in 1959 adjusted for inflation is roughly $3 a gallon. In 59 the price was 40 c., adjusted to $2.40. But the adjusted price for inflation has been abused too often. You can't just pick 1 point off a chart and say ah ha. The actual price of gas remained fairly flat at about 35 cents for 50 years from 1918 to 1974. That means that as everything else went up, gas effectly went down. Looking at a graph for the adjusted price 0f $3.75 in 1918 the adjusted price has a long, definate downward trend to $1.90 in 1974. It shows a rapid spike to $3.40 (adjusted) during late 70's/early 80's (during the embargo/shortage years) but by 1995 it drops back to $1.90 and continues it's downward trend at about the same rate as the previous trend. The downward trend of the adjusted price bottomed out at $1.44 in 1999. It then peaks rapidly to where we are now. Historically, gas has had an 80 year downward trend in its price, adjusted for inflation. If that trend had continued thru the 2000's, gas would be selling for about $1.10 today. Today's price is 3.5 times its historic value. It is also higher today than the 1980 era spike (adjusted) caused by a real crisis, shortages, embargo etc. Both AAA & Bloomburg claim that 2012 was the highest average price year on record and 2011 was the highest before that. If you feel that gas has increased faster than inflation in the past decade it st because it has. If you feal if is taking more money and more value out of your budget, it is.

If you want to avoid paying Big Oil's prices, go buy an electric car.........except BP owns 14 wind farms across the country that are in service or under construction. You might want to check their daily poster kilowatt price before you charge up.

I was able to bring up the news reports but I wasn't able to bring up details of the actual legislation. It looks like only the tax credit on ethanol went away but it still looks like there is no fuel tax on ethanol. It looks like the gas tax is still diluted by the percentage of the blend?

The Federal Fuel Tax is an exsise tax paid at the time it is refined. The fuel distributor pays the refiner the 18.4 cents tax and of course passes that on to the local dealer and you eventually pay that at the pump. So when the distributor dilutes the gas with 10% ethanol to make E10, you actually only pay 9/10th or 16.5 cents. But wait there's more! Not only is there no fuel tax on ethanol but the distributor gets 51 cents tax credit per gallon of ethanol he buys, so in theory, there is a nickle credit passed on to the pump on E10 for an effective tax rate of 11.5 cents at the pump. E85 has an effective "fuel tax" of negative 40.6 cents at the pump. They pay you to buy it. Now you know why they can't fill the pot holes. Is this a great country or what?

I'm just doing the math in my head (& I went to public skool) but blending pure + E85 at those % would be about 90 octane.

I believe there already is a higher tax on pure gas. I believe the Federal fuel tax is only on the gas and not on ethanol so if you buy E10 you only pay 90% of the tax. That was supposed to be an incentive to buy E blends. That may have changed. States may vary. In my state you are taxed on the blended gal.

These pumps are already in service. I may not have been clear but the pumps do not blend etanol to pure gas. They feed from 2 tanks, one containing pure 87 octane and the other tank contains pre-blended E85 at I assume 87 octane or whatever it usually is. You pump from pure tank if that's what you select. You pump from the E85 thank if you select e85. You get a mix of the 2 tanks if you select a middle blend. If you select E10 you get (maybe) 86% pure + 14% E85 to equal a gallon of E10. The octane rate will also end up at the correct level between the pure & E85.

The first 3 posts are informative because they show how misleading the big ethanol crowd can be. The unprofessional agenda driven rants comming from The Auto Channel who bills itself as "The Largest Independent Automotive Information Source", LOL, is typical of the misinformation they often spew. I realize that this sort of criticism is what gets these threads deleted so I'll just move on. As bad as E15 is for our old cars, even worse than E10, The introduction of E15 could either replace E10 or present an opportunity for our hobby. While stations are not mandated (at this time) to sell E15, neither are they mandated to sell E10. They may choose to sell either or both. Most stations are presently sitting on 2 underground tanks. one for regular/E10 and one for premimum. If they choose to sell E15, they will likely use the regular tank instead of closing down the station while they dig up the lot and bury another tank, a costly job. What looks more promising for our hobby are the "Blender Pumps" that are being tested in the corn belt region. Blender pumps use the 2 tanks for straight gas and E85 and the pumps can provide either grade or selected intermediate grades such as E10, E15, and E20. If this trend continues, we may have pure gas readily available again. Federal law (at this time) does not prohibit the sale of straight gas. CA and few other states may prohibit its sale but most do not.The fuel dealers are required to dump a certain amount of ethanol on the public and they have been doing so mostly by E10. The blender pumps will allow the dealers to use up their E quota on higher blends. If the gov't agencies involved have a concern that access to pure gas will be misused, then they can certainly make another warning sticker (similar to E15 warning sticker) that would prohibit its use in anything other than antique vehicles, 2-cycle engines and lawn & power equipment.

Calvin was ahead of his time. He was the first to mount his sub-wolfers outside the car so he could crank up the base and thomp the windows 5 cars behind him at a traffic light.

Better to have a cat sleeping on top than mice inside

There was a nice, unrestored 21 Packard touring, aluminum body that sold at the Glenmoor auction last September for about $18,000. Under $20,000 with the bidders fee. The original paint is cracked and flaking off and the leather cracked and a well intact original top. A great AACA Original class contender. I saw the car before the auction but I didn't stay for it to go on sell because I thought it would go much higher. You can see photos of the car on the auction results list. Brass and CCCA Packards atract big $. Non-CCCA Packards and the teens-20s between the brass and Classic era don't bring as much as they deserve.

