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| 7/9 |
| 2005/7/8-12 [Transportation/Motorcycle, Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:38495 Activity:moderate |
7/8 Check this out, eco-mobile going 200MPH and 55MPG. It's a motorcycle
with sleek fairings. Make sure to check out the videos!
http://www.peraves.ch
\_ I've seen these around Zurich; they're street legal here. They
look tremendously cool--the little training wheels retract into
the fairings at low speeds. They cost between $50k-$70k. But for
some fun, read http://www.peraves.ch/monot.htm and ask yourself if
you belong to the group of "buyers in circumstances found suitable
by personal contact". It sounds more arrogant in German. -John
\_ I think this probably means they only want famous or
influential people buying their products (no sale to engineers)
\_ Driven by people who look like would-be-Porsche-[old]-owners?
\_ Now that you mention it, the guys I've seen driving this all
did look like distinguished 50-ish executive types. Or it
could just mean they want to make sure you have the cash to
pay for it. -John
\_ Interesting. I once saw an ad on I-60 that says
"Porsche owners are not old. They're just successful."
Since you're close by, John, can you do a survey for
all of us? Give them a call, imply that you're young and
not an executive type but you're really interested in
buying the vehicle. See how well they treat you, and
report back on motd. Thanks!
\_ I already did once. My uptake of Porsche owners here is
that they're generally mid-50s, confident, and don't
speed. When I tried to buy an older 911 once (ended up
not being able to find a satisfactory one) I was treated
like shit by 2-3 third rate garages, and received very
enthusiastically by both private sellers and shops--
especially the older dudes seemed to be really happy
that someone younger appeared interested in a Porsche--
for several owners I've talked to, their car is like a
baby, sort of like with Saturn owners but far less
spooky and cultish. -John
\_ So what did you end up getting?
\_ A TT. I really like it. I am still thinking of
buying an old 911 someday, or a TVR Chimaera if
I ever have the cash and space for a second, more
reliable car. -John
\_ I also like the TT. It's a very cute, adorable
non-threatening sporty car. I've seen a lot of
pretty blonde bombshells driving one.
\_ http://www.myaudittsucks.com
\_ The models for US export are from a
satellite factory in Kyrgizstan. -John
\_ Wow! A breathtaking number of spelling
mistakes and grammatical errors just
on the front page.
\_ I guess that makes him a liar?
\_ It certainly makes him an idiot.
I'm not talking about the finer
points of subjunctive clauses here,
I'm talking about someone that
spells "today" "to day." Also,
why should I believe some random
crank on the web? On first viewing
this looks like the "don't buy a
BMW" guy, who was just trying to
extort BMW into giving him money
to shut up.
\_ I am not sure spelling and
grammatical ability translate
to intelligence. UCB is a
good example of that. But, hey,
I don't have a TT. What do I
care?
\_ Early model TTs had an annoying
propensity towards flinging
themselves off the road, and
their rear axles would randomly
break, but that's fixed. -John
\_ How about an Ecomobile
\_ I don't need threatening. I need fast,
reliable, spacious, doesn't use tons of gas,
looks good. Fits the bill. And I can't fit
a shitload of {PCs, luggage, dead bodies}
in an Ecomobile's trunk. -John
\_ This car is too cool: http://csua.org/u/co3
\_ Porsche being cool is not news.
\_ Apparently, Porsche owners do not get laid:
http://csua.org/u/co0 (sfgate.com)
\_ That's awesome! I wonder if this thing is 'allowed' to
\_ That's awesome! I wonder if this thing is legally allowed to
maneuver around cars between lanes, like a regular motorcycle.
-- ilyas
\_ These things are on the track, so they're probably still going
through street certifications. I for one would love to see
these vehicles on the street as they're not as annoying to
ride as motorcycles. I'm a rider and I HATE wind noise when
going above 65MPH. The wind noise at 80MPH feels like 2-3 times
louder than engines, and the turbulence inside the helmet at
100MPH is just ANNOYING. My other complaint with motorcycles is
that there's no enclosure, so you have to wear thick leather
gear to protect yourself and it either gets really cold or
really hot when you ride. Also I hate it when bugs or dust get
onto my neck. I hope they make these things street legal ASAP.
\_ Yeah, I would buy one. The one thing that prevents me from
getting a motorcycle is the safety issue. This thing is
probably a lot safer than a bike, but also less safe than a
car. -- ilyas
\_ I don't see how tiny little plastic fairings will make
that vehicle a lot safer than motorcycles, although I
do have to admit that when the eco-mobile low sided it
was a lot less spectacular than when I low-sided my
motorcycle.
