And of course the Model T is capable of highway speeds and passes all Federally mandated safety and emissions regulations.
Hint, Congress took gas mileage out of the auto manufacturers hands years ago. They build to the regulations. If you don't like the regulations, take it up with Congress.
That's a very good question. Given what he says about the dimensions it would certainly fit in most of them. Given what he says about the power it could certainly propel most of them.
Only just guessing, but there aren't very many good reasons. Maybe, just maybe, it hasn't progressed beyond the air pump proof of concept stage yet. Even if it is, a usable drivetrain is more than just a functioning short block, although I find it hard to believe the 10 engineers on his payroll can't get an engine controller and fuel injection system to work, if that's the issue. You just know Bubba would've strapped it onto a gokart frame even before the exhaust had cooled from its first test run. It does make one wonder, doesn't it?
Well, heat _is_ energy, but that's not the point... :)
While undoubtedly it's inflated, the claim isn't that the overall process is nearly 100% efficient, only that the mechanical losses are low so the output is nearly the theoretical limit. As noted, a couple of times, this is probably also not going to work out to be so, either...
The actual claim I saw was 60 percent. IIRC the best diesels achieve around 50 percent when running on their design condition. Saw no claim on his site that he was going to achieve 100 percent. I'd be very surprised if he hits a real-world 60 with a brand new design.
Here's the quote from the site in the OP's link...
What else can I say...it's what I said it was--he claims the mechanical efficiency is going to be very high; I simply said I doubt that and that the claim based purely on component count is specious.
This guy must be claiming exhaust temperatures at room temperature? Regardless of how much of the explosion gets transferred to the drive- shaft, you're still dealing with thermal absorption at the piston and cylinder walls, not to mention what blows out the exhaust.
I interpreted that to mean that he thought he was going to come close to the theoretical ideal efficiency, not that the theoretical efficiency was going to be 100 percent. Note the the person giving the interview was identified as "Jin K. Kim" and his title "Managing member". The guy who designed the thing is named Morgado. "Managing member" sounds like a bean counter from the venture capitalist, in which case he is parroting his own misunderstanding of something that he has been told.
I think you're reading far, far too much into that statement.
You really think that if Ford could reduce the size of their engines by a factor of ten while doubling the efficiency in these days of CAFE they'd ignore it because of "NIH"?
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.