Driving old cars vs new cars

[capngrog]

While I find this discussion of all the "eco-tweaks" done to make internal combustion (IC) engines more efficient/less-polluting to be interesting, I'm afraid that the days of the IC engine are numbered.  Not only will electric propulsion render the IC engine obsolete, governmental "eco-hawks" will make the IC engine illegal in certain jurisdictions.  For example, diesel engine-powered vehicles have already been banned from the central sections of a few European cities.

 

Although certainly more efficient, electric motors are infinitely more boring than IC engines.  Can you imagine the Indy 500 with electrically-powered race cars?  YAWN.

 

Cheers,

Grog

Edited August 28, 2018 by capngrog
change wording (see edit history)

[JACK M]

18 minutes ago, capngrog said:

Can you imagine the Indy 500 with electrically-powered race cars?  YAWN.

 

There are races like that. Indy car looking things.

Turn on your TV on a Sunday and you might find one.

The scrolls on the screen will tell a lot of info about battery condition, usage, reserve and such. 

They don't make much noise.

[Graham Man]

Can you Imagine what August and Frederick Duesenberg would do today if they had our technology back in 1930... 

[capngrog]

59 minutes ago, JACK M said:

 

There are races like that. Indy car looking things.

Turn on your TV on a Sunday and you might find one.

The scrolls on the screen will tell a lot of info about battery condition, usage, reserve and such. 

They don't make much noise.

 

That's not "noise", that's the sound of music.

 

Cheers,

Grog

[padgett]

I'm prepared for external combustion engines...

[John348]

It is only a normal progression, compare every 10 years of advancement in automotive technology, so the newer cars should be expected to be better

[ply33]

One thing I am confused about on my new car: The "backup camera".

 

Have they changed the way you are supposed to look where you are going? I was taught and am most comfortable when backing up to turn and look over my shoulder out the back window. And, by extension through the side windows with my peripheral vision. When doing that I have a good wide view of traffic coming from the side, etc. If I try to back up using the display in the car I have no clue about anyone coming in from the side until it is way too late.

 

Near as I can tell, the only use of the back up camera display is for a quick check before I start looking over my shoulder for anything too low to be seen out the rear window.

 

Am I doing this wrong?

[Doug Novak]

Back Up Cameras are great for lining my Truck's Hitch up to the Trailer.......so much easier.  Also good to tell how close to whats behind you before you hit it.  Some of the newer cars rear windows are hard to see through so the camera helps, but as you mention, you wont see what's out of it's view range and best you still turn to see whats off to the side.

[60FlatTop]

I enjoy most of the technology in cars, especially what we call luxury cars. Sometimes you have to wonder, but overall it is neat when you get into it. In March, after over a year of searching, I became intrigued by the big 7 series BMW with a V12 from the first year they took over the Rolls-Royce production, 2003. I found a very gently treated one that made its way from Sacramento to New York. I decided to make it not as casually used as my truck but more day to day than my old cars. My plan is to maintain it myself with minimal, if any, dealer or indie support for the 10 years of my 70's which start on September 26th. Now here is a schematic of the microprocessors and communication buses I need to access with a laptop to service it.

That's just the computers the wiring diagram is a whole other thing.

 

Today we met another couple for lunch after a 30 mile drive on the Ontario State Parkway. With the fuel gauge set for remaining distance we left home with a 190 miles range remaining. The car is direct injected with 4 variable cams, 12 cylinders totaling 6 liters, 48 valves, and 438 HP. After the steady 65 MPH drive my remaining range was 215 miles. That's pretty good for a 4900 pound car and a lot of what makes it fun. Luckily the engine runs on my command only.

 

This car is 15 years old, the same age my '64 Riviera was when I bought it. I thought it was going to be a long time before the Riviera turned 25 so it would magically become an "acceptable" car among hobbyists. I must have matured over the past 40 years because that sort of magic doesn't matter to me anymore. I think I might be about as happy as those guys who bought the 15 year old over complicated, devalued Duesenbergs in 1950. I called the original dealership and records show mine went out the door for a hair under $125,000 in Oughtthree. Even the old ones were new once. It is all kinda relative.

Bernie

 

[joe_padavano]

1 hour ago, 60FlatTop said:

With the fuel gauge set for remaining distance we left home with a 190 miles range remaining. After the steady 65 MPH drive my remaining range was 215 miles.

 

Which nicely demonstrates the limitations of the "miles to empty" algorithms. The computer uses a rolling average of your MPG over the last so many miles (that actual amount varies by vehicle and software version) and multiplies that by the fuel level in the tank. Your 190 miles to go was likely based on a sample period that included stop-and-go driving. After your steady 65 MPH drive, the sample period moved and your rolling average MPG went up, thus the higher extrapolated distance. Of course, fuel level senders are also non-linear, so the accuracy of the fuel remaining also has significant error bars on it.

[60FlatTop]

Those are the kind of things that make the technology fun to experience. If I had set the cruise control the stoichiometric  efficiency would have affected the mileage by slightly leaning out the mixture and increased the range. Casual knowledge today, and imagine, my Great Grandfather, Tom Daily never learned to use an accelerator pedal. The throttle lever was just fine for him.

 

My car is worse than you'd think. It has two fuel level sensors, one under each rear passenger seat.

 

Years ago I had an automotive garage trade magazine that featured an article; "What if your shop had been closed for ten years". It was a 1938 issue that discussed how inadequate diagnostic and service tools of 1928 would be in the modern 1938 shop. The article made a lifetime impression on me because, from the beginning, I have heard so many of the old spit and bailing wire stories. I never believed them and the old cracker barrel mechanics had told the lies so many times they thought they had done the repairs and believed themselves.

 

I just came in to shut this machine down. I was sitting alone in the living room reading a trigonometry book like it was a novel. In the bathroom is a book about the history of Pi that I read briefly every day. Its bad. I just remembered a meeting where I rattled off a range of octets like everyone knew what I was talking about. I consciously thought "When did I become this nerd?"

 

Bedtime!