The End of Supercars?

They were.

 

As far as looks, yes. But the big Deusy (most powerful of them all) only made about 265 hp out of SEVEN LITRES SUPERCHARGED.

I did see a special made on a Deusenberg frame and engine in which the engine was upped to over 400 hp, though. It was custom built in the 1950s and looked something like a bigger Facel Vega.

 

I look at the economy from an historical perspective of positive gains every 30 or so years:

1920s – huge economic boom

1950s – huge economic boom

1980s – huge economic boom

2010s – ?????????


Of course there have been collapses in between these periods. But with hope, the next decade will be prosperous.

 

Word.

Check this: http://www.lightningcarcompany.co.uk/performance.php

This is probably the future. They claim 0-60 in 4 secs. I think there are still some technical challenges (smaller batteries that can charge faster) but the technology is out there already. The Lightning differs from the Tesla in that it has a motor on every wheel and no transmission. The Tesla has a 2 speed. Electric motors can rev very high so a tranny may not be needed. The quietness would take some getting used to.

 

Motor per wheel is the way to go.

Especially when you have available all the torque you want at zero rpm.

So play a CD of Rendevous.

 

Not that one but there were many like it in various publications.

Sounds funny.

 

Yup, and your point is right IMHO about sucking it up and getting on with life.

Remember that when Orwell wrote 1984 it was 1948 and he said he inverted the 4 and 8 to come up with the date. Couldn't imagine society actually surviving past 1984...

 

No... I have not... Over here it's the "envoireMENTAL" byrocracy requiring more and more CO2 friendly vehicles... Perhaps you're in the same sh**storm...

Slot car experience! That's funny.

I'm all for adoption. I'm all for speed. But without the noise building up rev by rev and smell of petrol/gas the electric car experience is like eating a soya-"meat" burger. It looks and "tastes" like meat but it sucks no matter how awesome it tastes! It's like my first experience with a fast car which was a 400 hp Jag: The tires smoked and the speedometer needle neverendingly continued to rise but there was no sense of speed or action in the too quite coupe. A Miata is more exciting!!

They will start to tease me once they get 300 miles on a recharge, weigh as much as todays cars and fully charge in three minutes... And make some sexy noise... The noise, is veeeery important... At least to me!

Imagine a touring car championship where the audience is louder than the cars! Booooooring... But that's just IMHO...

 

The Prius makes a bizarre sci fi sound when it shuts down

It would be awesome to get a Lexus 400hp hybrid drivetrain and install it in a cool lightweight mid engine sports car body

The Tesla is ok but not supercar enough

I'd like to see a full carbon chassis like a Mosler MT900 w a hybrid drive, how cool would that be ?

 

http://www.mgexperience.net/article/nice-drive.html

It was the inspiration for Red Barchetta by Rush

 

This is the future of the Supercar, its a bit too pricey for me but you get the picture

First Official Renderings of 1018 hp Koenigsegg CCXR Special Edition
by Sam Stockley
November 25, 2007
Supercars and eco-friendliness are terms rarely seen occupying the same linguistic space. But it is Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg that wishes to unite the apparently radically-opposing concepts in a new Special Edition model dubbed the CCXR. Announced earlier this year, these are the first official renderings via Autoblog.nl of the new Koenigsegg CCXR Special Edition, fitted with an engine capable both of running on biofuel and of de-throning the Bugatti Veyron.

The Special Edition model features a cast-aluminium V8 engine with sequential multipoint fuel injection and twin rotrex centrifigual superchargers for up to 1.5 bar boost pressure. Burning the ethanol in E85 biofuel results in the cooling of combustion chambers, while combined with a higher octane rating, power of 1,018 hp at 7,200 rpm and torque of 1,060 Nm at 6,100 rpm is produced.

The 4.7-litre turbocharged engine propels the biofuel CCXR Special Edition to 100 kph in just 2.9 seconds, with top speed expected to exceed 400 kph. The supercar achieves 22l/100km or 10.7 mpg on the combined cycle. And all for a cool 1.5 million euros.
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Could not have said it any better. Take a look at matorcycles today, 1000ccs with the weight of 600's a decade ago. Or look at the maclaren F1, maybe a decade or less from now the average supercar will match it in weght power performance etc. The money will be spent on exotic materials both for body and engine. I do not see electric supercars or hybrids. There will be different cars for different purposes, and limited use cars like supercars which can be built with less regard to cost will go the exotic materials light weight route.

