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Your explanation, Dave, makes perfect sense. What is confusing me is I think of a strap as leather or some like material, not metal. What are your straps made of that will last for decades? I guess there are metal ones, like the ones you strap your water heater down with. (That’s an earthquake thing out here).
Original rebound straps were made of thick woven cotton web strap, looped and heavily stitched at the ends. These were originally plenty strong to serve the purpose for many years, but they were also prone to rot with time and would ultimately break. Replacements look similar but are molded with a heavy rubber and have a metal insert in both ends.
The proper length and stretch are critical and many new but built wrong easily break.
...Now I just have to plan a route to Memphis for the national meet.
I checked the date for NAMGAR GT-48 thinking I might drive up to spectate and buy you an adult beverage but unfortunately that is the week I will be in Delaware.
I checked the date for NAMGAR GT-48 thinking I might drive up to spectate and buy you an adult beverage but unfortunately that is the week I will be in Delaware.
That would have been cool Mike. Would you believe the first one I attended was GT-4, some 44 years ago, in Niagara Falls, Canada. Next was GT-6 in Harper's Ferry, WV. And so on... First S2000 was 2003 in Hagerstown, MD ... that was also my first track day at Gingerman in South Haven, MI. Where does the time go? I feel where some of it went when I am working on the car. Lol.
A refreshing engineering view on the electric car and its challenges. Kudos to Toyota for telling this story from an engineering perspective.
That charging infrastructure is a biggy. Even at work (USC-Keck hospital), there isn't enough chargers for the current number of ppl that drive EV cars. I can imagine the anxiety of those that have later shifts that start after the 9am rush.
A lot of folks live FAR AWAY from work. Like counties away...
it is actually worse than they are describing. The typical EV takes at least 30-40 minutes to recharge.
I have vivid memories of the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend sloooowly moving past the rest area just after rt 84 joins the I-90 ( the mass pike)
The gas station there has somewhere around a dozen or so gas pumps, yet there were maybe 80-100 cars in line.
it takes maybe 5 minutes to refill and get folks on their way. I can't imagine puling that off with EV's and you aren't going to put in enough chargers to handle that peak load.
And then there is the grid. I have no idea how many miles of power lines are strung in the US but if someone said a billion, I actually wouldn't shocked.
An awful lot hasn't been touched or upgraded in 50 or 60 years. My house is 34 years old now, not young but not old. I have a 200 amp service that is actually oversubscribed already.
I'd love to drop in a 400 amp service but that would mean digging up the old service and replacing it. Or dropping a 200 amp service beside it.
I would need to do that to be able to support an EV charger but at least i have 230 in the house already. How many home owners only have 115V?
But even ignoring that could the street service actually support an upgrade like that is say a dozen neighbors had the same thought?
05-17-2023, 01:16 PM
