What a weekend! After watching one of the closest Le Mans 24 finishes in recent memory as well as one of the unlikeliest finishes from the Montreal Grand Prix, maybe it’s for the best that I stay in and unwind for the night.
And nothing says “Sunday evening” better than:
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June 10, 2011 marks the end of the Isle of Man TT event and also marks the centenary of its mountain course. First held in 1907, this incredible venue is even older than the Indianapolis 500, of which only celebrated its 100th anniversary last month.
More than an event with an illustrious past, the Isle of Man TT is also an event that warmly embraces the future. In FotW #21, we take a look at the third annual Isle of Man TT Zero, the clean emission electric motorcycle race.
Arguably the most stand out team in the electric class is Portland based, two-time TT Zero winner, MotoCzysz. This year, MotoCzysz fielded their unique Segway-Czysz motorcycle to win their event and to set a new electric lap record of 99.513 average mph, thanks to their newly developed 3-phase AC motor capable of producing an equivalent of over 200hp.
Moreover, the fairings on this year’s motorcycle completely shroud its innards. Last year, the 2010 MotoCzysz E1PC’s fairings were conveniently stuck in customs, allowing fans to get a closer look of the Czysz’s brilliantly engineered battery array design.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to dig up any substantial specs on the 2011 model but I imagine it’s essentially an enhanced and refined version of their 2010 bike. Undoubtedly, the battery array is the E1PC’s party piece. The 2010 E1PC possessed a 10 individual lithium polymer cell array, each cell weighing 19.5 Lbs.
Rather than have wires connect batteries to the bike, MotoCzysz created these docks that lock the batteries into receivers integrated onto the bike’s frame, conducting the batteries and supporting the batteries’ weight at the same time. This allows for lighter weight, stronger rigidity, durability, and quicker servicing.
The TT Zero is a fantastic event that deserves it’s place in the Isle of Man program as we benefit from innovations emerging from MotoCzysz’s and their competing teams. Both batteries and electric motors will get lighter and lighter as well as better packaged within a chassis. Whether you are an advocate of alternative energy or not, the question is no longer “if”, only “when”.
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Thanks to Bullitt, both Steve McQueen and the Mustang Fastback had become larger than life. Because of the immensity of the two icons, sometimes car fans forget something very important. Read this slowly and deliberately: Bullitt is only a movie.
With that in mind, and appreciating Bullitt as such, I wanted to share something with you guys this weekend. Not only did Bullitt win the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, but it was also nominated for Best Sound.
I must confess, I wasn’t taken by the Lalo Schiffrin’s score at first but now I can’t imagine any other tune that could compliment Lt. Frank Bullitt so perfectly.
Have an awesome weekend everyone!
>Alain Bublex, anybody? Alain Bublex? No?
According to fr.wikipedia, l’encyclopédie libre, Alain Bublex graduated from the Graduate School of Industrial Design in Paris to later join Renault’s design team. Unfortunately, his career did not continue for very long as Bublex says, “I wanted to make cars, they wanted to make a profit.”
Where did he turn to? Fiat. But not exactly in the way that you’d expect. FotW #20 features his project from 2002, when Alain created what is perhaps the most bizarre collection of Fiat 126′s in the world. Although these cars are all fully operable, these art pieces most likely won’t be passing inspections. For example, how does one explain to a mechanic about The humongous propeller hanging off the front?
Some may have noticed Freak of the Week has somehow become Freak of the Bi-monthly. We thank you for your patience, we’ll be returning to our regular posting frequency soon!
>While everyone is celebrating their right to drink, grill, and have an extra day off on this Memorial Day weekend, FPH would like to thank those that have served this country. Thank you for protecting our freedoms and way of life. This being an automotive blog, we thought it prudent to showcase some military hardware that have also served this country well.
Happy Memorial Day! Have fun, be safe, and buy a serviceman a drink.
>I don’t even know why I’m writing a synopsis:
The three most prominent new/concept vehicles of 2011 come together at the Concorso d’Eleganza. Thank you, classicdriver, for sharing the incredible footage!
Done. Mind is blown… I’ll need a moment to collect myself.
OH, and here’s a sound bite
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For those of you who are unfamiliar with the video, 32 year old Manal al-Sharif is a women’s rights activist amongst Saudi Arabia’s hyper male dominant culture. Her most recent cause is actually something very close to my heart, and something that many of us have taken for granted– the right to get into the driver’s seat.
