Here's my pet wacko idea: A hybrid car that uses a stirling-cycle engine instead of an ICE. The stirling is an external-combustion engine, and therefore has the potential to be much cleaner and can be designed to run on pretty much any fuel, from hydrogen to LP or LNG to gasoline to coal. (Coal definitely not recommended!) It could even be designed for multiple fuels, say gasoline or hydrogen, for a change-over economy when hydrogen is becoming available but some areas still have only gasoline, or when hydrogen stations are still few and far between. The stirling-cycle engine is impractical for a conventional car because of its very slow response time. However, in a hybrid, with the electric side to buffer the demand variations, it might be practical due to its inherently greater efficiency. The slow warm-up would mean you would not get stealth mode as often, but I don't think anyone here places the geek-value of stealth mode above the mundane environmentalism of improved mpg.
Doesn't this discussion belong in a different topic, maybe Other Cars? I think it sounds like a great idea for a serial electric hybrid that is essentially an electric car with a Stirling engine back-up power source.
TJ: You sure dug pretty deep to unearth this thread and just say "Sounds good." I posted this in March of 2004!!! I'm even surprised that these old posts from before the collapse of PC even exist!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 10 2007, 05:18 PM) [snapback]459329[/snapback]</div> But if he hadn't, I'd have never seen it. Dave M.
Seems like there are a lot of pluses and only a few minuses for the use of this engine. Seems like the only two real set backs were cost and size. I say they should build a prototype for use in a car and see how much it costs, power output, and obviously mileage. But I forgot that they won't do that since they say it's more reliable. They don't want more reliable parts, else they'd lose money.