\_ Yeah, saying something is 'a lot safer than a motorcycle'
truly does not say much. Those things are wheeled
coffins, imo. -- ilyas
\_ You are very smart!
\_ Yeah pretty much. But I think they probably are safer
in most crashes; you don't get thrown into the path
of vehicles and you have a seatbelt. But no crumple
zones or the like; I would like to see a video of
one getting broadsided in an intersection by a cell-
phone using SUV driver. Maybe it bounces away like
a ping-pong ball.
\_ They say it's kevlar/glass-weave composite
monocoque with a bunch of protection bars. When I
took a look at one at an intersection, it looked a
lot like a glider cockpit. Since this thing is
pretty light, wouldn't it not have to crumple?
The Smart doesn't have any crumple zones either-it
appears to rely on being very rigid. -John
\_ I think the idea of crumple zone is that you
don't want the vehicle to be too rigid such
that the vehicle decelerates the driver's body
too hard. With a crumple zone, the driver's
deceleration is lower. Whether the vehicle is
light or not doesn't change this.
\_ It's called an AUTOMOBILE. Stupid.
\_ Actually, in CA, "lane splitting" is just defined as a
passing manuver. Anything small enough to do it is allowed
to. It just happens that pretty much the only thing small
and fast enough is a motorcycle. This thing looks a bit
wide though.
\_ what's the mileage of typical motorcycles?
\_ My EX500 (top 120MPH) gets 45MPG.
A typical race ready bikes like Honda 600RR (top ~160MPH)
gets about 34MPG. Hiyabusa (top ~200MPH) gets even less.
The biggest problem with motorcycles is DRAG.
\_ I used to get 75-85MPG on my Honda 250. Top speed was only 75
\_ I used to get 75MPG on my Honda 250. Top speed was only 75
though. I get 30MPG on my Ducati around town, 45 on the
highway. -ausman
\_ A Prius almost gets 60MPG, which puts most motocycles to
shame. And while I'm at it, I really hate Ducati's dry
clutch, it rattles a lot when you're slow and it is
annoying as hell.
\_ http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0501/30/autos-73731.htm
"A third Eco is scheduled to be delivered within weeks to a Denver
businessman whose wife, so the story goes, was so incensed with
her husband spending so much on the new contraption that she left
him." |
| 7/9 |
|
| www.peraves.ch PERAVES AG ECOMOBILFABRIK Zrcherstrasse 93A - Einfangstrasse 2 CH-8406 Winterthur / Schweiz fon + 41 52 202 54 24 fax + 41 52 202 54 25 Ausschreibung ECO-Training & Worldcup Brno 2005 Standard-ECO Super-ECO Super-Turbo-ECO Turbo-Mono-ECO Agenda Aktuell FAQs PERAVES AG Preisliste Bilder und Movies Standard-ECO Super-ECO Super-Turbo-ECO Turbo-Mono-ECO Veranstaltungen Aktuell FAQ PERAVES Preise Bilder und Movies english version E-MAIL |
| www.peraves.ch/monot.htm WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ECOMOBILE WHAT IS ECOMOBILE? THE VEHICLE FOR INDIVIDUAL MOBILITY OF THE FUTURE for MODERN PEOPLE. Fas t, safe comfortable, highly suitable for long distance travel and very efficient - beats driving fun, mobility and low operating costs of moto rcycles while providing comfort and practical usefulness like cars. Leg ally ECO is a 1000- or 1200ccm-motorcycle and can be operated by holder s of the respective drivers license. Exemption from helmet laws has bee n granted in consideration of the SAE-standard safety-belts. PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND ME, who took the unique chance to improve their pers onal mobility as pioneers and simultaneously reduce negative ecological effects. TWO characteristics they have in common, namely MODERN VIEWS and the gift not to bother about the unavoidable crowd around each park ed ECO and/or CALM REACTIONS to this situation. Because of different arra ngement of levers, pedals and switches, training has been developed sim ilar to type-rating courses for various aircraft. This training is coac hed by professional driving instructors and supported by specially deve loped technical devices. While learning time varies with age and skill the success rate so far is 100%. The JAN ANDERLE VEREINIGUNG JAV, club of ECO owners/drivers organizes TRAININGS on RACE TRACKS, ALPINE TOURS and other social club events sponsoring ECOMOBILE as personal vehicle. Users of conventional motorcycles/cars are welcome at events. Clearly prime quality material, skilled labour, small production and ind ividually customized versions will not end with a cheap product. Some 250- 350 manhours in final assembly are then needed until testing and regist ration checks will begin for a new machine. Common denominator of customers was found to be similar to spo rtscar-buyers in the Porsche or Ferrari class. Comparable performance w ith roughly 3 times better MPG, equal transport capacity - 2 persons pl us baggage - more driving fun at less costs and unhappy car owners gett ing red faces when ECOMOBILE is parked nearby, because no single head t urns from it to their vehicles - the winning future formula now here! The happy owner, accepted as customer in personal contact, pays cash... In most cases however, a SAVING PLAN will be implemented, eg downpaym ent of 20 % and, depending on options, CHF 1000 to 2000 monthly LEASI NG. Because the VEHICLE VALUE REMAINS HIGH, proved by our low-price collision insurances which pay 100% during the first 3 ye ars, and by the dry second hand market... LAST NOT LEAST we appreciate your understanding of our sales policy: Considering limite d production available we reserve the selling of vehicles to buyers in circumstances found suitable by personal contact. |
