Oh......My......God!

I want me one of these!!!

Carbon Motors Corporation - Purpose Built Police Car, Police Vehicle, E7

First saw the article in the Oct (2008) issue of DieselPower magazine. HAD to check out the Carbon Motors website.

Quick overview of the specs:

Police cruiser, 4-Dr.
3.0L forced-induction diesel engine (ULSD or biodiesel recommended)
300hp and 435lb tq
1/4 in 14-sec......98mph
top speed 145mph
All-aluminum frame......rated for 75mph rear-impact
Integrated emergency lights and spotlight.

Get this (keep in mind, we're talking POLICE cars......You know, lead foot, lots of idling, etc....).....

28 to 30mpg (combined city/hwy driving). This is TWICE what your average police cruiser gets!

250,000 mile lifespan....Again, TWICE what a regular cruiser gets.

Check out the website. I couldn't find a quoted price, but the specs section states that it's comparable to a regularly outfitted police interceptor made by the big boys. It COULD be because that's all this company does.

Imagine not only the performance and the plain old good sense in outfitting hundreds of police agencies with this car, but ALSO the savings for the taxpayer.

Continue imagining please........What would be the DECREASE in U.S. oil demand if a large percentage of the domestic passenger-car fleet were converted to high-performance, high efficiency and 'clean' diesel engines? You know, like the 65mpg car that Ford is marketing in Europe---but not in the U.S..

With more use and acceptance, and higher production, comes lower costs too.

 

sweet ride

 

Oh, Jake.....I lied.

Top speed is actually 155mph.......NOT 145mph.........

 

OPEC would simply cut production to reduce the supply and keep the price of oil up. Diesel isnt the future, hydrogen and plug-in hybrids are.

 

And your basing this assumption (what OPEC will do ) on what exactly?

Diesel is NOW. Hydrogen and plug-in hybrids are not now. Diesel is already tailor made for the current infrastructure and wouldn't take any changes, except for an increasing refining of diesel, instead of gas---and that would be a years-long process anyway.

 

Hey Steve, if you send me one I'll do all the biodiesel testing for ya! You can have it back after say 200,000 miles of testing............

 

I'll ask our fleet manager to give me two then......

On edit: (to Octane).

Maybe I took your post wrong. I'm not against hydrogen or hybrid/plug-in technology, and I see a place for it. I hope I didn't give that impression. I earlier stated I'D buy a hydrogen car just for mostly commuting---provided it had reasonable performance and wasn't cost prohibitive. Absolutely.

I just think diesel tech is still mostly untapped. A lot of the 'crisis' we're in is because of consumption, but when you start turning over a large portion of fleet vehicles to diesel tech with 30% to 40% better mileage---that puts the breaks on demand/consumption right there----just by doing that. That's not even including OTHER alternatives, like the two that you proposed, or more cars running on CNG, for instance.

The biodiesel market is mostly untapped also (fabmandelux can speak more professionally on this), and THAT'S another source which would reduce our demand for foreign oil.

***I'm all about TOTALLY removing all need for foreign oil....Especially from OPEC.

Not to mention, the WHOLLY untapped sources of oil here in the U.S. in oil shale and coal gassification----and the other untapped ready-oil in ANWR, off of the coast of ANWR, and other areas which have been politically blocked. I understand the concern for emissions, and I like clean air too, but I think that better technology, more biodiesel use, and the new clean diesel technology will do wonders for that.

But the LAST think that I am is a 'Stop Fossil Fuels Now and Forever' guy......

 

I can unequivocally say that Hydrogen is NOT the future, it's one of those feel good look what we can do golden dreams that physically can NOT happen ever and even if it does it would (please I want you to read the next line VERY carefully all you hydrogen anti fossil fuel people) REQUIRE THE DRILLING OF MORE NATURAL GAS WELLS. you would also find it would double or trip the cost of heating most homes since natural gas is one of the major home heating fuel sources.
For those that wonder were this just went, hydrogen is first of not found in nature as a free gas it's ALWAYS bound to some other component such as oxygen to form water. Next you can not effectively remove hydrogen from water on a scale that would allow it to be used for commercial use, next it would eat up most of the nations drinking water supply making the rationing of water the next major problem (or if you tried to clean up other water sources enough to be able to run through the systems to get pure hydrogen it would triple the already unbalanced energy use to output scale of doing this) and it would require that we almost double our current energy output of electricity thus making it almost impossible for normal people to be able to afford to heat or light their houses. and the only economically, socially, and reasonable way to produce hydrogen is from natural gas. So then WHY would you want to spend all the energy, money, time, infrastructure changes, danger etc to run something when you can just run the raw product the fuel is made from in a current vehicle. And when you do a true emissions balance formula on it, you find out that yep the exhaust out of the car is zero emission but add in all the emissions from the supporting industry to make this work and you find out that in reality the emissions savings is less then 5% according to one paper I saw linked about this.
And all that isn't even counting the fact that hydrogen fuel cells all require platinum, and the amount of all known platinum both already mined and what is known to be still in the ground would be required to replace just half of the cars in CA alone.

