See who is polluting!

[UtwigMU]

For instance Escort 1.6, which is size-weight wise comparable car to Focus has 90hp.

It can get above 100km/h (62mph) in 2nd gear, which is close to your highway speed limit. It has a top speed according to manual and according to my experience of 187km/h (116mph).

Travelling at 160km/h is comfortable (100mph), which is what I normally drive it on the highway.

The record on a 40km (25mile) distance, consisting of highway and local roads I set was 15 minutes, averaging 160kmh/100mph (185kmh/115mph on highway, 120/75 city, 160/100 local roads). Of coure this was done at 3-4am on a weekday.

Now take your "mid sized" car with 200hp.

Honda Prelude 2.2Vtec has 185hp. It has a top speed of 228km/h (140mph). 200km/h (125mph) is normal on the highway for such car (if you're capable of driving that fast) and I've ridden in one over a long distance. The accelerations are fantastic and generally there are not a lot of things on the road that can own you.

This is capable of comfortably travelling at about twice your 65mph speed limit on highway.

You generally buy a car this powerful, if you drive through Germany a lot (no Autobahn speed limit) or if you have pockets deep enough to pay speeding fines which are about generally 700-1000$ for speeds above 200 on the highway.

If people have long daily or weekly commuting distance, here they generally buy a Passat/Mondeo/A6 class car (some even a golf class car) with about 1.9 (130hp) to 2.5 (150hp) diesel engine, since milleage is good and diesel is cheaper (vehicles are taxed more, so it only pays off if you drive a lot).

Now as for the acceleration argument, does everyone slam his pedal down and accelerates at maximum revolutions in first and 2nd gear to 35mph (56kmh) which is the speed limit in your cities?

I thought so, I only can do that when I'm in pool position here, so to say.


So why do you need 170hp in focus again?

The 2.0i Duratec has 173hp @ 7000rpm, top speed at 216kmh (134mph). It should be good till 190km/h (118mph). Do you often drive at those speeds?

[GT98]

Originally posted by UtwigMU

Now as for the acceleration argument, does everyone slam his pedal down and accelerates at maximum revolutions in first and 2nd gear to 35mph (56kmh) which is the speed limit in your cities?

I thought so, I only can do that when I'm in pool position here, so to say.

Well some futher information. Residental areas have a speed limit of 25 MPH and the roads that lead to these streets have a speed limit of 35-45 MPH. The County roads that aren't highways have speed limit of 50 MPH and our Highways have speeds of 65 Mph, which in reaility have a speed limit of 75-80 mph.

So why do you need 170hp in focus again?

I need a 170 HP in my Focus for additional passing power and acceration when I get onto highways and pass people who are going too slow. From my experance, driving in Europe and driving in the States is two totally differnet things. Driving in Europe requires more skill due to the way roads are laid out and limited space vs. roads that are in the States.

[Jon P. Inghram]

How many highway on-ramps in Europe have stoplights on them?

[dZeus]

on-ramps with traffic lights? wtf? who's bright idea was that?

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by Jon P. Inghram
How many highway on-ramps in Europe have stoplights on them?

I've only seen them in the USA, where there are two separate ramps merging into one (can't remember where, but maybe in CA or VA)

[Jon P. Inghram]

When I drove a truck I saw them in Chicago... I was like, "WTF?!?"

I guessed, apparently correctly, that they were for smoothing out traffic on the highway: http://www.ajfroggie.com/roads/rampmeter.htm

[Mehen]

My 2 cents: the 1.8T found in VWs and Audis (and some other companies I think) is perhaps one of the greatest motors ever.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Jon P. Inghram
When I drove a truck I saw them in Chicago... I was like, "WTF?!?"

I guessed, apparently correctly, that they were for smoothing out traffic on the highway: http://www.ajfroggie.com/roads/rampmeter.htm

Yep, that's exactly what they're for. I've entered a freeway in Houston having to use them. Luckily got on just before the real rush hour hit, but can see where they would be useful. Houston may be second only to Los Angeles in freeway traffic.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by DukeP
Lol.
My first car, which i TRULY loved, had 60hp.
It had a 3cylinder 1L engine.

It had a max speed (with 2people and some luggage) at around 150km/h.

It never used more than 4L/100Km.

It could legaly be loaded with 600kilograms of lugage and passengers. That would prob have cut the max speed to around 130km/h.

It was very fast uptil around 70km/h - which it did in first gear. From thereon, it kind of slowed.
I will estimate it around 15secs/100km/h - another 10 secs pr 10km/h from there on.

