Skip to main content

Automotive Technology at its finest

I saw two beautiful beasts of burden today. The first was a sleek, smooth, eye-catching, attractive car made by this tiny car maker from Stuttgart. You may have heard of them. You may have seen their cars. You will likely never forget how this one looks. She is a GT after all. Gorgeous from the front fender to the rear exhaust and all around... she's just the most beautiful of vehicles on earth. I saw her parked by the Earls on Broadway, by Pine Street. Someday, I would like to drive one and god-willing, own one. And if you're still wondering who the maker is, it is Porsche.

The second one was a GM-Allison Diesel-Electric hybrid bus. It has a huge battery pack on the top of the bus, but other than that, the chasis is a regular New Flyer low-floor bus. That's where the resemblance ends though. The Allison bus is gear free... it runs on electricity generated by the diesel engine. The whirring and clicking that the electric engine produces is strange to get used to, but the ride is quite smooth. The diesel engine is barely audible at low speeds, and as you increase speed, the engine moves up in rpm to whatever it is supposed to be at. Then you hear a constant noise from the diesel engine. The bus is ultra smooth compared to the choppier diesel buses. The lack of gears is a major factor in that.

It moves smoothly, sounds quiet and is at the cutting edge. Pretty neat eh? There are a bunch of other experimental technologies making their real-world debuts as test vehicles in Vancouver. You can read more on this Translink website.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Johnnie Francis Xavier MacIntyre said…
and today... I saw a couple of DB8s parked outside Lumiere on Broadway, a Carerra S and god knows what else. I even gave someone special a lesson on what cars are cool. She promised to buy me one of each. I'll have a Ferrari, a DB5, DB9 and an M5 if she keeps her word. I sure hope she wins a big lottery.
11:27 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strange is one way to put it

Life has been a bit strange of late. I've gone from being incredibly happy to depressingly sad. I don't quite have the answers to why that is and I am not really sure I care to find out. I almost feel like its easier to give up than try and work towards some worthwhile conclusion to the problem. I love going on vacation. I hate coming back from there. Generally, when I get back from vacation, I go through a period of adjustment that starts with the lack of sleep (because I am usually not in the same time zone as my vacation destination was), self-pity and loathing at the state I left my place in, in my hurry to get out of here. It progresses to outright hatred of having to go back to work and dealing with the routine in general. I resolve to find better things to do in life, learn more, improve myself, lose weight etc etc. And eventually, I end up no further than where I was, where I've been for over 2 years. I can find any number of reasons and excuses to make this someone...
2 comments
Read more

Retro is the new cool

A week ago, something important happened in my life. I skied Whistler for the first time ever. If you don't count the time I sort of limped down the mountain on a snowboard, many years back. It was, by far, the best ski day of my short ski season. The conditions, terrain and my skill level allowed for a much better experience than before.  But that's not what this story is about. This is about my now crippled BlackBerry Tour. I've had BlackBerry devices since 2005. For a while, I had 2 devices; a personal phone, and a work BlackBerry. That changed when RIM released the Pearl 8100. I got mine in late 2006 and never looked back. This was still well before the iPhone and the madness that all these apps bring about. The Pearl still works btw. As part of my ski trip, we took a break for lunch. I noticed that the pocket where I had my phone  was not zipped up all the way. And I had many a tumble in knee-high pristine powder. Still, my phone seemed to work, mostly. I not...
Post a Comment
Read more

Finding happiness

I have been put up to a new task. I am allegedly supposed to find out what makes me happy and start doing it. Those are orders from the boss. Apparently my happiness or more appropriately, the lack of it has an affect on everyone else. I never knew that. There is one slight problem with this. The trouble with finding happiness is two-fold; on the one hand, you have a very hard time describing what happiness is, what makes you happy; on the other, you are afraid that you might actually find it. Then what? Well, be happy right? Really? We are human. I get bored of things quickly. But I think I will give it a shot. So, I embark on my given task. I wonder if I keep saying I am happy if I will buy into it. Likely not. How do I figure out what makes me happy? I don't know. Alcohol? Not really. I collect, but I don't consume. Finish work on time? Well, that could work, but then I would have to figure out what to do once I leave. Sleep? Can sleep make you happy? Money? I think money ma...
Post a Comment
Read more