is a "GREEN" (environmentally speaking)hot rod possible??

It's to bad that the only emissions that hybrid vehicles emit is smug,
couse it is a pretty cool technolgy when it comes down to it.
Prius's are rich hippy cars, but in the meduim/heavy duty trucking world the hybrid can save fleets a lot of money in the long run.

 

You guys shouldn't worry about this crap. Keep your car in good tune and stay on top of your representatives to make sure they aren't in lock step with the loonies.
Auto emmisions and fuel consumption aren't the issue. Cars have reduced their emmisions by 95% since the '60's, yet those who would take them away from us shriek like nothing has happened. To them; that 5% that they still put out is still 100% unacceptable. That's because they must be in power to have money, and vehicles are their route to power. But cars aren't the real problem. Hey, don't waste resources, don't pour toxic crap into the ground, etc. but think about what you do. Just don't be wasteful. I was taught in school that the way the water cycle works in nature that if we didn't use water, we lose it. Today the greenies have eveeryone conserving and using less water and what do we get? Draught, supposed global warming (they say cars cause), and to me its because water is not being used enough to make the natural cycle it used to do. There is a whole bunch of scientist saying global warming, which I believe is real, is caused by increased solar activity and there's not a dam thing we can do to change it. Know what else? It's cyclical; it is just the natural ebb and floww of the planets.But those guys who use reason are pariahs to the left. Don't gety too caught up in this. Swim against the tide.

 

Smug Alert!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert!

 

60% of the energy in a vehicles life is used to manufacture it. As mentioned before, just restoring a car or building a hot rod is more green than anything a factory can build.

Also, a report came out about how much energy a product consumes during it's life. It includes everything from design to disposal and the Prius consumes more total energy in it's life time than a Hummer. The Huimmer shares many of it's components with existing vehicles and is generally made up of materials that consume less energy to manufacture.


I also recently read that one gallon of ethanol takes 100 gallons of water and about one gallon of oil to produce. (I think this includes the energy and resources required to grow the corn.) Great stuff for making HP but not for the masses.

Man made CO2 emissions make up about 3% of total CO2. Volcanoes and forests (decaying dead trees and leaves) make up the bulk of it.

 

Lithium ion batteries can now store extremely powerful charges in small cells. I recently saw a "green" tv show where an electric drag bike did a smoky burnout and then turned 142 mph in the quarter ON A BATTERY PACK. It's just a matter of time before Deuces appear with the same setups.

 

The problems with batteries are many....they work great for commuting, but not for road trips (or unexpected detours). The high tech batteries like Li-Ion have a limited number of cycles before they die, although "they're working on that". They also cost a LOT, and apparently take a lot of energy to produce.

If you really are concerned about conserving natural resources, then how about changing your lifestyle to do just that? nobody seems to mention that this is the best way to go about it. Small house, live where you work, don't travel any more than is absolutely necessary, etc.

 

Squirrel, that was an excellent episode. Funny as hell.

BTW - ALGORE can kiss my everlovin, fossil fuel burnin', ASS. Hope he chokes on that damn necklace that bunch of pantywastes gave him.

 

dont you guys keep with the times?

it aint just fossil fuels they are after now, its cow flatulance...

maybe we can turn the PITA morons against the tree huggers and they'll kill one another

 

Being "green" and going fast is possible......its not as easy as buying a drum of 110 octane from Sunocco, but it is possible...

been working on this car for 3 solid years....

Its a 540 Twin Turbo Donovan that runs on Hydrogen gas converted from water out of a garden hose on site......Zero Emissions and over 800h.p.

Hopefully can set the "Clean" LSR pretty soon......

 

My dad worked in the propane business from about 1961 to 1985 and every car he had ran on propane. My first PU was a '55 Chevy with a 235 on propane. Then a '62 Chrysler 300H- 413 with two 4-barrels- that ran on it until dad got out of the business. Then I had to start paying consumer price and converted it back to gasoline. Both of my uncles have '35 Ford PU's that run on it.

You could run straight propane or go dual-fuel. When we would go on vacation dad would fill up the propane and the gas tanks, run on propane till it ran out, then switch to gasoline until he found a propane plant open.

