long time no post; that's because the valiant is resting in storage in carterton, having done a 6-month stint in the museum in nz; & i'm resting in snowy munich. i noticed recently that the UK is finally starting to wake up to the idea of electric cars. great!

fuel consumption

i have worked out that the valiant does 8.6km to the litre; i calculated this by filling the tank then driving from wellington to ashburton (487 km or 303 miles) then filling again - it took 56.5 litres. it's quite difficult finding information on the web about average fuel consumption, but from what i can glean it would seem that 8.6km to the litre is actually pretty good. (& of course while she's tucked up at gasoline heaven, she's not using much at all.)

lucy goes round the clock

during march, andy & i did a south island road trip in lucy; we took the ferry from wellington to picton on sunday 14 march, and drove to kaikoura (where we hoped to see whales, but the trip was cancelled because the whales weren't around). the next day we drove to christchurch, and the day after that to dunedin. after a few days there visiting family & friends, we headed for karamea - at the top of the west coast. we made this trip in one day, going via arthur's pass. we left dunedin just before 7.30am & arrived in karamea around 8pm. a few days later we drove from karamea to portage in keneperu sound - another long drive - & the day after that a shorter drive through to picton to get the ferry back to wellington.

lucy did all of this driving without missing a beat; much of it was on the narrow windy roads typical of new zealand's geography - lots of one-lane bridges and a few steep inclines as well. particularly challenging for my upper arm muscles (lucy is definitely pre-power steering!) were the karamea bluff, the buller gorge and the road out along keneperu sound (we were in second gear for most of that one). the only problem we had was when we came down the karamea bluff in the gathering dusk and i went to dip my headlights for an approaching car - the headlights went off completely. for several days they would only work on either full beam or park. i knew we'd be arriving back in wellington in the dark & thought we'd have to drive from the ferry to karori with park lights only, but, miraculously, when we drove off the ferry the normal headlights worked again : ) (but the horn seems to have stopped working ... )

on the second last day of this road trip, at about 5 past 4 in the afternoon and just west of nelson, lucy's odometer went round the clock for the first time. we documented this momentous occasion and had a bit of a celebration. it was pretty exciting to watch the numbers roll over from 999999 to 000000 ... like a rebirth!

then, just over a week ago, i drove lucy to carterton and left her in the capable care of bob & georgie at the gasoline heaven car museum. i am going overseas for a while, don't know how long, so lucy is going to have a holiday at the museum. so if you're passing through carterton, look out for gasoline heaven (on the right just as you leave carterton heading north) & pop in to visit lucy.

alternative to heavy batteries?

Car Bodies Could Store Energy Like Batteries: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/08/car-bodies-store-energy/

"As battery manufacturers race to produce more efficient lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, some scientists are looking to make the cars themselves a power source. Researchers are currently developing a new material that can store and release electrical energy like a battery. Once perfected, scientists hope the substance will replace standard car bodies, making vehicles up to 15 percent lighter and significantly extending the range of electric vehicles."

Tumanako

Just found this: "The Tumanako Project is an Open Source development effort to produce Open Source hardware and software to drive and recharge electric vehicles. Tu manako is Māori for hope & togetherness."

Tumanako on Sourceforge
Tumanako project blog

i haven't got time to look at it all in depth now (i'm in proposal-writing & deadline mode) but it's exciting to know that there is a local & open source initiative like this happening here in aotearoa : )

there is a talk about it at the linux conference on wednesday 20th, but i'm not sure if i can make it ...