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Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Care to guess how many early rockets burned on the launch pad? Keep working at it for a few decades and we come to the point that space launches are so routine we consider it an epic failure when the boosters don't land themselves perfectly at...

Isn't that the case already? I know I'm already breaking some obscure law or other pretty much every minute of the day. Selective enforcement is where the real power is. You can harass anyone at any time for SOMETHING.

NEGATIVE?! PESSIMISTIC?! I'm not a pessimist! My mom had me tested. All the tests show I'm PRAGMATIC. (Really, they do.). Everything is a risk/benefit assessment when it comes to this sort of thing. There has to be enough upside to justify the potential risk involved. Keeping in mind, I...

Here in the states we are more or less banking on the distinction between a car and a motorcycle, (and their respective differences in regulations), to even be able to get the Elio on the road. Were it classified as a car here, it would have an additional mountain of requirements to meet, which...

I seriously doubt Paul would go for it. Not that I wouldn't like to see what's going on also, but it's a non-gainer for Elio. Right now they have no cams, and the negative impact to them is zero. If they installed cams, there would probably be YouTube video of every person in the plant who...

Nothing like proven reliability........:-)

The last significant advance in the ICE was gasoline direct injection, and even THAT they seemed to downplay as an advance, probably because we consumers are leery of NEW things. Getting burned on not-so-well-tested technology in the past might have contributed to that. Or, with the average...

Don't know if I'd put too much assumption on a hydralic clutch. Such a small engine and power level would make it tempting, in keeping with the low-cost ideal, to use a clutch cable. After all, a few bucks for a cable and a couple brackets pressed out of sheet metal would have to be cheaper...

Popular Mechanics is famous for presenting engine technologies that never come to anything. I don't know if it's because the technology turns out not as good as the research indicated, or it would take too much money to developed it for the return on investment, or maybe it would just be too...

Lower MPG/overall power reduction would not be the end result. Direct drive of the compressor is MORE efficient than an electric unit. To turn the compressor with a belt requires, obviously, mechanical energy from the crankshaft. To run an electric unit requires that mechanical energy to be...

On the original question, I'm not sure there is a valid comparison. Harley Davidson is a product of the most successful marketing campaign in history. They set out to market an image and 'lifestyle'' and there happened to be a product that went with it. And to this day people buy in droves...

Wow. Seems like most people change vehicles like changing their socks. I've been driving for 28 years and I've owned: 1980 Volkswagon rabbit diesel 1979 porsche 924 1986 mustang convertible 1994 ford ranger pickup 1983 Honda Magna 750 2010 Pontiac G6. (Wife's car). Half of this list is still...

Sure there are limits to what you can do by adjusting the engine/computer parameters, but for everything there is also a trade off. Americans are demanding consumers when it comes to cars. (For most other things they'll buy just about ANY Chinese CRAP out there.). You can gain a lot of MPG's...

Yeah, yeah, yeah... keep rubbing it in. I think we should have the first Elio owner convention on EZ's front lawn!

Not bad in theory, but has ANYONE ever been in an accident that they will admit is their fault? It's amazing how many drivers have a whole list of accidents on their record, but not a single one was ever their fault. So we'd need a court to rule on the culpability of the Elio owner, which...

I can't see that it would be a big deal, but I suppose in all fairness, it is not the next person in line who totaled your car, (unless it WAS the next person! Jealous SOB!), or anyone after him, so making them wait 'cause you already broke yours wouldn't be 'fair', taken to the extremity of the...

True Dat! I hear people all the time wishing gas prices would go down, and I can't help but ask them "Why? So we can burn more of it?". It is a fact that every time gas prices fall, Americans, (And I assume other nationalities too), start buying bigger, less efficient vehicles. I'm all for...

I used to live and ride in Texas, and when I was there they had just changed the law so helmets were not mandated. I think there was some stipulation about being able to show you could theorhetically at least put up $10k toward the cost of putting your brains back in your head or whatever in...

'Political opinions'.... hmmmm. Is your primary objection about the fact that this is a 'car forum'? Lest we forget, we are in all reality endlessly discussing a car that doesn't even exist. Yet? So if we run a little off-topic from time to time, is that really such a problem? Or do other...

I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist with experience! Besides, pessimists are NEVER dissappointed. :-)