I racing versus Green Racing.

[zerofor]

So let me start by saying I've never been a big fan of the green energy initiative currently happening slowly in this country but now I'm changing my mind some.With the great response I Racing has received in the absence of actual racing maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.Im not knocking I Racing mind you but at the end of the day it's a video game.Albeit a very good one but still essentially you're trying to beat the computer even more so than who you are competing with.And it lacks the seat of the pants feel.I have been watching a British TV series called Vintage Voltage.Some of you have surely seen it.The performance and longevity they can get out of battery packs now is amazing and getting even better.Meanwhile crude oil traded on the stock market yesterday at a negative value.Thats right anybody selling oil stock yesterday was PAYING for someone to take it.That won't put the thousands of people in that industry back to work for awhile even once these lockdown are lifted.If their was EVER a time to invest in building power charging stations and solar banks all across this country like they've done once before in my lifetime with the interstate highway system to help put people back to work then I think that time is now.

[zerofor]

I may not live long enough to see it but at some point in time a major racing series will become either electric or gas/electric hybrid.

[OldSchool+]

I think this is the way it goes...

A Saudi prince decided to get into a whizzing match with the ruskis and cut his price just to kill their business.

Which collaterally took down our oil price considerably.

Then the US govt decided--and we don't really know if it was net better or worse yet--to eliminate demand.

So those are both politically contrived effects working on the free market thing. For now

And not the "fault" of oil. Which there is plenty of. Right here.

Meanwhile, hydrogen (think...bomb) and electric (think...roaring fire), are more expensive. Hell, how do you get cheaper than oil is NOW?

And solar? Price some for your home and then divide your electric bill into that figure to find out when you will break even. The answer is...your high dollar equipment will be worn out before it "pays for itself".

RACING takes big money and turns it into no money. I vote no on our gubment doing the same with it's borrowed or printed money for sadder-than-oil energy. The previous admin tried that and it predictably failed miserably.

Gimme a 13.5:1 or so late model motor-- with something that smells good in the fuel-- blipping the throttle any day.

And slot cars.

And I am good.

[Dana Barlow]

I'll hang with Oldschool on this,the world has,dose and will keep running on oil. This low $ oil BS is temp,If I had any $,I'd buy up oil. Same as the BS fear being pushed by mass media{ 90% owned by dems,an that's sad} Always balance your info with a look at it from as many sides as you can.

[zerofor]

Slot cars did you say?

Aren't they ahh...kinda electric?😃

[zerofor]

I get the knock on solar.Its largely been an exercise in let's see if we can get a nickels worth of electricity out of every $50 invested.And residential applications aren't a cost effective alternative.Electricity is a different animal.Can you get the performance and longevity required for a practical everyday application while maintaining cost effectiveness combined with a package to put it in that doesn't look like an odd shaped box.And they have came a long way in closing that gap.They've been working on these issues in the universities for quite awhile now and the cost effective issues with an electric car are now more in line with the big three's gassy companions.Am I the biggest fan of it? No but I'm not 100 percent sold on the entertainment value of a computer controlled game.Will gas stay this cheap forever? I think you know that answer.BUT....the number of oil workers currently unemployed is in the millions.Yes the price of oil was artificially deflated.Just as the price of EVERYTHING artificially gets inflated every time gas goes above $3 gallon and stays there awhile.Look no further than 2008 when gas prices spiked over$4 gallon.The price of everything artificially inflated to cover trucking cost increases.Meanwhile later on the price of fuel eventually dropped.The inflated price of goods didn't.We as a country can just sit patiently waiting on the Saudi's and Russians to get done trying to destabilize the world's energy reserves and let the oil workers draw unemployment until then or make a conscious committed effort to put people back to work tomorrow instead of months from now.It will eventually come down the pike anyway.If one certain political party gets power we will all be on skateboards anyway.Why not get a jump on it now.I know you are still laughing at the idea but I can't help but think back to 1972.Ed Howe came to Columbus for the first time in an ugly pea green Chevelle.It had weird (180 degree) headers that had a kinda quiet sound.More like an Indy car than a stock car.Running a small block against all the Columbus regulars big block power.The regulars looked,(and probably laughed) then proceeded to stare at his back bumper for 3 weeks in a row.In racing as in life times change.You can change with them or be left in the dust.Nothing stays exactly the same.

[zerofor]

Well....

