Ok, let's get serious here. I think we can come up with some cool & contructive ideas...

Does anybody know about the Civic Hybrid Continually Variable Transmission? This kind of automatic transmission has no shift points and it keeps the engine right at it's torque peak. (search on google to read more about how it works, there aren't any gears)

Does anybody know anything about how much power it can hold?

I read somewhere that the motor in the Prius or one of those hybrids could accelerate the car to 50MPH in like 4 seconds (electric motors have maximum torque at 0 RPM, while combustion motors have zero torque at 0 rpm).... with a CVT transmission linked to a good electric motor, we could concievably run SILENT 1/4 miles that would rival many gas powered engines.

I'm not a noob or anything so save it, I'm trying to get you guys to consider that there may be something good in all this.


If you know anything about this technology, share with us

 

Probably so, if you had the right size electric motor. The good thing about electic motors is they will produce good low-end torque and high rpm hp. I'd really be interested to see if this can be done.

 

the bad thing about electric motors is the heavy *** batteries required to run em.

 

the batteries are heavy, but obviously not too heavy since they get like 70-somethin miles to a gallon and some hybrid cars apparently have very quick acceleration to 50mph...

does anybody have any good info for the not-so-practical uses of these cars? any crazy ideas? have any of you driven in one? have any of you seen under the hood? come on!

 

IIRC

most CVT's today use a dual pulley system that acts as the "gear ratios". By varying the distances, you achieve the gear ratio changes continuously.

Up until recently, CVT couldn't handle high amounts of torque throughout the rev range, but Audi has a CVT for the 3.0L Frontrak.

Toyota uses a planetary gear system as its transmission, directly connected to the electric motor, which sort works like a LSD.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Black93DelSolSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the batteries are heavy, but obviously not too heavy since they get like 70-somethin miles to a gallon and some hybrid cars apparently have very quick acceleration to 50mph...

does anybody have any good info for the not-so-practical uses of these cars? any crazy ideas? have any of you driven in one? have any of you seen under the hood? come on!</TD></TR></TABLE>

A team in Europe has done a Prius rally car.

 

Yeah the Prius finished in 14th... they said that the prius's reliability helped it to out perform some of the other team's high performance rally cars.

Interesting. can anybody else make this cars engine combo sound appealing to someone who is looking to go fast?