NVP66S

Here's my opinion. No flash in the pan because electric cars do make sense in some situations (second car, stays in the urban areas) but it's gonna be a long time before electrics make up a large fraction of the fleet on the road. Look at the daily consumption of petroleum, most of which goes to power vehicles. Then look at the increase of electricity needed to replace that. That adds a lot of generating capacity and grid infrastructure. ( I'm not running the numbers but it's circa a factor of two) Now add the politics. In the US and many Western countries, the ability to make cheap electricity is being curtailed. We have a President who ran on a platform of: "Under my administration, electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket". Coal burning power plants (the lowest cost) are being targeted and he appointed an anti-nuke activist to head the NRC. Or were you referring to just motorsports? I see an ethical problem there. Battery lifetime is a strong function of depth of discharge. Cranking batteries last thousands of cycles because they are only run down a small fraction of max discharge. Drag racing (several electric examples) is REALLY HARD on the batteries because of the high current, deep discharge. Call it 10 cycles before you have to replace the batteries. Other motorsports, not as bad, but not indicative of street performance if you don't replace the batteries twice a year. Sorry if this is a thread jack. Feel free to tell me to go away.

Sorry, I didn't see your post. Didn't mean to step on your toes.

Inspection of a new "assembled" car in TX is not the same as your normal annual inspection done at your local Quick Lube. It must be done by an ASE certified master mechanic, and there is special paperwork to be filled out with checklists and space for comments. The inspection report needs a printout of the mechanic's credentials showing current master status. Go here: http://www.txdmv.gov/publications and click on the Assembled and Rebuilt Vehicle Manual. It's a many step process but I found all involved to be helpful.

A few weeks ago, I went through TX inspection, titling, and registration with my Westfield. I went to the county tax office (where they issue plates) and for $25, got 30 day temp tags. You also need insurance to drive on public roads. That allowed me to drive to inspection and certified scales. Your first step is to make an appointment with your local "Auto Theft Unit" in the police dep't. They will fill out the forms declaring the car wasn't built with stolen parts. They came to me for this.

I'm not an aerodynamicist by trade, but I hang out with some, and I've done a bit of aircraft design. If you are seriously interested in drag reduction, I highly recommend getting a copy of "Fluid Dynamic Drag" by S.F. Hoerner. It's extremely well written and has lots of experimental results. And if you're a nerd, it's a fun read. For ground vehicles, drag is referenced to frontal area (airplanes refer more often to wing area) and drag force = 1/2 * rho * v^2 * Cd * Area. So drag goes up with speed squared and linearly with Cd. Cd for a cylinder at typical car conditions (Mach, altitude, velocity, etc) is about .9 to 1.0. This is terrible. In the real world with end effects, fairing imperfections, fasteners, etc, adding a fairing can lower Cd to 0.2 or better. Dan

This is between Mojave and Tehachapi.

I've seen that one before, but I watched it through again. It's that funny. Thanks.

I wear the yellow foam E.A.R plugs when I go more than 10 miles on my motorcycle, but you can't see them inside my helmet. Maybe I could color them to be harder to spot.

I love those Peltors. I use them in my workshop and in my day job that sometimes gets really noisy. Comfortable, easily adjustable for fit and the adjustment stays. However most states don't allow headsets. "but officer, the noise level is the same as rolling your windows up and that's what I'm gonna tell the judge....' Probably is not a good idea.

This is the biggest problem I've discovered with my new car. Wind buffeting my head is extreme above 50 MPH. I'm afraid my glasses will either leave or lose a lens. I've been thinking about transparent wings that mount to the door hinges on the A-pillars. Prefer not to wear a motorcycle helmet, nor to ask my passenger to do so. I have restrained the seat belt ends and they are no longer beating me about the face.

PM sent. My employer doesn't allow day-job related stuff going to the www. We bought a building lot 18 months ago thinking we'd move by now, and have a apartment in town until the new house gets built. Of course the ap't has the requisite 2-car garage.

Officially I am a Texan. My drivers license says so. Or were you asking a different question? I just assumed that's how you spell the word 'official' in Arkansas.

Please educate me. I thought the Birkin was a pretty complete kit. What parts of your car came from them and what parts did you make? Thanks, Dan

I had a college room-mate in 1973 who had one of these. His was a later model with the same body but the 4-stroke engine. It still had the free-wheeling feature (sprag clutch?). It had a lever under the instrument panel that would lock and unlock that feature. We were driving one day and I reached under and flipped the lever. He couldn't shift gears. It turned out the only manual trans he ever drove was that car and he never learned the clutch technique all the rest of us learned.

I have a standard SEiW that's a road car not intended for track days, so I don't have an opinion on the lap time changes with a wider front track. However, the turning radius is large; about like a front-wheel drive car. The wide track option helps this, but I don't have the numbers. The wheelbase is longer than my Miata, and the steering is limited by the cycle fenders hitting the bodywork.

Purrty car! Does the State of Georgia issue plates without a windshield? Dan

I guess that would be me, as I am driving my WF as a commuter car. My rationalization? Hey, it replaces the motorcycle I used to drive.

What, I have to make the first xcargay joke?

Nice photos.

Tires and spark plugs are the same strange mixture the world around. My WF is wearing 205/50-15 tires where 205 is mm wide and 15 is inches wheel diameter. Spark plugs are 10 or 14 mm thread and inch wrenching. I guess most of it is historical and international SAE standards. But leave it to a US government agency to measure exhaust emissions in grams/mile.

I have also had excellent service from Jegs. There was only one item they had to back-order and they were very proactive on it. Dan

Very nice GT6, congrats. If that show had been a week later, I would have tried to be there with my WF. The airplane hangar where I built my car was earlier used to restore two GT6es (how do you make the plural of GT6?). I did none of the work but I visited during the projects.

I stand corrected. Would you agree that the Messerschmitt (this time spelled correctly) and the Robin were post WWII cheap people movers? Then we can start the jokes about Messerschmitt having a large stock of airplane canopies left over and wondering what to do with them.

We seem to be converging on a consensus. The Messerschmidt and Morgan were low cost low performance people movers when UK and Germany were coming out of the devastation of WWII. Elio (with 5000 reservations) is a modern low performance people mover with a closed canopy and AC priced far below the Fit/Yaris/Versa/Spark/Fiesta. Slingshot and T-Rex are going for the fun excitement market. Can-Am fits in between. 3 wheels may not as good for getting around a track, but that doesn't make the Slingshot any less fun on the road. Let the Robin jokes begin...:jester:

The company I work for is moving to TX, and I am moving to TX. This is a months-long event and I changed my personal legal status (drivers license) from CA to TX already. I figured I should register the car in the State I'm moving to rather than the State I'm moving from. I plan to trailer it back to TX in a few months.