Great! Now I can use one of those4-6-8 Caddy's I,ve been stashing behind the barn. With methane-boost,I'll probibly get 70 miles per bean burrito Seriously,if you have the pieces,and skills,build it. Here in the south,there is a new intrest in backyard stills,for 'motor fuel only' of courseSparky
Try this Porsche... http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/autos/0711/gallery.porsche_first_hybrid/index.html 1900 seems to pre-date anything we work on. They also made a hybrid, too. Flame all you want, I'm still making an electric T. r
steam was popular also! old.vintage, classic, antique are all valid statments but... traditional is traditional HOT RODS so you lose rave-on
Interesting. It just amazes me the creative ingenuity that flowed during that 30 year period between 1900 and 1930. In all areas of manufacturing. electric motor hubs capable of about 40 mph.
Steam power is pretty awseome- the Stanley, Doble, Winton, McKay, etc were all neat cars. I'm amazed that someone hasn't suggested it as an alternative.
Doing anything with water is taboo right now due to drought conditions in some regions of the world. Makes people to nervous.
I really don't see how this is relevant...since this is a HOTROD board...and no one was building electric hotrods...... Just because something is old, doesn't mean it's "traditional" and relates to hotrods.... But..... Some history for ya.... http://www.porsche.com/usa/aboutporsche/porschehistory/milestones/
Baker Electric made a car........ www.popularmechanics.com/<WBR>automotive/jay_leno_garage/4215940.html
Check out time magazine (best inventions of 2007). There is an article that a guy came up with a Hybrid Gas/steam powered motor. Time Magazine website article His website Interesting stuff. Would be funny to see a stream powered hot rod. DV
It seems to depend upon how you define tradition. Rodders sought to modify and improve performance. They also did have a certain style that evolved...and herein come the claims that anything "outside" that style doesn't fit. I for one would prefer to discuss how to move forward and keep the vision(s) alive, as present times, they-are-a-changin. The electrics can have amazing performance, with the rating for a DC motor approaching 90% efficient and the output as 4X the rated power...for short bursts. Other fuels, weight reduction through materials, streamlining, engine configurations...it's a big field out there.
I know this is about as far from a traditional ride, but this thing showed up at one of my events and smoked off 106mph passes. All home built by a team that's been hand building electric cars for years. They are at www.plasmaboyracing.com if you are interested. It's a very cool realm of technology. Wouldn't it be gratifying to pull up against some douchebag in a brand new Vette and smoking him in a SILENT 72 Datsun!
I would consider trying to beat the speed of horses the very first aspect of hotrodding. . The fact that they weren't chopping, bagging and running on a dragstrip or saltflat doesn't make it off topic. Sure better than tattoos and skateboards. great post here!
I plan on keeping my 29 Tudor Sedan on the road until I'm dead and gone, and if that means going from the 2.3 Ford gas engine, through the electric motor era, and into the hydrogen/atomic era - then so be it! And thats a whole lifetime of hotrodding if you ask me! I think its extra cool they built that 72 Datsun rear wheel drive, thats fun stuff there!
"traditional is traditional HOT RODS so you lose rave-on" Prove it. "I really don't see how this is relevant...since this is a HOTROD board...and no one was building electric hotrods...... Just because something is old, doesn't mean it's "traditional" and relates to hotrods...." That statement makes no sense. Are you going after the 'it's a stock part so it's not a hotrod' arguement but that would eliminate a ton of parts that we use in our 'traditional' hotrods, so that doesn't hold water. Did you actually read the whole article? Did you see there Porshe built the first one and started racing it? Did you read where he worked on it and made it faster to win the races? Isn't that 'hotrodding'? I'm simply attempting to dispel the thought that electricity is not an option for us as hotrodders. Even those who have a 'traditional' lean. Take stock of today's world. We no longer live in the time where fuel is cheap. Yesterday gas was $5.00 a gal in Califonia. Do we still want to continue in this hobby we love? I do and I'm not alone. I love the sounds and smells of the 'traditional' hotrod. There are many 'agencies' that are working night and day to remove that choice from us. I believe that we will have to adapt and develop new sources of motivation if we are to survive. I personally hate the thought of my internal cumbustion engine being outlawed. I'm not green-warrior. Or am I? My plan is to build an electric T that I can drive as a commuter every day and tell the eco-nazis to stick it while I'm doing what I love... driving my hotrod. If you think that an electric car can'r hold a candle to a gas-powered one, I suggest you research tha topic in depth. This typeof closed/narrow mindedness will be the death of our hobby. The early 'gods' of hotrodding took what was available and adapted it to their own uses. Be it a 394 Olds in a roadster or a jet turbine in a tube framed aeroliner. After I put the new engine in my 54 Chevy truck (oh gasp, a 350 sbc with a 5 speed), I will convert it to propane. I hope to boost the compression to at least 11 to 1. Sounds hotroddish doesn't it? I want to maximize my power. I for one am sick of an ever-increasing bit out of my monthly budget going to taxes and fuel costs. I still plan on driving a hotrod. I rode in them when I was a kid as well as my first car being my dad's old hotrod. It brings back good memories to me. I'm not letting the eco-nazis take that away from me. That's why I'm looking into electricty as an option. Believe what you want to believe about what's 'traditional' but remember, once people thoght the world was flat and that the human body would be crushed at speeds greater than 26 mph. Rant over, for now. Have a good day. r
