1898 land speed resource

[p.dath]

I was reading an interesting article today about the early land speed records (in France) in 1898. Surprisingly these were held by electrically powered cars! They typically got around 60km/h to 70 km/h territory.

Then the 1900's rolled around, and steam powered cars started winning the records and out-muscling the electrics, and the electrics died out.

And then of course, came petroleum based vehicles, out-muscling the steam powered cars.


Could we now be heading full circle, and going back to where we were over 100 years ago, to electric vehicles? Imagine if the human populace had persisted with electric vehicles for the last 100 years where they would be now.

[Grumph]

I was reading an interesting article today about the early land speed records (in France) in 1898. Surprisingly these were held by electrically powered cars!

Could we now be heading full circle, and going back to where we were over 100 years ago, to electric vehicles? Imagine if the human populace had persisted with electric vehicles for the last 100 years where they would be now.

Where we'd be now is waist deep in battery recycling plants...and lead would have exceeded the price of gold.

Steam has always been a better bet - capable of using anything which will burn as a fuel.

[SMOKEU]

Have a look at the Tesla Roadster (http://www.teslamotors.com/roadster). It's claimed to do 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds. Not bad for an electric car.