Hello from Andrew Moore

[ademonrower]

Whoa! Really looks like a bug (from outer space :-)

[freebeard]

Whoa! Really looks like a bug (from outer space :-)

At a later point it got a new nose and Black Imron paint. It took two hoods to move the cutline up and use Jeep hood latches. Needed black paint and Batman ears.

The one in the carport now also came out of a farmers field. Here it is before the new artillery-spoke Lemmerz wheels.



The notchback was also a floorpan swap,



I forget where that one came from. Probably the one I'd like back the most -- 1964 body on a 1971 floorpan, five-speed, 1776 with 40mm Webers. Upshift into 5th at 85MPH. Tow vehicle in fourth.

All I have left is the five-speed swingaxle with Type III drums.

[ademonrower]

The stuff of legends :-) When I was kid, we had the later model of that VW, but as a station wagon. It's a wierd thing to think of a S.W. with the engine in the back...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by ademonrower

Hybrids with a small battery are, in my opinion, a good solution in many scenarios.

Also taking range-anxiety in consideration, hybrids make way more sense than EVs for most people.

Often it's the mixture of technologies that makes the best progress. This relates to openness to technology diversity, which, unfortunately is not really on the agenda of politics or industry.

Odd enough, the same virtue-signallers who call for some "diversity" mostly for a political agenda, are the first ones who say everybody should embrace a random one-size-fits-all BS which ends up proving itself unsuitable for many diverse segments...

They're trying to find single-technology solutions in too many areas, because that is the economically-efficient way to go.

Sometimes applying a similar tech into different applications can actually be a good thing, but the way EVs are simply forced by bureaucrats is pointless. Same applies for the SUV craze all around the world, when a good traditional station-wagon is neglected...

However, in my opnion, it will not serve environmental aims. Using less of everything would be a great start... :-) So, ecomodding of any kind of car gets a big thumbs-up from me :-)

Even though simpler, dumbproof old tech, might remain functional and require fewer raw materials to be turned into replacement parts in the long run, let's suppose someone who owns an ancient car and would rather have an engine swap instead of overhauling the old engine, and the newer one occasionally may lead to fewer emissions. I'm OK with that. But simply trying to push for some unrealistic standards like bureaucrats tend to do, forcing people to either buy an expensive late-model car or ride a 125cc motorcycle and call it a day is ridiculous.

[ademonrower]

Right-on. It's a tough concept to discuss at societal level: a friend of mine tried out my argumentation (i.e. cricially considering the wisdom of a BEV purchase on the basis of energy/CO2/environmental impact) with a work colleague who was planning to buy a BEV. The colleague replied, OK, I hear you, but if we don't buy into this technology, we won't see any technological advance in this area. It's an interesting reply, because the implicit sentiment behind it is: "we should urgently support new technology", and not "we should urgently support more frugal behaviour (with whatever technology)"...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

You know, people get easily impressed by "new advances in science" even when they're not so new at all, just like BEVs which existed for more than 100 years, yet marketing made them cool again in the eyes of the current endorsers. Not to mention some tree-huggers praise the "alternative" lifestyle of the hippies, yet look with disdain to someone who would rather pour old frying oil right into the tank of some old car with a perfectly-mantained IDI Diesel engine instead of embracing the electrification craze which has been more politically-centered than customer-centered. Nobody who prefers an ICE seems to be willing to ban EVs, while some rather fanatical EV converts just seem to forget the ICE even has a role providing backup electrical power on gensets for instance.

[ademonrower]

Right, there is an enormous amount of illogical and very counter-productive thinking going on around EVs. I read massive amounts of research literatuer on the matter, including sociologists reports of user behaviour. A very strong insight emerging from user surveys is that a large proportion of EV owners have a feeling of superiority over ICEV owners; also, in terms of usage patterns, many EV owners report feeling much more comfortable about driving their car into town to fetch "things that they forgot to buy" for example... thereby using their EV much more for these "into-and-out-of-town" journeys than their ICEV. Energy use concerns seemed to have disappeared, and the "towns are for people, not for car" concept with it...

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Some EV owners seem to really believe they have "moral superiority" over anybody else, while others seem to see themselves as smarter than anybody else by taking an advantage as they perceive electricity as cheaper than fuel, especially when they can plug somewhere they're not the ones paying the bill.

[ademonrower]

Right! The "morality" bit is interesting, because many people see the whole EV vs. ICEV as a strongly moral, and not scientific, debate: I was describing the environmental issues of the EV battery economy to an acquaintance of mine who is a member of the Greens and an espoused environmentally-conscious person; I talked about the problems of externalizing mining impacts and CO2 emissions, material and energy balances that didn't currently look favourable etc.; he nodded and seemed rather interested: we then carried some things to his car on the parking lot, and it transpired to be a large Mercedes plug-in hybrid (and his other car a smaller pure BEV), upon which he remarked "I'm afraid I haven't reached your ethical standards in this area"... What???!!! This is about knowledge, logic and reflection (in that order)! If we all try to find out more about those aspects, we will stand a better chance of doing the "right" think in an ethical sense as well...

[freebeard]

The morally superior EV owner would run Edison nickel-iron batteries.

And Tetrataenite motors.