The propane companies didn't collect the taxes, so you would have to go to the Board of Equalization and estimate your mileage, pay the taxes, and they would give you a sticker with a number that would have to be put on the invoice. If you were caught without it, there was a big fine.

Computers on cars killed the propane conversion market for cars and trucks.

Sorry for this being long, but it brought up a lot of memories. This is how I came to love working on cars, under the hood with my dad and my two uncles....

 

By "recycling and refining" the old car,tuning it for performance and improving it's looks,in my opinion that's the greatest recycle job there is?
Everybody wins?
It's all good?
Comparing apples and oranges,I'd say the performance and emissions are better on hot rods than on late models anyways?

 

The gold chainers have been doing this for years with trailer queens and "power parking".

 

I like the sound of 800 HP on water, but is something like this going to be feasible for the average guy in his garage anytime soon ? I'm not a believer in all this global warming crap myself, but water is sure cheaper than premium gasoline. Good luck

 

someone should choke AL gore till he is GREEN! media blows, unless your a mind numbed robot lib! like SAM said, my leaky old 235 gets way better mileage then the wifes trailblazer..

 

This is a hobby. "We" aren't the problem or the solution.
This is our enjoyment and is no different than anyone else's hobby. These hobbies all Americans enjoy should not be impacted by trying to solve huge international problems.
It would be like asking all baseball fans to ride their bicycles to the stadium instead of driving. That won't happen, as well it shouldn't.
We all work hard.
All we want is to enjoy our hobby as our reward for years of toil.

 

I was at a lecture yesterday on emissions emitted from the US. Supposedly, 87% of the harmful emissions the US puts out are from power sectors such as power plants.

It's kind of surprising since we've been made to believe cars are the problem...

 

This might be a little O/T but relevent. My livelyhood is small engines. A few years the EPA came out with "small engines" (lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc.) produce 75% of the poluttion in the U.S. What they falied to say is that 75% is less that 1% of the total emissions produced. Just shows you how they twist the #'s to produce the desired result.

 

You dont get it............the "sky has been falling" since the beginning of mankind. Maybe deep down we feel guilty about the opposable thumb thing and feel the need for penance?

 

you'd have to believe that global warming is actually happening to even care AL GORE BIGGEST FRAUD ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH

 

i dont feel guilty about the opposable thumb thing, its the process of distilling spirits that has me feelin a twinge of angst for the lower forms on this planet


hey, when are you SoDak boys plannin' your first road trip for '08? inquiring minds wanna know

gotta get us all together and increase our "carbon footprint" and place it firmly up Al "internet" gore's ass

 

sence these plans came out back in 1977 i have been thinking that one day i would build this car, i look at the side view and picture a track-t built from brushed aluminum, wire wheels, black walls, ok so 30 years is a long time to hang onto an idea. does this look like a t-bucket frame to anyone else? one day ev's will stop looking dumb. http://www.rqriley.com/urba-e.html

 

Heck yeah green hot rod's are possible. Think Diesel engines. I'm currently converting an 03 F250 with 7.3L Turbo Diesel to veg oil. Imagine not paying for the fuel you put in your tank, you could just pull up behind the China China restaurant and collect your oil. You just take it home, filter it and dump it in your tank. Some people have already converted some rods to have diesels, complete with turbo! check these links out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BxKSF7qk6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-B40YjNvQU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf5RqHBfZso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVlov_t4fjg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-19CKqEZD18

 

Well, you could put a GM 6.2 or 6.5 V8 diesel in your ride. Sort of a stopgap design to replace the diesel Olds 350, indirect injection, about the same power as a 305. It's possible to get as much as 28 MPG in a blocky '80s Chevy pickup with them, even a 4x4 Suburban with 3.79 gears and no OD will get almost 20 MPG with the 6.2. And they're easy to convert to run on waste vegetable oil.

A turbo wakes them up a bit but drops the milage down some, the 6.5 normally came factory with one. They're such high compression they can only run 8-10 lbs boost though. You only have about a 3400-RPM band with it and it's happiest around 1800-2000. And steep hills kill the efficiency, if it works hard it sucks the fuel right down.