No,check that.Forty five year old Monte Carlo's stay exactly the same.And twenty years from now they will still look exactly the same.(which raises a separate question)

[zerofor]

Hypothetical question

Twenty years from now when a mid 1970s Monte is approaching 70 years old and still running as a" street stock" will a DAARA car built in 1980 be a latemodel?😃

[zerofor]

And here is another thought to chew on

The roar of a gasoline powered V8 combustion engine may be music to our ears.But to the vast majority of 18-20 something's it's far from it.And it shows.Meanwhile computers and green energy seem to get them excited.In fact even to the point of gathering in masses to protest for it or apply to become a programmer of it.It would be nice to harness THAT enthusiasm in some way.Maybe an E class or Green Division would recapture some interest in that group.Its probably something that would have to be tested at a NASCAR or INDY car level because of the cost involved but their could be a he'll of a lot of computer programming and electrical engineering jobs available generating interest in America's youth about racing again.

[OldSchool+]

re: electric slot cars. Ah yes, was wondering who would bring that up.

The deal there is that they are nonetheless 3D (ie "real"), and I prefer them to either electric 1:1 racing or iracing.

re: Getting ahead of the curve. A flawed argument sir...lemme 'splain it--

04, to recap things you already know-- did pcv valves do it? safety bumpers? cafe standards? emission standards...?

How about our stellar (but nonetheless bogus) carbon emissions compared to say (it like Trump), China?

The answer is "no" & will continue to be "no". You see, a "boogeyman" is always necessary to fight against, and the number one demographic to vilify just happens to also be very interested in racing. Ergo, give up your racing and you would still be very much "guilty".

So, I would suggest that we hang onto our small blocks just as long as we can, they will be coming for them soon enough.

Along with the rest of your rights.

[zerofor]

You mean there's still a couple rights for them to come for? I thought for a minute they had clean sweeped them all.We will probably stay about as far apart on the thought of E racers as a walnut is close to a banana.But...slot cars..wouldnt you know.I was checking out a couple hobby shops/slotcar tracks online in Tampa a couple months back thinking about dropping in to check them out before we all started playing solitaire games of Chinese Checkers.I gots me one of those tracks that I picked up a long time ago.Was thinking about putting it back together.

[OldSchool+]

Funny thing about that electricity. It's real hard to transport without wires.

Although Nikola Tesla tried. The plan was to have big towers and transmit to homes and businesses. Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH-YmzZgZ-Q

Probably just as well we didn't go with that...

And Ed Howe & his 180 degree headers? That was a very minor variation on the piston engine thing, similar to a flat crank or etc. A rotary is more radical.

But it is all a moot point. They all run on dead dinosaur mush.

Recently I heard that in the USA we have at least 300 years of supply.

You need any electric racing (slot car) hep, just look me up.

[zerofor]

Ol' Nikola much like Edison was a tad bit eccentric.But they were also thinking outside of a very big open box in their time.And both got results.Which is the only reason we know who they are.Regardless of the oil supply though a (albeit temporary) commodity at pennies value doesn't entice people to provide paychecks for the employees who help produce the worthless commodity.Infrastructure work does and there are plenty of those things to do.I don't think charging stations for E cars is such a bad one but it could end up being a moot point since by the time people get a paycheck again they'll all be bankrupt and have no need for any kind of car except to sleep in it.The slots? A lot of hours burnt up 50 plus years ago with them.I thought it might be interesting to check out a good full size layout like I saw.The arthritis in my hand may dictate if I will check it out as anything more than a spectator.I know it sure did the last time I tried to bowl.

[OldSchool+]

You know, "infrastructure work" is kind of like the ridiculously expensive "support" that the gubment is providing to prop up the economy that they shut down.

It is good only as long as they keep pumping money into it. And meanwhile it reduces the value of your money and mine.

To your point, they are very big on spending and infrastructure in Canada. The government taxes the hades out of the people, and then puts a few back to work building roads and whatnot. It never ends.

Their newspaper stories are a series of apologies "Yes you will be taxed even more than last year, but it is for your own good". Ya think?

And net net, are they better off? Do they have more racing...?

They darn sure don't have more sugar-daddies-with-money to sponsor a short track effort.

Government spending money it doesn't have to provide jobs--per se--is seductive, but a lie at it's foundation. In the big scheme of things, it takes far more money in (you guessed it--government) overhead than the benefit is worth.

All my opinion, of course.

[zerofor]

It's Coming.And sooner than you think

Watching the news this morning talk about a Tampa Bay area bus line adopting new charging technology to power electric busses.A drive on no plug in technology which supposedly cuts full charge time (notably to a FULL SIZED bus)from 4 hours down to 2.It will get here.A smart guy would keep a very close eye.A green (in this case electric)racing series WOULD get some attention.At least at first.And possibly generate some interest amongst a demographic that have largely ignored it.Theres still ground to cover and while I'm a gas guzzler fan you can't ignore the development of the technology or the potential within.