[Tigers] Drag Racers, Watch Out!!! Not Tiger!

[Smit, Theo]

You know what irks me? I have a Toyota Echo as a daily driver, that I
bought used. It's totally awesome for the job... It gets about 45 miles
per US gallon, it's small on the outside and big enough inside that I
can pick up the kids or a ten foot piece of bar stock. But recently I
got a letter from my insurance that they're offering discounts for
people that drive hybrids, because they're "green". Any kind of
hybrid... But as far as I know, the only hybrids that will actually beat
the mileage I get are the Honda Insight and the Prius. And both of those
will have significantly higher operating cost and environmental impact
than the Echo, to say nothing of what the fullsize hybrids will require.
So really, the insurance company is inducing people to spend more money
on a new car, that has significant environmental impact. They ought to
be teaching people how to take care of their older cars so that they run
as clean as possible and to get maximum life out of what's already been
built.

At the same time, it's good that electric drives are finally getting
some exposure, and it's even better that there are people doing hot-rod
conversions and showing the performance potential even if it's only in a
straight line. Racing improves the breed.

Cheers,
Theo

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tigers-bounces at autox.team.net
> [mailto:tigers-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Gary
> Sent: June 18, 2009 1:02 AM
> To: Tiger List
> Subject: Re: [Tigers] Drag Racers, Watch Out!!! Not Tiger!
>
> Oops. I meant $150 a barrel.
>
> --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Gary <maliburevue at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> From: Gary <maliburevue at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Tigers] Drag Racers, Watch Out!!! Not Tiger!
> To: "Tiger List" <tigers at autox.team.net>
> Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 11:57 PM
>
> This is an awesome car!!! However, as usual, these people
> never take into account all the chemicals and energy required
> to manufacture the batteries, let alone to recycle them. All
> storage and conversion of energy has some kind and amount of
> parasitic loss. Granted, the actual driving time creates
<snip>