Hybrid Marauder

[Aren Jay]

http://ca.autos.yahoo.com/p/661/new-kits-turn-any-car-into-a-plug-in-hybrid

Looks like we may in August be able to make our Marauders into Hybrids for $7000.

Now Hybrids make additional torque and some horse power.

What is this going to do for our Marauders and will it make them go faster too?

http://www.a123systems.com/#/applications/phev/pchart1/

That chart shows how it works on Hybrids, giving them more electrical power.

The other company, http://www.poulsenhybrid.com/ adds on on wheel electric system, that keeps you going once you get going. For short range, 15 to 25 miles. Good for commutes or steady drving, not sure if there would be a performance gain.

I guess it would look odd but we do have large trunks...

[TAKEDOWN]

$7,000...maybe I'm being one way minded, but I'd rather buy a supercharger and add a couple more high end performance mods.

[Georges93LX]

$7,000...maybe I'm being one way minded, but I'd rather buy a supercharger and add a couple more high end performance mods.

Amen! If you want a hybrid buy a Prius.;)

[offroadkarter]

If you wanted a hybrid, go buy a prius

From what that looks, its not even a hybrid conversion more like "make your car into a lesbomobile electric car that can travel 3ft before a recharge"

[BAD MERC]

No thanks, I'd rather have my testicals pounded flat with a wooden mallet.

[BigCars4Ever]

I think when they say "any car" they meant any FWD car. It would be way too complicated to add motors to the rear wheels of a live axle car.

[Aren Jay]

They say in the link FWD RWD and AWD vehicles.

Might be a solution for some that put 300 a month in their Marauder for short range lots of idle driving.

Like our Hawaiian Nissan driver now.

If you can cut your gas price in half, right now it wouldn't be for me, but if we get European gas prices, or take our Marauder over there, it might make all the difference.

I rarely drive more than 15-25 miles in a day, and While I do like to have fun, if it came right down to it, I would rather have my Marauder than a Lexus hybrid.

As for the Prius idea, I can't drive a Prius. I sit in the drivers seat, with it all the way back, steering wheel in a position that is drivable and my right leg wedged in to the gas pedal, able to use the brake pedal, unlike the Toyota bug truck; and then I look at the gear selector and find that my knee keeps it from being put into gear. I would be stuck in park, unable to move or if I did get it in gear and it would stay there any accident and I would lose my right leg from the knee down. No thank you.

A smart car would be an option, but Smart cars cost more than $7k, even used.

[Breadfan]

Most hybrid technology is extremely inefficient. I personally think Toyota's "hybrid synergy drive" is an engineering failure. From an engineering perspective, the amount of research, design, and implementation that has gone into Toyota's hybrid design has netted poor MPG results.

For instance, a Prius may get 50mpg, but it's a tiny car with an over-engineered hybrid motor, low rolling resistance tires, and a super aero-dynamic "wedge" design as well as being a lightweight subcompact.

On the other hand, a basic Echo, which was engineered by the night shift over Super Bowl weekend, and mainly during the Britney Spears halftime show no one watched, gets 40mpg and has about the same amount of room and costs half the price.

Adding 7k worth of hybrid tech to a Marauder will bring you troubles in installation, maintenance, and repairs, will overly complicate your cars movement systems, and will not double your MPG's. Performance increases will be neglible at best.

If you sit and idle enough that any of these systems would give you 25-50% improvement you need to shut the car off more often.

Also how many of these systems will allow the A/C to operate? How about the rest of the accessories? Half the time the only reason police idle is to have AC on a hot day, or run all their electrical gear. For them an electric A/C system and deep cycle batteries to run electric eqiupment may allow them to not idle as much. Bolt on hybrid systems do not allow this.

The Chevy Volt is a step in the right direction for hybrids though. It's a better thought out system that is mostly electric with the gas motor being run at a single sustained speed only when needed and only to generate electricity. The volt is estiamted to get more like 150mpg.

IMHO a Prius with all it's engineering, cost, and r&d should get AT A MINIMUM 100mpg. Even if the first gen Prius didn't get 100mpg, the 2nd gen should have proven the technology's worth, but it hasn't...2nd gen car is lucky if it even gets better mpg than gen1. The fact that they can only muster 50mpg out of such a small, lightweight and aerodynamic car shows that Toyota's hybrid tech is an engineering failure.

