Some Car Facts

[smoke665]

Yes. But those trucks don't necessarily need human drivers.

Having owned an over the road trucking company for many years, I think I can safely say that as long as trucks travel the nations highways a human driver will always be needed. Driving a low speed vehicle on city streets is one thing, but piloting an 80,000#, 75' long vehicle down the highway is something entirely different. There are way to many variables to program, and AI isn't that advanced yet. They've tried rail/truck combinations but the nations rail system is in an equally sad state of affairs, and companies have been unwilling to give up their JIT inventory management. We had customers who gave us delivery windows of as little as +-30 mins before they shut down the plant and started assessing us penalties. Rail shipments can't match that kind of service. As long as companies expect a shipment to be 600 miles across country overnight while holding the truck at the loading dock for several hours while they finish up the order, there will always be a need for drivers that can adjust to changing circumstances. One of my best friends and neighbors is a retired UPS Regional Manager. The package delivery/scheduling software has been in existence several years now. And yes they're always looking for innovations, but to his knowledge the drivers aren't going anywhere in the foreseeable future either.

Lastly the "Insurance Lottery" on big truck accidents isn't going away. Lawyers all across the country salivate every time they hear of a truck accident, because they know it's not a matter of if they'll get something, it's how much. Being innocent in a truck doesn't keep you from paying out 7 figure settlements, because some idiot ran into you.

 

[table1349]

Americans will give up their vehicles about as soon as they will give up their guns.

 

[Stotes57]

The average American car sits doing nothing for 92% of it's life. Accounting for all of a car's costs, fuel, insurance, depreciation, upkeep, etc the average US car owner pays $12,544 a year. Own a SUV or pickup truck? Add an additional $1908.

This is all that matters to me.

As much as I might want to drive a luxury automobile, I can't justify having 2 or more times as much money sitting in my driveway, and slowly blowing away in depreciation. I have a hard cap of $30,000 (CDN) all in for a vehicle, and have always been able to buy new, or nearly new.

I'd really love a DB11, but until I win the lottery, it's not going to happen.

 

[waday]

Autonomous cars are not going away; in fact, they're the future. I'm excited for the possibility to see autonomous cars as the norm in my lifetime.

 

[smoke665]

History always repeats LOL

 

[Designer]

* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster’s supercharger.

* With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

* Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.

* In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G’s. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G’s.

* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

* Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

* The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.

* THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second.

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter-mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 MPH (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66′ of the run (09/28/03, Doug Kalitta).

Putting this all into perspective:

Lets say the you are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06.

Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged & ready to launch down a quarter-mile strip as you pass by it. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the ‘Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. Just as you pass the Top Fuel Dragster the ‘tree’ goes green for both of you.

The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter-mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it – from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 MPH & not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race!

That’s acceleration!


(source)
TOP FUEL DRAGSTER FAST FACTS - Super Coupe Club of Iowa

 

[jake337]

I'm just waiting for Tesla to have a model 3 + solar roof panel sale.

 

[table1349]

1. The most stolen car in the United States is the Honda Accord.

2. One of the ugliest vehicles ever made, the AMC Gremlin, pioneered the style that is now commonly seen in SUV’s – sloped side-window and high hood. The car was only manufactured for eight years (1970-1978) and numbered 671,475 units. The RRP was $1,879.00USD when it was first released, which these days would be over $11,000 USD.

3. In the past 50 years, motor vehicle fatalities in the USA have reduced by roughly 80%. The total number of fatalities for 2010 alone is the lowest in 62 years.

4. Whale oil was actually used in some car transmissions until 1973.

5. From 1908-1914, Ford’s Model T could be purchased in several different colors, but not black. In an effort to make production cheaper and more efficient, Ford chose to make all further Model T’s only in the color black (since black paint was cheap and durable).

6. The 1970 Oldsmobile 442 was capable of doing zero to 60 in less than six seconds. This speed was pretty impressive for the 70’s, especially for an Oldsmobile.

