this is one reason I have a sixth project in the works rebuilding my motorcycle to work and back all week on three gallons of gas ya!!!!

I didn't mean to go way off into left field there... it just happened...

I did make a mistake there though... the larger the star the faster the rate of consumption... that does not translate into a lower efficiency...

I think Sweden or Norway is testing out a hydrogen infrastructure... unfortunately they produce it using geo-thermal energy so it wouldn't work for us, but they are still working on how the infrastructure can be managed.

If you don't get on any highways while commuting then a scooter would be the best during summer

Back in 1989 I bought new Ford Festiva for $7k. I had a 70 mile round trip commute to work. I bought the car to replace my 7 as a daily driver. It got 40 mpg and sometimes it was even better! I expected that car to last about 3 years. It lasted 10 years and was still running strong when I donated it to the kidney foundation. It ran fine but it was made by Kia and was built with cheap steel and rusted so bad it became unsafe to drive. Mileage when I donated it was ~175,000 on the odometer.

BTW, Ray nuclear is the way to go, even one of the founders of greenpeace says so :)

Production of ethanol, hydrogen, or electricity is not economically feasible today for automobile use. Plus the amount of energy needed to produce ethanol and hydrogen is greater than the energy you get out of them so they are a losing proposition. Besides the fact that ethanol uses a food source to fuel cars. Anyone should be able to see how dumb that is. Point is nothing comes close to the economics of using gasoline until the prices go much higher.

Yup Tim, I agree with you completely, even on the wisdom of buying a Kia tin bucket to take the miles. Still, I have this rotary addiction....

You say Mazda is working on a nuclear powered rotary?

Kia's aren't as bad as they used to be. We bought a 99 Sephia for my girlfriend and we haven't had any issues with it out of warranty. It get's pretty decent mileage too but the gearing is so damn short

YOU HAD A FESTIVA?!


No, I am not going to poke fun, I actually reallllly wanted one. I think I still have all the documents to swap a B6-T from a 323 GTX in it. With the right set up, those cars could handle on rails, if not better.

so what if you were able to mix hydrogen gas with gasoline? Its called HHO I wonder if there is anyone who has done this on a 7?

I had the early carbed model which had some issues but overall it was a great ride. I think Kia made a tight little car it was just the combination of untreated, cheap steel and PA snow and salt that did it in.

I wouldn't say it handled like it was on rails, more like sailing a sunfish when you were in the wind or taking a fast turn but it did get up and go. Plus, and this is the best part, it shifted without using the clutch for the most part. It was like having a dog box or a sequential shifter.

Hmm, Stu don't you still live at, mmm, home?

Hey Tim, easy on Stu, he's only 21 years old. And with gas prices being what they're getting to be, I'd like to be living at home too! Not enough to drive a Kia though.

outlawing suv's would be pointless.. we as rx7 drivers get the same gas mileage...
outlaw us too??? plus outlawing a vehicle sounds ridiculous... there are way too many laws restricting our "freedom" already

whoa........thread resurrection

Anybody seen this Hydrogen Home Energy Station from Honda?
They're also playing with a solar-powered water electrolyzing station.

yay for the Japanese!

The link isn't a new technology, sad to say. That's a fuel cell internal reformer that Honda's just tapping part of the H2 off of: Like this one. The catch is that those things are not cheap and natural gas is probably going to reach $20/Dth within the next few years (it's been catching up to gasoline rapidly in the past year.)

Solar (in photovoltaic) is still sexy, pretty, and completely impractical. Even at large scale, a solar facility costs 4-5 times what an equivalent coal plant does. I don't know how to comp it to a nuke. Even figuring in the fact that you don't need to pay for fuel, PV is sooo expensive that the only way it becomes market reasonable right now is for the government to foot about 50% of the bill (and they tax you to do that.) PV is only viable in a voodoo economics of tax law and write-offs.

Electric cars are really the way we should start looking, they're much more versatile and we can diversify our energy portfolio. The reason that nobody's ever had an electricity crisis related to the fuel to generate it? We've always had it coming from at least ten places. That helps stablilize the price. While you're probably going to be a little less efficient on a Btu_in/Btu_out basis, the difference should be pretty minimal in the overall balance of things. The two car family in ten years ought to be:

A biodeisel hybrid family car for those 400+ mile hauls
A 2-4 seat 200mi range electric for those commutes
Bicycles for the kids to get to their own soccer practices.