"100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Or define the 'electric' engine as a fuel cell engine. This would require to change the 'charging' to 'hyrdrogen refueling'. Or the system completely captures the used fuel and you hook into a 'recharge station' to crack your spent fuel back into hydrogen, less losses. The later however only works if it cost more to manufacture new hyrdogen or hyrdocarbon fuel supplies than to save the used remains for recycling. I've seen compressed natural gas as one source, easier to store than pure H2.

[Miuramir]

Originally Posted by Nikas_Zekeval

Or define the 'electric' engine as a fuel cell engine. This would require to change the 'charging' to 'hyrdrogen refueling'. Or the system completely captures the used fuel and you hook into a 'recharge station' to crack your spent fuel back into hydrogen, less losses. The later however only works if it cost more to manufacture new hyrdogen or hyrdocarbon fuel supplies than to save the used remains for recycling. I've seen compressed natural gas as one source, easier to store than pure H2.

Nearly anything is easier to store than H2. I have no problem with the "batteries" being closed-cell fuel cells, or supercapacitors, or whatever; in some senses, the inside of the black box charge storage system only matters at a finer detail level than Car Wars uses.

One fascinating variant discussed recently is that the "consumable" for an electric car can be a plate of aluminum, which is "recharged" by tossing the end product back into an arc refinery. It's certainly the most inert storable fuel concept of the current crop; and some distant places already export electrical power indirectly by importing ore, refining it with plentiful local power (geothermal, hydro, etc.), and exporting the aluminum.

An interesting open-cell variant, originally proposed for use on Mars, is cracking carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide + oxygen (2x CO2 -> 2x CO + O2). You can recombine them in a fuel cell for direct electrical power, burn them in a turbine for thermal kinetic power, or burn them in a nozzle for rocket booster (or welding torch) power... but none of them really quite as well as other things. It's advantage is you just need one infrastructure for doing a bunch of related things, and your inputs are an air intake and some kind of power.

[ammulder]

If you don't want to wait for your batteries to charge at the truck stop:

90-second EV Battery Swap [news.com]

[ammulder]

This entertainer is flat out 100 years ahead of his time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Op1...layer_embedded

[ammulder]

A minor point, but if the setting/backstory is going to be updated... The ADQ history of Philadelphia mentions taking over and using the resources of NAS Willow Grove. But the base was very nearly closed, and ultimately transferred to the National Guard and renamed, while something like 80% (including the runways) will be redeveloped. I guess that's the hazard of specifically naming a facility in the future history. :)

[LokRobster]

For me, the Golden Age of CW is the 2030s, set in an alternate timeline that happened as listed starting from the mid-80s...

So Texas is independent now, in my world.

This "100 years ago today" thread is more specifically for the wacked out future of 6e... which is pretty much un-specified past 2040 or so at this point, and even what's there is undefinite I think.

but mostly it's to have fun with, and imagine what today's tech could transform into after a hundred years of humans and robots messing with it.

i loved your pyrotechnic bagpiper punk artist link, btw - that rocked.

[LokRobster]

DuelTrucks of Libya:

What people do when the need mobile firepower and aren't too worried about defensive armor...

http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2011/11/...ation-7706096/

From 2011.

[ammulder]

Forget finicky rules... just combine the tire and wheel and forget about it. Bonus -- no air for tire spikes to puncture:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...to-flat-tires/

[philreed]

Originally Posted by ammulder

Forget finicky rules... just combine the tire and wheel and forget about it. Bonus -- no air for tire spikes to puncture:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...to-flat-tires/

BONUS: It looks awesome!

[sum1els]

Cops can now shoot GPS tracking beacons that stick to the back of your car:
http://www.starchase.com/

Maybe not much Car Wars application, but cool anyway. It is a "gun" in the grill of a cop car, anyway!