Random Thoughts Thread

[David]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

^ That's an hour & 14 minutes long. Hope they can 3-D print a simple bracket quicker than that (which I'm not going to watch).

At least go to 8:30 and watch the couple min there where he shows the original stamped / cast part and the replacement part built by a Metal 3D printer. Amazing the difference.  11:34 is where they show a GM part that is made up of 8 individual stamped parts then fastened together compared to the replacement part that is 3D printed and eliminates tooling costs and other features. Over all cost is reduced over the traditional process.

By 15 min you can unless interested, can ignore the rest of the 3D conversation.

 

[balthazar]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

Over all cost is reduced over the traditional process.

He didn't say that; that it's cheaper. He said some costs are eliminated, but the bottom lines weren't given.

I watched from 8:30 thru almost 15:00. Some take-aways : right now this company can only make something 15" in size max, so major components size-wise aren't yet happening. Also, he stated the piece he showed would take 24 hours to make SIX of them. They can't come CLOSE to mass production yet and they're 22 years into the process.

One interesting thing I noted is the printed piece had MUCH smaller footprints where clearly (as a seat mounting bracket) they would be much less stable than the OEM bracket. In that this is not a singular piece identical to the OEM one, we don't know if it meets strength / crash test standards, never mind metallurgy specs for performance. It looks like a salesman sample, not an OEM-approved piece.

This is yet another tech that's not yet comparable to existing practices.

[David]

43 minutes ago, balthazar said:

He didn't say that; that it's cheaper. He said some costs are eliminated, but the bottom lines weren't given.

I watched from 8:30 thru almost 15:00. Some take-aways : right now this company can only make something 15" in size max, so major components size-wise aren't yet happening. Also, he stated the piece he showed would take 24 hours to make SIX of them. They can't come CLOSE to mass production yet and they're 22 years into the process.

One interesting thing I noted is the printed piece had MUCH smaller footprints where clearly (as a seat mounting bracket) they would be much less stable than the OEM bracket. In that this is not a singular piece identical to the OEM one, we don't know if it meets strength / crash test standards, never mind metallurgy specs for performance. It looks like a salesman sample, not an OEM-approved piece.

This is yet another tech that's not yet comparable to existing practices.

I get what your saying, but in watching it again, he did say that the part he had that was printed was by GM. That was their approved printed part that would replace the stamped multi riveted part.

I know that 15" is the max size for that guys printing system, but there are other commercial metal printing systems that can print much larger.

I do wonder how long some of the other take. Be interesting to know.

One takeaway is that this clearly is how some of the funky concept auto pieces I would have to think are being made.

Interesting technology and who knew we had made this kind of advances in printing.

[balthazar]

I first saw 3-D printing about 30 years ago when a local guy I knew with a small design studio was doing thermal lithography.

Like the video said, the auto industry is [close to 150 yrs old] and they've got it down to a science. It just takes time to build a better mousetrap. I'm always interested in a better way, but that better way has to leverage out 150 years of the current way, and that takes decades usually.

[Robert Hall]

Anyone knowledgable about strange aircraft?  Big bulgy gray plane w/ at least 3 engines incl. one on the tail (?).    Looks like the wings have been clipped.  My sister took this pic at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam yesterday. 

Edited May 25, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[ccap41]

No clue but it's definitely a little odd looking. 

[Robert Hall]

I tried Google image search and the closest match it said was a C-47 Globemaster, but it doesn't look like one of those to me. 

[balthazar]

[daves87rs]

I think Rock Auto likes me now.....ordered a ton of parts updating my rides(they need some love)

Freed the garage queen......

Hoping for something new in the driveway by the end of the summer.....

[balthazar]

[balthazar]

[A Horse With No Name]

On 5/21/2018 at 11:21 AM, balthazar said:

Yes- as I mentioned elsewhere recently, I had a bunch of miles behind the wheel of a 135/301 Safari. Competent, but certainly not stirring. Even the Turbo T/A was in the 16-sec range for the 1/4-mile. Unfortunately, that was pretty good for the era- ferrari was hovering around 16 sec, too (308GTI : 15.6).

In other words, slower than the current Miata.

On 5/26/2018 at 5:34 PM, balthazar said:

Not every vintage car had to survive....I think this is actually fine...

 

[trinacriabob]

On 5/21/2018 at 11:02 AM, balthazar said:

"The last REAL Pontiac V8."

Yes.  And I like those the best after an Olds V8.

On 5/21/2018 at 11:27 AM, Drew Dowdell said:

At least there is still some support for the Olds 307.... but that's mostly because a whole bunch of the Olds 350 stuff just bolts right on.

And because the small block 307 has the great attributes of a small block Olds Rocket 350.

[trinacriabob]

On 5/21/2018 at 6:32 PM, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

 

Haha.  Good photo.  It's hard to get pets to look right at you when taking photos.  This looks like one rambunctious critter.