| csua.org/u/co3 -> www.edmunds.com/future/2006/porsche/caymans/100381291/photos.html?tid=edmunds.f.review.leftsidenav..2.Porsche* Get e-mail updates from Edmunds and the manufacturer about this car. |
| csua.org/u/co0 -> www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/05/07/notes050704.DTL straight from the pages of an upst art German car magazine for men called, quite Germanically, Men's Car, s o you know it must be authoritative and irrefutable and dorky and niche- y and almost entirely pointless. Just another twist on the age-old sex-and-cars connection, another link i n the auto-erotic chain and more proof that humans (mostly men, arguably ) and cars are forever a tandem notion when it comes to sex, all about k nobs and stick shifts and pumping pistons and deep throbbing engines and the like. We fetishize our autos like almost no other nation on Earth, often pay mo re attention to them than to our own children and happily ignore our own health as we spend the GNP of a medium-size country on trim and leather and silly spinning rims and giant chrome exhaust pipes and extra horsep ower and double sunroofs and DVD players and ridiculous little spoilers that make your car's butt look like a peacock. Unless you buy a minivan, in which case you have euthanized your libido and forcibly removed yourself from the sexual playground and hav e agreed never to have sex again. Indeed, for the car-lovin' male, sex is key (When is it not? You might ri ghtly ask, as your husband ogles the Weber barbecue catalog and dreams o f grilling giant wienerschnitzels and slapping them into warm buns). And Bimmer owners clearly think they're hotter and hunkier and sexier and t herefore their cars must, by default, be more alluring and sexy and ther efore they have more sex because they have cool cars and they have cool cars because they have more sex. I hav e been browsing and researching makes and models and have found tragical ly few that suit my finicky desire for a sexy classy premium well-design ed small sporty car that's not entry level and not a two-seater and not a wildly impractical sports car or something so stiff and uncompromising it would give my butt calluses on long cross-country drives that I neve r really take. So as I browse, I am compelled to ask: What will this car say about me? A bout my dreams and ambitions and my hidden desire to be secreted away to a remote tropical island by teams of moist wood nymphs and plied with t ruffles and Astroglide and scotch? And my inner being and my politics and my choi ce in nubile long-eyelashed callipygian female companions? And how much should I be slapped for thinking any of these things in the first place? Totally irrelevant and totally silly and totally va in and thoroughly moot and, as the BMW survey proves, still completely v alid in every single goddamn way. Because with cars, as with life, sex and sex appeal are mandatory. And ri ght now, in BushCo's pedantic and desperately asexual, violent, ass-clen ched little world, open-thighed sexual energy is desperately needed. I a m merely trying to contribute, to participate where it is needed most. A nd God knows, we are a country tragically awash in beige Honda Accords a nd limpid Toyota Camrys and impotent Ford Aerostars, trembly little Civi cs and wimpy Tercels and sterile Neons. Not to mention how we are all too overrun with the veritable army of knuc kle-dragging thick-necked hairy-backed butt-ugly SUVs that millions of A mericans have somehow been convinced are attractive or macho or badass o r safe or somehow better than your average Subaru wagon when, in fact, t hey are merely silly and deadly and sort of sad. And so as I seek an upscale but nimble sexy thing with a manual transmiss ion (a fading tradition, alas) and a great stereo and a decent backseat for hauling groceries and for picking up the parents at the airport when they visit and for hauling the dog to the beach, I am also seeking some thing suitable for parking somewhere remote and starry skied with the S O and then having sex in the soft leather cushions of. I live in California, afte r all, where you are what you drive and you think how you steer and your worth is generally measured by how well you can score a rock-star parki ng spot in front of Ikea on a Sunday. I wish to actually be able to have sex in my car, with a reasonabl e amount of comfort and a minimal amount of torn ligaments, and still be able to fit the thing into a diminutive San Francisco parking space. Even if I never actually fulfill this need, the ability