A few things about the Tango: Part of Rick Woodbury's idea is to help crowded municipalities address traffic issues, because more than one such vehicle can occupy a lane, like a motorcycle.
Unlike a motorcycle, it has four wheels and unlike a narrow regular car, it is very hard to tip over because of its extremely heavy battery pack deliberately located with a very low positioning. Even if you know this, you'd think it might not work that way, but Mr. Woodbury told me that if you do the math and the physics, sure enough, the battery weight and positioning and Tango's implementation of this are able to give the vehicle good stability. If you look around on that website you'll find a video of the Tango aggressively navigating a difficult windy track and apparently doing so with better handling and stability than a regular car. I emphasize this because the matter is so utterly counter-intuitive. If you look at the vehicle and don't know about the battery-weight-positioning issue, one's first reaction is that the vehicle's rollover problem might be worse than the worst SUV's, but this reportedly is very far from the case. Here is the video: http://www.commutercars.com/theater.html Another issue with the vehicle is the transmission, or lack of a large number of gears. I don't recall what was decided for the vehicle, but I think there's a very direct application of power to the road. I guess you might say this is a feature of some EVs..... x amount of horsepower in an EV is perhaps different from x amount in an ICE, in part because the question is available at what speed and RPM. This, and at least one other non-Woodbury EV I've been in are fast enough so that I personally would not drive them when configured for their top acceleration. I'd want a toned-down version, as I just don't think it's necessary or safe to drive on city streets with vehicles that can perhaps outdragrace a Ferrari. I don't recall, but I think Mr. Woodbury is known in EV drag racing circles and it is therefor perhaps not a surpise he's come up with an idea for a 2 seat car that accelerates very quickly. An issue as to availability of this vehicle is I think crash testing laws and regulations. So, sometimes these nascient smaller-production-run EV efforts come as kits, to circumvent these laws, until they can get big enough volume going to do proper testing. Mr. Woodbury is very oriented toward trying to get very large scale production going, in the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, but at present it's not at that point. I think if you had many dozens of thousands of dollars you could call him and ask him to produce one for you. I think he mentioned working with a Lotus-experienced engineer in their calculations. Many of the bigger car companies have dismissed the idea of making EV because, they claim, they can't make profits on vehicles below a certain level of production (say: 5000 per year). But some companies are better at that than others. As to your idea of dragging a generator behind, say, biodiesel-powered, I don't know the extent to which AC Propulsion could produce them individually or mass-produce them, but that's the place I would start with such a question. Still, there's enough creativity out there such that if you got a Tango into the hands of a persistent ingenious person, he or she could probably create a drag-behind biodiesel-burning generator. In the U.S. the authorities would probably find the emissions laws as an excuse to give you a hard time, even though in reality a well-made generator would probably have clean emissions. MM On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 15:12:04 +0200, you wrote: >I think this could come with a bio diesel trailer with a electric generator >to increase operation distance. > > > >www.commutercars.com <http://www.commutercars.com/> > > > >And it is faster then a Porche. > >Its "electric wheelchair" appearance is a lie. > >This is a wolf in cheeps appearance.:) > > >Not everything that happens in the USA is negative. > > > >Johs Kleppe ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
