User talk:Mitch Casto

Welcome to Wikipedia!
Dear Mitch Casto: Welcome to Wikipedia, a free and open-content encyclopedia. I hope you enjoy contributing. To help get you settled in, I thought you might find the following pages useful:


 * Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * Community Portal
 * Frequently Asked Questions
 * How to edit a page
 * How to revert to a previous version of a page
 * Tutorial
 * Copyrights
 * Shortcuts

Don't worry too much about being perfect. Very few of us are! Just in case you are not perfect, click here to see how you can avoid making common mistakes.

If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the New contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type   on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions.

Wikipedians try to follow a strict policy of never biting new users. If you are unsure of how to do something, you are welcome to ask a more experienced user such as an administrator. One last bit of advice: please sign any discussion comment with four tildes (~&#126;). The software will automatically convert this into your signature which can be altered in the "Preferences" tab at the top of the screen. I hope I have not overwhelmed you with information. If you need any help just let me know. Once again welcome to Wikipedia, and don't forget to tell us about yourself and be BOLD!

Hi Mitch,

I saw your contributions at Hybrid vehicle: ICE-ICE Hybrid
 * Nearly all motor vehicles use some form of Internal Combustion Engine, and this includes the current hybrid-electric cars such as the Prius. A basic efficiency problem of the ICE motor is that they must provide enough power for acceleration and this generally requires over 100 horsepower. However, the amount of power needed for a typical 3000 pound vehicle may be less than 5 horsepower when running 60 mph on level roads ( one term for this is Road-Horsepower ). It is very inefficient to run a large engine under such a light load. So, in an ICE-ICE hybrid a second small motor might be used at cruising speeds. This might be wired into the common electric cruise control which many cars already have. The small motor's horsepower could be chosen with a goal of ability to allow the vehicle to climb slopes up to 5 degrees since few roads are truly level for even short distances. For simplicity, the small motor could have a single fixed gear ratioed to run most efficiently at a defined speed range such as 60-75 mph.


 * This system would be more efficient than manufactured systems with cylinder shut-downs since those systems still have large amounts of friction - the shut-down cylinders are still running. The late Frank-Winchell of General Motors may have done work with the ICE-ICE hybrid, perhaps it is unpublished. Advantages of ICE-ICE hybrids over Petroleum-Electric hybrids would be greater range and less weight. One of the worst design flaws of the ICE-Electric vehicles is overall vehicle weight in part due to heavy batteries. But, the real waste is that 90% of the time, there is only one person in a 4-8 passenger 3000-5000 pound vehicle. Making a large hybrid for single person commuting is a misleading waste no matter how clever the technology. In 2002 Volkswagen showed it's "One Litre Car" running concept which got over 200 mpg, weighed only about 600 pounds, was crashworthy and carried 2 people. However, the acceleration was very slow -- but with a second larger motor for acceleration it could actually be quite sporty and still use very little fuel -- as an ICE-ice hybrid.A similar petroleum-electric ultralight tandem seater, the 2005 Daihatsu UFE-III could be made into an ICE-ICE hybrid for far greater range without the anchor of batteries. Also, because both of the these vehicles are only one-person wide they have a small frontal area coupled with a low drag shape. So, both are Naero vehicles ( Narrow, Aerodynamic ). Keep in mind that the bigger something is, the more energy it will take to move it, there is no magic method to avoid that.

I like the contribution... however someone will probably rewrite it as it's a bit speculative, which is not really suitable for Wikipedia. The reason I looked you up, though, was that I thought you may wish to check out Appropedia, which encourages such material. See Appropriate technology car, which might interest you, and note the suggestions I wrote on the talk page, also, about drawing on the words you wrote.

Anyway, check it out and see what you think - hope to see you there. --Singkong2005 &middot; talk 11:32, 11 November 2006 (UTC)