Bill Harkins wrote:
>
> pbailey wrote:
>
> > Could it be that cars are now considered anti-social and the downfall of
>humanity by the likes of Al Gore > and the media? I don't know but with the
>exception of Kai I haven't seen too many young
> > enthuiasts on the net,I'm afraid we may have already seen the golden age
> > of automobiles pass and now we are in a downward turn until they are
> > just utilitarian vehicles with no more soul than a metro bus.
>
> Lot of truth to what you say. The automobile as art is definitely
> passing. Too much government control and bureaucracy. Kids are
> interested in computers which offer more challenge for them at very low
> cost. One long term trend of cars, ie 2020 era, will be seen here in San
> Diego in August when an 8 mile section of car pool lane will be used for
> a driverless car experiment in which magnetic sensors every four inches
> will guide cars on the road untouched by human hands. It will be
> interesting technically, but not exactly car buff material.
>
> The July issue of Wired magazine has a long and thought provoking
> article called "The Long Boom". It looks at a 40 year period from 1980
> to 2020 and makes many interesting projections based on what has
> occurred from 1980 to the present, then projects out from there. In the
> automobile scenario, the "hybrid" electric car is envisioned in which a
> small IC engine drives a generator which powers independent electric
> motors on each wheel. I first heard of this idea in the fifties, but
> maybe now the technology is there to make it happen.
>
> In summary, IMHO I don't believe that the 21st century will be the
> century of the automobile as it was in the 20th.
>
> Bill Harkins
> Fallbrook, CA
prehaps electric vehicles may be an area for future 'hot-rodding'.
Presumably they would not be covered by restricitive anti-pollution
legislation and could thus be modified. Maybe we will all be tearing up
the road in our cars with re-wound motors and hi-performance power
controllers :). LBC content - just imagine a car powered SOLELY by
Lucas components. Makes the mouth water doesn't it.
Simon
--
Simon Bosworth
simon@hpi50.dsddhc.com
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