GT cars, the stuff that posters on the walls of high school boys' bedrooms are made of, made a strong showing at the 2009 Geneva auto show, with new examples from Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Lamborghini, among others. The variety we found at the show included standard gas engines, hybrids, and full electric versions, and all boast astounding performance figures.
With a 0-60 time of around 4 seconds and electric motors in all four wheels, the Lightning GT may be among the fastest electric cars--as well as the best looking.
France's Fetish and the Great Britain's Lightning GTS promise to be two of the fastest cars on the market. That is, as soon as the companies can get them out of the factory.
The Fetish, an all-electric sports car touted by France's Venturi for the last several years, won't be hitting the market until 2009, according to Autoblog Green. It was supposed to come out this month, and before that reports circulated that it would come out in 2005. Venturi first showed off the concept--the "first desirable electric vehicle" according to the company--at the Paris Auto Show in 2004 and has been trotting a prototype around the globe.
Oh, behave!
(Credit: Lightning)The car will go from zero to 60 in 3.5 seconds and cost over $450,000. Although you can't buy it now, you can buy a toy replica on the company's web site for 32 Euros. The company is also selling a limited edition carbon fiber longboard skateboard for 480 Euros. Not sure if it's crash tested for the U.S. yet.
Venturi's situation is a common one for electric car makers. Getting a car to market--considering all of the testing, design issues, and battery breakthroughs required--isn't easy. Tesla Motors experienced delays and it was one of the largest, best-organized and best-funded start-ups. Compared to these other guys, Tesla is like GM.
Meanwhile, across the channel, Lightning is taking deposits for its all-electric Lightning GTS for commercial delivery in 2009. Earlier, delivery was slated for 2008. The car uses batteries from Altair Nanotechnologies, which recently swapped out its CEO. The Lightning will have a hub motor, which is a great idea on paper that engineers have struggled to make a reality. The company claims that the car will go 250 miles on a charge, hit 130 miles an hour, and can be recharged in 10 minutes; 250 miles won't be easy to hit, but the 10-minute charge time could be even tougher, judging by comments from battery experts and what other electric car makers say.
But check out the Union Jack license plate. If they put in a goofy foot gas pedal, I'm sold.
(Credit:
Hammacher Schlemmer)
Maybe we're missing something, but we can't quite figure out why gadget makers seem obsessed with lightning these days. In recent weeks, we've seen everything from a "Personal Lightning Detector" to a planned Nokia phone that warns of approaching electrical storms.
And now we have yet another lightning finder, the "75-Mile Range Thunderstorm Detector." How does it work? Here's just one excerpt from Hammacher Schlemmer's description: "Its built-in microprocessor and software analyzes the waveform and voltage the antenna detects to tell you how far away a lightning strike was, which indicates the presence of approaching storm cells and squall lines, and provides you with storm approach speed, estimated time of arrival, distance, and more." There'll be a pop quiz in the morning.
If all this sounds long-winded (unintentional bad pun), consider the price--$430. For that kind of money, you deserve as much meteorological jargon as they can dish out.
(Credit:
Tech Shout)
This is one of those products that really makes us wonder if some companies have too many employees--a situation that inevitably leads to solutions in search of a problem. Nokia may be suffering this workforce malady if its latest brainchild is any indication: a mobile phone that warns of approaching lightning. Yes, you read that right.
We thought we'd dispensed with this misguided idea in an item a month ago that cited (and mocked appropriately) a "personal lightning detector." But nay, apparently one of the largest phone makers in the world thinks this is a valuable feature, for it reportedly has filed for a U.S. patent on its own lightning-be-gone software.
Tech Shout says it could be an "indispensible safety device" for such outdoor activities as golfing and jogging. Yet we must ask, as we did with the "StrikeAlert" detector before it, is it so difficult to stay indoors in a thunderstorm?
(Credit:
OhGizmo)
This item ranks right up there with the "qStart," that device that reminds you which side of the road to drive on.
The "StrikeAlert" describes itself as "the world's first convenient, dependable and easy-to-use personal lightning detector." During a thunderstorm it supposedly gauges the distance of lightning based on the decibel level of their crackle up to 40 miles away, according to OhGizmo.
Forgive us, but we must ask: Do we really need a gadget to tell us that lightning is approaching? Would it not be more prudent, say, to just weather the storm indoors? The $80 it costs to get one of these, in our opinion, would be better spent on an AM radio, canned food and a deck of cards.
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