Sorry for the thread hijack Steve but I am so tired of "hydrogen vehicles are the future" when all it takes is a minute to do a little research to find out how bad they really are. I was also one that thought they sounded great, you know pull up and fill your tank from the garden house would be cool but after reading on them I found out they are nothing more then a pipe dream.


But that patrol car is flat out cool, I think your capt (or whatever the head of your dept goes by) should allow you to do a yr long test drive and report on those to determine the feasibility as well as the performance and saving of that car and then you could write a extended test drive report for all to read.

I can send a recommendation letter and I bet we could come up with a program outline to allow for you to do this and send to him for ya.

 

Carbon Motors did not specified the number of cylinders there motor has and also no interior pics...

Maybe I was looking in the wrong spot of there site

 

I wanted to see interior pics also.....

Maybe they didn't want to give their would-be competitors too much of a looksey......

I'M curious about the cylinders. 3.0L? I'm GUESSING 6......but I'd be guessing.

Also, the cost. Now, one could say 'competitive with comparably equiped interceptor units in the general law enforcement fleet' all day long.....But I still want a ballpark figure. Matter of fact, I'm getting up with our property guys to see what WE pay for OUR Crown Vics. I THINK it's just over 20K for a stripped-down car.....How much for equipment installation and graphics and labor? Don't know yet. I mean, if their formula is estimating 2 weeks of work before a stripped down Crown Vic is ready for the streets, that's a pretty hefty labor cost just by itself....(what? $60/hr?)

 

My point is that if they want to sell a product they should be up front about everything thing..

Based on what I saw. I would strongly stay with the Crown Vic.

Another thing to go with that is I see way to much abuse from a lot of City's and Towns on there cruisers that are costing us way to much money and if we abused our rigs like they do we would be arrested..

 

I'm getting up with him tomorrow. Let the car speak for itself....But gently remind him that we might be remiss in not at-least order a couple for some long-term testing..........And OF COURSE I'd be happy to be one of the test dummies.......

We've got a new Chief too.....And I think a good case could be made that this might, in the long run, be an economic benefit for the city budget.....

250,000 mile lifespan? How long could I keep a car like that going? 10 years? (at least). We currently replace our cars about every 2 years.

Not to mention the fuel savings....Especially if the city got off of it's *** (like other municipalities have) and got into the biodiesel business!

 

Nice sales pitch though..I would want to see how they go and how maney bugs they have..

I am not one for buying something that just came out until the bugs are gone..

trust me everything has bugs when they first come out.

 

I wonder how many depts. are ponying up for something not yet built, with no guarantee it will be. (wearing a badge or not, it still has to meet emissions. to my knowledge only MB and VAG are making diesels even remotely capable of meeting us emissions - although I do hear the 2010 A6 will have a 3.6L v6 TDI that makes the HP/T of the previous generation PSD. how cool will THAT be?)

 

Since my name, and one of my great passions (biodiesel) were mentioned, I'm going to toss in my $.02 worth.

Biodiesel will not be effective until we change our approach to it's production and use. Commercial biodiesel production today is following the path of dino diesel by using HUGE central plants where the feedstock has to be transported 100's to 1,000's of miles from where it's grown, then the biodiesel has to be transported AGAIN to the end users! Plants are failing before there even built!

What we need is a totally new path for Biodiesel production. My focus with biodiesel is based on on-farm production, AND, local use of the end products. Whenever I'm asked to give a speech on biodiesel I try and push this idea across. If just the farms in my county alone produced just enough for their own use it would free up over 1 MILLION GALLONS EACH YEAR!! Now spread that out over this vast nation.........Just how much oil would that save?

Every State has the potential to produce some type of oil seed, and the amount of cropland taken out of normal production on each farm is not enough to impact food production. Transportation of seed, and fuel is taken completely out of the equation. The by-products can be used on-farm, or in the community ( heat, power, and fertilizer can all be made from the by-products) thereby making the whole community more self-sufficient.