[Robert Hall]

10 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Haha.  Good photo.  It's hard to get pets to look right at you when taking photos.  This looks like one rambunctious critter.

I stuck my phone in front her while sitting at a light.  She's fun, very high energy, very strong for a dog that weighs 15 pounds. 

[trinacriabob]

On 5/22/2018 at 11:17 AM, Drew Dowdell said:

I went and looked it up and @Cubical-aka-Moltar had the right answer.  In '77 they got sued and it was for using Chevy 350s in Olds 88s.  It wasn't so much that they used the Chevy engine, it's that it had a sticker on it calling it an Olds Rocket V8 when it wasn't.  It was considered false advertising.

(1996) Setting the Pace, Publications International Ltd. (384 - 385) - One of the best Oldsmobile reference books out there.

There were other Olds models using Chevy engines, and Cadillac Seville using an Olds 350 variant... but the Cadillac Seville didn't say it had a Cadillac engine... the air cleaner just says "Electronic Fuel Injection".   Besides, the 350 Olds V8 had a reputation for refinement and quality that Cadillac customers didn't seem to mind it in their Cadillac, where Oldsmobile 88 buyers thought having a Chevy V8 was a downgrade regardless of actual performance. 

The whole thing was Olds being a victim of its own success. In 1977, 1 million Oldsmobiles were built. Only the third time to that point that a single brand had sold 1 million vehicles in a single year. The Olds V8 plant couldn't keep up with demand, so Chevy engines were substituted in. 

I did not know that it was production issues that caused the Chevy engine to be swapped in.  I figured it would be on the 88s since 98s did not run with that "small" of an engine.  Owners of the 98s would have blown gaskets if they got a Chevy engine.  We all know the diesels put in these Olds in these very same years were blowing gaskets ... and more.

Also, this whole thing supposedly came to be when owners brought in their larger Olds sedans for warranty or repair work and the R&Rs required that items be fetched from the parts department.  With all the GM brands doing well in those years, you didn't see multiple GM brands at one location unless it was a hick town.  With that, customers had to be told that their 350 was a Chevy 350 and not an Olds 350 and that they had to get the parts elsewhere.

When people graduated from Chevy and went up to B-O-P, like my dad, they didn't want to take a step back.  So, based on that, these customers were really mad.  With the Seville, the only engine that went in there at the beginning was an Olds 350 but, since it was modified via fuel injection, it was only Cadillac that used it that way, so it sort of became a Cadillac engine.  (It was funny to see a fuel injected engine with a massive round air cleaner housing atop the engine as if it had a carburetor.)

I'm figuring these units in the early Sevilles lasted a long time.  It would be interesting to know how many miles, on average, early Seville owners who kept these cars for the long haul racked up on their "baby Cadillacs," as they were called at their introduction.

 

[balthazar]

First year or 2 the Seville has FI issues but I believe they took some time to manifest. Cadillac addressed it pretty quickly to my recollection, and the available FI on the 500 I never heard a whisper of trouble regarding. My grandmother had a pre-owned '76 and she had issues with it running erratically upon occasion. It may have stranded her a time or two. She traded it on an early '80s Regal 2-dr.

[David]

 

This is too funny!  Guess they had to do this since the car CANNOT beat a Tesla S P100D in a Drag race! 

[David]

1400 miles only Turbo MR2 for $500. Awesome story here: http://www.thedrive.com/news/21130/worlds-luckiest-mechanic-nabs-stolen-abandoned-1400-mile-toyota-mr2-for-500

Gotta say this guy came out smelling like roses.

@Drew Dowdell Guess I was not the only one thinking of a Solar Car. Sono Motors is going into production with a solar panel body of a car. Total battery range of the EV auto is 155 miles with a normal charging port, but the solar panel body can give you 18 miles of range. They do say it goes down to only 3 miles of range on a dark cloudy day.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1116932_sono-sion-solar-electric-car-promises-18-miles-of-range-from-solar-panels

 

[David]

@balthazar Thought you would find this story interesting. Norway Gov has pushed hard on converting everyone over to EV auto's and setting an end to ICE auto sales as 2025. As such since 2014, the most electrified country now for road driving has seen a steady drop in oil / Gas sales.

https://jalopnik.com/the-oil-industry-is-finally-being-affected-by-norways-e-1826368729

2017 52% of all new car sales were EV's with only 48% being ICE.

Interesting footnote is that Norway is an Oil producer / exporter. 🤔

Guess Carbon Neutral footprint? 😕

[David]

Love this story on primer Rods and Classics show.

http://www.automobilemag.com/news/primer-rods-classic-trucks-2018-lone-star-roundup/

Some very cool Turbo Diesel applications and love the dual motor quad Supercharger setup.