Also, I agree with you about Prius legroom. I rode in a brand new Prius someone at work bought last week. In the front passenger seat it was back all the way and my knees were jammed agains the dashboard. Even with my foot all the way to the end off the floorboard. It was not just uncomfortable but after about 10 minutes my knees hurt. On the way back I sat in the back, where there was a tad more legroom (and atleast a soft seatback to jam my knees into) but the headroom was not there. I'm 6'3-6'4 depending on if it's a good day or not.

[jonroe]

The joke I see about the Prius is that in the early 80s you could get a diesel VW Rabbit with better mileage than today's Prius. Even though the Rabbit didn't excite people much back then, I'd much rather have that than a Prius even at today's diesel prices.

[offroadkarter]

The prius is just a joke of a car now, people buy it and think "oh its a hybrid ill get 60mpg just like toyota says i will and save money, and help the enviroment) when in fact the prius cant get much over 45mpg and for the base price (21 grand) you can get a much more efficient car. In 204 they had a recall on the gas motors, they would just die, and the electric motor would kick in, and bring you to a top speed of 30mph. Wasnt toyota supposed to have uberamazing quaility? Hmm....

Plus, if you were to drive it to work, its so slow that you'd probably show up an hour late. 0-60 in 18 seconds. IIRC when Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear tested the prius he said "Its so slow that a child could run out into the middle of the road (because he didnt hear you coming) retrieve his ball, and grow to puberty before you hit him"

The build quality is very cheap, you look at the interior and go "Oh Dear", they use adhesive foam just to stop rattles.

So its slow, not worth the money, unreliable, ugly, and blind people dont like it because they can never hear them coming. Great car :up:

http://www.happybeagle.com/images/prius-wreck/content/bin/images/large/IMG_5895.jpg

[MichaelGarmon]

Most hybrid technology is extremely inefficient. I personally think Toyota's "hybrid synergy drive" is an engineering failure. From an engineering perspective, the amount of research, design, and implementation that has gone into Toyota's hybrid design has netted poor MPG results.

For instance, a Prius may get 50mpg, but it's a tiny car with an over-engineered hybrid motor, low rolling resistance tires, and a super aero-dynamic "wedge" design as well as being a lightweight subcompact.

On the other hand, a basic Echo, which was engineered by the night shift over Super Bowl weekend, and mainly during the Britney Spears halftime show no one watched, gets 40mpg and has about the same amount of room and costs half the price.

Adding 7k worth of hybrid tech to a Marauder will bring you troubles in installation, maintenance, and repairs, will overly complicate your cars movement systems, and will not double your MPG's. Performance increases will be neglible at best.

If you sit and idle enough that any of these systems would give you 25-50% improvement you need to shut the car off more often.

Also how many of these systems will allow the A/C to operate? How about the rest of the accessories? Half the time the only reason police idle is to have AC on a hot day, or run all their electrical gear. For them an electric A/C system and deep cycle batteries to run electric eqiupment may allow them to not idle as much. Bolt on hybrid systems do not allow this.

The Chevy Volt is a step in the right direction for hybrids though. It's a better thought out system that is mostly electric with the gas motor being run at a single sustained speed only when needed and only to generate electricity. The volt is estiamted to get more like 150mpg.

IMHO a Prius with all it's engineering, cost, and r&d should get AT A MINIMUM 100mpg. Even if the first gen Prius didn't get 100mpg, the 2nd gen should have proven the technology's worth, but it hasn't...2nd gen car is lucky if it even gets better mpg than gen1. The fact that they can only muster 50mpg out of such a small, lightweight and aerodynamic car shows that Toyota's hybrid tech is an engineering failure.

Also, I agree with you about Prius legroom. I rode in a brand new Prius someone at work bought last week. In the front passenger seat it was back all the way and my knees were jammed agains the dashboard. Even with my foot all the way to the end off the floorboard. It was not just uncomfortable but after about 10 minutes my knees hurt. On the way back I sat in the back, where there was a tad more legroom (and atleast a soft seatback to jam my knees into) but the headroom was not there. I'm 6'3-6'4 depending on if it's a good day or not.

I've been following the volt for a while and can't wait to be able to buy one. Volt as my DD and Marauder as my taxi-cab racecar! =)

[omarauder]

I'm still looking for a "Mr. Fusion" power generator and a small, compact, light weight 500hp dc electric motor to put in the MM......

[Breadfan]

That reminds me of the MYT engine.

I posted about that a long time ago. Oddly enough, the link I used originally is now 404, sounds like that one died out defunct!

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=26401

Nevermind Angel Labs is still up: http://www.angellabsllc.com/

I never kept up with this, so I dunno where it's at.