After watching the video, many of us would be very quick to cry injustice and criticize the culture’s antiquated thinking. But when I take a step back, I’m afraid we aren’t so different over here.
A couple of weekends ago, my friend and I were cruising along the BQE when a car cuts me off. The car wasn’t driving with the typical trademark New York City aggression, but instead, it rather carelessly drifted into my lane due to a likely failure to check its blind spot. I gave the car a warning honk and it quickly swerved back.
It’s an unnecessary habit, but I would often try to pull alongside the car that wronged me if only to just have a glance at what sort of jerk-face is sitting behind the wheel. Lo’ and behold, it was a woman. To this observation, and because this is the second woman we’ve encountered to have earned a WTF (two for two), my friend responds, “I can no longer defend my gender.”
I know I’m minority when I say this but it is possible to put an end to the “women drivers” stereotype. After all, statistically speaking, men are charged with a higher insurance premium. According to insweb.com (not the most reputable source, I’ll admit), women are almost 50 percent less likely than men to have a DUI/DWI on their driving record. Furthermore, they’re 10 percent less likely to have a moving violation on their record. So if it isn’t a gender issue, then what is it?
My theory is that women drivers are also 50% more likely to be what some call “Sunday drivers,” or drivers that only get behind the wheel on occasion. Based on a sample set of female friends and acquaintances, many simply prefer not to drive if they don’t have to and designate their boyfriend, husband, dad or brother for the task instead. Conveniently, their lower frequency behind the wheel also explains why they receive less traffic citations.
But really, it’s that infrequency in driving a car that perpetuates the issue. When I first began driving, I was very anxious behind the wheel as well. I was young, inexperienced, and I played a lot of Grand Theft Auto. I clearly did not know what I was doing. But now, after six years of practice, I’ve had to have improved. And in the end, it really is about the seat time.
Nevermind the honks you get and nevermind your backseat drivers screaming at you when you’re only getting started. No one is born to tackle Queensboro Bridge at rush hour. It’s one of the most unnatural things in existence and you will never be comfortable with it. But you can at least get used to it.
Seat time is a numbers game. As a person logs more and more driving hours, that person will more likely encounter testing moments. Drivers will learn from these experiences and naturally, their situational awareness and their ability to react to a sudden obstacle will improve. Instead of freaking out and stomping on the accelerator when trying to find the brake, an experienced driver can calmly recall an instance and use their experience to get themselves out of harm’s way.
Ladies, your notoriety for awful driving is not your fault– at least not completely. I hope Manal al-Sharif and your Saudi soul sisters who boldly rocked the boat have empowered you to go out there and actively support their cause. But more than that, and more than proving a long standing stereotype wrong, hopefully you’ll realize that you are ultimately practicing safe driving for yourself.
Have an awesome long weekend, everybody!
>In anticipation of the coming Monaco GP, let’s revisit the glory and glamour of the historic French Riviera. Notice the changes of the city and circuit, as well as the changes of the drivers, teams, and mechanics through the decades.
Happy Friday!!
>These posts are usually undertaken by Danny Chin, our resident eBay ‘meister’. But I’ve got something pretty incredible– and an opportunity to steal a bit of Danny’s thunder is too irresistible to pass. (I love you, bro)
Behold! I was able to find not one, but two extremely rare and iconic BMW 2002s listed on eBay at the same time! If you’ve got $40k readily available, this can be your lucky day. If you’ve got the means to buy both of them, then you just made me spend the better of ten minutes trying to decide what insult to drop on you… You probably have a pencil mustache and I don’t like you. UGH.
>Before I begin to write about the topic at hand, I’d like to address FPH’s apology to the readers on Saturday. The apology is a bit preemptive but due to various events and projects, the first of which was Kyle Swift’s wedding (Congratulations, buddy!), myself and fellow contributors will be busy with things outside of the blog and may post at a lower frequency for the next two weeks. I hope you won’t miss me too much. Actually no, I hope you miss me to death and can’t wait for me to be back.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about cars. So last week, a friend of mine sent me an IM telling me check out a comment from “wheatieboy” that was posted on a BMW 1M Coupe article written by Mike Spinelli of Jalopnik.
