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The Ever Falling Hp Of The Elio.... :(
- Thread starter Paladin4Elio
- Start date
wheaters
Elio Addict
The name of the car is actually a town in Belgium but that's another story.
Logging? That's a public road (seriously, it is - and some in USA complain they don't repair the potholes)!
StuartGrant
Elio Addict
Our rural roads can get just as bad, trust me.
Folks
Elio Addict
I got the logging idea from the caption on one of your photos as follows; "The car on a logging track in the Derbyshire hills on Christmas Eve about three years ago."
Thanks to Google I also know that Liege was a term garnered and used in Shakepearean times as term recognizing class differences from the guild and serf systems of the middle ages. LOL
I hope the Elio garners some interest as your Leige. I wish there more rallies as in Europe. Proper handy capping and all.
Adamant
Elio Addict
My current car goes 0-60 in exactly 10 seconds. I've never had too much of a problem with it being that slow. Only a few times I've needed more power and didn't have it. But for the Elio, I will say at the very worst, it better hit 60 no later than 9.6 seconds when I punch it. I don't want anything that's gonna be slower than 10 seconds to 60.
Hopefully by the time this vehicle is released, they'll have found a way to improve on the 0-60 without sacrificing MPG. Too bad they can't somehow take it off the top. I rarely go above 80mph, so perhaps by somehow lowering the top speed from 107 to 95mph, they could add that power to the "get up and go." Not sure if that's possible, but it's wishful thinking.
Hopefully by the time this vehicle is released, they'll have found a way to improve on the 0-60 without sacrificing MPG. Too bad they can't somehow take it off the top. I rarely go above 80mph, so perhaps by somehow lowering the top speed from 107 to 95mph, they could add that power to the "get up and go." Not sure if that's possible, but it's wishful thinking.
Lil4X
Elio Addict
My beatervan has badly wounded CV joints and a rather iffy front end. Still, although I have to be unusually careful with it, I find I'm not getting run over in the stoplight Grands Prix. 98% of people aren't trying to emulate John Force at every traffic light . . . and the few who are deserve the humiliation they get. I watched a guy twist off a u-joint last month trying to beat the competition across the intersection. I laughed so hard . . .
Adamant
Elio Addict
My issue comes from this.... one time I was merging onto the freeway and I was going nice and slow, just easily building my speed, then all
of a sudden as I was just merging on, a driver came roaring up behind me in the far lane (already on the freeway), then swerved away from me off the road, then overcorrected and came right back for me (I guess he'd blown a tire) so I proceed to floor it (4 banger) and there was just no get-up-and-go at all. The RPMs didn't even kick in and the auto didn't downshift. So I was just slowing accelerating with the peddle to the floor, guttless, and the guy was swerving into me, and just missed my back bumper by about 2 inches, and rolled his vehicle. Any closer and he would have certainly hit me, and probably rolled me.
The Elio is obviously not going to be a powerhouse, but I hope it at least has some decent acceleration when I need it at lower speeds. I'm getting an auto, so hopefully the thing will kick in when I need it to and not lag, or do nothing when the peddle hits the floor.
outsydthebox
Elio Addict
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Altho I do believe the saying, ..."fast enough to get you into trouble, but not fast enough to get you out"...I don't think it applies to the Elio. No amount of horsepower can fix the kind of stupid that you were fortunate enough to escape. The truth be told, it was probably excess power that got that person ( in your situation) into trouble! When I was a kid, I was fascinated with the thought of "one day I will be old enough to drive!" and I constantly watched my mom and dad as they negotiated traffic. When that day finally came, I still had a lot to learn. Today, kids have their eyes (and minds) glued to all sorts of devices. When they get their drivers license, they are expected to "instantly" break their addiction to social media, and focus on getting from point A to point B. Add this to their feelings of entitlement, and now everyone and everything on the road are mere obstacles. I recently read an article that said (basically), that more and more young ones are not interested in learning to drive. They would rather use public transportation and "stay connected."
my 2 cents. I have a son who is in the learners permit stage. He simply doesn't have the interest and desire I shared to get behind the wheel. Here in PA he has to log X hours in all types of weather plus there are other rules concerning passengers etc.
My wife who is British has a completely different outlook on driving and shared her experiences with passing the English driving test versus the one she got in California.
My wife who is British has a completely different outlook on driving and shared her experiences with passing the English driving test versus the one she got in California.
Lil4X
Elio Addict
Back in the '50's my cousin in Arkansas cut his first driver's license out of the newspaper and filled in his name. That's how they issued licenses once upon a time. I'm convinced that a lot of the drivers I see on the freeway today got their licenses the same way.
As to the Elio's power, the claim of a 0-60 time in the 9-second range would put the vehicle in the mid-range of most of the real-world vehicles sold today. Of course there are "performance models" that can accomplish the same feat in under 5 seconds, and a good number that can finish in the 7's, but those aren't the majority of ordinary folks cars you see every day. My old K-20 Suburbans with the 4-bbl 350 V8 would barely make into the 9 second class in the freeway entrance drag race - and that if you used the whip. Most of my "sporty" cars would thrash their little sub-2 liter hearts out to get in under 10 seconds as well. Most of the High-Mileage contenders can't even see 10 seconds, being content with somewhere in the 12's or worse.