[balthazar]

9 hours ago, dfelt said:

This is too funny!  Guess they had to do this since the car CANNOT beat a Tesla S P100D in a Drag race! 

The fastest (slightly modified) P100D went 10.4 in the quarter a few months ago.

It is Tesla who has not beaten a Demon, not the other way around. Reel in your laughter.

8 hours ago, dfelt said:

2017 52% of all new car sales were EV's with only 48% being Electric.

Did you mean to say 'only 48% were IC'?

[David]

53 minutes ago, balthazar said:

The fastest (slightly modified) P100D went 10.4 in the quarter a few months ago.

It is Tesla who has not beaten a Demon, not the other way around. Reel in your laughter.

Did you mean to say 'only 48% were IC'?

Yup, corrected that, my fault posting before a meeting. LOL 48% were ICE sales.

Weird as I find videos that show the Hellcat win with racing slicks on and then I find videos with the P100D in Ludicrous mode winning. So I guess it does depend on the tires and setup.

[balthazar]

It's not about heads-up racing, it's which car posts the faster time. P100D has just slipped below 10.5, Demon has run numerous in the upper 9s. I thought I read one time of 9.6.

.8 of a second is EIGHT car lengths at the traps- a blowout.

[daves87rs]

I wanna Hellcat.....😍

[balthazar]

When someone gushes about a -say- G8 or M5 sedan (represented stylistically in the below pic by the white Caprice), my mind's eye gazes afar and pictures something like the red '61 Chrysler 300-G.

[ccap41]

there are more Demons running mid to low 10’s because not everybody is a professional. The P100D is a lot more repeatable. 

[David]

Love this story on how OEMs are selling $27,000 dollar base cars as well as $71,000 starting top end versions.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/how-an-automaker-sells-a-dollar71000-version-of-a-dollar27000-car/ar-AAxYqac?li=BBnb7Kz

Totally like this story and the variety of the Mustang, Camaro, Challenger. Very cool  

[Robert Hall]

15 hours ago, balthazar said:

When someone gushes about a -say- G8 or M5 sedan (represented stylistically in the below pic by the white Caprice), my mind's eye gazes afar and pictures something like the red '61 Chrysler 300-G.

Wonder what's going on there... the Chrysler has some sort of decals, getting a police escort.  someone participating in One Lap of America or a vintage rally of some sort?  Minivan open to do filming out of? 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[balthazar]

300-G's story :
http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/homecoming-2900-miles-dead-winter

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by balthazar

[Robert Hall]

Cool..I remember that story.

[David]

Seems Panasonic is aiming to remove cobalt from all their batteries starting with the ones they make for Tesla.

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/panasonic-tesla-cobalt-ev-batteries/

Cool story on the 2020 Plug in Hybrid Focus

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/2020-ford-escape-plug-in-hybrid/

 

[daves87rs]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

Seems Panasonic is aiming to remove cobalt from all their batteries starting with the ones they make for Tesla.

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/panasonic-tesla-cobalt-ev-batteries/

Cool story on the 2020 Plug in Hybrid Focus

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/2020-ford-escape-plug-in-hybrid/

 

Panasonic seems on their game...not surprised there. A good thing though....

[ccap41]

10 hours ago, dfelt said:

Seems Panasonic is aiming to remove cobalt from all their batteries starting with the ones they make for Tesla.

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/panasonic-tesla-cobalt-ev-batteries/

Cool story on the 2020 Plug in Hybrid Focus

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/2020-ford-escape-plug-in-hybrid/

 

Is the GigaFactory partially owned by Panasonic then? I thought they were building that to also build their batteries there or is that just for the final assembly? 

Also, it's a plug-in Escape not Focus, which I think they need really bad. 

I will seriously consider a plug-in Escape as a next vehicle. I was originally thinking of a second vehicle originally but a plug-in would be fantastic. 

[Robert Hall]

58 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Is the GigaFactory partially owned by Panasonic then? I thought they were building that to also build their batteries there or is that just for the final assembly?  

Panasonic is an investor in GigaFactory 1 in Nevada.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_1

[David]

@balthazar Thought you would like this as the storm took down the doors to uncover this 1949 Ford Convertible. Interesting story and pics.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/21186/virginia-storm-damage-reveals-abandoned-1949-ford-convertible-hidden-in-an-alley-garage

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

Is the GigaFactory partially owned by Panasonic then? I thought they were building that to also build their batteries there or is that just for the final assembly? 

Also, it's a plug-in Escape not Focus, which I think they need really bad. 

I will seriously consider a plug-in Escape as a next vehicle. I was originally thinking of a second vehicle originally but a plug-in would be fantastic. 

DOH  I even now read Escape and thought Focus. So weird of me.

In regards to Panasonic, I would think they will want to at some time build their batteries there, but as an investor, their commitment is to Tesla first.

