Quote:
Originally Posted by reformed
...the car doesn't really have 600hp available for you to use.
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It does - or it would if the electric motors were capable of outputting 600 HP. The point is that the HP figure (for any car) is a maximum. You very seldom use anything like the max for more than a few seconds - maybe pulling a heavy trailer up a steep grade would do it.
So what this guy is doing is not all that different from the Chevy Volt concept, or any plug-in hybrid. The electric motor acts as a transmission, with power either coming from the batteries or the engine. That lets him run an engine that's inherently more efficient than an IC engine, at its most efficient level.
Of course it's possible to get even better than a gas turbine. Use a Stirling engine. Look at some of the work Ford (IIRC) did in the 70s. The problem is that they take a while to warm up & are not good on acceleration. Marry them to a hybrid system where you start & accelerate with the battery, and 100 mpg would be easy. Then you put the system in something like the Aptera, instead of one of those oversized penis substitutes...