to copulate in a vehicle -- or, I should say, a car's genera l structural practicality for such wondrous acts -- is a present and ali ve factor in every true car purchaser's mind. Every e ven remotely sexually knowledgeable person who's ever been happily stick ily sweatily pantingly groped in the tight backseat of a Camaro at some point in their lives (probably high school, probably smelling of Budweis er and Mary Jane, probably with either the Cure or Morrissey or Van Hale n as aural backdrop) will look at any new car and casually check out the backseat and go, hmm, well, that's good for passengers and good for gro ceries and the dog could sleep right there, and it gets good gas mileage and I love the color and the stereo cranks and all is fine and good. And if I was naked and supine and the sunroof was open I suppose my leg c ould wrap around that seat and my arm could go there and I could use the headrest as leverage and then if s/he was positioned just right I could still reach the CD player with my toes. Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday o n SF Gate, unless it appears on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which it never d oes. He also writes the Morning Fix, a deeply skewed thrice-weekly e-mai l column and newsletter. |
| www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0501/30/autos-73731.htm Next Story Saturday, January 29, 2005 Image Gene Sweeney Jr. Motorcycle-car hybrid the Ecomobile looking to become the next big thing in personal transportation By Kevin Cowherd / The Baltimore Sun A La-Z-Boy recliner gliding down the highway YORK, Pa. Randy Kemp, the public-relations guy for York Technical Institute, who has ridden in the Eco, says passing motorists gawk at it as if thinking: " Is this Mars? Steely Dan's "Reeling in the Years" is playing over the sou nd system. Close your eyes, the reporter thinks, and the total effect is that of sit ting in a La-Z-Boy recliner that's gliding down the highway. On eastbound Route 30, Whitfield decides to open her up. He hits the twis t-grip throttle and the Eco surges quietly into the fast lane. It's called an Ecomobile, or Eco, and it's basically a motorcycle enclos ed in a hard shell that makes it suitable for riding year-round, in any kind of weather short of Buffalo in January. And since the shell is made of Kevlar carbon fiber -- yes, Kevlar's the stuff bullet-proof vests are made of -- and is three times stronger tha n a car's, it may appeal to those who see a motorcycle as nothing more than a rolling coffin with tailpipes. "I see it as a much more humane motorcycle," says Whitfield, 59, an inst ructor at York Technical Institute who is also the sole US service ag ent for Eco. "If you're driving a normal motorcycle and you strike a deer at night, y ou're in trouble. As we know, though, history is replete with all sorts of gizmos heralded as the future of personal transportation that never caught on. Just a few years ago, the Segway, a self-balancing, electric-powered dev ice that looked sort of like a scooter, was considered the can't-miss w ay to get around in the new millennium. But well-publicized braking and steering problems, coupled with public i ndifference, have kept sales below expectations. Soon, in fact, you might be able to pick up a Segway at your neighborhoo d yard sale, next to the Elvis-on-velvet paintings. Besides, weren't we all supposed to be zipping around in those little fl ying saucers like the Jetsons by now? Still, the Eco appears to be user-friendly enough for the finicky Americ an driving public. It has motorcycle-type handlebars and can be operated by anyone with a m otorcycle license. Since it has seat belts, the driver isn't required t o wear a helmet. The driver can't stick his feet out for balance, so the Eco has retracta ble wheels that can be operated manually when slowing and stopping. An d its 1200-cc BMW motorcycle engine gets 50 miles per gallon of gasolin e However, with a price tag of nearly $80,000 -- which will induce not jus t sticker shock but sticker seizures in most people -- the Eco would ap pear to be a tough sell as a mass-market vehicle. Hefty price tag or no, Whitfield, a genial man who test-drove and worked on Harley-Davidson motorcycles for years, is a true believer. "The fact they can build this for $80,000 -- that is one bargain-basemen t price," he says. Plus, the Eco is designed to the personal specifications of each buyer. Even though enclosed motorcycles have been around, in some form, since t he 1920s, Whitfield says he feels the Eco, developed by a former Swiss airline pilot and aircraft manufacturing entrepreneur named Arnold Wagn er, is the one that combines the best elements of a true car-motorcycle hybrid. "I'm a passionate motorcyclist, and this is like skipping into space," h e says. "It's like taking 1936 technology and jumping into the future." Whitfield's eyes light up when he tells you about the time Wagner discov ered -- the hard way -- just how safe and durable the Eco was. At a big German motorcycle show last year, Wagner