Electric cars battle performance purists as the UK’s largest auto show turns green
By PopSci Staff
Posted 07.24.2008 at 2:02 pm

KAMALA K360R: No British auto show would be complete without a slew of low-volume, high-performance cars aimed at die-hard enthusiasts and madmen. The Kamala’s calling card is a 0-60 time of three seconds when fitted with a highly turbocharged version of Ford’s 2.0-liter Duratec engine mounted behind the driver. It’s really meant for track usage, but a road-legal package is available. Photo by John Voelcker
The weeklong 2008 British International Auto Show started yesterday and through the Lightnings, Citroens and, yes, Ford Fiestas one common thread has stretched; and it is green. Most of the low and mid-range manufacturers addressed the public's clarion call for less reliance on pricey fuel. Citroen's tiny turbodiesel engine nets 80 miles a gallon, for instance, and plenty of manufacturers rolled out battery-based concepts. The luxury automakers mostly stuck to their high-horsepower, blazing-speed model. But then again, if you can afford a Bentley, what's another five bucks a gallon?
Launch our gallery here for the entire shiny roundup along with John Voelcker's on-the-scenes reporting from the 2008 London Motor Show.
Comments
I have designed electric cars that should be able to exceed 300 mph on the road and maybe Mach 5 on the salt flats. If stacked flywheel storage systems are used and work as well as hoped, it should be possible to build a car that is less than a meter high that has twin 1000 horse motors that can exceed 300 mph. If my injection reactor works, the speed may increase to over 350 mph. The loudest sound you may hear will be the wind coming off of the car and the high-pitched sound of the turbo-compressor that will cool the motors.
For the land speed record, I would use either flywheels or my reactor and a compression-field jet engine. The driver may have to be lying on his back and suspended in an electromagnetic artificial gravity field because the car should be able to go from 0 to 1500 mph in less than 2 seconds since the engine has no moving parts and uses a linear induction system to shove the compressed air and fields through the engine. When it reaches a mile per second, it should be in the speed trap. It will reverse the field direction and stop the car in less than 10 seconds. That means the car would be faster than the fastest jets that fly today. A car being faster than a plane hasn't happened in nearly a century.
2 out of 5 people found this comment helpfulIn 1899, the fastest car in the world was an electric car that topped out at over 60 mph. My fastest car may be able to do 60 times that speed.
Genius has its limitations,
1 out of 2 people found this comment helpfulStupidity is not so encumbered.
Obviously something is wrong with this picture. Any moving object accelerating 0-1500mph in 2 seconds would kill any human inside it because the g forces would literally crush your internal organs into Jell-O. Including, the issue of artificial gravity, which NASA and other governments would absolutely love to posses. Nevertheless, I highly doubt this can be achieved within the next hundred years without spinning whatever the person is in to counteract what they’re experiencing. I’m not saying it’s impossible to create artificial gravity, but it most certainly isn’t easy considering the U.S. Government has spent billons of dollars to achieve it. The sound you’d hear after a jet passing is called a Sonic Boom—which occurs after an object exceeds the speed of sound. Stopping in ten seconds after going 1500mph would require extreme science (such as Antimatter). Also, the vehicle or aircraft would completely be ravaged regardless if you were using Titanium, Liquid Metal, Carbon Fiber Materials, or [Classified](some of which are colossally expensive). Though, this vehicle would also have trouble steering with it speeding 1500+mph. However, aircraft can achieve this speed and beyond. Most of the technologies and materials necessary are classified and not available to the public—and for good reason. Not saying it cannot be done, but its not going to happen in most people’s lifetimes. Mad scientists or masterminds can’t figure out some of what you’ve proposed anytime soon. Yet, you shouldn’t be discouraged—instead use this awe-inspiring desire to explore and research new ideas. You might be the next great scientist.
FACT: The B-2 Spirit costs BILLONS OF DOLLARS per plane.
1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful