Now this is a car
- Thread starter BangkokDean
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SuperBuickGuy
Well-known member
Amazingly brilliant engineering. Still, I wonder why they don't use magnets and friction surfaces to brake the car. The land speed car being built actually near me in Puyallup (pew yal lup), uses magnetics to stop the car - it's a heatless way of of stopping a vehicle.
68/70Vette
Well-known member
To me just everything was impressive...until I got to the engine specs. If the design is not constrained by any sort of regulations, why build a 5 liter engine to get 1000 to 1400 HP? I think the cars durability and reliability would be enhanced by a bigger engine. 8 liters would, IMO, be much more reasonable. I noticed in the write up, the car handled shifts roughly at street speeds. I think a big displacement engine, with naturally more foot pounds of torque, will make a much more streetable engine and still give you the power you want at high rpm. I notice that on the few high end Ferrari's and Porche's I driven along side of on a city street, they'll be driven by really rev'ing up between gears (frequent gear shifts) just to keep up with normal traffic flow. That's a lot of engine wear. I can keep up with normal street and highway traffic flow in my 08 C6 and never exceed 2000 rpm. (1700 rpm at 70 mph, 580 rwhp at 6500 rpm.)
A more personal and subjective reason for a big displacement engine is just the way they sound. The small displacement engines have to be driven to high engine rev's to produce their HP, its rev's where they take on a shrill screaming sound. I personally like the more P-51 like sound of a big displacement engine. Anyhow, I do realize that the sound I refer to as "shrill, screaming" is probably preferred by many people since it's similar to the sound of a F1 car.
A more personal and subjective reason for a big displacement engine is just the way they sound. The small displacement engines have to be driven to high engine rev's to produce their HP, its rev's where they take on a shrill screaming sound. I personally like the more P-51 like sound of a big displacement engine. Anyhow, I do realize that the sound I refer to as "shrill, screaming" is probably preferred by many people since it's similar to the sound of a F1 car.
Twin_Turbo
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Because they most likely don't offer the braking capabilities of ordinary brakes at road/race car speeds. They are oly used for very high speeds or very heavy object because ordinary friction brakes would fail with the sheer amount of energy needing to be dissipated. Just check out how long it takes that land speed car to come to a full stop
SuperBuickGuy
Well-known member
Or because DOT requires a mechanical way of stopping a car - and magnets don't count.
Twin_Turbo
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no idea, no dot here
69427
The Artist formerly known as Turbo84
How does the magnetic braking work? All I can think of is the wheels acting as (electric motor) rotors, needing an opposite-polarity magnetic field to oppose the wheel rotation, or, the wheels acting as electric generators. The first option requires an engine to supply the power/energy to the wheels to oppose the vehicle's kinetic energy, and the second option requires a huge storage battery/capacitor to capture the converted kinetic energy, or a large resistive load to dissipate that same energy.
I'm assuming there's a third option I'm missing.
BangkokDean
Well-known member
The third option is when the extension cord gets to the end the plug pulls out and the car stops......:tomato:
