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Save some gas with carefully selected new tires… July 24, 2008 |
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Well, it was time for me to get some new tires. With gas prices being the way they are, I figured I’d try something to increase my fuel mileage. What I ended up doing was getting a tire that was slightly thinner, and slightly taller than the stock tires on my car.
Continue reading Save some gas with carefully selected new tires…
I just learned about this new hybrid sportscar, the Scorpion; presumably aimed at the Tesla Electric Roadster. Unlike the Tesla, the Scorpion will use an internal combustion engine that burns a mixture of gasoline and hydrogen. Ronn Motor Company, the Austin-based startup that will manufacture the Scorpion, claims that this will result in lower emissions and improved fuel economy. Even if it doesn’t, they certainly got the styling right - this thing looks hot!
Continue reading A New Kind of Hybrid: The Ronn Motor Company Scorpion
I love motorcycles. I love how they look, I love to ride them, I love how passionate people get about them, and I love Suzuki’s new concept: The fuel cell driven Crosscage. This concept trades in the traditional small displacement gasoline motor for a fuel cell and electric motor. As a consequence, it has no gears, no engine noise, no tailpipe, and no pollution. While the sound of a bike holds a large amount of appeal, this high-brow technology in a motorcycle holds a whole different appeal. To add to its already stunning technology, its styling is simply phenomenal. The name obviously comes from its unique structure covering the “engine” area. The single sided swing-arm, and single sided front fork (never seen that one on a motorcycle before) make this bike quite asymmetric looking. But Suzuki manages to pull off a brute, punk, mean, street-fighter look with the bike, that I think is to die for. No word on the release, but as you can see from the picture, they have at least one made for testing :)
More pictures below.
Continue reading Fuel cells gone wild: The Suzuki Crosscage Motorcycle
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I’m already building a Thunderdome May 20, 2008 |
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I really wish my car ran on disappointment. I was on my way to the Beverly Center in LA with the intention of spending my graduation cash as irresponsibly as the good people at Banana Republic would allow when I passed the above gas station. At this point, I’m starting to welcome a Mad Max-esque scenario where I can become the road warrior.
Source prolonged war + poor leadership + global warming
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Tesla Roadster: Dinosaurs Move Over May 9, 2008 |
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“Mr. Edison, I don’t want to deal with plugging it in…just give me a bee hive and I’ll make my own candles”
Yes, change is hard. Yes, prototypes or first editions don’t work exactly the way you want to. But get used to it, because as cool as dinosaurs are, things change and good technologies help us immensely (i.e. light bulb).
And with the Tesla Roadster, the future isn’t some fuzzy, hazy thing. It’s right here and it works.
Continue reading Tesla Roadster: Dinosaurs Move Over
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I Want One VII: Tesla Roadster May 7, 2008 |
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Max gave a pretty good rundown of what we saw Saturday and Santi actually knows what he’s talking about, so I’ll keep it short. I spend a lot of time in my car (like most people in Los Angeles) and I think I can say from my brief exposure that I wouldn’t mind spending most of that time in the Tesla Roadster. It’s a simple car by all accounts, unless you count the big expensive battery hogging up all the trunk space. For its price tag, it’s not particularly fast or powerful (this from a guy who hasn’t actually driven one) but there are a lot of options for the interior. Max made an interesting discovery after looking at one model that was raised off the ground: the bottom of the car is almost completely flat. You know, like a video game car. I am by no means a car genius, but I always figured all that stuff under my car was there for a reason. This leads me to the only logical conclusion: the Tesla Roadster runs on magic.
Continue reading I Want One VII: Tesla Roadster
Getting a sneak peak at the Tesla Showroom was a great experience. I knew a little about the car from what I had read, but getting to speak to the director of parts and sales gave me much more insight as to how this mean little electric car works. Keep on reading if you want to learn a bit more about what’s under the Lotus Elise inspired carbon fiber bodywork (warning, this is gonna get a bit technical).
Continue reading Tesla Roadster: Technical Babbling from a car nut
I’m not sure how, but Pilar and Roy managed to get the Velvetron crew into an opening event for the Tesla Showroom in Westwood last Saturday. It was a subdued gathering, with people more focused on the cars than each other - even more than is usual in Los Angeles. The showroom itself is more of a boutique than a real dealership, emphasizing style over substance: there didn’t seem to be anywhere to store vehicles, making it very unlikely that you would drive a car off the lot. Of course, the first shipment of 1000 vehicles hasn’t yet arrived, but the Roadsters have all been sold nonetheless - and the Tesla isn’t a traditional car: with a $109,000 price tag, a 125mph top speed, and styling that ensures competition from the Lotus Elise, the Tesla isn’t about bang for your buck - it’s about having an all-electric car that goes fast and looks good while generating no emissions aside from heat. While this doesn’t ensure environmental friendliness - coal-based power plants aren’t exactly green - it does mean that making it environmentally friendly is a matter of building green power plants, rather than replacing the vehicle. Such decoupling of the energy production from use would go a long way towards breaking our addiction to oil.
Continue reading It’s Almost Here: The Tesla Showroom Opens in Westwood
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Put that old cassette player to use and play MP3s! April 25, 2008 |
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Does your car have a cassette tape player but no MP3 jack? Want to listen to MP3s in the car, but don’t like seeing all those wires associated with having an MP3 player + charger + cassette tape adapter?
Well, why don’t you give this little device a try. It’s an MP3 player that functions both as a standalone unit or as a MP3 player for your cassette deck.
Continue reading Put that old cassette player to use and play MP3s!
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The Keyport super awesome hyper key fob! April 9, 2008 |
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Imagine, all of your keys in a compact, switchblade style key fob. Basically like those nifty VW/Audi keys, only it holds ALL of your keys (well, three six of them)! I’ve been intrigued by the Keyport for a while now, but I haven’t seen anything beyond artist concepts. Well, the folks over at Notcot just got their hands on a pre-production unit. Looks like they are built pretty well.
Continue reading The Keyport super awesome hyper key fob!