[David]

Crazy 

https://jalopnik.com/trump-threatens-to-push-german-carmakers-from-the-u-s-1826448454

Why is there now a push to wipe out the german auto companies from America? Makes no sense to me.

[ccap41]

The idea behind the threat, from my understanding, is to get the tariff on the same level playing field as they tax our cars 10% while we only tax theirs 2.5%, whether it is raising our tariff or getting them to lower theirs.

[daves87rs]

2 hours ago, dfelt said:

Crazy 

https://jalopnik.com/trump-threatens-to-push-german-carmakers-from-the-u-s-1826448454

Why is there now a push to wipe out the german auto companies from America? Makes no sense to me.

Man, the world itself makes no sense now.....

[A Horse With No Name]

3 hours ago, dfelt said:

Crazy 

https://jalopnik.com/trump-threatens-to-push-german-carmakers-from-the-u-s-1826448454

Why is there now a push to wipe out the german auto companies from America? Makes no sense to me.

I actually will be happy if the playing fiekd becomes more level. 

[Drew Dowdell]

On 5/29/2018 at 10:41 AM, dfelt said:

1400 miles only Turbo MR2 for $500. Awesome story here: http://www.thedrive.com/news/21130/worlds-luckiest-mechanic-nabs-stolen-abandoned-1400-mile-toyota-mr2-for-500

Gotta say this guy came out smelling like roses.

@Drew Dowdell Guess I was not the only one thinking of a Solar Car. Sono Motors is going into production with a solar panel body of a car. Total battery range of the EV auto is 155 miles with a normal charging port, but the solar panel body can give you 18 miles of range. They do say it goes down to only 3 miles of range on a dark cloudy day.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1116932_sono-sion-solar-electric-car-promises-18-miles-of-range-from-solar-panels

 

18 miles is what the HVAC might take if running a full blast on a hot day.  so that goes back to my point. The only thing the solar panels are good for is keeping the car cool

[ccap41]

Solar panel body... sounds like a fender bender would total that thing out. Door ding, loses 18% of range and costs $10,000 to replace. 

[Drew Dowdell]

3 hours ago, ccap41 said:

The idea behind the threat, from my understanding, is to get the tariff on the same level playing field as they tax our cars 10% while we only tax theirs 2.5%, whether it is raising our tariff or getting them to lower theirs.

 

1 hour ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I actually will be happy if the playing fiekd becomes more level. 

The problem is with what he said and shows how he has zero understanding on the way the industry works (or he does, and he is simply posturing for his base who doesn't understand the industry)

He said the tariff/ban whatever would stand until "no Mercedes-Benz cars are seen on Fifth Avenue in New York"

Well, what about all the GLEs and C-Classes that are made in Alabama?

2 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Solar panel body... sounds like a fender bender would total that thing out. Door ding, loses 18% of range and costs $10,000 to replace. 

Solar panels don't cost that much, you can do a whole house for like $20k.  The problem is that their output per square inch of surface area isn't great, making cars not a great place to put them.  Figure $600 for a fender, but then there is no painting.

[ccap41]

42 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Solar panels don't cost that much, you can do a whole house for like $20k.  The problem is that their output per square inch of surface area isn't great, making cars not a great place to put them.  Figure $600 for a fender, but then there is no painting.

I know a flat/regular panel isn't that bad but we'd be talking about all this curvature and fitment that goes into a body panel.

I know $10,000 was an exaggeration but I'd still have to believe they'd be hella more expensive than a steel or aluminum body panel. Or even carbon fiber. 

44 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

"no Mercedes-Benz cars are seen on Fifth Avenue in New York"

Yeah, that's stupid. 

[Drew Dowdell]

I would assume they would be aluminum body panels covered in an array of photo-voltaic cells. PV cells don't have the structural integrity to be used as body panels alone. 

[David]

@ccap41 @Drew Dowdell

Per the web site: Sion will be made of polycarbonate plastic body panels over an aluminum space frame.

https://sonomotors.com/

[Drew Dowdell]

9 minutes ago, dfelt said:

@ccap41 @Drew Dowdell

Per the web site: Sion will be made of polycarbonate plastic body panels over an aluminum space frame.

https://sonomotors.com/

So a Solar Saturn..... 

[David]

Seems Waymo likes what they built with the 600 Pacifica Hybrid Self driving minivans. According to this story, Waymo and FCA are going to build 62,000 more of them for use across North America.

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/31/fca-waymo-62000-self-driving-pacificas-public-sales/

[Robert Hall]

Random dog pic from last evening...Raine likes to get under the comforter and sleep under it..  

[David]

2 hours ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Random dog pic from last evening...Raine likes to get under the comforter and sleep under it..  

Lets be honest, he just uses you as a bed warmer!