18 Wheels Of Steel: Hybrid lorries? Anyone?

WARNING: THIS MIGHT SOUND LIKE A GEEKY, “1970s TOP GEAR STYLE” AND SHORT ARTICLE, BUT THIS WILL HELP MANY OF YOU TO RAISE SOME QUESTIONS THAT HAVE PUT CARS INTO AN UNFAIR POSITION!

All these environmentalists, Greenpeacers and other people who don’t wash their hair just because they want to save nature for that 0.0001% economy are so angrily attacking the automobile and oil. They want them off the roads, they want them gone so daffodils could suddenly appear on car factory roofs. Of course, there is proof that car exhausts cause summers to be nicer and weather – warmer so you can economy on heating, but it’s not the cars that are the problem. LORRIES! (Trucks, if you’re from America) Why there is no big propulsion revolution for them?

First of all, let me tell you what is my problem here. You see, according to nrich.maths.org, an average car nowadays has become so economical it produces about 120 grams per kilometer of CO2 gas. Ok, you might not see the problem. But an empty truck (a FedEx or UPS truck that, to car nuts, is associated with delivery of new car parts) emits 220 grams per kilometer of CO2. That’s twice the amount of a normal car. And that’s not a big rig you see rolling down those motorways around the world delivering you everything from milk to furniture. Let’s do some approximation maths here. I know that European law dictates that a truck driver cannot drive for more than 9 hours without taking a rest as it could become dangerous as they could doze off and roll into the oncoming traffic and kill people. Let’s assume that the average speed of such a truck is 70 km/h (44 mph). So  9 X 70 = 630 km. And, assuming that the truck in question is that delivery truck mentioned earlier, we have 138 kg of CO2 in the air! LOTS! That’s almost the same as the weight of a filled up Vespa scooter. And that goes into air. If that would be just one delivery truck there wouldn’t be a big deal. But there are THOUSANDS of these trucks and lorries all around the world who are emitting even more. A car is not so problematic. An average car driver only uses his car to go to and from work, maybe to drive around town doing some stuff, driving the car for about 3 hours per day.

What’s worse, even though car companies have been under pressure by these “friends of the nature” to develop cleaner, greener cars. But you haven’t heard anyone moaning about trucks. As a result, as I enter “hybrid trucks” or “electric trucks” the only thing that comes up online are some prototype small hybrid trucks, two delivery truck hybrids (one from DAF, one from Volvo Trucks) and American pick-ups (I am glad that Americans have started dealing with this problem with their inefficient, gas-guzzling symbols of American motoring). NOTHING about big, 18-wheel hybrids. Shameful and ridiculous. Because if someone started to attack trucks, I am more than convinced that will make a change for the good in the environment.

It’s not like there is no possibility to implement it. The best way would be to use Tesla’s patent that was unveiled to the world for free – the floorpan of the car that doubles as a battery as it has hundreds of battery cells built in it. Also you could use the system that Chevrolet Volt and some London Busses use – have a diesel that is not connected to the wheels, but rather works as a generator that generates electricity that turns the wheels. Trains use this technology. Then you could have pure electric lorries for use around town. FedEx and UPS have all-electric delivery vans for the use in cities and it doesn’t sound like they are thinking of getting rid of them anytime soon.

Reliability is also not an issue. Some reports say that Volvo and DAF trucks have proven that they are as reliable (if not more) than their fully-diesel powered counterparts. Servicing? Have you seen a truck driver recently on the road trying to fix his lorry? As they have already gone complex enough that drivers won’t be able to fix themselves unless they have a degree in mechanical engineering and for that they book a repair crew that come and meet them on the road, I don’t see the concern of them being too complex either.

You could save so much fuel by having a hybrid and would have way less emissions from those vehicles who do nothing but pollute all day every day all year round. Volvo Trucks have claimed that their truck has a 30% reduction in fuel consumption using the hybrid set up. I am still surprised why no truck manufacturers make them. It’s about time!

 

 

Sharing is caring: most surprising car part sharing occasions

On Tuesday I was doing something that only 10% of Twitter users do: scroll through and read the messages posted on the main feed. Since I’m following 216 accounts it is quite a messy feed, ranging from posts from people I actually care about to some stupid, unreasonable reposts, like “you will not believe what Justin Bieber posted on Facebook. To see it, click this link here”. Uh-huh, yeah, I’m not that stupid. There are two things I don’t care about in these situations: Justin Bieber and getting my laptop infected with every single computer virus there ever has been.

But it’s not all that bad. I find out some surprising facts and I found something quite shocking car-wise that I decided to do some research and find out more of this trait in car world. CAR PART SHARING.

The post that caused this interest was about McLaren F1. An engineering marvel. It still is the fastest naturally aspirated car in the world with 390 km/h (240 mph) in the record books and it is sort of a hypercar that you wouldn’t be expecting to see a cocky rapper or a pretending genius, teeth-whitened producer behind the wheel. No. These cars are owned by true professionals like Jay Leno, Eric Clapton, Michael Schumacher, Elon Musk and Rowan Atkinson (who occasionally kept crashing and restoring his F1). The car had a price tag of $1m and, because only 106 were produced, this price won’t be decreasing for sure. So you expect this car to be made out of exotic materials and genuine parts created for the car. But you’d be wrong, because there was a set of parts on the car that you would be least expecting to be shared with some other car. I am talking about the rear lights.

