Comments by "David Elliott" (@davidelliott5843) on "Munro Live" channel.

  1. Tesla missed a trick not making it tandem seating with lean steering. The passenger ride would be smoother and the cars would use far less road space.
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  2. Weight saving is a big issue so why doesn’t everyone use epicyclic gears? They deliver high torque with small parts because forces are balanced around the central shaft. They don’t need helical gear teeth because there is always one pair driving at any moment and they are more efficient. Fewer losses - less heat to dispose of. So many wins.
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  3. Fiat use the plastic trunking over the 12V wiring. Their achilles that ends and branches are wrapped where heat shrink sleeve would be so much better.
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  4. I don’t see any need to re-invent the wheel(s) see what I did there :-) The car really won’t work as an EV because the 4 inch (or so) battery pack will raise the floor too much. An entirely new design is needed. Suspension might be traditional but everything else would change. Higher floor means car has to be taller. I’m not a fan of SUV style but that’s what EVs feed into. Check out the designs by WilliamTowns back in the 1980s. His Hustler range had four and six wheel cars using mass produced subframes under a steel tube space frame with large glass areas. Safety demands have moved forward but that should not spoil the idea.
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  5. I would like to see manufacturers using a hybrid of the Citroen hydro pneumatic system. It can power steering brakes and suspension ride height including body levelling and roll control. It can also power hydraulic door opening systems. The big win on brakes is the high line pressures allow smaller calipers and being mineral oil there is no fluid degradation. It’s a perfect system for EVs.
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  6. The big Auto Makers have rolled back from their EV offerings. Do they know something we don’t? Is EV legislation going to be rolled back? Is government going to crimp Tesla from taking ever more market share.
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  7. I fear that motorcycles will be swamped by electric cars. When I was a kid the Brum Brum of a bike was cool ad the yowl/chatter of a two-stroke was duper cool. Today the noise just looks silly. Small cars struggle to carry a properly useful battery. Bikes are even worse 100 miles range is the limit. I see that as killing motorcycles.
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  8. I'm not dissing electric bikes. I just think they'll struggle. Good bikes have a good range. The best bikes are light and flickable with range secondary. EV bikes struggle on both points. I seriously hope the industry gets it sorted but I fear the bike companies are even more wedded to manufacturing tradition than the car makers. Example - Rotax ETech two strokes used in snowmobiles and outboards are light, powerful, efficient and VERY clean. Why are these not used in any road bike? Even KTM are ignoring them.
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  9. In UK, double lane road junctions have a bollard at the end of the centreline. That makes sure people turning right (left in USA as at 6:15) keep to the correct side of the road. That lack of clear demarcation makes me surprised there not a lot more head-on crashes near these junctions.
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  10. The hood ornament would be illegal in Europe.
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  11. It looks like a classic Alfa Romeo but outside that, what is the point of this car? It has the same width as any other car so uses the same road lane space. Something half as wide with tandem seats could use 1/2 a road lane. That allows 2x as many cars in the same road space. Tall and narrow is unstable so make it lean into bends like a bike. The tech has been proven. It need not be complicated. Base the design on a 1950s Messerschmitt “bubble car”.
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  12. Why does an electric car need a huge starter battery? Why is it not an LFP battery? So much smaller RV yet every bit as powerful.
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  13. Measure the doors. Are they the same both sides?
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  14. Sandy found a way to do the things most engineers would love to see. Most people get beaten down by the system. I was one of those. I changed career. Not a good idea. Sandy found a way through that wall of “you can’t do it like that”.
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  15. My kids (boy 8 and girl 11) can both spot a Tesla. They know when its a 3, an X or S (no Y in UK for now). They dont care about anything else.
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  16. What about the Hossack and Naro cars? Tandem seats 1/2 the road width with suspension that makes it lean like a bike. Bike steering upsets the average driver but computer controls allow a steering wheel to feel like a car while operating like a bike.
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  17. Heavier cars need heavier crash protection and cause more damage to anything they crash into. It at least the extra momentum can be recovered via regen braking.
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  18. My pet hate with stalk switches is indicators on left. In UK, left hand handles gears, parking brake, radio, heater indicators as well just adds insult to injury.
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  19. The FAA will kill it. They like 1940s engines and 1940s construction methods.
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  20. The British motorcycle and car industry were at the top of the pile for refusing to invest in new equipment. The former especially were making engine parts on old machines that were usable only because the employees sorted parts that best fitted each other.
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  21. EV brakes are going to be a big problem. They are over-specified, because regenerative braking does most of the work. Cast iron discs will corrode. Pads and caliper sliders will seize from lack of use. We will need to return to drum brakes (sealed from environment) then add stainless parts that don’t corrode.
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  22. That’s a shame. Rivian is a built from the ground EV. The Hummer is Big Auto”s version. The latter would be far more telling of their progress towards EVs.
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  23. I don’t care. Just fast forward to the end of the advert. Simples.
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  24. I'd bet they set the rear wheel toe angles before the unit goes into the car.
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  25. Sandy covered a lot of his costs by selling off Tesla Model Y parts. Good luck with that for the Ford (or VW) parts.
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  26. That smooth underbody must be a significant boost to to the overall aerodynamics. pretty much impossible on an ICE car as there is too much waste heat to extract from engine, exhaust, etc.
