Way of the Future?

[Zedrally]

This thread is dedicated to all Prophets, Soothsayers and Crystal Ballers.

I'm sure many have noticed the rise in Oil Prices, and the consequent flow on in petrol prices. In the short term we will all learn to live with this and adjust accordingly, however, it is short sighted and does not address where we will be with our cars in let's say 20 years.

How do others see the situation?

Is it feasible to convert to gas?

How about some type of diesel or electric or a hybrid or should we consider selling up now while we have a chance?

Personally, I would love to see some type of hybrid conversion available, realising that the obvious loss of performance, whilst still having the classic "Z" styling is going to be a trade off.

Remember that the day of $10 per litre is getting closer.

Regards

The resident Prophet of Doom

MOM

[Bambikiller240]

Is it feasible to convert to gas?

MOM

Are you suggesting that we all start eating beans?

What kind of gas are you referrng to? Natural Gas? It's a Petroleum product as well and judging from my winter heating bill, it's price is prohibitive or soon will be.

[Zedrally]

Are you suggesting that we all start eating beans? .

Oh well at least its renewable energy!

What kind of gas are you referrng to? Natural Gas? It's a Petroleum product as well and judging from my winter heating bill, it's price is prohibitive or soon will be

Gas here is LPG, very cheap and plenty of it for the next 100! I believe there is an LPG conversion available that has a donut shaped tank that drops into the spare tyre well.

However, sooner or later the price will rise as well. Diesel motors can run on just about anything but water, but I haven't heard of a Diesel conversion.

Some of these euro diesel's claim up to 90 kpl.

Toyota has released a hybrid car here which is attracting much interest, dealers are back to to good ol' days of a 4 month wait, so utilising hybrid technologly may not be to far distant.

MOM

[seerex]

A local police department here in fla did a trial test with LP cars and from what I heard they worked quite well, but it was a somewhat closed situation. There was also several which took up a deal with ford to try hydrogen powered ford crown vics and I also heard it went well. I think the prices are here to stay, the gas people know we will pay them the higher price so why shouldn't they charge it, in their mind. Make diesels cleaner and cheaper , and make options < hybrid/lp/gas/hydrogen> for truck and larger vehicle buyers and you will see a change in my mind.

[e_racer1999]

i still think the biodiesel z was fantastic. i agree.... we should try and find some way to not use gas. some cleaner, cheaper, easier-to-come-by alternative

maybe som microbes or yeast that goes in a fermenting tank. just pour in sugar!

[Zedrally]

i still think the biodiesel z was fantastic.

Not familiar with this, could you please expand?

[AChev]

I have always had this idea maybe someone can give me a hand with it. Hydrogen and oxygen gases are combustible when ignited. The best ratio is like 3 to 2 or something like that, I don't remember. --Water as fuel. Having a battery on board the car and a system that puts water through the chemical reaction of electrolysis to seperate h20 into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, and then the gases are sent to the combustion chamber where ignited to propel the engine. Kind of similar to a an experiment in chemistry a few years ago.

[260Zed]

I have always had this idea maybe someone can give me a hand with it. Hydrogen and oxygen gases are combustible when ignited. The best ratio is like 3 to 2 or something like that, I don't remember. --Water as fuel. Having a battery on board the car and a system that puts water through the chemical reaction of electrolysis to seperate h20 into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, and then the gases are sent to the combustion chamber where ignited to propel the engine. Kind of similar to a an experiment in chemistry a few years ago.

Hydrogen power is not that far away. Iceland has made a decision to convert all marine, public transport, and industrial machinery to hydrogen power in the next 30ish years. Public buses have already changed over (2002). Problem is the cost of refuelling stations & transportation. I'd say we'll prolly bitch and moan about the cost of fossil fuels for another 50 years. Then, i dunno. :stupid:

FWIW

Luke

[Bambikiller240]

From what I've heard, using Hydrogen is senseless as it takes more energy to separate the Hydrogen and Oxygen than you get using the Hydrogen to power the vehicle.

CAVEAT: I am not a chemist, I'm reporting what I've heard from people being interviewed on TV and Radio who claim to know what they are talking about.

Here's some info on BioDiesel

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html

http://www.northwales.org.uk/bio-power/whatis.htm

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6826994/ THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE!

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLC,GGLC:1969-53,GGLC:en&q=Bio+Diesel

[EScanlon]

...it takes more energy to separate the Hydrogen and Oxygen than you get using the Hydrogen to power the vehicle.......

That's what I've heard as well. Or at least that the cost of doing so.

What about ALCOHOL? You know that works as you see it in auto racing all the time. In certain parts of the country, during winter the gas has a percentage of alcohol in it. Although the "cost" of this has been ballyhooed somewhat, it's mostly because it's easier to refine oil than to distill alcohol.

Lastly, the natural gas conversion has been around for years. I recall using natural gas taxis all over Spain in the late 60's.

The biggest problem to any of this is that there aren't enough people willing to accept the changes, pay for the modifications and accept the limitations to make it a viable alternative. Whether it needs to be profitable, or the cost of gas needs to rise so high that it becomes cheaper, is irrelevant, as long as people aren't willing to use the technology.

Enrique

Enrique

[e_racer1999]

Not familiar with this, could you please expand?

http://www.veggiecar.com

[AChev]

Wow, what an awesome car to choose for such a project. I would have thought a conversion to biodeisel would have had more modifications necessary. Very cool

About the hydrogen power: Hydrogen power may require engery to produce the hydrogen, but i remember reading in an article that the products of hydrogen combustion are much less harmful to the environment then fossil fuels; to help out with global warming