I can't believe that the Insight did better in the slalom test than the S2000. The guy I saw on the road was probably doing about 90+. I was doing around 80 and he blew right by me. The car looked pretty stable at that speed.

 

I believe that the batteries in the Insight are charged by regenerative braking.

Could it be that he was low on battery power, rolled it up to 110, and was about to lock them up at the next exit so he could make it home or to the company pub?

Probably not.

Actually, it sounds a lot like my first test drive in an S2000.

 

what's the emergency lane change test?

 

Hey guys,

I spent a long time on Virginia Tech's Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team, building fuel-cell powered Dodge Neons, Chevy Luminas and Suburbans. These vehicles generated electricity from hydrogen with a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell, and used that to charge a battery pack and drive traction motors.

Parallel hybrids (like the Prius and Insight) DO charge their batteries through regen braking, but that's only a very slight effect -- 50W-hrs of regen for a good hard brake is pretty good, and that's not very much energy for a car. Instead, the batteries are kept at a high state-of-charge by generating electricity with the car's electric machines. As an example, the Prius contains a gas engine, two electric machines, and a planetary gearset to perform the torquesplit. A computer controller can adjust the torquesplit in any way it wants -- both electric machines and the gas engine all driving the wheels, the electric machine pushing the motor (which isn't fueled), or the gas engine pushing the electric machines (and therefore producing electricity to charge the batteries), or any other combination you can imagine. A pretty sophisticated control system keeps everything nice and smooth. I believe the Prius acheives something like high-50's gas mileage, but I could be wrong (and I don't feel like looking it up).

We built ourselves a little one-motor Dodge Neon that would kick the pants off most other cars on the road. Its torque was so severe at stall (0 RPM) that we had to adjust the motor inverter's params to prevent it from snapping its halfshafts (it did that a couple of times). The electric motor could also pull from 0 to 13,500 RPM, translated to the wheels through a single gear, corresponding to 0-80 mph. No shifts, no interruptions. We'd pile four engineering nerds into the Neon, pull up to the line beside very fast cars (so many I can't name them) and we'd DESTROY them off the line. That particular vehicle was originally equipped as a CNG series hybrid, but we ended up making her pure electric and using it for fun. It had a 360V pack of 28 22A-hr lead-acid batteries, good for about 8 miles of driving (gasp!). The pack alone weighed something like 3000 pounds... we had to have the blacktop reinforced so the car wouldn't crack it.

So hybrids, right now, are being pushed only as fuel-efficient means of transportation -- but trust me, there's no reason they won't be a blast to drive too. How about a 4 second 0-60 with no shifts? They're coming!

- Warren

 

there's an insight running in the scca autox here...it's got amazing time!!!.....got the same time as me (ok i'm a newbie to autox)

 

Pretty interesting thread
So based on what I'm reading, the rumoured next-gen NSX powered by a 400bhp hybrid powerplant isn't so far fetched after all. That would be awesome, but kind of strange! Is the exotic car crowd ready for a fast car that's fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly?

 

The reason that an engine ordinarily suffers its worst wear on startup is that the oil has drained into the pan, so you are starting it "dry." Until the oil starts to circulate you get metal-to-metal contact.

But the oil doesn't drain immediately. Stopping the engine for a traffic light and restarting it is unlikely to cause a problem as in that short time there should be little loss of oil coating the internals.

At least it sounds reasonable.

 

they seem slow, but wonder if they'll catch on

 

Ok...
I admire Honda and Toyota for their efforts towards finding a sutable alternative to gas powered cars, I believe that the Hybrid platform has its merrits.
BUT>>>>
concider this, the insight is a 2 seat econo-box that could hardly pass as a family vehicle.
Now take a VW Jetta TDI....
Gobs of power, 90hp but 160Ftlbs.
Seats 5, uses normal tires, gigantic trunk, and get this part....
54MPG highway and 46MPG city.....
Yeah diesel is a little dirty, but great stides have been made and are on the way towards making diesels a real alternative to gas. Just look at all the euro cars, BMW even has a 3 series diesel sports model....

 

All right you buggers as a opwner of a insight I can say without any thought that they are very slow in relation to a S2000. (What a stretch huh) in relation to a civic not really, check out www.insightcentral.com lots of weird guys on that board getting 100+ mpg which in my opinion is much higher performace then the s2000 will ever achieve.

The car carries a very special oil. (all 1.6 Quarts of it) 0w-15 if I remeber correctly, it also has a very special coating on the cylinders to reduce friction to almost negligable levels.

You can get the car to go quite fast if you want to and it gets there in a hurry, 95 mile a hour crusing speed is very atainable on a daily basis if you have the guts to go that high. As for the quite sound it makes, forgetaboutit. the car is a tin car body with a very high rpm riding motor when accellerating past 80, it sounds like it is going to blow up when going over 85. As a tool in helping you understand how fast they can go just realize that some people autocross their insights and do decently.

The one that is always in the show is most likly a lemon, we have had ours for almost 9 months and 16,000 miles. no problems just change the oil which is real cheap as there really is not much in the motr and clean the air filter. If there is a supercharger for the insight I would like to know about it, I would love to see one in action.

Maybe I will bring one to the nrxt import show, I can see it now bracket racing against a twin turbo supra. Now witha a 18 sec quarter mile a honda insight

By the way our lifetime average is around 61 mpg I think. That is really low but we live in san diego and all its traffic. I wish that they would put the as milage software in the S2000 then I would really see how vtec eats gas.