Electric 944
04-18-2007, 06:33 PM
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Electric 944
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the builder pushes his electric 944 down the highway using a trailer he made from the front end of a 1981 VW Rabbit. The gasoline powered trailer extends the range of the electric car t more than 300 miles. A view from under the hood shows as electric throttle control ( a series of black boxes on the lower left)
The car apparently set an Elec-vehicle quarter mile record.
the builder pushes his electric 944 down the highway using a trailer he made from the front end of a 1981 VW Rabbit. The gasoline powered trailer extends the range of the electric car t more than 300 miles. A view from under the hood shows as electric throttle control ( a series of black boxes on the lower left)
The car apparently set an Elec-vehicle quarter mile record.
04-18-2007, 06:57 PM
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Does this guy sound a little hypocritical to anybody else?
From the article "The pusher trailer bears a funny little sticker on the back that says "Hybrid". It's a joke, because Straubel hates hybrid cars. He says hybrids are still wedded to gasoline in some way, and pure plug-in cars are the future." Yet this guy has an entire VW engine pushing his "electric" car around the place, probably giving out just the same emissions as his 944 would've before being converted to electric.
Just seems a bit odd to me.
From the article "The pusher trailer bears a funny little sticker on the back that says "Hybrid". It's a joke, because Straubel hates hybrid cars. He says hybrids are still wedded to gasoline in some way, and pure plug-in cars are the future." Yet this guy has an entire VW engine pushing his "electric" car around the place, probably giving out just the same emissions as his 944 would've before being converted to electric.
Just seems a bit odd to me.
04-18-2007, 07:36 PM
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Yeah, it seems a little pointless (and unsafe) to be pushing an electric car with a gasoline-powered trailer. It's pretty cool that he made an electric 944 though. I was hoping the trailer would just contain a gasoline generator that effectively made the car a hybrid... seems like that would be much simpler and safer.
04-18-2007, 09:00 PM
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this is the same guy that made the tesla roadster. he used the vw to push his 944 because the batteries only lasted for 20 minutes, so instead of trailering it to the tracks he just used the vw to push it. the problem was that the transmission for the vw was still in the vw so he left it second or third and started off with the porsche and then started the vw. there was an article about the tesla roadster in the most recent popular mechanics that included some about the porsche.
edit: woops, i didnt realize that that was all said in the article posted above.
edit: woops, i didnt realize that that was all said in the article posted above.
04-18-2007, 10:13 PM
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I agree with the guy that hybrids are a big fraud. If I were that committed to saving gas, I'd keep my regular car and modify my driving habits, or maybe buy a nice VW diesel, before I'd pay thousands extra for a car with more systems to go wrong, banks of batteries to replace, etc. Especially knowing that it will take years to pay for itself.