Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

The Prius Prime is a dual fuel vehicle, able to run 100% on Electric, or 100% on gasoline, or a computerized blend in-between. This presents me a great opportunity to be able to do a direct comparison with the same car of an EV engine vs an ICE engine.

• Toyota computer claims 3.2mi-per-kwhr.

• Kill-a-watt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_A_Watt) claims 2.2mi-per-kwhr.

• Additional 1.5% losses should be assumed in the wires if you wish. (120V drops down to 118V during charging, meaning 2V of the energy was lost due to the resistance of my home's wires).

• Level 1 charger at home (known to be less efficient).

• Toyota computer claims 53miles-per-gallon (American Gallon).

• I have not independently verified the gallon usage of my car.

• 295 miles driven total, sometimes EV, sometimes Gasoline, sometimes both.

• 30F to 40F (-1C to 4.5C) in my area this past week.

• Winter-blend fuel.

• 12.5miles per $electricity-dollar (17.1c / kw-hr home charging costs)

• 17.1 miles per $gasoline-dollar ($3.10 per gallon last fillup).

If anyone has questions about my tests. The main takeaway is that L1 charging is so low in efficiency that gasoline in my area is cheaper than electricity. Obviously the price of gasoline and electricity varies significantly area-to-area, so feel free to use my numbers to calculate / simulate the costs in your area.

There is also substantial losses of efficiency due to cold weather, that is well acknowledged by the EV community. The Prius Prime (and most other EVs) will turn on a heater to keep the battery conditioned in the winter, spending precious electricity on battery-conditioning rather than miles. Gasoline engines do not have this problem and remain as efficient in the winter.

In depth look at the C8 ZR1.

Also Corvette ZR1 LT7 Engine Walk Around

I think the new transmission is exciting! I knew some of the drawbacks of the traditional CVT but the efficiency loss is new to me.

You know the track day is over when the transmission goes crunch.

personally surprised that Tesla beats Jeep, but I'm uploading it mostly because it says not to.

My only wish is that the steering got better. Otherwise I think this is a perfect car.

I can only dream of being this cool.

Love this comparison, someone I've wondered off and on about. Yes tires are a big deal! Don't cheap out on them.

I know, not exciting to everyone but I'm tickled pink! I needed new rotors anyway, and this set was only a few hundred more than stock brakes.

This one was mine, a 1998 Mercedes W208. The nice things about it were the cool Mono-Wiper, the engine (supercharged 2,3L M111) and the seats that were perfect for my height. It had a terrible ASR system but came with a LSD, so it was lots of fun in the winter.

The not-so-nice things about it were that the ignition randomly would not recognize the key, a missing catalytic converter, two fist sized rust holes in the front control arms, rust all over the underbody and the absolute worst 6-speed manual transmission I have ever used.

It also had multiple alignments but it didn't take long for the steering-wheel to be off-center again. You could see the tail end "crabbing" in the rear view mirror. There was something very wrong with it, which can probably be attributed to one of the 7 previous owners.

This isn't even counting all minor annoyances like the frameless windows not lowering themselves when you open the doors (that was only a thing after the 1999 model year), the wind noise, the awful interior materials, the broken seat latch in the rear, the trunk lock not working... I could go on for an hour like this.

So anyways, what is the worst car YOU have ever owned?

Previously owned an E36 M3 and it was an absolute blast to drive. Used to do some canyon carving in the LA area on Mulholland Highway.

This seems like a really interesting development. This seems like an interesting way of overcoming EV range anxiety. Hopefully battery technology will continue to evolve but maybe cars that can regenerate their batteries by driving might be part of the future too.

Any favorites on this list? I owned the SAAB and F150. Wouldn't mind owning a few more eventually.

Visited an Toyota Land Cruiser museum in Salt Lake City earlier this week. Here are my favorites!

Norris running laps on my desk for practice!

Got this from a used book store for $20!

The RX-7 is beautiful, but the S14 stole my heart!

The Corvette shop in Metro Denver had over a dozen Vettes waiting to be picked up by their owners. This was my favorite! The inside was as perfect as the outside.