What To Do With The Gas?

[Elio Amazed]

Ten years ago, before I drove rigs cross country, I always thought smog was gray.
Come to think of it, as many times as I've been in and around Pittsburgh, I don't remember seeing any smog.
However, I saw my first smog cloud as I came down out of the hills out West one day.
It hung over and completely enveloped one of our Western cities (I don't remember which one).
I was a brownish mustard yellow in the sunlight. I was totally shocked.

 

[McBrew]

Ten years ago, before I drove rigs cross country, I always thought smog was gray.
Come to think of it, as many times as I've been in and around Pittsburgh, I don't remember seeing any smog.
However, I saw my first smog cloud as I came down out of the hills out West one day.
It hung over and completely enveloped one of our Western cities (I don't remember which one).
I was a brownish mustard yellow in the sunlight. I was totally shocked.

Nah, that's just part of Earth's natural smog/no smog cycle. Been happening all the way back to when the dinosaurs never existed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[booboo]

Ten years ago, before I drove rigs cross country, I always thought smog was gray.
Come to think of it, as many times as I've been in and around Pittsburgh, I don't remember seeing any smog.
However, I saw my first smog cloud as I came down out of the hills out West one day.
It hung over and completely enveloped one of our Western cities (I don't remember which one).
I was a brownish mustard yellow in the sunlight. I was totally shocked.

It was the Los Angeles Basin. I saw that ugly ominous scary smog bank there many times. I live in north CA, so I always came back to CA to go home. We do get stagnant smog layers in the central valley and bay area too, but nothing compares to the LA basins ability to make a yellow sky.

 

[booboo]

There are a couple of companies working with compressed air to power vehicles.

I think Tata makes one in India. I still like the idea of Mechanical Energy Storage.

 

[xtspode]

I still don't see an instantaneous change from ICE's to whatever. Batteries are just different gas tanks. We still have to fill them with gas, converted from some other fuel. Solar, wind and hydro-electric only get us 10% of the way. When we get the other 90% sorted out then we can fill the batteries up. A battery is still just an empty gas tank. There is still a ways to go and the Elio is part of the way. There are a lot of other steps that need to happen. These are good times really. There are a lot of good people working for solutions. Paul and a bunch of other like minded people have some ideas.

 

[wizard of ahs]

It was the Los Angeles Basin. I saw that ugly ominous scary smog bank there many times. I live in north CA, so I always came back to CA to go home. We do get stagnant smog layers in the central valley and bay area too, but nothing compares to the LA basins ability to make a yellow sky.

I remember one time in Riverside the smog was so bad the street lights were on in the middle of the afternoon !!

 

[Ty]

An interesting note...
In the late sixties, early seventies, many cars were getting in the mid 20s.
And then came the smog pumps, catalytic converters, and other technologies that killed mileage.
Not to mention mileage destroying ethanol.
Now, 50 years later, technology is allowing us to have reasonable mileage again.

From 1982, the average car weighed 3,054 lbs. By 2006, the average car weighed 3,554 lbs. Lugging around 15% more body mass doesn't help...
Trucks also went up 900 lbs.

In 1982, the average car produced 99 HP. In 2006, it was 198 HP. (Trucks went from 120 to 239 HP)
In 1982, the average car went from 0-60 in 14.4 seconds to 9.5 seconds.

So, cars, at the same time emissions controls came into effect doubled in weight, because twice as powerful and much quicker. To not drop in fuel economy while all that was going on is simply amazing.


For your reading pleasure:

http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/csaba-csere-why-mileage-hasnt-improved-in-25-years-column

 

[Coss]

There are a couple of companies working with compressed air to power vehicles.

When an air powered car passes you, does it sound like a fart doing it?

 

[aknaten]

Someday the oil will be gone and electricity too expensive. What then?
Read the award winning novel Windup Girl to see the author's futuristic projection: wind up power!
https://www.amazon.com/Windup-Girl-...F8&qid=1475605665&sr=8-1&keywords=windup+girl

 

[WilliamH]

From 1982, the average car weighed 3,054 lbs. By 2006, the average car weighed 3,554 lbs. Lugging around 15% more body mass doesn't help...
Trucks also went up 900 lbs.

In 1982, the average car produced 99 HP. In 2006, it was 198 HP. (Trucks went from 120 to 239 HP)
In 1982, the average car went from 0-60 in 14.4 seconds to 9.5 seconds.

So, cars, at the same time emissions controls came into effect doubled in weight, because twice as powerful and much quicker. To not drop in fuel economy while all that was going on is simply amazing.


For your reading pleasure:

http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/csaba-csere-why-mileage-hasnt-improved-in-25-years-column

Interesting, but we're talking different decades.
I talk the '60s and '70s while you talk the 80s and on.
I talk smog pumps since they mostly dealt with stick shift, carbureted vehicles.
extract from Wikipedia ..."Carbureted engines' exhaust raw fuel content tends to spike when the driver suddenly releases the throttle"...
Probably impacted EFI and the trend toward automatics.
I also talk catalytic converters.
They require an overly rich mixture so that they have something to catalyze.
And then catalytic converters were mandated by law.
Even is they were becoming an obsolete technology.