I don't see many updates on that webpage since 2006 though!

It's on youtube though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGlUZg2pC0Q

[BAD MERC]

The prius is just a joke of a car now, people buy it and think "oh its a hybrid ill get 60mpg just like toyota says i will and save money, and help the enviroment) when in fact the prius cant get much over 45mpg and for the base price (21 grand) you can get a much more efficient car. In 204 they had a recall on the gas motors, they would just die, and the electric motor would kick in, and bring you to a top speed of 30mph. Wasnt toyota supposed to have uberamazing quaility? Hmm....

Plus, if you were to drive it to work, its so slow that you'd probably show up an hour late. 0-60 in 18 seconds. IIRC when Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear tested the prius he said "Its so slow that a child could run out into the middle of the road (because he didnt hear you coming) retrieve his ball, and grow to puberty before you hit him"

The build quality is very cheap, you look at the interior and go "Oh Dear", they use adhesive foam just to stop rattles.

So its slow, not worth the money, unreliable, ugly, and blind people dont like it because they can never hear them coming. Great car :up:

http://www.happybeagle.com/images/prius-wreck/content/bin/images/large/IMG_5895.jpg


I am quite amazed that this Prius is sitting there like that. My towing company WILL NOT tow or store wrecked or damaged hybrid crapmobiles. TWO reasons; battery leakage and electrical fires. I don't care how much they "save" in gas - if you pay a premium to buy it - it negates the savings. Buy a 5 year-old Corolla for $6500 and drive it for 300,000 miles if you wanna save some money.

[MENINBLK]

If you want to save fuel just buy an inexpensive 4 cyl and drive it.

I recently picked up a 1994 Escort GT and I am restoring it now.
When I get it back ont eh road, it will get me over 30mpg on the highway.
It will be the perfect commuting car.

The HP to weight ratio is right there with the Marauder... :)

[SC Cheesehead]

I'm still looking for a "Mr. Fusion" power generator and a small, compact, light weight 500hp dc electric motor to put in the MM......

That, and a Flux Capacitor will kick some butt, big time.

Dr. Emmett Brown (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000502/): If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious *****.

SCCH

[Aren Jay]

The idea of the plug in only Hybrid is that your engine will be off up to 30 mph. And you will have a 25 mile range, 15 with AC on.

Over 30 mph and your car starts and away you go with your engine.

In Canada we have plug ins to keep our block heaters warming the engine up so we can start it. With such a thing you could also recharge your battery. They do not have regenerative battery charging. It is not a full Prius like Hybrid, but it does work better for short range driving, than not having it, particularly at slow speeds. On highway driving to and from work 70 miles a day you will see little improvement in MPG. But if a quarter of that is sitting in stop and go traffic or on city core roads playing bumper tag light to light, you will see an improvement.

Plug in Hybrids do not improve the power of your car, from what I've read so far. They just let you sit or drive slow for a short range without turning the gasoline engine on.

Literally, if you drive enough, you get to have your cake and eat it too. Without having to have a Prius cup cake instead.

[Aren Jay]

In canada this kind of system might even qualify for our eco rebate $2K, Also compared to using this or getting a second car, like a prius, the insurance on the prius would pretty much negate most peoples gas savings. Unless you get rid of your Marauder and how would that ever be a good idea?

[racorcey]

That, and a Flux Capacitor will kick some butt, big time.

Finally someone mentions the Flux Cap! I was just about to post the Cap info when I saw this.

I'm glad that most of you see the futility and silliness of some of the current technology. The car companies ain't dumb - they just need to keep the tree huggers and Hollywierd off their case(s) until the next generation of much better gas savers comes around.

I don't think anyone mentioned the cost of battery replacement in the Prius. About $7,000.00. Yeah - some savings!

Right now, the most efficient way to cut overall gas consumption, other than driving less, etc., is to remove every non-essential SUV from the roads in the U.S. Our imported gas fuel requirements would drop dramatically.

BTW, International is about to release a new truck/engine combo that raises that crummy mileage from about 5 to mpg to over 7 mpg. If you're a long hauler that's a 40% increase in diesel mileage!

[djbruce26]

Buy a 5 year-old Corolla for $6500 and drive it for 300,000 miles if you wanna save some money.

Interesting concept... but I vote no. Buy a focus instead. My sister's focus, which is not well cared for, still gets 40-50 mpg highway. It's an 01 with the DOHC engine, sedan. You can get them used in my area for about $6-$7K.