Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Hmmm, the car has two engines making the car a hybrid so maybe we can drive in the commuter lanes along with the Toyota Priuses. "
Imagine being the cop who has to argue over the ticket with that guy ^^
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Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
61–70 of 146 posts
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#62How on earth is it street legal to emit a high-pressure plume of jet exhaust behind you?
We live in a society where things are legal by default. Why would adding a jet engine to a car be a priori illegal? If he harms somebody or otherwise causes damage, that itself is what's illegal and he'd be liable regardless of motor vehicle regulations. If this mod became a larger trend, especially consumer-available, then regulations would be implemented to head it off. But for a few lone instances it's not particu…
In California, you have to register your car and have it pass a smog test. How would this pass that?
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, there's video online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCqxWhKe_tA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNdkXwFQ3c (Noise warning, for obvious reasons.)
I see > I don't know how fast the car will go and probably never will. The car was built to thrill me, not kill me. That doesn't stop me from the occasional blast on the highway though. but I am unsure if that means he has never driven it using the jet engine, or whether the engine even will power the car or just kinda runs on its own. I'm curious to see it go at all under jet engine power. Edit: maybe this is it htt…
That videos's an original Beetle, not a New Beetle.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#64Seems like a good time to ask this question that has been bugging me forever, since all the HN jet nerds will be drawn to this thread: Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine? I'd imagine that hooking up such an engine directly to the drivetrain like in a Prius would be difficult, but surely a small turbine with one hell of…
Having an ICE that drives a generator (alternator?) to power a traction motor(s), without being mechanically linked to the drivetrain, is how diesel locomotives operate. I believe the concept also has been (is being?) explored for linehaul trucks. But I'm not sure what constraints there are on passenger vehicles though... I'm also curious. If I had to guess, I would bet that the constraints are more commercial than p…
Union Pacific tried using turbines in the 50s[0] but fuel consumption was an issue (I think they had to keep the turbine idling and maybe throttling wasn't as easy?). Also mentioned in the wiki article was the low-grade fuel they were used was able to be used for plastic manufacturing instead of just burning it.
The bigger difference between locomotive applications and GPs question is around charging batteries as opposed to running motors or directly turning the wheels. Efficiency of the smaller turbine is mentioned in another comment - but I have to imagine you'd also see some loses going from turbine to generator to battery and then to electric motor.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#65Seems like a good time to ask this question that has been bugging me forever, since all the HN jet nerds will be drawn to this thread: Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine? I'd imagine that hooking up such an engine directly to the drivetrain like in a Prius would be difficult, but surely a small turbine with one hell of…
I've been wondering about this very same question a lot myself and accidentally stumbled across the answer just a few days ago: Efficiency of turbines smaller than grid scale is simply not anywhere close to what piston engines can do at e.g. car size. Even at naval scale, turbines only win in use cases where power density is more important than fuel efficiency. Helicopters are deep in the (specific) camp of power den…
Celebrity and Cunard built a few Cruise ships that use turbines to generate power to its electric motor propulsion.[1] They regret the endeavor owing to cost of operation.[2]
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#66How did Jay Leno not get this car on his TV show when he had it? He still is posting episodes to YouTube so it is still possible.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#67Seems like a good time to ask this question that has been bugging me forever, since all the HN jet nerds will be drawn to this thread: Why hasn't anyone made a hybrid car that uses a gasoline-powered turbine generator to charge its batteries instead of a piston engine? I'd imagine that hooking up such an engine directly to the drivetrain like in a Prius would be difficult, but surely a small turbine with one hell of…
To add to the discussion - the M1 Abrams tank uses a turbine. I don't know how that's linked up to the tracks though.
I recently stumbled into a couple of YouTube videos on turret design for tanks.
* What actually IS an “Oscillating” turret? https://youtu.be/46k7uhPHpLY
* What happened to Rear-Mounted Turrets? https://youtu.be/g5DOf2eZW3Y
At 4:24 in the rear mounted turret video it touches on the aspects of modern transmission.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! Here's a great subthread from one of those: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16524533 (I just added it to https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights )
@dang I wonder why we don't just generate these things at the bottom of every article? My extension does it already, but I feel like it would help a lot as a core feature.
The lists that I post, and that most users post, are reviewed to include only the interesting threads. This makes them more valuable to readers, since the odds of going on a click trip to something boring are much lower.
Rather than autogenerating them, I think what we'll do is add software support for the community to collaborate on the 'related 'list for a post. And it needn't just link to related HN threads - it can be related URLs on the same story, for example.
When we'll actually get to this is another question of course...
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#69"The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back." Careful wording to give the impression that the drive shaft of the helicopter turbine would be connected to the rear wheels, without actually claiming that it is. So it's a car with a large flame thrower in the back, minor The Boring Company vibes. Well possible that the author might have ha…
For a stunt car like this there's not a huge need or desire to have it powering the wheels at all.
The direct air thrust will push the car just fine, doesn't need a transmission, has zero issues with wheel spin or traction, and so then doesn't require re-engineering the wheels/tires and then the suspension and/or chassis to handle 1350hp.
Re: Ron Patrick's Street-Legal Jet Powered Volkswagen Beetle (2006)
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
@dang I wonder why we don't just generate these things at the bottom of every article? My extension does it already, but I feel like it would help a lot as a core feature.
The lists that I post, and that most users post, are reviewed to include only the interesting threads. This makes them more valuable to readers, since the odds of going on a click trip to something boring are much lower. Rather than autogenerating them, I think what we'll do is add software support for the community to collaborate on the 'related 'list for a post. And it needn't just link to related HN threads - it c…
Good points. Previously [0], in your list, it doesn't include the number of points, as well as the calendar day, which is something that my generator includes and helps prevent click trips.
To filter further, the list could just include posts with some points + comments ratio math. Also filter out similar posts within a short timeframe, if two posts happen within a week of each other, pick the one with the better ratio math.
No need to involve the community in moderation a second time, since they've already involved themselves with points/comments to begin with.