 begin forwarded text from a guy who models plasma all day to r a hettinga rah shipwright com subject re electric car an edsel date tue NUMBER sep NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER bob this capacitor drive idea isn t completely stupid but neither is it well thought out maxwell www maxwell com makes and sells high energy density capacitors called ultracapacitors they deliver them in an air cooled voltage regulated module that will charge to NUMBER v and hold NUMBER kilojoules roughly the energy in NUMBER teaspoons of sugar or a bite of a donut and weighs NUMBER kilograms if that electrical energy could all be converted to kinetic energy there s enough to get the capacitor module up to about NUMBER mph in a vacuum suppose you take the entire power density of the capacitor module NUMBER NUMBER kw kg NUMBER hp kg and punch it through an electric motor how much does the NUMBER hp electric motor weigh if it were as little as NUMBER kg and i bet it isn t that capacitor and motor would have a top speed of NUMBER mph the speed at which their energy is the NUMBER kj that was initially stored electrically in the capacitor and it s not at all obvious that the torque vs speed characteristic of NUMBER v dc motors will support this or how they do it without wheels drive train etc but if they can they can only do it in a vacuum where there is no drag on to the lunarnationals or would you prefer the bite of donut somebody s sig original message from r a hettinga rah shipwright com to vinnie moscaritolo vinnie vmeng com randolph elliott elliott engineous com nicholasfc aol com duncan goldie scot dgs btinternet com g gruff g_gruff yahoo com michael frese numerex com sent monday september NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER pm subject re electric car an edsel begin forwarded text status ro delivered to fork URL from adam l beberg beberg URL to rosso fork ordersomewherechaos com cc fork URL subject re electric car an edsel sender fork admin URL date mon NUMBER sep NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER pdt on NUMBER sep NUMBER rosso wrote john waylan who was interviewed in wired a few years back pulled out a NUMBER NUMBER second run in the quarter mile NUMBERmph on a battery pack that hasn t been broken in yet he expects to break his record next year topping his NUMBER NUMBERsec NUMBERmph run a couple of years ago he s shooting for a NUMBER second run battery pack huh what you dont use batteries for a NUMBER NUMBER mile run you use capacitors many times the energy density and you can get the energy out fast enough note that the battery packs are fully swapped out for recharging after each run anyway just like a gas dragster is refueled so this wouldnt be cheating NUMBER mph should be no problem adam l duncan beberg URL beberg URL end forwarded text r a hettinga mailto rah ibuc com the internet bearer underwriting corporation URL NUMBER farquhar street boston ma NUMBER usa however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity predicting the end of the world has not been found agreeable to experience edward gibbon decline and fall of the roman empire end forwarded text r a hettinga mailto rah ibuc com the internet bearer underwriting corporation URL NUMBER farquhar street boston ma NUMBER usa however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity predicting the end of the world has not been found agreeable to experience edward gibbon decline and fall of the roman empire 