7. There are now three states that have legalized self-driving cars on the road: Nevada, Florida, and California. Nevada was the first to issue licenses, and did so to allow Google to test their self-driving cars on public streets. Article originally written in 2012, as of 2016 Utah, North Dakota, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Philadelphia, Vermont, and Washington DC have been added to the list. There was an executive order for Arizona and Massachusetts. Colorado, New York, and Alabama are also in progress. Michigan was the only to allow it without a driver in the car and passing this was in progress in California.

8. The 1946 Cisitalia 202 GT is so beautiful a car, that it is permanently exhibited in the New York Museum of Modern Art. The car sports has no sharp edges and is all one single sheet of aluminum. The car was only made from 1947 to 1952 and only 170 were ever produced.

9. Electric cars are not a new thing; they were already being manufactured in 1905. Rauch & Lang produced electric cars until 1920, when the gas-combustion engine became cheaper to run because of low gas prices.

10. The Volkswagen Beetle was originally called “Kraft durch Freude Wage” (“Strength Through Joy Car”). The small car was named thusly by Hitler, who in May of 1938 visited the factory and made his great announcement. The car was named after an organization within the Third Reich. After World War II, Volkswagen chose to change the name.

11. Last year there were 32,310 American fatalities due to auto accidents. This is the lowest fatality rate in over half a century. Seat belts are now being worn by 84% of people who travel in vehicles, compared to 14% just 30 years ago. Other improvements like air bags, stability control, crash impact standards, anti-lock brakes, and better tires also contribute to this great reduction.

12. Quite a few high-end cars are already using technology to be more autonomous. Some features include: automatic braking that activates when sensors identify a crash is about to happen, self-adjusting cruise control to keep you from following another car too closely, anti-drifting steering, and self-parking. This is another one that is since a bit outdated, I won’t even try and update as the subject has changed greatly since we originally wrote this in 2012.

13. Mr. H.H. Bliss, a real estate man from New York, was the first victim of vehicular manslaughter in the United States. In September of 1899, he exited a trolley car and was hit by an electric taxicab. Though he was not killed instantly, he did not survive the injuries to his head and chest.

14. In 2004, Nevada was host to the first ever DARPA Grand Challenge. This is a competition for driverless cars, and the first year none of the participants completed the course. Since then, Google’s self-driving cars have completed over 140,000 miles of road travel, with only two small incidents; one of them caused by human error.

15. Using the actual formula for horsepower (1 HP = power needed to lift 550 lbs. 1 ft. in 1 sec.), the average horse, over a longer period of time, will only produce around .7HP. Currently, a typical compact car will contain a 150HP engine; or the horsepower contained in around 214 horses.

16. The average family sedan has contact patches (areas on the tires that are always touching the road) only covering around 100 square inches of road. This means all four tires only touch around as much road as your two feet placed next to each other.

17. It is believed that self-driving cars will not only be able to improve the flow of traffic on highways (by way of sensing distances between cars and adjusting accordingly), but with the ability to park themselves, it will also strike out parking hassles. This will lead to fewer accidents, and reduced need for traffic control. This is the third one that is highly outdated due to the article being written in 2012, I’ll remove and replace these 3.

18. The Transition, also known as The Flying Car, is actually a plane that can be safely driven on a road or highway, not a car that can fly. The first successful test flight was in 2009 and the Next Generation was unveiled in 2010.

19. A researcher at Carnegie Mellon has developed new headlight technology that dodges raindrops, to avoid shining light on them. The flicker is too fast to be seen by the human eye, and it is estimated that the lights will make driving in rain significantly less dangerous. BMW has also developed “Dynamic Light Spot”, which finds nearby pedestrians and highlights them.

20. In 2008, a 1961 Ferrari California Spyder became the most expensive car sold at a vintage car auction — $10,894,900 USD after the deduction of the auction fees.

Source: Gearheads.