Tesla IPO. Somebody will get some good change out of this and I hope it works out for Tesla. Maybe they can get some better stuff in future vehicles.

Oh yes, I see you emailed me... looks fantastic unit, exactly what I was imagining. I was gone for the weekend, so no access to PC.

I just did some more searching and found Audi launched a R&D project for turbine electric hybrids as well.

Now think about one thing. Audi is doing this now? That set up I sent you was from the early 90's and the units now are much smaller, powerful and efficient. Audi has a lot of catching up to do. Have you read about that Factory Five car? They use such a set up, but it's far from the one I showed you. I think the drive unit for the Factory Five car is from AC Propulsion.

BTW, nice avatar.

Thanks.

Ya, Audi has catching up to do, but at the same time, I am wondering if they have industry professionals working on it as well that would be up to date, relatively on that technology.

I know this works very (VERY) well on a larger scale (ex. tanks), but I am wondering how cost effective in the end it will be in small cars?

Do you have a link to the Factory Five Car? I have never heard of it.

They can have all the industry pros going at it and they'll never be at the same level as the US Military :lol:. Tanks with this technology is awesome and some are very fast. Those big Behemoth mining trucks use a huge diesel engine/generator and the motors are at the wheels, they are some of if not the biggest trucks around with a top speed of around 40mph (http://www.liebherr.com/me/en/produc...=106220!1944-0). Big ships use a similar diesel hybrid technology and trains as well.

Here's the company that's making the hybrid turbine/generator system http://microturbine.com/news/links.asp, here's an article http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009...-auto-show.php (There are many more and a video in Youtube) and here's Factory Five's website http://www.factoryfive.com/.

Huh, I wonder how much the 30Kw unit costs? That looks superb for a high performance electric hybrid, very efficient... should be able to maintain at least 175mpg at all times, over the range of the car, accounting for the initial all electric range.(depends on size of battery)

So do you have access to this type of gen. set then? at what cost?

I know you can make a crude turbine engine from a traditional turbo charger, not near as good, but it works non the less. I wonder if it could be fined tuned to power a small vehicle such as a hybrid motor bike?

Give Capstone a call, I posted the link above ( http://microturbine.com or http://capstoneturbine.com/). There's no secret with this one as it's a public company. The info I sent you is a different story. I don't know the cost, but it'll be worth every penny. Also, your 175mpg calculation is very conservative. I don't think the little home brewed turbine will have enough torque to get the 30Kw generator going. I might be wrong though, don't really know much about turbines. Capstone also has a 65Kw and a 200Kw unit. Best thing about them is the fact you can use 6 types of fuel, like the unit I sent you info on. Here are 2 distributors in Canada: www.onpower.com (Eastern Canada) and www.tarponenergy.com (Western Canada).

Sorry for the delay on my old drawings. I just scanned the ones with me today and I'll try to get the other ones from my friend. I'll try to explain some as I go along and keep in mind this was done almost 20yrs ago. If you notice some engines, well it was because at the time I wasn't doing much research on electric vehicles.

A few more.

Now the 10th drawing tells you what kind of thinking I was doing back then. An 8-speed manual transmission, 0-60 and 1/4 mile numbers That at the moment I really don't know how I came up with :rofl:. Now the top speed is up there, but from my thinking, with that much power :lol: it's possible. Now in drawing 11 and 12 I have some forced induction ideas. Back then, I thought I was nuts by having twin superchargers blowing into a few turbos. The AWD I have to give credit to Audi.

Simply amazing, Capstone claims 80-90% efficiency for their lineup of turbines, that is simply fantastic. Now I assume yes, bu do they come with built in generator? If the 30kw unit is light enough, and cheap enough, I am for sure going to consider it for my next electric conversion, which will be an AWD Skyline model most likely, if not, then a 4WD truck, such as a Toyota Tacoma.

I have 4 extra Siemens AC drives sittings around, which are each capable of 200kW(270hp) if driven by the right Inverter/Controller. That should make any car or truck a blast to drive. :party:

Using some sort of power buffer, be it ultra caps, preferably not as the gen. set would run 100% of the time then. Or a powerful durable battery such as an A123 pack, or if you have more cost effective cell please share.

You can also see that I drew a few mini vans. Again more engine and twin forced induction idea. Think about the power that 6 cylinder there would make :lol:?

Yes, the generator is built in. Did you get my last e-mail? I posted a link for a place that sells used 30Kw units. Contact Gaia on the cell, they are similar in format as the ones I sent you data on, but put out less power. I know there are plenty of good place in Canada as well.

Drawing 17 is a bit funny. I put a price there, but can't remember what it was for. That one has a rear drive only and I carried the twin induction idea to it. Drawing 19 was inspired on a Porsche.

As you can see AWD is something I like a lot.

Another mini van in drawing 25. Drawing 27 was also inspired by a Porsche, but not the rear section. I started to draw a front end in drawing 28, but never finished it.

hehe, nice sketches... I have made some pretty crude sketches of my car project as well a few years ago. I should find them, scan, and post em up.

I had the same issue in drawing 29, but the others I managed to finish them. They might look a bit crazy, but I can't draw at all. The pictures in my head is completely different from the drawings as I can visualize them in better detail. Drawing 32 shows a idea I had for a race car set up.

Every time I look at them, I can't beleive I made them almost 20yrs ago. I wish I knew how to draw.

Now some engines and other goodies. All of them are flat style engines.

Now the last 2 are V style and I drew the twin induction idea.

Ok, now let the insulting begin :lol:.

Amazes me that you kept all your old drawings.

20 years ago I was drawing up all kind of speaker boxes. Closest thing to a brushless motor was the speaker motor assembly.

I knew one day some of the things I drew back then would somehow become true. I don't know when the twin induction set up was invented, but I've read about a few that was made not so long ago. There are some things in my drawings that I think are still unique. Some of the drawing you can see some black things on the bottom of the car. At the time I had an idea of those being used as air brakes and also to help in hard cornering. They would pop open and channel air to help achieve it.

Yeah, I recall a twin induction engine setup as well, can't remember what though...

One thing I thought of way back when, later 90's when I was in junior high I came up with idea of using capacitors for an electric cars power buffer, or hybrid electric... I searched and searched but never found anything on the subject for cars for years.

Still looking for my old sketches, I know I never threw them out... :neutral:

Ya I just read the news an hour ago.

I saw that and didn't post anything out of respect. I will wait and see what all the details will be.

Maybe there will be a job opening for you in the Tesla company now Lutach....


:eyes:

I'll gladly pass :lol:. If the company's founder(s) were let go, that shows you what kind of company it is and people behind it. I'm not going to use my money to venture into a EV market, but if I do find a crazy investor to bring back the program that made the drive system I talk about, then you will see how far technology can go. You'll be invited to come and see.