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  27. I had an LFP starter battery on a 1200cc BMW boxer twin motorbike. It weighed 0.8kg but worked a treat and actually spun the engine better than the 5kg high performance Lead acid that it replaced. However internal resistance rises in cold weather. It needed one or two "failed" start attempts to warm the cells and then it worked fine. Unfortunately it would do the same again if I stalled the bike. It needed a heater pad with insulation. It also needed a small backup battery to maintain the electronics (clock settings etc) when the cold main battery dropped its voltage too low.
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  28.  @MarkXHolland  Import taxes will be a big problem for the Dems. They don’t want to upset CCP but their local bankers (Big Auto and the unions) will want the Chinese kept out of business.
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  29. How do these pouch batteries compare on cost with the Tesla 18-650 packs or 46-80 packs?  How much of the 1800 pounds (820kg) is battery and how much is frames, cooling and packing. Ditto Tesla? Have Ford Osborned themselves now that nobody will want to buy a new ICE powered F-150?
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  30. It’s not Chinese which has to be good.
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  31. Aluminium wire has a higher resistance than copper wire per cross sectional area. However aluminum is considerably less weight per amps carried.
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  32. In many older parts of UK towns the 240V mains cables are adequate for domestic loads but not even close for EV charging. We are seeing ever more houses having new mains supply cables installed. This is disruptive because 99% of UK houses have underground services. My house built in 1970 had a 60 Amp main fuse. It was recently upgraded to 100 Amp with a new supply cable. Ours is overhead but this is quite unusual in UK. Most are buried.
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  33. Is Elon making LFP cells in 4680 format? That would seem to be the most efficient way to do it.
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  34. Bolting through a box section is stronger than a single plate, even double thickness. Weld in a bolt support tube and it gets enormously stronger.
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  35. Aluminium is used on high tension power line conductors. It’s cheaper than copper and weight for weight aluminium is a better conductor than copper. win win. Al has 61% conductivity of Cu Al has 30% weight of Cu Therefore an Al conductor has larger diameter but 50% weight of a Cu conductor and it’s cheaper. Why is Al not used on stator windings?
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  36. Screws are slow and heavy. Cutting their usage saves a lot of metal not to mention the overlapping metal.
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  37. “Current Best Practice” sounds great but it automatically locks in the same old same. UK has the term locked into law for cancer therapy. It sounds great but means nobody can develop new ideas. Anything new is automatically not current so it can’t ever be used.
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  38. This is why I’ve always liked Fiat cars. Their original designs were well considered but over the years have evolved. Thing that need to change are updated but those that work fine stay the same. e.g. Rear wheel spindles and hub-bearings have not really changed since 1970s. They’ve not needed to change. The design is in-house but suppliers (SKF, Magneti Marelli, etc) build to the detail spec.
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  39. Hydrogen sounds great because it burns clean. However the disadvantages are long. So light that any leaks are literally lost to the world. Molecules so small they leak through seals. Fuel tanks will “self discharge”. Gas regulators can be onerous. It’s used as coolant in larger power alternators. Poor energy density. Heavy fuel tanks regardless of technology within. Fuel cells give 50% energy conversion. Fuel cells use A LOT of rare elements (palladium rhodium platinum). Fast fill to one vehicle but the next one as to wait while the system recovers. Not to mention the steady bleed off through seals. Batteries are also needed to meet peak power demands. These suffer a harder cycle life than a battery only EV.
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  40. Why does an electric car need a huge engine bay at the front?
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  41. Kid have a bad reputation for IC engine fires but EVs don’t use gasoline so should be good.
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  42. How well will those precision cover flaps hold up when Joe Sixpack whips off the under tray? My car has M6 bolts with a thick 1” dia head. They are all the same so some have 80% of the thread poking out the back. Considerable time would be saved (for everyone) with Dzus fasteners. Same on wheel arch liners and engine covers and.... Question - why are they not used everywhere?
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  43. A simply made body shell can be replaced. Nut more likely the car parts are sold to people converting classic ICE cars to electric.
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  44. Profits were made. Big money was made but rather than suck up to the fund managers, who want “income” dividend payments, the management ploughed the money back into the business. When the profits do arrive they are huge and very solid. Tesla is almost exactly echoing Amazon.
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  45. When will we see the motors providing the braking and anything but small lightweight hydraulic brakes being junked.
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  46. A question for Sandy - Normally a motor that drives out of both ends has one solid shaft. Could one stator drive two shorter rotors with a support bearing between them? I’m thinking a split shaft putting power out of both ends won’t need a differential. It would need two reduction boxes but if these were epicyclic the costs would come down and durability goes up. (Straight cut gears load shared across two pinions not three).
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  47. Domestc power in U.K. is 240 volts - s single phase from a 415V three phase line. Max continuous power ( for showers heating or car charging is about 8 kw.
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  48. Great ideas Sandy. In U.K. tipping is uncommon even in restaurants that’s just how it is. However our store workers are still at risk so we absolutely need to show our appreciation. The gift card is a great option.
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  49. Rolls Royce developed a plate heat exchanger that uses layers of dimpled sheet metal. It’s cheap to make but very efficient. I wonder if these packs use a long plate exchanger between rows of batteries.
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  50. Can you have a look at the work of William Towns and his Hustler car/truck range of the 1980s. They began with some ugly styles but quickly evolved. They had steel soCe frame bodies with glas fibre infill panels floor and roof. Doors and windows were large laminated glass. Town’s designs are primitive by today’s standards but I think form a model for rapid construction of car bodies. Have a look and tell us what you think.
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