College Students Create EV That Recharges in 10 Minutes

Forget Tesla.

Mercedes wants to build an electric Gullwing supercar? Let ‘em cater to the super rich.

Take the Chevy Volt’s 40-mile range and laugh in its face.

In fact, forget all the corporate EV hype and overnight-recharging technology.

I’m looking to a group of college students to solve the electric-vehicle conundrum of creating an EV with an extended driving range and a quick recharge.

Check this out: A student-built electric car can fully recharge in just ten minutes, travel 200 miles on a charge, and do the 0-60 run in just 9 seconds. A group from MIT (naturally) took a 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid and then added 7,905 lithium iron-phosphate batteries to achieve the goal of creating a little something they call rapid recharge. So far, the big manufacturers haven’t been able to do what these college folks did.

Get this technology into mass production, and bingo, we can put a check mark next to the “create electric vehicle” box and move on to the next big innovation. Come on MIT - we want flying cars next!

Should we rely on auto manufacturers to bring us electric vehicles, or should we be open to looking at college campuses, too?

-tgriffith

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$30,000 VW BlueSport Roadster Will Be Here in 2013

Other bloggers are drooling over this car (here and here) and, we confess, so are we. It looks a bit like the Audi TT but better. It’s Miata-sized and only 2,640 lbs. With turbodiesel power (2-liters, 168 hp), you reach 62 mph in 6.6 seconds. The car may also be made available with a 265-hp, 2-liter turbocharged four for more zap. VW claims 42-50 mpg, which is pretty amazing. Best of all, the engine is behind the seats.

The BlueSport has a soft, manually-operated top, with room for actual luggage fore and aft. Greg Kable of Autoweek drove the concept vehicle (the only one) for 50 miles over a variety of roads and said, “Rarely have we driven a concept car with such mechanical proficiency.” He praised its handling, response and general performance, calling it the spiritual successor of the Porsche 914.

I had a 2-liter version of the 914, which used a VW boxer engine, and it was a blast to drive. I’ve always been partial to mid-engine cars, even to owning a Fiat X1-9, which had marvelous handling, good looks, no real trunk, no power, no reverse gear (after a time), and I still loved it.

The BlueSport, we are sure, will have no such problems. It takes a shared-parts approach to engineering design and strikes me as what the Boxster should have been all along. I’ll get in line with the rest of you.

How many of you are prepared to call your VW dealer right now and put an order in?

—jgoods

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Insanity & Madness at Hennessey: An 800-bhp Cadillac

Those madcap wanker tuners at Hennessy Performance in Houston are at it again. Just what the world needs now, an 800-bhp Cadillac CTS-V, right? If you go to their website, you’ll find they’ve got four tuned versions available, starting at 610 bhp. And, my Gawd, they look to be fantastic cars.

The off-the-shelf CTS-V has 556 bhp and will perform, says Edmunds, at the BMW M5 level, with a 12.4-second quarter-mile. The car is smooth, quiet, with good manual or automatic transmissions, and beats both the M5 and the Benz C63 AMG in the slalom at 71.1 mph and .92g on the skid pad. Add to this its amazing braking performance, stopping from 60 mph in 104 feet. At $65-68,000 with Recaro seats, gas guzzler tax (13 mpg city), etc., this car beats the pants off its competitors pricewise: the M5 starts at around $89,000, the Audi S6 at $78,000, and the Benz E63 AMG at $88,500.

For the Hennessey versions, you’ll have to add a minimum of $40-50,000 to these prices. The 700-bhp upgrade, for instance, will give you:

• 0-60 mph in 3.1 seconds*
• 1/4 mile in 10.9 seconds at 129 mph*
• top speed: 211 mph, with six-speed transmission
  (* with optional 20-inch HRE wheel upgrade & 305/45-20 Nitto drag radial tires)

Hennessey started with Vipers, but is now into everything from Challengers and Taurus SHOs to 911s, GT40s and a 3.4-second (0-60) Jeep. Only in Texas. Here’s a corny but interesting video about what it takes to go super-fast in a straight line:

I still want one of those Caddies. It’s probably the best performance car for the street that GM has ever built. And now, like the Pontiac G8, it will most likely disappear forever. Still, buying one is no gamble, as the government will hold your warranty. Hah!

Why couldn’t GM produce a car like this when the company was still viable? Write us a short dissertation on that subject.

—jgoods

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