I bought one cheap figuring it couldn't be any worse to ram around and haul parts with than a 350 gasser Suburban, it was in a lot better shape body-wise and a 3/4 ton with HD brakes and a hitch already on it. Really had no knowledge of these engines until after I bought it. But I rather enjoy the fact that it makes lots of nasty black smoke out the pipes... until I get a trans in it I just have it stashed and start it every couple of weeks and last time it literally left a big stinky cloud in the air that kind of floated away on the breeze. My neighbors should love that when I start running it regular. I can be more economical and piss off the greenies at the same time.


Global warming is a bunch of crap though - it's just an excuse invented by power-hungry politicians that they can use to try to take away people's rights, especially American people's rights. It's not hard to find plenty of scientists and authorities who disagree and can debunk things like Algore's movie - the major media just chooses to ignore that side of the issue. Short of setting off 100's of nuclear warheads at once all over the planet, man cannot destroy the environment - and to presume so, to presume man is the only force capable of changing the planet, is the height of arrogance and ignorance.

But uh, if you disagree with that, lets not turn this into an O/T political or religious debate -

 

Ahhhh man, we don't need to feel guilty for that. We got the opposable thumb in lieu of being able to lick ourselves.




If everyone on this planet cut their driving down to the bare minimum and really did their part in realistic, sensible recycling, cut down, seriously, in regards to general product consumption, what size dent would it make in factory emissions and other detrimental by-products?

Forget the Liberal vs. Conservative crap, I don't trust ANYTHING from the news sources. Everyone has an agenda. I've read AND heard from "experts" on both sides and have come to my own conclusions but still do not feel comfortable in what's the REAL DEAL.

As much as my gut tells me Al Gore is an lunatic, I also take the "right" with a LARGE grain of salt.

I'll just raise my kids to keep an open mind and to educate themselves as much as possible. I know some have semi-jokingly stated we hot rodders are the ultimate recyclers, I wholeheartedly agree.

There are some really interesting tidbits of knowledge on here, (quite sensible, level headed tidbits and some more exteme) could you guys state your sources?

 

Well, most of us anyway. I saw this show in Mexico once...

 

reduce, reuse, recycle...

my last hot rod: i reduced it's weight to 1900lbs, reused the fenders as a wall sculpture, recycled a 360 mopar as it's mill...
bitchin'! it was green, and i didn't even know it!


i'd say that hot rodders are anything but a very, very minor (doubt even measureable) percentage of the greenhouse gas emissions... how about entire countries that have NO regulations... hello, China?


as far as fossil fuels... guess it depends on where you live, and what's accessible. here in Portland, i run 107 octane bio-ethanol.... $2.68/gallon last night when i filled up... plus a 50 cent/gallon federal tax credit...
i use 30% more ethanol than gasoline, but the 107 octane rocks... plus the much lower price helps a lot. as a major added plus for me, IT SUPPORTS LOCAL FARMERS! the bio-ethanol that i get here is from 98% locally sourced soybeans. keepin' farmers in business makes me happy...
after running ethanol in performance applications, i don't like going back to gasoline.

 

Discussing environmental issues on here is like trying to talk sensibly about gun control on an NRA message board, so I'm not gonna get too involved, except to say that a UN report has just been published that says that the meat industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas pollution than transport.
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html
So....if you want to carry on playing with your cars, put the fucking burger down.....

 

You first. I, myself am looking forward to a delicious Freddy's cheezburger for lunch today. Mmmmmmm

Actually talking about this on the HAMB is NOT like talking about gun control on an NRA board. I believe the HAMB constitutes a large percentage of level-headed thinkers (okay, some not so much!).

 

If done correctly a hot rod can be very green. Almost all the parts other than safety pieces(brake pads/lines/etc) can be recycled. We love period correct stuff here and that is very "green" because we'll go out of the way to get a part that's true to form and not made in China out of a 96 Lumina that's been crushed and sent overseas to be reborn as a cheap knockoff of an original.

 

Where can I get more info on the "Green" LSR above and the technology used in it?