was driving the Eco fo r a piece being filmed by the Speed Channel. Attempting a U-turn on the rain-slicked Autobahn, the notorious expressw ay where cars routinely travel at the speed of sound, Wagner's Eco was creamed by a car. "Knocked (the Eco) skyward and down-range," says Whitfield. If the car had hit a regular motorcycle, adds Whitfield, "you'd be on re suscitation, that's for sure." Whitfield first heard about the Eco a few years ago and looked it up on the Internet. He started a correspondence with Wagner that led to an in vitation to drive the Eco at a Formula One race-car course in the Czech Republic. It's a ve ry agile machine -- more agile than a Porsche." In October 2002, a Philadelphia-area dentist named Tom Mohn was the firs t American to buy an Eco and legally bring it to the United States (Whi tfield says another Eco was smuggled in earlier but it's unclear where that one ended up). Whitfield helped Mohn negotiate with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to make sure th e Eco conformed to federal emissions standards and regulations for maki ng it street-legal. By March 2003, Whitfield had raised enough money to buy his own Eco, and he became the first -- and so far the only -- Eco sales agent in the U nited States. With a top speed of 165 mph, the Eco, Whitfield said, "doesn't like to g o less than 85 mph." Little wonder, then, that he reports having collected "lots" of speeding tickets with this baby. His most memorable run-in with the police occurred soon after he got the Eco. Driving a tad on the fast side on a highway outside Philadelphia, he att racted the attention of a police aircraft overhead. The police plane, he would find out later, radioed this message about th e Eco to a nearby barracks: "It doesn't look like a car. As you might imagine, the missile reference, in this age of heightened s ecurity concerns, made a few people at the barracks nervous. Soon three state police cruisers appeared behind Whitfield and forced th e Eco to the shoulder of the road. The police jumped out of their cars with their guns drawn, he says. It t ook quite a bit of explaining for Whitfield to get away with just a tic ket for doing 83 in a 65-mph zone. "I decided to crank it to 120-125 all the way from Daytona to Richmond t o see what it would do," he says. He also had the Eco up to 150 in Georgia when a guy on a Honda Valkyrie -- with saddlebags that proclaimed him "The New Legend" -- tried to rac e him. The New Legend was left in the dust, and luckily for Whitfield, the cops weren't around to see the whole thing. At some point, he says the Eco might try to break the coast-to-coast mot orcycle speed record. "I'm trying to figure out how to do it without the cops going crazy," he chuckles. But for now, Whitfield seems content proselytizing the virtues of the Ec o -- especially that it's a fun, safe, all-weather, environmentally fri endly ride -- to all who will listen. He hopes to attract Eco enthusiasts in different parts of the country, w ho will become hooked on the product and sign up to be Eco service agen ts themselves, thereby building the brand in the national consciousness . "You could say I'm looking at this the way a president does when he gets to the end of his term and starts thinking about his legacy," Whitfiel d says softly. "I guess what attracts me to this is it's something that will be here after I'm gone. Wagner's company, Swiss-based Peraves AG, has sold nearly 100 Ecos wor ldwide. Right now, Mohn's and Whitfield's are the only two known to be in the United States. A third Eco is scheduled to be delivered within weeks to a Denver busine ssman whose wife, so the story goes, was so incensed with her husband s pending so much on the new contraption that she left him. |
| sfgate.com Friday, May 14, 2004 Updated: 12:07 AM PDT ' I'm guessing that the best way to hail a cab or a bartender in Athens will not be by waving an American flag." Sorensen Capital group He's already got more money than god, but that isn't stopping Steve Young (above, right) from embarking on a second career in business. Gov's Balancing Act Schwarzenegger unveils revised budget containing spending cuts and (as promised) no new taxes. Wedding Date's Still On Same-sex marriage opponents lose bid to halt gay nuptials, scheduled to begin Monday in Massachusetts. Researchers say they've found evidence of impact greater than the one that probably caused the dinosaurs' extinction. Wars' $50 Bil Price Tag "It's a big bill," says Wolfowitz, who estimates the cost of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. No Plea From Anderson Using a wheelchair, the haggard-looking suspect is arraigned in the murder of Xiana Fairchild. Giants Left Stranded G-men leave 12 men on base, including two in the bottom of the 9th, and drop series to Philly. Sex, Drugs, And Then 5 Deaths Playboy Playmate tells how she got involved with 2 suspects, but left in just the nick of time. Pixar Growth Plan Wins Fans 20-year proposal for Emeryville site gets flak from activists, but city says go for it. |