“How one tunes to get adequate power out of a little 1.4L engine, God only knows, but…”

I may be getting old but I (fondly) remember when the mightiest cars in the world were 1.5L fire breathing monsters. We called them F1 cars.

In Europe, most cars – including diesels are less than 2L (due to taxes and artificially high gas prices).

Just one more thing – city and highway seems are comparable to the US. A 750cc Smart Roadster would be just as fun on I40 as it is on the Autobahn and that would equate to even more fun than a Solstice!

I know, it’s off your point about the Volts drivetrain but small engine performance CAN be more than adaquite. If you get a reliable car with 100 HP from 750cc just think what you could get from one of the new clean burning 2 strokes of the same displacement!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwig1tgUtY&feature=related

Companies and governments can make decisions and get on with business.

The USA needs to communicate to citizens that the use of fossil fuel energy is very likely to be extremely expensive, or hold the nation captive to outside interests.

Obama might be the man….

Define sustainable. Theoretically no power consumption is sustainable. But we don’t know what the future holds. I’m pretty sure that ICE’s will carry us through 2012. That might be long enough. Assuming we all make it past that point there is a least a chance that, using hydrogen or something else, they could go another 100 years or more.

But I guess I’m missing the point. He’s just looking for another jive plan to get more of my childrens money without having to give anyone anything.

On the other hand…
“Its as if we all agreed going back to being under-powered reptiles that constantly worry about staying warm in the sun and conserving energy is the way because it reduces greenhouse gases”

Perhaps we (ok, CarnotCycle) have solved why reptiles have apparently weathered changing environmental conditions that other species haven’t. Or maybe everyone else besides me knew that already.

the Chevrolet CorVolt. (Corvair + Volt, get it?)

Badump, bump. Thank you, thank you. I’m here all week. Tip the waitresses.

The program was canceled by the Bush Admin. at the request of the automakers two years before they were to have a market ready car. Problem is, none of them applied what they had to anything in production. An 80 mpg diesel hybrid may have been a stretch for 2003, but 50 mpg? Had they done that we perhaps wouldn’t be bailing out GM today? Instead they were more interested in high profit SUV’s at the time. Look where that got them.

Additionally, I’ve read that the exclusion of Toyota from the PNGV was their motivator in developing the Prius. When gasoline topped $4/gallon I’m sure GM was wishing they had that in their lineup. Well you idiots, you could’ve.

Bet they also wished they hadn’t ditched the EV1 too. I don’t want any new “partnerships” with dead auto companies walking because they failed to do anything with the last partnership.

Its as if we all agreed going back to being under-powered reptiles that constantly worry about staying warm in the sun and conserving energy is the way because it reduces greenhouse gases (it would too, no more cows!).

After all, if supply-side government interference was—as GM’s executives themselves argued—a bad idea when we did it under CAFE, it’s a bad idea here, too.

Like now, the public takes the risk and the private company gets the reward. Yay!

That fact used to rile me up a bit. Now – phsaw. Chump change!