I took my car out last weekend and while cruising around town i heard this humming sound approaching...... I could heard him increase his votage on his electro Honda car. I looked over and the geek inside signaled me to race. As the light turned green , with no noise at all he leaped ahead of me one full car length and i couldn't seem to catch up. Later on i asked some people about it and alot of people said they are known to be really fast cars and great on mileage. Has anyone else delt with this crap before?

 

I have worked on a couple of them. Mostly putting a deck or an add on changer to the factory honda stereo. Since Im an Alpine dealer and honda decks work directly with Alpines I see quite a few new Hondas.

Well I seen this one a year or so back. He took me for a ride in it when I got done, and its quite impressive. The way it works is when you take off slow it uses electric power. If you take off fast or in sudden acceleration it uses both the gas and the electric. At cruising speeds it usually electric only until the batteries need to be charged...

It gets around 80-90 mph. And we were cruising at about 90mph on the 60 bypass. I was quite impressed. But have you seen the PRICETAG? Im like damn 20 grand DAMN

Oh by the way really love the NOTE under the rear carpet in it. It says :

You WILL BE injured or killed if you remove this panel. So me being the adventuresome type I pulled the 12 T-25 screws off And its a bunch of batteries I was like OK, I dont feel brave enough to touch one and Ive been lucky so far, so I put it back together

 

those cars are meant for tree huggers who have extra cash. Its not that hard to beat a stock 1st gen 12a. 0-60 is about 9-10seconds in a 1st gen. The honda insight is a hybreed and combines the engine and motor to make full throttle sprints. Honda new that no one would buy a 20,000dollar car that didn't have any acceration no doubt, thats one of their engineering feets.

Its not bad on milage, but its more like 65-70mpg highway, we did a test in our engineering program with one at college. In town milage is better then highway with this car since it can go without the engine when in town at stops and what not. IT is rather heavy for a car that size though with the extra batteries...

 

Also remember that electric motors are all about low end torque. Theoretically, electric motors have infinite torque at 0 RPM.

Back when I was in school we did a project where we made a hybrid gas/electric Suburban. Seeing as we are from georgia and had a bunch of rednecks with us, power was probably our biggest concern . So we left the 5.3 liter V8 in it, tuned it up, different injectors and so forth. Then dropped in a big old (roughly 200hp I think, forget the torque) electric motor with 28 12volt batteries. Thing ended up weighing 6500 lbs. But it also ran a quarter mile at 16.8 @ about 88mph without just totally abusing it. Would also tow about 8000lbs no sweat. And even when the gas motor failed on us (we were given a different type of gas called reformulated gas #8 which messed up the injectors and ate some seals) the thing weighing that much ran damn strong off that electric motor.

It's all about the torque, which unfortunately we don't really have. Also, I'm gonna guess that the honda actually uses the gas motor on the highway. Gas motors are much more efficient at cruising speeds and just maintaining and that is a good time to charge the batteries, they eat all the gas on acceleration. That's optimally what we wanted to get ours to do, but ran out of time.

 

Mostly when people get into all the details of the inside of the car my mind actually gets a bit boogled...and no this isn't because I'm a woman....but hey those cars, even if they appeal to tree huggers and elitest dork heads, make a mighty fine blender for your smoothie just in case the power goes out in your house.

 

Would anyone else take the panel off? Or am the only one that would venture to see what it was?

LOL @ historia Plenty of power there to make smoothies for the whole neighborhood

 

Rotaries are supposed to be really fuel efficient at constant engine speeds too. That's why I think an electric rotary hybrid would be great. C'mon Mazda, go ahead and do the fuel cell stuff, but don't forget the electric+rotary Honda killer!

Yeah, I'd remove the panel, just to stare death in the face

 

Should I grab ahold of one of the batteries next time to see if I'll live or not? LOL

 

lol@mike yes prove that manliness *growl*

 

Reminds me of an old Alpine technical VHS tape... At the end of the tape, the dude says this is what happens if you lick the battery terminal. Big flash of light and smoke coming outta his ears LOL I laughed my *** off when I seen that LOL

 

But think of how much fun you can have with your tongue on that battery. It would be a great party and it would be a great side use after I'm done mixing all the drinks up for everyone else. But I have only one question now....what kind of drink do you guys like?

 

Anything with alcohol LOL .... I usually am a beer person, bacardi rum, vodka or tequila, NEVER WHISKEY...

 

Personally, I think there should be a fat guy with a bat that comes standard with the car in the back seat that will injure or kill people who open that panel. Then it wouldn't sound so funny WOULD IT?!?!?

 

nah lol, that would be the premium option its already available

 

Well, It's an idea

 

Actually we really need to get Honda to put a backseat in one in the first place they are 2 seaters

 

Jimmy 54 how can that honda beat u? I use to have alot of first gen and in my last one I had was 1979 and I race 96 or 97 elcipse spyder on the street and I beat light to light. I find hard to believe that little insight beat u or unless u car really is slow, I am not knocking u but I just can't see a insight beat a good running first gen.

 

My way of beating people while driving is go down a street where I know a certain cop friend to be and drop back and let the other guy get the ticket...

Dirty pool

 

Oh Wait! About the guy with the bat I thought they had ninjas hiding back there or something

 

Not this week, they are on strike but usually work monday wed friday and saturday. Damn Ninja unions LOL

 

Oh yeah Mike I think you are completly right about that. But I guess now you can fling some sushi at someone now