We weren't always capable of such accelerative prowess - my old '52 Dodge (a below-base stripper) could barely crack 12 second 0-60, with a flathead six and a 1-bbl carb. On the upside, the low-compression engine was perfectly happy with "drip gas", the stuff that's entrained in crude oil and in the '50's was a nuisance to oil lease operators because it was worthless and often had to be disposed of by burning at the well site. It was a crude form of gasoline that could be run in low-compression engines, but knock like crazy in most cars of the era. You didn't want to run it long as it burned "dirty", but mixed with a half tank of "regular" it was fine. Best of all for a teenage kid on a 75¢ an hour wage, it was free. You were doing the operator a favor by hauling off the worthless stuff. Anyone with a nine and a half second 0-60 car was considered to be a drag contender to most of us who remember the '50's - before the muscle car era.
But think about it. How often do you really need to use hard acceleration? Sure, it's handy in an emergency, but brakes or handling are usually more effective at accident avoidance. I've had at least one occasion in the last ten years to have to throw out the anchor when trapped in traffic as a little old lady pulled in front of me doing about one-quarter the speed of the freeway traffic flow. Hard on the brakes the "brake assist" engaged while the ABS still allowed me to steer . . . the VSC kept me from killing myself as I missed granny by about an inch while modulating the brakes to keep from collecting several other cars who were now to be seen hard on the brakes in my rear view mirrors. Between the electronics that saved me, and thankfully, a good deal of situational awareness on my part, the only damage was a set of front rotors that were badly warped from the sudden massive heat load. Since the car was only about 2 months old at the time, they were replaced in warranty, no questions asked (There was later a TSB on those rotors).
It was a 7.6-sec. car, decent for a mid-size SUV with a 3.3L engine, 230 hp/242 t, 4 valves with VVT-i, but hauling a significant amount of weight around with it. I had a couple of occasions to use that torquy little powerplant to save my bacon, but the most effective safety system on board was still two functional Mark I eyeballs. I suspect the Elio will still require the same.
As to the Elio's power, the claim of a 0-60 time in the 9-second range would put the vehicle in the mid-range of most of the real-world vehicles sold today. Of course there are "performance models" that can accomplish the same feat in under 5 seconds, and a good number that can finish in the 7's, but those aren't the majority of ordinary folks cars you see every day. My old K-20 Suburbans with the 4-bbl 350 V8 would barely make into the 9 second class in the freeway entrance drag race - and that if you used the whip. Most of my "sporty" cars would thrash their little sub-2 liter hearts out to get in under 10 seconds as well. Most of the High-Mileage contenders can't even see 10 seconds, being content with somewhere in the 12's or worse.
We weren't always capable of such accelerative prowess - my old '52 Dodge (a below-base stripper) could barely crack 12 second 0-60, with a flathead six and a 1-bbl carb. On the upside, the low-compression engine was perfectly happy with "drip gas", the stuff that's entrained in crude oil and in the '50's was a nuisance to oil lease operators because it was worthless and often had to be disposed of by burning at the well site. It was a crude form of gasoline that could be run in low-compression engines, but knock like crazy in most cars of the era. You didn't want to run it long as it burned "dirty", but mixed with a half tank of "regular" it was fine. Best of all for a teenage kid on a 75¢ an hour wage, it was free. You were doing the operator a favor by hauling off the worthless stuff. Anyone with a nine and a half second 0-60 car was considered to be a drag contender to most of us who remember the '50's - before the muscle car era.
But think about it. How often do you really need to use hard acceleration? Sure, it's handy in an emergency, but brakes or handling are usually more effective at accident avoidance. I've had at least one occasion in the last ten years to have to throw out the anchor when trapped in traffic as a little old lady pulled in front of me doing about one-quarter the speed of the freeway traffic flow. Hard on the brakes the "brake assist" engaged while the ABS still allowed me to steer . . . the VSC kept me from killing myself as I missed granny by about an inch while modulating the brakes to keep from collecting several other cars who were now to be seen hard on the brakes in my rear view mirrors. Between the electronics that saved me, and thankfully, a good deal of situational awareness on my part, the only damage was a set of front rotors that were badly warped from the sudden massive heat load. Since the car was only about 2 months old at the time, they were replaced in warranty, no questions asked (There was later a TSB on those rotors).
It was a 7.6-sec. car, decent for a mid-size SUV with a 3.3L engine, 230 hp/242 t, 4 valves with VVT-i, but hauling a significant amount of weight around with it. I had a couple of occasions to use that torquy little powerplant to save my bacon, but the most effective safety system on board was still two functional Mark I eyeballs. I suspect the Elio will still require the same.