VeeshanVault

http://www.technoride.com/article/FuelV ... 413_1.aspx

Look at this car. Wow. Not only is FuelVapor Technologies' baby clearly the coolest car since...well, ever, this three-wheeled, aerodynamic two-seater also gets 92 miles to the gallon, goes 0-to-60 in under 5 seconds, and has a "super-low" emissions rating.


Again: Wow. The Alé runs on regular gasoline and has been in production for fifteen years... time well spent, I'd say.


More stats:


• 180 horsepower


• 12.9 second ¼ mile time


• 1.7 G's cornering performance


• 75% fewer CO2 emissions than the average hybrid


FuelVapor Technologies plans to start limited production in 2008, and is currently looking for investors to take the Alé into production.


Any takers?

http://www.fuelvaporcar.com/

Is it safer than a Smart Car? That's what we need to know!

Aslanna wrote:Is it safer than a Smart Car? That's what we need to know!

It is bigger, so it must be safer. right?

An interesting excercise in engineering but you won't see anything resembling this on the roads for at least another deacde (or two).

this car blows, it only has three wheels



thats not very many wheels

Boogahz wrote:

Aslanna wrote:Is it safer than a Smart Car? That's what we need to know!

It is bigger, so it must be safer. right?

That is sound logic. I don't think anyone can argue with that!

I saw something really similar to this on the NYS thruway the other day.

It looked like one of those CanAm Spyders but it had an enclosed interior, not sure if it had 1 seat or 2 it was going in the other direction across the median.

Definitely made me look twice, but it was probably some home-made contraption.

Aslanna wrote:

Boogahz wrote:

Aslanna wrote:Is it safer than a Smart Car? That's what we need to know!

It is bigger, so it must be safer. right?

That is sound logic. I don't think anyone can argue with that!

It looks smaller side to side and height wise. Surely that is the single most important reason why it may not be as safe as the Smart Car, who's (iirc) last testing wasn't exactly outstanding.

I liken this to a motorcycle with a shell though. No utility but fun to drive and good gas mileage to boot. If someone hits you in it, yer prolly fuxxed.

Surely that is the single most important reason why it may not be as safe as the Smart Car,

Or perhaps the fact that it doesnt have a reinforced passenger compartment.. or airbags... or ABS... or electronic stability control... or any of the countless other saftey features that are on the Smart.

who's (iirc) last testing wasn't exactly outstanding.

You recall incorrectly.

He remembers correctly. It was not outstanding in testing...it just wasn't tested

Meh. You guys made me look it up....

A previous model, the Smart fortwo City Coupe, was tested in 2000 and achieved a three-star rating out of five possible.
Taken from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19699245/

Not the current model. The manufacturer says the latest one will do much better. That's what I'd say if my last test had 3/5 stars too.

By the way I was be facetious about the relative size being the reason it may or may not test better than the SMART car.

If we want to get back into that debate though allow me to state my opinion up front.
1> Safety features are incredibly important.
2> Construction materials are important.
3> Size is NOT a non-factor.
4> Crash tests we perform are standardized and do not properly reflect "real world" scenarios, but instead are a best effort to test things within the monetary constraints of the system.

We actually went over crash testing in the Smart car thread which I am too busy to scroll down and link. Most of the things you mention as how your opinion relates to it were discussed as well.

At least the new Smart models have more/better safety features...but it has not been tested with those features yet.

The link I posted was from the Smart Car thread. I didn't look for it on my own. I wasn't that motivated. I just remembered clicking it when we had the old discussion.

And I said that "If" we wanted to get into the topic again, those were my positions on the subject. I reposted them to make it easy since I figured most people wouldn't want to look back at the old thread. I figured this was the case since I had to pull the info from the previous thread.