If you think about it the current crop are a dead end anyway, power chasing weight is not the answer.

So the futire looks like we may have much better supercars than we can really think of today.

 

Normally aspirated J's had 265 hp. In 1929. First commonly available car IIRC[Cadillac] to have 265+ hp was in 1955. 26 year trickle down.
SJ single carb cars had watercooled blower, made 320 hp. First commonly available car [Chrysler 300 331 Hemi] to have 300bhp was also in 1955.
SJ dual carb cars probably made 350-400 or so. It took until 1959 to hit 350+ [Chrysler 413]. 30 year trickle down.
In 30's, 50's, 60's, resources were unlimited. 70's-80's resources and safety were issues. 90's less so, computers and lightweight materials helped overcome.
This century resources, emissions, safety, and socio-economic pressures are the issues.
A Golf I weighed 1800#, no safety equipment. A Golf VI weighs about 2600-2800. Not many sub-2500# cars around. Fit, Aveo, Yaris (2300) are 24-2500#. Prius is 2900#.

So the weight estimates are years from fruition as are battery weight changes.
Just like it took the 70's and 80's to get around the tech, see ya in 20.

 

Thought the '55 Chevy small block was 265 cid (not hp) - and that he first to match cid/hp was the 283 (fuelie) in '57 ...?

 

Yes, sorry. I'll edit. 28 years. I'm old. Thx. Guess it was 55 Caddy 2x4-barrel, 270 hp

 

Wonder how many people on this board have every actually seen a slot car, much less heard of them, or heaven forbid, RACED 'em?

I did, in another millenium, when I was a kid...mucho phun.

 

I hope you are right.

 

I actually hope you're wrong in ONE AREA- global population.
If Man were to adapt, the population would have to decrease.

 

OK, true - I remembered 265 from the NA cars. However, the point here is that the 1930s Duesenberg was a hyper-expensive supercar of its day. Maybe even on a par with today's Maybach, counting the custom bodywork. It might have easily seemed that never would such a thing be built again in about 1937 or so - depression still going strong, and obviously WW2 is right around the corner.

But, after the war, and when the civilian economy is moving again, soon there are quite a number of cars for the upper middle class that more than equaled it's performance at a far lower adjusted price. And, with quite a bit smaller engines and better economy.

I kind of think that we may be at that 1937 point again; it may take a while to see what the next generation of supercars brings.

Hope it doesn't take 30 years, though - I kind of wanted to live long enough to see them and perhaps even be able to drive them.

 

But what caused the prosperity after these crashes? People being smarter about their money, buckling down, saving, paying off their debt quickly, taking an interest in the country... what causes you to think this will happen this time? Record numbers for drop outs, debt ratios, morons who think they own the world because they have 2 cars, a house, big ol' TV's none of which are paid for and they are at the brink of destruction because of it. Look at the shows on TV and look at the ads, it's a great indicator of the mental capacity of the people. People have never been worse off and all they do is complain.... that's a crappy start to fixing these problems.

 

The level of greed in this era is almost unbelieveable now. It's entirely different this go round.

 

And how scary is that?!

 

There were of course some very greedy people throughout the 1920s culminating in the crash of 1929 as well.

 

2010s Huge economic boom in ASIA and Oz

 

Ah yes, big slot cars.
Agreed, I keep waiting for battery technology to get here.

Yes we have electric cars that will do 0-60 in 2.6 seconds...........................for a mile.
..........Or they cost way too much for the package, the Tesla Roadster for 100k!!

RANGE is the key. We know they can go fast but not far enough.

Give me a pure electric car that will do 100 miles a day at freeway speeds for less than 15k and I'm there. Right now the only draw back is battery replacement every 5 years at what cost?

The next manifestation is serial hybrids, driven exclusively by plug-in battery/electricity with a combustion engine back-up to run a big alternator when the batteries get low, extending the range with marginal fuel consumption..

They just need to get the package together at a reasonable cost with reasonable performance..

"As long as a gallon of bottled water costs more than gasoline people are going to keep driving".














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