Anybody ever heard of a rotary-powered rod? There's supposed to be about 30 moving parts in 'em, from what I've heard. I've seen 'em in bikes, lawnmowers, model airplanes, the RX-7 (of course) and other Mazda stuff... I've even seen a few GM made, complete with the AC stickerd on the Corvair-styled air cleaner (Keep your GM vehicle all GM). Of course, the mileage on the early ones (although HP monsters) wasn't THAT great, then the fuel crisis hit, and everybody but Mazda dumped 'em for whatever sort of economy car engine they could scarpe up to stay in business. The AMC Pacer, for example, was supposed to get a Rotary. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Pacer : "Teague's original design featured a Wankel rotary engine. In 1973, AMC signed a licensing agreement with Curtiss-Wright to build Wankels for both passenger cars and Jeep vehicles, as well as the right to sell any rotary engines it produces to other companies.[2] Later, AMC decided it would purchase the engines from General Motors (GM). At the time, GM was seriously intending wide-scale use of rotary engines in its own production cars. However, durability issues, the fuel crisis, and upcoming emissions legislation in the U.S. killed off the introduction of GM's rotary engine. General Motors canceled development in 1974, after being unable to make their version meet upcoming late 1970s emissions levels within an acceptable period of time (others were having trouble with emissions too, but Mazda finally solved the problem). Fuel efficiency of the rotary was no better than existing engines of the same power level. While the rotary was more compact and lighter than contemporary piston engines, and potentially cheaper to build, GM felt there was no compelling reason to spend the money required to tool up for producing an engine that needed to have a car designed around it for any significant advantage over existing engines. Although power output of the Wankel design is rather high for its displacement (there is some dispute over how rotary displacement is calculated), power output is at high RPM. Americans, who were used to low-revving, high-torque engines, would have probably taken some time to get used to a totally different way of driving with rotary powered vehicles. General Motors' rather sudden cancellation of the rotary left the Pacer — which was designed around the rotary — without an engine. American Motors had invested too much money and effort into the car's design to scrap it. The Pacer was hastily reconfigured to accept existing AMC Straight-6 engines. This necessitated a complete redesign of the drivetrain and the car's firewall to keep the longer I6 engine within the sleek envelope of the body." They're even used in some homebuilt aircraft (along with V-Dub, Subaru, etc motors). But I don't believe anyone's ever put one in a hot rod. Anyone ever heard of this before? I mean, I've always kind of thought of them fondly - they LIKE retarded timing and the shittiest gas you can find from what I've read - and in stock form are about 135 HP with 29 MPG. Of course, this can be easily modified, and there are even kits that allow you to bolt on more rotors to make a 4-rotor motor (as oppposed to the stock 2-rotor setup). I'd considered using one for a few seconds, just to be different in sort of a "F-off, I didn't build it for you" kind of way. Just wondered if anyone had heard of anybody actually going through with it. They're not traditional, but they've been around a while, and had someone been crazy enough to do it back in the day, they could've stuffed one in. Here's the NSU Wankel Spider, the first production car with one: And more info here: http://www.philseed.com/nsu-spider.html
Post a hotrod.....built "back in the day", that raced the drylakes or early drags or whatever....in America.....that is electric powered.....then I may bite.... Adapting???? I thought the point of the HAMB was to spread the gospel, not REINVENT traditional cars with modern powertrains.....save that for the "other" guys..... I'm a BIG Porsche fan, and am quite aware of his accomplishments.....but just because HE built an electric car (among other electric farm equip), doesn't mean the electric cars are traditional.....it's not like electric cars were running around everywhere in the early 1900's......jeez.....
Here's one. Jeez... does YouTube have EVERYTHING? <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7WwCmjdOL54&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7WwCmjdOL54&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
My $.02. Is it "traditional", no. Is it in the spirit of hot rodding, yes. To me, hot rodding is about experimentation. Take a bunch of available, dissimilar pieces and make something out of it. Make the most of what you have, be it parts or skills or both. Back in the day there were probably more than a few people who thought putting 4 wheels and an engine in a surplus belly tank was whacko. Rotarys are great little engines. They can make twice the power per cubic inch of a piston engine and weigh almost nothing. They are short on torque though. They are also about the loudest things on the planet. I used to photograph a lot of IMSA races and the Mazda powered car were ungodly loud even with mufflers. Probabaly why I'm about 60% deaf in my left ear. Kurt O.
We use the Toyota EV at SoCal Edison for the meter readers and they suck. They are just there so we look green. If Toyota can't make an electric car worth a shit with their budget, the odds are against you. It takes plenty of dirty energy to create electricity also. It is much more complex than saying, My car is electric, I am morally superior and less of a polluter. There is an electric car board somewhere that will truly appreciate your endeavor.
The Mazda RX3 was a 3 rotor. A friend of mine used to campaign a Mazda powered V-dub race car, had a ton of money in the transaxle so it would handle it. Can't remember the times but it was awesome to see and hear!
Back when I ran SCCA Solo II events around Tulsa, there was an MG Midget/Sprite that ran a Mazda rotary. Fun to watch. If you swap one into anything a brake upgrade is essential as there is no compression braking on a rotary.
I have personally seen a rotary powered rod. 2006 Goodguys at Rhinebeck. It was a red, low, and track-t styled if I remember correctly. The nice gentleman owner was kind enough to give me way more detail on the car and build than my casual interest in something different merited. So I have seen one.
The Jalopy Journal
