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Spotted at Laughing Squid is an link to the Jet Powered Go-Kart developed by Colin Furze.
From the linked YouTube video summary:
So it's finished and it's brilliant, it's stable it starts easy and the fuel system after a slight redesign (see website) works perfectly. Top speed so far is 60mph but i run out of airstrip so might be more in it.
More details are available at Colin's project site. Colin is also known for previously developing this Jet powered bicycle.
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TOO BAD YOU CAN'T BUY a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin
real fast and freak everybody out.
-- Jack Handey, The New Mexican, 1988.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday May 15 2015, @05:33PM
What I'd be interested in seeing is someone making a serial hybrid turboelectric vehicle: use a small turbine (a recycled truck turbocharger would probably be the right size) running at optimum speed, attached to a generator, to generate electricity, while of course powering the wheels with electric motors. This should have some advantages over cars like the Chevy Volt, where the on-board gasoline engine generates electricity, but requires a lot of mass and volume to do so compared to a turbine. With the much-smaller turbine, that should free up a lot of space and weight which can be used for batteries instead.
While not a personal vehicle, they are doing just this with buses already. It's widely available thru out Europe. They seem to work fine. The drawback is that high-pitch whining noise when the turbine kicks in. But you get used to that I guess.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday May 15 2015, @05:46PM
The drawback is that high-pitch whining noise when the turbine kicks in. But you get used to that I guess.
Yeah, but how does that compare to the horrible sound of a big diesel engine, which produces a lot of low-frequency noise which can be heard and felt far away? (And on top of that, those diesel engines all come additionally with their own turbochargers, so you get the low-frequency noise of the diesel piston engine plus the high-frequency whine of the turbo.)
It's also probably better in that, with these buses you refer to, you probably don't have the nasty clouds of black diesel smoke being blasted in the faces of pedestrians as the bus drives by.
I wonder if they have any of those buses here in the US. Sounds very interesting. Any idea what fuel they run on? I'm guessing it's some kind of diesel or jet fuel, unless they've come up with a smallish turbine which doesn't require a lubricating fuel and can be lubricated separately, in which case they could power it from natural gas. Non-power-plant-sized turbines usually seem to need a lubricating fuel.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday May 15 2015, @05:59PM
I didn't mind the sound of the old buses that much, or I was used to it -- just like I'm getting used to this now. The big upside indeed seems to be you don't smell the bus or choke at the exhaust as it goes by. From what I know, based on personal experience due to traveling between cities for work, there are different combos depending on how hybrid they are. There is the diesel engines and turbine combo, there is the natural-gas and turbines (usually denoted as being "green") once and finally then there are some with battery, diesel and a turbine. They seem to switch it around if it is a city bus (usually battery and/or gas), or if its a commuter bus out to the suburbs or more long distance between cities in which case they tend to want diesel to.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Kromagv0 on Friday May 15 2015, @06:27PM
It's widely available thru out Europe. They seem to work fine. The drawback is that high-pitch whining noise
I thought that was just the French.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday May 15 2015, @08:08PM
While it's not exactly affordable or in mass production, the Jaguar C-X75 [google.com] is a serial hybrid turboelectric personal vehicle. I'd imagine that the turbines can run at peak efficiency most of the time to keep the battery topped up properly, although from the reviews draining the battery and redlining both turbines gives quite good acceleration while the battery lasts.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin