Nova - car of the future

They reviewed an 04 Pri on thier website and liked it. They would love the 08 I am sure.

 

The show was about the "car of the future", so it wouldn't have made much sense to spend too much time on a car that's available today. Although they did talk about the Prius quite a bit as a means of segueing into the part about electric cars.

 

I only caught part of it but plan to DVR it on it's next run. They toured the Tesla factory and took it for a test drive and also talked to other alt fuel scientists etc.
The best part from what I saw was Ray going off on a GM PR person at the auto show. They had a 500hp Camaro set up next to the Volt (described as "imaginary"). Ray said something to the effect of "500hp!? Are you kidding me!? Who NEEDS this sh*t!?!?!". The discussion was edited but I would have loved to see how that whole conversation went down.

 

Before buying the Prius, I looked at several different vehicles and ended up test driving a Mustang convertible. The salesguy was proud to point out that it had 300 HP. My reply was "that's about 150 more than I need".

 

I missed it. (These things happen when you don't have television) Was the Aptera shown?

 

I'm watching the second half right now. One of my best friends at UC Davis hated Andy Frank. :heh:

 

Here's the program's web site. You can watch it online starting April 23 sometime. It was pretty interesting, but I missed the beginning.

 

From my anti-Hydrogen perspective, I was disappointed in the show since much of the emphasis was on fuel cell vehicles.

 

I loved how they confronted (courteously) the GM people with their BS. I extracted a short clip here:

http://homepage.mac.com/alric/CLIK.mov

 

It was a re-run, but I watched it anyway.

Was that Attilla and his Prius in the background when they played with the scooter-car?

I couldn't believe the irony when they looked at the university SUV after the carbon fibre/nylon super efficient car. Time to combine the two! Trying to do an electric SUV
by just converting a GM guzzler is just silly!

I shouldn't have watched. Now I want a Tesla!

 

They are probably getting at least part of their grant money (to pay the grad students) from GM.

The carbon fibre car was pretty cool.

 

HA! Awesome, thanks for the clip. Obviously this was the part I was talking about. She actually handles it pretty well but kudos to Ray for his bluntness.

 

now if they could figure out 500hp *and* 50 plus mpg I would look with more interest!

 

I'll take the old MG!

 

1 character(s)

 

It is now available online to watch now.

NOVA | Car of the Future | Watch the Program | PBS

 

One of these day's when i start making more income I think i want to buy a gas guzzler just for weekend drives, or maybe a sport bike not sure yet. Im really liking the upcoming 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T. 384 cu in, 403 HP in automatic or stick shift. I'm sure the turbocharger or super charger growd are going to love these beast..it's a nice lookin car.

 

The program aired for the first time on Earthday, April 22, 2008. Unless you're not of this space-time continuum, you are mistaken.

 

I like the looks of the new Challenger, but my days of being interested in something with 400+hp under-the-hood are long gone. I will say that, IMHO, Dodge has had some interesting and sometimes appealing styling ideas over the past 15 years or so.

A local woman bought a Smart Car. There was a front-page article and picture in the local paper yesterday, with lots of lip-service being given to being fuel-efficient. I think they said that the car was rated 33/41, so fell some distance behind the Prius in mileage, plus it's a dinky little thing. Initial cost is quite a bit less, though.