TheColonel

As I sit here at 3AM writing another stupid paper on global warming it occured to me that the hydrogen/gas Rx-8 would be totally useless to me. One could switch to hydrogen and get a little over 100hp when just gently putting around town, cutting down emissions to 0. This would great, except for the fact that, when they heck would I want to use it? I don't run to the store that's 5 minutes away to get milk and take 30 to do it because I want to cruise around with 110hp. I bought this car because it's fun as hell to drive, and even if I was so enviromentally minded to want to reduce my emissions, I think I'd have a hard time giving my smooth 238hp, even when tooling around town. Am I totally off here, or do you think alot of people who buy this car wouldn't want to switch to a mode where they get less power than a Civic?

Idk... I could be off... maybe it's just that it's 3AM... maybe it's that this is the 5th paper I've done on global warming for this class and yet still I AM LEARNING NOTHING FROM IT...

I hate this stupid gen ed course...

rotarygod

You should take some geology classes and then go back and write a paper on global warming. It would make the environmentalists mad.

fullsmoke

Phhh... Global Warming. What about all the extra water (Global Flooding) we'll be making from these H powered cars? :D

FS

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Instead of hydrogen, a CNG conversion would be cool. Those can run on both gasoline and natural gas as well. Could such a conversion work with the rotary?
Trouble is, filling the car up with CNG would be an issue.
Where do those buses and taxis fill up that run on CNG?

spool up

Until we are able to develop new processes for formulating hydrogen fuel, hydrogen has no future. The vehicle itself may have zero emissions, but it takes far more energy to produce the hydrogen than the power you get out of it. It's all about well to wheel numbers.

Navybeardbb

you probably havent learned anything because global warming doesn't exist to the point they said it does. It's just another conspiracy to get us to buy more products and help the economy, and other things.

TheColonel

I'm actually taking geology next semester, RG. :D

But seriously, I know hydrogen as a fuel source is just not viable given the existing extraction processes, but putting that aside, even if it was viable, I personally still wouldn't use the pollution free mode if it's going to make my driving experience less exciting. If I wanted to drive slow, I could have spent the same money on a more luxurious car with less performance. I bought the 8 because it makes driving my little brother to his friends house, or getting milk from the store into something fun.

And yes, I am skeptical of global warming. Consider this, all these environmental lobbying firms that do research and come out with reports warning of the danger of global warming can never be objective in their analysis. If a global warming focused environmental organization studied the phenomenon objectively and found evidence that it's just a natural cycle, well then they have proven their whole organization to be useless. So of course their research will suggest impending doom, because if it didn't, what reason would they have to get paid to whine in front of congress? They have just as much an interest to prove the existence of global warming as a smog producing company does to disprove it; they need to protect their jobs and their livelihood. *sigh * All studying poli sci teaches you is that the world is filled with nothing but self-motivated liars… it’s depressing… I hate my major…

(PS it’s 6 AM, sorry for typos or errors in grammar…)

JeRKy 8 Owner

I thought that car was going to also include some type of F/I? Wouldn't that help it get more than 110hp when you switch to hydrogen mode? Besides - the hydrogen mode is probably designed for long drives on the highway after you get the car past 60 - 70, not for city driving.

rx8wannahave

Yeah, if it could work on just highway mode that might be interesting. But who cares about highway if you lose your trunk space with a huge hydrogen tank. I'm with TheColonel, 110HP = I need a new car.

The RX8 is a sports car so if they could stick an EMA (electric motor assist) in to help fuel economy while keeping performance, then I"m all for it. But anything that rapes the car of half it's HP is a dead plan to me.

RXLogic

Since the car only gets 2 mpg on Hydrogen, I wouldn't worry about the HP loss -- you'll have to switch back to hydrocarbons after a few miles anyway.

Roaddemon

From what I undersrtand the rotory can run on any kind of fuel including diesel. A different ECU and exhaust would be required to do so. A diesel rotory would get better economy but still pollute. The rotory is a vary versatile engine with alot of enviromental potential and aplication.

army_rx8

^^haha seriously...just use ethanol or methanol

RX8-TX

....would you buy a rotary/hydrogen powered version of a Prius -made by Mazda? You know, small wheels, tires, light, with cargo space and a high-gadgetery level?

