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Date:         Thu, 29 Jun 95 10:39:49 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         cetin@kirk.bellcore.com (Cetin Seren)
Subject:      gas + electric

[.........] > What would be really spiffy would be to > have the electric and gas motors in parallel.

> Good Luck

> Bill Duff

The diesel-electric engine they're thinking of for the VW concept is in the same line. I wonder how much it would cost to do an electric Vanagon with a gas turbine assist???? The gas turbine has the character of being real light, but has terrible low-end torque... With this combination you could run the gas turbine only when your batteries are low, and at its most efficient rpm. A good electrical motor could provide gobs of low-end torque...

Hmmmm.... this may be an idea for the '82 diesel for the next couple yrs... I wonder if: 1) I can fit the electric motor + gas turbine in the engine space...

2) how heavy would the combination be? (turbine+gas tank + electric motor + batteries) -- would they add up to more mass than the loss off weight duie to the removal of the diesel engine...

3) how much a small turbine/generator assembly would cost. I do know that they used gas-turbine driven generators for aircraft due to ligther weight... Anyone out there know where I can look?

4) Solar Panels -- If I'm not mistaken (I always forget the conversion factor between kilowatts and horsepower -- anyone remember what it is?) a back-of-the-envelope calc. that I did (assuming that one horsepower is .75 kilowatts or so -- was it the other way around ? ) one might get about 5-10 miles a day for free.. (10-hr sun summer day) e... ( I used the numbers I got from Sami for the solar panels -- a little optimistically, though --- about 5 amps of charging current at 12V).

5) I wonder if they ever make propane-fueled turbine engines?

6) how does one ever register and license such a vehicle?

7) if the gas turbine based generator is affordable, but the DOT people do not permit them in cars, maybe it can be packaged in a manner that allows snap on/off installation into the car...

8) I guess even the batteries could be grouped so one does not have to carry all the bulk for a small-town daily drive, and add more banks for the weekend trip...

Any ideas ?? I'd like to do a rough feasibility on this, and if it looks promising, well, maybe I'll go for it... I do have the '82 diesel camper to try it on, if I can afford it...

Cetin


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