How about using a bank of charged large capacitors and a controller to cascade discharge them into a liquid nitrogen cooled electric motor! Capacitors are considerably lighter than batteries, and are most efficient with rapid discharge. Pro Zap Drag Racer!-- mhuppertz, Jul 02 2004 Times article: 0-60 in 3.7sec http://travel2.nyti...AA2575AC0A9659C8B63NYT article on the TZero [JackandJohn, Oct 17 2004] TZero homepage http://www.acpropul...ages/tzero_home.htmPerforms on par with cars costing $280,000USD and over. Doesn't use capacitors as the main power source, but I'm sure they have some hooked up to the thousands of Li-ion batteries :) [JackandJohn, Oct 17 2004] National Electric Drag Racing Association http://www.nedra.comElectric car drag racing already exists. [scad mientist, Oct 17 2004] One suggestion: idea names usually work better when they're not the same as your account name.-- DrCurry, Jul 02 2004 Ditto [Dr Curry].
"Capacitors are lighter than batteries" is a faulty comparison. I can think of certain capacitors that are much heavier than certain batteries--there are caps that are literally made from 55-gallon drums, which are a lot bigger and heavier than the battery in my watch. What you are looking for is power density--and on that front I think batteries might win out in the end, though I could be wrong. At any rate, watch your phrasing, or you may end up giving a valid idea a pseudo-science label.-- 5th Earth, Jul 02 2004 I think that you're on the right track (heh, heh) in that a type of scheme as you laid out has a good chance of providing Americans with a high performance option with purely electric or hybrid cars when there's a need to "Get Down". Until there's a hybrid or fuel cell car with a bad-a** reputation and speeding tickets to go with it, Americans aren't really going to be plunking down their hard-earned cash for a cutesy-wootsy little greenmobile. You get to the point where you start taking about "Hi-Discharge" instead of "Turbocharge" for your fuel cell powered car, and then give it a mean name like a Plasma or something instead of Precis or whatnot, and you're going to sell quite a few of them. Unless we make a hard left politically and go for heavy Socialism (never know with the turmoil caused by fossil-fuel depletion) and the government provides us all with a future, hybrid version of the Trabant, somebody's going to have to sell, and somebody's going to have to buy. But it's not going to happen until they come up with a lot more excitement than an appeal to our concern for the environment.-- Syntheto, Jul 02 2004 [Syntheto] There IS an electric car that can blow doors off: 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. Not only that, but the range can be over 300Miles on a single charge (less than 4 hours @ 220V)
Two links added-- JackandJohn, Jul 03 2004 Btw; would like to see electric dragraces (caps wouldn't give you much samina, but great onetime output), but please do name your ideas the name of your ideas, not yourself-- JackandJohn, Jul 03 2004 [Admin: Please use titles which describe your idea]-- hippo, Jul 03 2004 How do you charge the capacitors after each "rapid discharge"?-- Amos Kito, Jul 03 2004 Again, sorry about the (multiple) fauxpaux. I'm a newbie... But what is wrong axactly with my phrasing?-- mhuppertz, Jul 04 2004 Nothing wrong with phrasing but, apparently, when you first posted this you had your user name as the title for the idea. Either you or a moderator emended it.-- bristolz, Jul 04 2004 [bristolz], he's referring to my and [BrauBeaton]'s references to the statement "Capacitors are considerably lighter than batteries". This is a false statement, because it is too broad. True, most capacitors you will see in your normal life will be smaller and lighter than batteries. In fact, I think the lower limit of size and weight is in the capacitors favor. However, there exist capacitors which are actually quite enormous and heavy, used for things like laser research--the sort of size you need an entire room to house. On a more moderate scale, many high-end car stero systems use capacitors to lessen the momentary load on the amplifier during loud noises, and these capacitors can weight several pounds each. Which is considerably heavier, than, say, a AAA battery.
It's an overgeneralization and an invalid comparison. It doesn't interfere with the idea itself, but it's a good idea to avoid using bad logic.-- 5th Earth, Jul 04 2004 Ah so.-- bristolz, Jul 04 2004 [JackandJohn] Would you really like to see electric drag races? If so, go to the NEDRA link I added and check out the schedule. There are still two big races this year: one in Oregon, the other in Vegas.-- scad mientist, Jul 15 2004 random, halfbakery