Aseras

you guys should check out http://www.unitednuclear.com/h2.htm

JonsToy

There goes the trunk!

rotarygod

Here was a Nitrous bottle that exploded in a car. It was most likely user error but with Hydrogen tanks pressurized to this level, who's to say it won't be easy to mess up and have this happen? This is what has the possibility of happening should something go wrong. Imagine if he had been in the car when this happened. It's downright scary. I still support Ethanol. It's less flammable and does not need to be stored under pressure.

http://www.saturnspeed.com/nitrousexplosion.htm

therm8

And when/if the hydrogen bottle goes, the smallest little spark would take the house with it. :p

Aseras

you can't use compressed hydrogen people you'd get about 5 miles with a tank compressed to 1200 psi ( like a typical suba tank ). Liquid hydrogen might work better, but hydrazine ( what the space shuttle uses for thrusters ) is the only way to go.

read the link I posted above..

WHealy

Of course the current least expensive way to get hydrogen is ... processing natural gas!

BlueFrenzy

I think if we really wanted (ie when gasoline goes to $15/Liter or something insane), we will find more efficient ways of extracting electricity. In fact, processing of petroleum in oil sands (currently not profitable) will become more popular as the cost of gasoline goes up.

My personal feeling is to go nuclear! But then you get all the zealots going nuts over terrorists, hazzardous wastes, etc. Anyways, once we get that sweet sweet nuclear spawned electricity ... we can get our hydrogen! By then we'll have the gas/hydrogen/methanol/natural gas/diesel/electric hybrid rx8

Oh and global warming? A volcano explosion emits tonnes and tonnes of CO2 and other such gases that potentially dwarf that from us ... I don't see wackos trying to plug up volcanos.

Virgil

Carbon fiber compression tanks that would be used for hydrogen are much more durable then the car, in fact, niegh indrestructable.

Well consider this, when fuel injection was taking place and harder emissions standards killed power in big v-8's (there was a time that a mustang v-8 had 150hp) and the detriot auto manufacterers were killed by the japanese cars it took them a while to get the tuning right.

Now, what is argueabley the most important thing with rotary cars? tuning. How new is hyrdogen? Very new. Give it some time and it will come around if it is in fact going to be monarterily useful.

After looking at the change in weather in my own region, I am starting to buy in to the whole idea of Global warming. People hear about 1.5 degrees global rise in temperature and go big deal, now this is a GLOBAL rise in temp, meaning the overall temperature everywhere is growing up. I agree that to some degree it could be science mixing with politic's but I don't beleive that is all environmental research. We need to be careful all the same and shouldn't completely tune out warnings such as this, after all, we have no precedence for a massive population which inculdes self-destructive technology and a tendency to put ones own well being ahead of the collective's.

TheColonel

No RX-TX, I wouldn't buy it... Again, I enjoy driving...

TheColonel

Also, with that united nuclear system... what happens when a Mack truck slams your Corvette from behind at a stoplight? I'd be too afraid of those things going Hindenburg on me... (not that the 16 wheeler wouldn't be likely to kill you anyway...)

RX8-TX

I understand that but....it would make more sense than trying to move a 3000lbs 'sporty' car around, wouldn't it?

automaton

I recently read an article in a car magazine (I think it was Car and Driver, but I've packed the magazine up and can't currently find it. If I find it I'll post some more info) about an experimental technology being developed in a university.

It consists of putting a small converter under the hood of the vehicle (purportedly the size of a 2 liter bottle) that draws a small portion of gasoline from the fuel system and subjects it to a very high voltage arc that supposedly releases the Hydrogen stored up in the gasoline. The Hydrogen is then added to the intake tract and effectively raises the octane rating several points (the magazine claimed a higher "effective octane rating than race gas"). I guess the system has been proven reliable and relatively safe and is currently being reviewed by many car manufacturers for potential viability in commercial applications. The articla also stated that the system creates a drag on the engine (presumably from electrical draw) of about 5 hp, but that the potential gains in fuel economy and power are enormous. Think extremely high compression without the detonation.

I know it's sort of off-topic, but i thought you guys might be interested.