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Originally Posted by i_am_socket
A coworker of mine did a few years ago. Not pretty. He was ok, though.
I like the idea of the flywheel, if mounted horizontally. The only practical issue would be hills. Safety issues are safety issues, but let's assume that safety wasn't the issue. Who's a math major around here? What size and mass of disk rotating at what velocity would be required to move a city bus from a stop? What would the best methods of energy transference be for both energizing the disk and providing motive force to the vehicle? Would it be worth it?
I can see this being one of the many possible solutions for hybridization of buses and delivery trucks that stop and go frequently and don't do too much mountain climbing.
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I had a car come flying at me on a track.. that's about it. Not nearly as scary when you're semi-expecting it to happen.
Food for thought - Isn't the most wasteful event the initial takeoff time? So even if the flywheel's stored energy was enough to get the vehicle moving so the engine could take over, wouldn't that have a significant impact on efficiency? (For a bus, or a delivery vehicle, such as Postal Service trucks (which run on propane)).
Quote:
Originally Posted by IndyIan
How about just putting heavier wheels on your car? I have a set of 15" alloy rims that weigh ~20lb each and I definetly notice a lack of acceleration with them on, compared to my normal 14" steel rims and tires. I should test it but given equal rolling resistance heavier wheels will help a bit with the gliding phase. Of course there are all sorts of downsides to heavy wheels but none of them stop the ricers from putting the biggest rims they can fit on many small cars.
Ian
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I still use 13's or 14's, up to 16's, depending on what performance I want to see from my tires, and how much of the actual suspension duty I want my tires to see. My DD has had 16's on it, but never when they have stiff suspension.. I use my tires as more of a performance tuning setup than for style.
Also, there have been cases where a larger wheel/tire combination were actually less weight than the OEM config, and made sense for a particular application. It doesn't happen often.