VERY good car. When it was retired, it had run more than 400.000 km,.

It was a Suzuki Swift GA.

I call bullshit. The maximum quoted highway mpg for any GA (also known as the Geo Metro) was 50mpg. That's 4.7L/100km, so about a 20% inflation.

Not to mention that you tell anybody that you got a Metro with 2 people and luggage up to 90mph, and we'll assume you must have dropped it off a cliff for it to go that fast.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by UtwigMU

Now as for the acceleration argument, does everyone slam his pedal down and accelerates at maximum revolutions in first and 2nd gear to 35mph (56kmh) which is the speed limit in your cities?

Yes. Really, yes. And it's that same power that I need to go from 45mph to 75mph on the highway when the traffic opens and I need to merge up.

The 2.0i Duratec has 173hp @ 7000rpm, top speed at 216kmh (134mph). It should be good till 190km/h (118mph). Do you often drive at those speeds?

[/quote] I regularly do 90+mph. At 5,000 feet. Yes, I'll take that engine.

[Greebe]

Belews Lake, North Carolina has a coal fired electric generating station. They use low grade Anthracite coal which is rich in selenium and has poluted the lake... has harmed the aquatic life and the people in the area.. if you can find info about it. Most is suppressed by the local goverments and the state. Tho some info can be found from studies done by State Universities. Now if you are unaware you're headed for serious long term health issues if you consume more than one 6oz serving of fish per week. It is advised by the state to not consume any if 1. are pregnant or 2. plan to have children in the near future. There are lots of signs warning of this, if you notice them. Most has been knocked down and covered over!

Now the state does patrol the lake so you best have a license to fish and this is handled by 4 different counties sheriff depts on top of the Deptartment of Natural Resources, Fish and Game and the Forestry service.

Interesting how they are willing to nail you to the wall to support their wonderful lake but allow their own worst enemy get away scott free.

Oh, one last jab, this is hard core Republican country.

[Brian Ellis]

Yep, selenium, in compounds, is a nasty in excess but essential in trace quantities. It is extracted commercially from the flue dust of power stations burning sulfur-rich coal and is always associated with sulfur. This probably means that your lake is also a mixture of dilute sulfuric acid and some sulfurous acid as the SO2 emitted will oxidise to SO3 in air, which will dissolve very readily in any moisture present, in the air, rain, streams, lakes, you name it. Some coal-fired power stations scrub their exhaust gases to reduce sulfur compound emissions, but then they don't know what to do with their scrub waters, which will be like the lake, only stronger

I don't think that Democrat pollution is different from Republican It appears to me that both of your candidates are polluting the TV channels here with a lot of hot air (Don't want this to debate to turn political, though!)

[DukeP]

Originally posted by Wombat
I call bullshit. The maximum quoted highway mpg for any GA (also known as the Geo Metro) was 50mpg. That's 4.7L/100km, so about a 20% inflation.

Not to mention that you tell anybody that you got a Metro with 2 people and luggage up to 90mph, and we'll assume you must have dropped it off a cliff for it to go that fast.

Lol Wombat.

Nope, no cliffs.

I dont know abouot any "geo Metro" thats surely not what is called here in EU.
But my Suzuki Swift GA was a nice car. The engine was in a perfect trim, being babied a bit by myself and my father.

I won a competition in Sweeden (was codriver). We did on average 32kilometers/liter in it. Ok, this was a competition, and noone would drive like this on an ordinary day Although the rules did prohibit driving at speeds below 50km/h, and time to completion WAS a factor).


So: No bull, just a great little car.

~~DukeP~~

[DukeP]

Actually, when done properly, you can reused the water from the scrubbing process. The end product is a somewhat toxic but stable powder, which is used to mix into concrete and asphalt (oh, and it think they make cat litter out of some of it!!).

~~DUkeP~~

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by DukeP
Actually, when done properly, you can reused the water from the scrubbing process. The end product is a somewhat toxic but stable powder, which is used to mix into concrete and asphalt (oh, and it think they make cat litter out of some of it!!).

~~DUkeP~~

Yes, but there is a problem. What they do is to add ground limestone, which reacts with the acids to form calcium sulfate, which is almost insoluble and precipitates out. Calcium sulfate, in its pure form, is gypsum and is used for making plaster of Paris. However, the precipitate here is very impure and can only be used, as you say, for adding, up to 1.5%, to cement, which accelerates the setting time, or other building materials.

The problem is that the typical reaction is:
H2SO4 + CaCO3 > CaSO4 + H2O + CO2

See the last molecule? More GHG fossil CO2, this time from the limestone