What years are these parts? any pre war?

It was $3.89 here a week or so ago but slowly creeped down 2 or 3 cents per day. Thursday it was 3.52. Fri. morning it was 3.49 but jumped up to 3.79 by afternoon. Today it is 3.84. I believe $5.00 is what the Central Planners called for.

A Stutz DV32, 32 valve straight 8 engine sold for $41,000 at the Glenmoor auction a couple wks ago. Just the engine.

I am involved in property rentals, although nothing like the multi-family hi-rise your talking about, but I understand the landlords concerns. I can assure you that your landlord is either dealing with complaints from other tenants or has been made aware, perhaps by new codes or a code enforcer agent of a potential hazard. Landlords are exposed to liabilities that renters are not, even if a tennant causes the problem.. At the top of the list for landlord headachs, I would say would be dealing with complaints from tenants about other tenents and clutter/trash in common areas: hallways, walkways, and parking areas. I can see several potential reasons, hazards and/or code violations. Regardless of whether fire or bodily injury ocurrs the landlord "knew or should have known" of the hazard. There may be a concern as to how you are disposing your collection of waste when the pan is full. Down the landlords drain? Dump it on the lawn? no no no. There may be a concern that someone will trip over your pan when your car is gone or pets, wild animals, or children may lick the pan or play in it. Yes, your neighbors should keep their pets & child on a leash but that doesn't relieve the landlord of any liability.

Does Indian Chief motorcycle count?

Eldorado

Mustang reminds me of a series of cowboy/Indian related names: Bronco, Pinto, Colt, Chieftan, Fire Chief, Charakee, Mountaineer, Pheonix,,,, there most be more?

In my state of Ohio the so called road tax is called "Motor Fuel Tax." The tax applies to all "liquid fuels" sold by licensed (retail) dealers by pump in the state for "Motor Vehicles" that operate on Ohio highways and waterways. "Motor Vehicles" are described as vehicles....vessels, watercraft,...machinery, etc. that use liquid fuels in internal combustion engines or motors. The list of liquid fuels the tax applies to include gasoline, diessel, kerosene, naptha, alcohol, LNG, CNG, and afew more a can't think of. All licensed dealers must charge and collect the state's MF tax on all pump sales, the only exception is for aircraft fuel dealers where the fuel is restricted to aircraft use only. "Marine fuel", sold by retail pumps at marinas, include the same "road tax" as fuel at the corner station. The same fuels may be sold by non-licensed retailers in pre-packaged containers of 5-gals or less without the MF Tax but are subject state & local sales tax. There are cetain, qualified uses and qualified users that are Moter Fuel tax exempt in Ohio but the purchaser must either pay the tax at time of purchase to the retailer and then apply to the state for the refund or apply for a permit to purchase the fuel, without tax from a distributer (in bulk) and store it in private tanks. The fuel can only be used for the specified purpose on the permit and may require the addition of a die to the fuel. Commercial fishing is one of the exempt uses but that fuel should not be availabe for sale to the public. The Federal tax on fuel is an excise tax that applies to all fuels by the gallon at the distribution level and is used to fund the Fed. Highway & Transportation Admin. The Fed tax rate varies by fuel type (ie. gasoline, diessel). There is no mention of marine fuels as a type. There is nothing that I know of in either Federal or Ohio tax law that would prohibit the use of so called marine fuel in your car if it is sold by the pump at licensed marinas. They are taxed the same. It appears that cars & boats can share the smae fuels as long as you don't purchase the fuel at an airport. I suspect other states may be the same as Ohio but you may want to do your own research. I do not share the opinion that there are corupt marina out there illegally selling fuel for street use. If there are no signs or other access restrictions it is more likely legal than not.

I would compare the Volt to the Hummer. They are both expensive, impracticle, novality, niche vehicles that have been bashed by both political extreames. The Volt has received some well deserved car of the year awards. I like the concept but the execution has fallen short IMO. I don't blame Fox News for the Volts failure. I put it squarely on Bush, Palin and the other usual targets the left blames when certain political plans fail or another green car or green program flops. But I think we need to look at the volt's history & developement before we declare it a flop. In the developement years before the bankruptcy, Bob Lutz himself claimed that the car was to be a top of the line, personal luxury car. And that is what he has. It is a high quality, well apointed vehicle but at 46,000 it doesn't fit Chevy's Malibu image where Impala was the previous top line. The $7500 subsidy puts it in the 40,000 range of the MKZ hyb. where it might better compete if it had a Cadillac badge. During the development years GM claimed thye car would go up to 150 miles on a charge, that had drop to 100 and the final published range is a disapointing (IMO) 40. And no one has brought up the fact that the high rev engine that powers the generator requires premium fuel, which seems od and offsets the fuel savings of the first 40 miles. Now Chevy is dismayed that it doesn't compete well with the $25,000 Preius/Fusion range. There is plenty of misinformation about the Volt comming from the left wing as well. Contrary to some previous posts, The Volt's gas powered generator does not recharge the batteries. There is no dynamic braking to recharge the batteries either. The only way to recharge depleted batteries is by plug-in. Li-Ion batteries are potentially more dangerious than other type batteries. I work in the electronics industry where we use tons of Ni-MH and Li-ION batteries. The manufacturers provide us with field service memos that warn us of the potential of li-IONs overheating during charging and to inspect for cracked or damaged battery packs as they may also cause fires if exposed to certain atmospheric conditions. I don't know how comon these problems are but we have never experienced a problem.