This is what my friend thought about the comment, “He’s like the loser that says let’s all stop trying.” There is merit to that. After all, mankind created the microwave, solid-fuel rockets,
the Concorde, the Eurostar, and the birthday cake. Yes, cake! Moreover, Bugatti gave us the 1,001 horsepower supercar that can be used everyday. Finally, according to Futurama, the future promises large pneumatic tubes that shoot humans across the city. None of this would ever be possible if the human race decided to stop trying. And in my friend’s ideal world, a bigger birthday cake is what every human being on Earth should always strive for.
His belief caused two thoughts to materialize. Let’s start with model bloat and something I call driver bloat (you’ll understand when you get to it). With every redesign for the next gen “game-changer,” every dimension is stretched just so. The car will provide a little more headroom, a little more legroom, a little more weight, a little more “style,” a little more kilowatts in the stereo, wheels that are a little larger, an extra gear in the new transmission, a little more power in the engine with a little more performance and a little more mpg. Oh, it’ll cost a little more too. Thanks to a whole decade of “a little”, the latest Accord is now anything but.
This isn’t exclusive to Japanese midsize sedans. The Germans have been waging their horsepower wars for many years too. BMW’s V8 E39 M5 was replaced by an incredible V10 along with what some considered one of the most technologically advanced engine computers and what others consider pure, undiluted, indescribable frustration. Benz’s 55 AMG engine was replaced by a supercharged 6.2 liter and another 6.5 liter. Audi uses the same V10 engine found in their sister company, Lamborghini, for its S6 and S8. Yet strangely, after all these years, top speeds are still electronically limited to 155 mph. What’s the point?
Wheatieboy’s comment addressed 0-60 times specifically, so let’s sum model bloat here by discussing two anomalies– the 2012 Nissan GTR and 2011 Porsche 911 Turbo S. These cars didn’t bloat incrementally, but catapulted themselves into the very fringe of what a car could do. Both these six cylinder twin turbo sports cars can blast through 0-60 in less than 3 seconds, and reliably clock in low 3s under almost any surface and temperature condition. They’re identical in horsepower, both all wheel drive, both have launch control, and both have a trick transmission instead of a conventional manual.
But at what cost? The majority of my gripe involves all the digital interference. Ideally, everyone is a proper race car driver behind the wheel and all the aids allows us push the car that much more quickly and safely. However, the reality of it all is when engineers create a new traction control system that’s a little more responsive and AWD that’s a little more advanced with every new model, the result is “driver bloat.” Drivers get a little more lazy, a little more overconfident, and a little more showoffy with every new car they drive. Imagine that sort of driver bloat behind the wheel of a current BMW M5, iDrive infotainment system and all. Oh no.
The second thought came in the form of a question on evolution: why does the majority believe that incremental gains equal improvement in the first place? Does an increase in size or power guarantee a car to be better than its predecessor? Does evolution of the automobile mean that new cars should be made to be faster than old ones?
Evolution is often misused. Evolution doesn’t necessary mean enhanced, it’s simply the ability to adapt– to better suit itself to changes in the environment. The past decade has been a roller coaster for the automotive industry and from the volatility, we’ve been given everything from Escalades on DUBs to crossovers to Toyota Prii.
Large SUVs being the “it” thing five years ago went away to Cash for Clunkers just as quickly. Horsepower must now take a back seat to efficiency as car owners struggle to live within their means when gasoline is more expensive than ever. Let’s not forget about stricter CAFE standards either.
During a chat on the phone with Chin two days ago, I told him of my idea for this post and we inevitably asked ourselves what manufacturers should focus on for future vehicles. The answer is desperately obvious and it came to us the moment we formed the question. Weight will be the next big push in future automotive development across the board, no matter the body type. If a vehicle weighed less, then there’s less mass to carry, delivering better fuel consumption as well as quicker acceleration and deceleration. Safety is still without compromise and will even be enhanced with clever application of carbon fiber, magnesium, and boron steel. Hell, with less mass and less weight transfer and improved mechanical grip, a car will be nimble enough to minimize collision in the first place. Let’s also note that mechanical grip feedback is infinitely more honest to the driver than the artificial sensations of traction control.
These thoughts took a bit longer to convey than I expected and all of you deserve awards for reading this far… or at least deserve a conclusion. I guess my conclusion is, if there’s one at all, cars in the future can provide a little “more” if only they could just weigh a little less!
Happy thirsty Thursday day everybody!
