I've been thinking again, and that is always dangerous...

Nah, surely an Engineer would say "the vessel is overspecified by 50%".

Which reminds me of a couple on engineer jokes;

"Two engineering students were walking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"

The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."

The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fitted you anyway."

and

"An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me I'll turn back into a beautiful princess and stay with you for one week." The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for one week and do ANYTHING you want." Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's cool."

The Tesla is a very limited run oddity at the moment. Eventually cost comes down both on the technology and on the product.

The books would be interesting yes.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

No because the glass would then be 2/3 full. It's overspecified by 100%.

The old ones are the best, well some times. My tutor sent them out on my first year.

Understanding Engineers - Take Two

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

***************** Understanding Engineers - Take Three

A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with these guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes! The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude!" The pastor said, "Hey, here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him." "Hi George! Say, what's with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind fire-fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The group was silent for a moment. The pastor said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."

The doctor said, "Good idea. And I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"

***************** Understanding Engineers -Take four

Q: What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil? Engineers?

A: Mechanical Engineers build weapons and Civil Engineers build targets.

************* Understanding Engineers - Take Five

The graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?" The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it work?" The graduate with an Accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?" The graduate with an Arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

**************** Understanding Engineers - Take Six

Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the Possible designers of the human body. One said, "It was a mechanical engineer." Just look at all the joints." Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections."

The last one said,"Actually it was a civil engineer. Who else would run? a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?"

**************** Understanding Engineers - Take Seven

Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

The Wrightspeed X1 is much more limited. And a whole lot more fun...

Is that the rebranded Atom without the supercharged CTR lump?

Nope, it's the remanufactured Atom with LiIOn batteries and a 236hp electric motor. At 1500lbs, that's quite a kick.

One gear. 0-60 in ~3s, 1/4 mile in 11.5.

Imagine sitting in a scaled up radio controlled buggy. It's *that* fast. Makes the same noise too.

If so Mythbusters ran one against an F360 to prove in there scientific way that electric cars aren't slow. Not exactly a fare test as the Ferrari was on road rubber and the X1 on drag slicks. Then again they tried to say the Killacycle was quick running an 8.something (8.3?) quarter, not that quick for a drag bike so they put it against something that looked to have a hog lump with no turbo from the pro stock class (it was still 0.5 seconds faster than the electrocycle but that's "only just").

Mythbusters only got 11.961 (found the episode now) out of it on slicks. As the Atom manages 0-60 in 2.89s so faster than the bastardised version.

True, I like the "Take 3" :)

Right now I can only find the one, it's called: Convert IT

Ah Amazon show the other one: Build Your Own Electric Vehicle

They are both a bit old now, LiOn batteries have dropped in price a lot since then, but the fundamentals are the same. You can get by with only one of them I'd suggest the second as it's cheaper but ordering from the states I got both for less than the price of one in the UK. Though it's true neither book looks in depth at regenerative breaking describing it as expensive and complex.

I have heard good things about: Electric Vehicle Technology Explained but I'm not spending £80 on a book that I don't expect to put into practical use.

A helpful UK based resource is here:

Probably best to ignore the post about spending £36k on batteries for a Berlingo with an aim of a 320 mile range. (Yes £112.50 per mile of range) I bet a 50L petrol tank is a lot cheaper.

Actually you could get: A 2005 Masaratti Gransport A 2007 3L TDi Touareng A 2005 Lexus RX 400h (presumably with batteries)

or my preference from autotrader

A 1979 Aston Volante 5.3 V8

and still have a grand left to fuel them.

Well yeah, but we were talking about electric cars...

Which Mythbusters episode was it? I haven't seen that one yet..

295 lb ft. I win.

The Young Scientist special. Somewhere at the beginning of season 6.

I'd imagine it's an ez tv show to find. ;)

Oh, I can find it, I can just find too many of them ;-)

Yeah, but with the Aston the fuel might last a month I'm sure an=20 electric Berlingo would go much further in a 1k worth of electric.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream: