10-08-2021, 10:10 PM
I do lots of project people can't fathom. People always wonder why. I always feel sad for them and their lack of imagination. So many people just see the destination and forget about the journey. All my projects have made me a better thinker, better problem solver and a better engineer and I have met lots of interesting people and got to do many interesting things along the way because of them.
Given these days building an old car the old ways is becoming impossible (at least in NZ) I have pondered in future doing an electrification project because that can still be done if you follow the rule book as it is written and use modern parts and techniques. It would be an interesting technical project with many engineering issues to overcome while still trying to stick to the spirit of a historical car. It won't be vintage of course but you can't build vintage now anyway so the problem to solve is what could you build and still follow the spirit. Given how the rules keep changing now though I doubt I will actually do it as by the time I finished the rules would probably be all different again. And I suspect what you end up with is a hot rod which at the moment isn't where my interests lie.
Seeing acceleration figures and comparisons for electric vehicles is always amusing since there isn't really anything special about it due to how electric motors work vs how fuel endings work. Back in the mid 90s the company I worked at doing electric cars we had to limit the acceleration in software because otherwise the huge torque from zero revs would just spin the wheels. With modern traction control systems better able to handle the power it's no surprise the vehicles can launch quickly. The fact it's a Beetle in this case doesn't really matter. It's just a body shell on a platform but it makes for a better headline.
I find the engineering aspects of a top fuel dragster far more interesting. 0 - 100mph in 0.8 of a second is impressive and the number of engineering challenges they have to overcome to get up to such performance is very interesting to look into.
Simon
Given these days building an old car the old ways is becoming impossible (at least in NZ) I have pondered in future doing an electrification project because that can still be done if you follow the rule book as it is written and use modern parts and techniques. It would be an interesting technical project with many engineering issues to overcome while still trying to stick to the spirit of a historical car. It won't be vintage of course but you can't build vintage now anyway so the problem to solve is what could you build and still follow the spirit. Given how the rules keep changing now though I doubt I will actually do it as by the time I finished the rules would probably be all different again. And I suspect what you end up with is a hot rod which at the moment isn't where my interests lie.
Seeing acceleration figures and comparisons for electric vehicles is always amusing since there isn't really anything special about it due to how electric motors work vs how fuel endings work. Back in the mid 90s the company I worked at doing electric cars we had to limit the acceleration in software because otherwise the huge torque from zero revs would just spin the wheels. With modern traction control systems better able to handle the power it's no surprise the vehicles can launch quickly. The fact it's a Beetle in this case doesn't really matter. It's just a body shell on a platform but it makes for a better headline.
I find the engineering aspects of a top fuel dragster far more interesting. 0 - 100mph in 0.8 of a second is impressive and the number of engineering challenges they have to overcome to get up to such performance is very interesting to look into.
Simon