No more gas hogs in LaLa Land

Waco Tribune-Herald ^ | Rowland Nethaway

[Nuke'm Glowing]

I'm using mine in the most legitimate manner possible. Me and my friends are tailgating tonight at the game. Try doing that in a Geo!

[hattend]

In my estimation, the idea of large numbers of people driving vans and SUVs in traffic is endangering MY life and the lives of others by reducing visual range on the highways, i.e. by preventing other drivers including themselves from ever seeing further than the SUV two cars in front of them.

Just back off their rear bumper so you can see better.

[Grampa Dave]

Here is the auto approved by the Car Nazis of Kali, and that includes a lot of phoney conservatives on this board:

[GaltMeister]

You should just drive a bigger SUV. You will see right over them.

Right on. I'll bet he get's really pissed when he's behind the 18 wheeler hauling his groceries, or the crap he buys at WalMart. God forbid the FedEx or UPS truck delivering all the junk you buy off Ebay.

We drive SUV's because we are Americans, we are productive, we have built the best country and economy the world has ever seen, but most of all we drive them because we earn enough to damn well afford it.

[biblewonk]

Californians are strutting about congratulating themselves for their new state law requiring higher automobile fuel efficiency.

All Californians are strutting? I keep wondering how the average Californian feels about this. I know a lot of Iowans that hate waste and dependence on foreign oil.

[MEGoody]

"car manufacturers should notify all the car dealers in California that they will be out of business on the day the state's new fuel efficiency standards go into effect."

I like this guy's thinking!

[coloradan]

All I have used is algebra!

Basically, the point is that "the secret" to a vehicle with 300 mpg mileage isn't in some sort of special internal combustion engine that is much better, but rather in realizing that such a vehicle would have to be lighter and have less wind resistance than a moped, if it were supposed to travel at 60 mph.

How such a vehicle could carry 4 people is a mystery - let alone how it could carry the dog and a week's worth of groceries, or a trunkful of luggage. Those silly little electric bubblecars seen in Boulder and other "enlightened" places - they have too much wind resistance to make it. (And, they only have one occupant capacity.)

[TMD]

Sounds like he's following too closely (tailgating)...if I remember my driver's ed course correctly, I believe there should be 10 feet for every 10 miles of speed a vehicle is traveling between you and the car in front of you. Thus, at 65 mph there should be 65 feet between you and the car in front of you. (yeah, I know, in my dreams...) So, if everyone followed the rules, we could all drive safely....

[Poohbah]

One can make an argument for medved engaging in improper use of Free Republic's bandwidth...or, heck, even improper use of oxygen.

[reillyoburbank]

"Oh and not to mention, HELL would have to freeze over 5 times before I ever consider taking a vacation out there. Vegas is as close as I'll ever get to that land of nuts and fruits."

Whoa there pardner! I used to say the same thing about CA until I spent my last year in the Army here over thirty years ago (I never left). Despite all the fruits and nuts California has a great deal to offer. We've also added a lot to this fine country of ours the likes of which are none other than Ronald Reagan. So don't be to hard on CA. Yes we do have a libs who run this state but we do our best to vote them out. Problem is, they (the libs) pay the Mexicans (free health care, education, welfare, etc.) to vote democrat and in loretta sanchaz's district I heard they even voted more than once not to mention the illegals who vote. But sometime when things get real stinking bad here, like the way things are now, even the reagan dems get fed up and toss the libs to the lions. So we'll see what happens in the next election cycle. But (and I know I'll get flamed by my other CA brothers for saying this) come on out for a visit sometime. The weather is great and the beaches are very cool. And believe it or not you may even meet some democrats out here that you might like! Have a nice day :-}

[Gumlegs]

Oh boy! And it holds TWO!

[longshadow]

He's working on adapting his Spifford the Bat post to SUV use.

Earlier, another poster asked "medved" what he drove and he replied that he rode a motorcycle. This was quite a surprise to me, after having encountered his ASCII bat mascot, "Splifford," so many times in his posts, I was convinced he drove a "bat-mobile."

[Gumlegs]

Spifford may be a vampire bat. We should try posting garlic.

[Junior]

Ol' Ted figured a motorcycle might up his chances of meeting girls. Of course, once they discovered he had a pet bat he might as well have been driving a Yugo ...

[doodad]

which got rid of the "muscle cars" of the mid and late 60s


Hmmm...my fourth genertion camaro has basically the same 350 ci engine as when it was introduced some 35 years ago. Not quite as fast I grant you due to cats (whoops hollowed out) and emissions (whoops bypassed), but still insurable. Don't tell them about the nitrous!

[longshadow]

Basically, the point is that "the secret" to a vehicle with 300 mpg mileage isn't in some sort of special internal combustion engine that is much better, but rather in realizing that such a vehicle would have to be lighter and have less wind resistance than a moped, if it were supposed to travel at 60 mph.

You've actually been over-optomistic in your calculation: basically you've shown the power required for level ground; if you factor in the power requirement to maintain 60mph up any significant grade, the challenge becomes all the more difficult.

Essentially, it would take a vehicle made out of "Unobtanium," that mysterious material that is infinitely strong, infinitely light, and has infinite fatigue resistance, and isn't brittle. Even then, the hill climbing power requirement of the payload alone would take more than a lawn-mower engine.

[Gumlegs]

Could all the unobtanium have been left on Saturn when the Earth was still ... how does that theory go?

[hopespringseternal]

My bicycle has a 750cc motor on it and gets 50mpg, and it's very unlikely your SUV would keep up with it.

Hypocrite. There was an article a few months ago about how motorcycles are worse polluters than SUVs. Get rid of the cycle-o-death. Buy a bicycle. Show us you care.

And don't whine about how far it is to pedal. If you really cared, you would live closer to work.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

I'll take my home state of Florida over Commiefornia any day.
1. We still have cigar bars. They haven't been banned.
2. We have 3 NFL teams and the best college football in America.
3. We don't have a governor who uses the PSC to get payola from the power companies. Oh and our lights only go out during hurricanes, not due to poor planning and envirowhackos.
4. We don't have a tax on our soda pop because we don't have socialist behaviorial rocket scientists in our legislature.
5. We can still by assault rifles and plink econodeathtraps at the junk yard for fun.
6. And most importantly of all.....WE LOVE OUR SUVS and don't believe in letting the state government becoming a dictatorship.

When another Reagan type finally gets elected out there (I doubt that I'll live to see that), I'll consider visiting. Otherwise, LAX is just a bad stop on the way out to the South Pacific for me.

[UpToHere]

SUV owners, is a pig

Not gonna honk, just gonna "oink, oink..."