Now an ordinary human being would just say “no big deal”. But then you have to see what other car (or I’d rather say “motor vehicle”) shares them. Surprise, surprise, it’s a DAF bus.

If the car DAF would’ve shared its parts with would’ve been a Ford or a Hyundai, I wouldn’t be surprised, but cost cutting on a million dollar supercar seems unjustified. It’s not like the company was short of cash. With McLaren having four consecutive F1 championship titles before the car was released in 1992 it’s not like they were short of cash. Or maybe they rushed it. That’s the only explenation I could think of – them rushing to finish the car in time before potential buyers turn away. Luckily McLaren aren’t the same anymore, having all their cars and technology designed “in the house” as they say in the car world.

But McLaren ain’t the only ones who fell into the misery of car part sharing. Here are a couple of other cars with some cheap parts and the cars these parts originated from.

ASTON MARTIN DB7 REAR LIGHT MODULES – 1989 MAZDA 323F

I now understand why in 1990s James Bond didn’t drive the Aston. Because as you can see, cost cutting in the company was pretty horrible. The rear lights out of a economy car? It’s the only design element of that car I didn’t really like. Aston wasn’t all that great on the inside either, having a gearstick so close to the stereo that you couldn’t really change your cassette (or CD if you were tech-savy in those days) unless you had your car in a low gear if it was an auto box or if it was in 2nd, 4th or 6th. The switchgear and the console itself was very Fordish (which is no coincidence, as Aston was owned by Ford from 1987 to 2007. Ford also had a small share of Mazda as well, which explains the light sharing). It’s a shame, because it’s an Aston Martin.

ASTON MARTIN VIRAGE FRONT AND REAR LIGHTS – AUDI 200 and VW SCIROCCO

It’s Aston again. But this car basically shows how bad things were before Ford took Aston Martin over. It’s no surprise that you haven’t heard of the Virage, because it was Aston’s call for desperation to stay alive. Just over 1000 cars were produced and they haven’t really found their place in classic car hall of fame. Partly it was because of its gopping looks. This car really looks like it was designed in a hurry by an accountant and a salesman. Then there was the parts sharing. The front lights were from Audi 200 and rear lights – from a VW Scirocco. They could’ve used parts from other manufacturers because these don’t fit at all. It makes the Aston look like a kit car built by some car enthusiasts during weekends. Some really could mistake this with a VW Scirocco coupe which for an Aston would be such a resentment.

MG SV-R – FIAT PUNTO

The last years of MG were a pain to many car enthusiasts. Here is a brand with racing pedigree and charm dying a suffering death. This suffering also was reflected into cars they built. The MG SV-R was a weird project. Firstly because it was a super car from a brand that already earned a reputation for building cars for British pensioners (thanks to Rover). Secondly because though it was supposed to be a super car it was still built like a pensioner’s car. The front lights were inherited from Fiat’s Punto. It’s not a bad decision as it suited the design, making it look like it squints at you with a mean stare.

PAGANI ZONDA AIR CONDITIONING CONTROLS – MG ZS

Now this one I found by pure chance and I started doubting Pagani. Up until the moment I found out about this I believed (sort of) what Horacio Pagani was saying, that he sprays a fresh grass air freshener around his office so he can concentrate better, that he was spending hours walking around the finished car and watching every single detail of it before redesigning it, that all the parts for his cars were made by Pagani. RUBBISH! So did MG just steal a batch of air conditioning units from you and dropped them into their cars? What’s more, they just kept washing petrolhead’s brains that all cars are “crafted to the absolute perfection” and hey used this claim to justify their £500k price tag. Why couldn’t you just rise the price for another £50k and insert proper electronic switch gear, not one that costs £60 (I did research. The MG air conditioning control unit costs £60). If your cars were an automotive perfection, why did you cut costs so early?

LAMBORGHINI DIABLO FACELIFTED MODEL’S HEADLIGHTS – NISSAN 300ZX

It’s nothing huge, but I really preferred the pop-up headlights on the Diablo. That’s all because of the legislation that is supposed to “keep people alive by removing this fatal headlight design”. Thanks.

NOBLE M600 ENGINE – VOLVO S80 V8

This last one though might not be a visual part, but it sure is quite an interesting one. The hard-core supercar maker Noble used the conservative Volvo’s mad V8 engine, added a couple of turbos and created a monster. It’s really a shame we will never see a V8 engine in a Volvo again because they’re now staying with 4-cylinder engines, but it’s weird that a Volvo engine powers a 200+mph supercar. What’s more, remove all the silencers on Volvo’s exhaust and you will have the best car to confuse people with, because when they’ll hear this roar and then see an S80 coming from that way they will think that they’ve lost their minds. These cars are called “sleeper’s cars”, because until you beat the guy next to you at the take off from traffic lights, he will never know that you have something sinister at your disposal.