Back to Basics

When I worked in engineering, over 20 years ago now, we would, on occasions, take a bottle or six of Whiskey, a pad of paper and a Biro and "brainstorm" ideas to get solutions to a problem. No matter how far fetched, stupid, ill conceived or seemingly impossible the idea might seem at the time it got jotted down, sketched and discussed. Then it would be shelved until we were sober enough to look at it more seriously.
A similar approach was used in an advertising agency I worked in for a very short time, although I seem to recall the whiskey was substituted with Vodka, probably for fashionable reasons. Regardless the outcome was still the same.
The informal nature of these sessions, coupled with the removal of normal inhibitions due to the excess alcohol consumed meant that some fantastic results came out of those meetings. As well as some monumental hangovers the next day.
This may or may not explain why the British, and in particular, the Scots are the most prolific inventors on the planet. Think of almost anything - we invented it. We once lead the civilised world with our engineering prowess. Now the Germans and the Japanese, and more lately the Koreans and Chinese have all the major engineering industry. But can you name anything they ever invented? No. I thought not. They are able to take our ideas, miniaturise them, improve them and mass produce them but they are not by nature inventive. The Japanese gave us Karaoke (literal translation - to sing badly whilst drunk) but they still make walls out of paper and eat uncooked fish for Christs sake. The Chinese make a damned good takeaway, but haven't even invented cutlery yet. And the Koreans eat dogs because they haven't invented burgers yet, unless of course it's a dogburger.
As for the Germans, they are so starched and efficient they could never indulge in any drunken brainstorming - they would consider it a waste of time and effort.
So, if we are the only ones actually doing any inventing what hope is there for the future of the motor car? Over 100 years of building cars, and yet we have not progressed the basic design that much at all. When the internal combustion engine was invented we basically strapped an engine onto a cart and left it at that. A four wheeled Bogey, propelled along by a series of small controlled explosions (thanks Jeremy Clarkson for that simple explanation) A most wasteful way of getting around, the infernal combustion engine is around 30% efficient even today, with much of it's fuel escaping unburnt, and much of the energy released by burning said fuel being wasted creating heat and noise.And when it goes wrong, you end up potentially with an external combustion engine, a far more dangerous and uncontrollable beast altogether.
Which is why project Mint starts to make some sense. Clean silent electric power with no tailpipe emissions. Yes I know the electric has to come from somewhere else, and it's probably coal or oil being burned, or possibly nuclear stuff which my children will have to do something with or else face a life with extra ears, and toes and a permanent tan. But I can kid myself it comes from free solar or wind power and feel all smug about it. And i can also pretend that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan really is about weapons of mass destruction, Al Queda and the destruction of the Taliban, and not about oil at all, which of course it isn't.

So anyhow, back to my point which is this. If Vauxhall, Ford and company want to survive and not face annihilation my the likes of Toyota, Hyundai and Kia, plus the new threats from China Brilliance, Tata and Reva etc, they really need to get back to basics and brainstorm the whole idea of personal transport from afresh.

I have my pen and paper ready, and if they will sponsor me the single malt I am only too willing to help them out.

Project Mint - update

I did a little more work on the EV project today, and can confirm that the controller seems to be the source of the short. The motor works fine, tested by the inadvisable method of connecting jump leads to the battery and straight to the motor by passing the control circuit. Don't try this at home - fried motor is a distinct possibility, as are broken legs if the car is in gear. But hey, if you're not living on the edge you're probably taking more than your fair share of the planet.
I have stripped out the remnants of the fuel supply system, all the gubbings from the petrol filler flap and vent tubes tot he tank have been stripped and junked leaving me with a nice hole in the side of the car which will be filled with the socket for the charging system. I have measured up and roughed up the three pin industrial style socket and with a little cutting of the inner panel it will fit nicely inside the filler aperture, and by chance an old Tupperware box is just the right size to set it into to keep it all water proof. (it will be reinforced with fibreglass and painted, so the sandwiches inside don't show!) It should look like a neat and professional job once done.
With the motor controller condemned I will probably have to bite the bullet and buy a professionally manufactured one - about £300 for a 72 volt controller. Then it's a case of wiring up and sorting out new batteries.
I can easily fit in 6 x 12volt car batteries to give a 72 volt system. It's just a case of whether 72 volts is enough. The alternative is to use 12 x 6 volt forklift batteries, which hold more power and are smaller, so easier to fit in the car, the downside being they are heavier.

Why is it called project Mint? Because it has no emmisions, so it's liek a breath of fresh air, rather like a mint.

Blackout Birmingham

According to the announcement when I switch on my Sky box, leaving it on Standby saves energy - enough to light a city the size of Birmingham, it says. Now I'm all for saving energy, but if you are going to use that sort of persuasion surely you should be pitching a city with some culture and a bit of panache. Okay Birmingham is our second biggest city supposedly, but why not use several smaller more worthy cities to make the point. If i'm going to light up a city by going to the efforts of reaching down the back of the sideboard to reach the plug, then please let it be York, or Edinburgh, or somewhere pretty in the Cotswolds, or maybe a huge part of the North Yorkshire moors, maybe every town and village in the dales. But not bloody Birmingham.

In fact join me in my campaign to black out Birmigham and make sure you leave your sky box on standby tonight!