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G. David Felt

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Everything posted by G. David Felt

  1. G. David Felt
    The More I read and see of the Ram, the more I like it over the Ford or Chevrolet trucks. The Ram is really shinning brightly. Funny how often the writers at C&D compare the Ram to the S-Class being equal with more rear seat leg room. LOL https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a27634301/2019-ram-1500-reliability-maintenance/ Have to say it is a very sharp side profile. FCA has a NEW U-Connect 5 now with support for Apple and Android phones. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30656688/fca-uconnect-5-infotainment-revealed/ Late to the party, but the new 12.3 inch screen and demo that is shown at the link makes it look nice. About time they got this portion of the auto on par to the rest of the tech industry.
  2. G. David Felt
    Be interesting to when I have time look at the past media reports from GM to compare 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 to get some sort of track on what the sales really are. Then compare to what the news is reporting.
  3. G. David Felt
    Cool, please share the site for the material, always looking for options as I agree Dynomat while very effective, is expensive.
  4. G. David Felt
    Seems even with the challanges of a cooling market, China still is growing for GM. 2019 report is out. https://media.gm.com/media/cn/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/cn/en/2020/Jan/0107_sales.html GM delivered 3.09 million auto's in China for 2019 with Cadillac having an all time high of 213,717 auto's sold followed by 850,007 Buicks sold, 418,000 Chevrolets sold, 608,269 Baujun sold and 1,003,611 Wulings sold the two chinese brands GM owns. For those that are not familier the Baujun brand is youth focused line of sub compact auto's. Wuling is their medium commercial line of auto sold.
  5. G. David Felt
    Right now just up on the blocks, ski season is my focus, so will start taking it apart this spring. Agree with you on the Dynomat. Planning to do the whole auto, so from the roof to the doors, fire wall, floor, etc. dynomat to remove the road noise. Wife and I have gotten to the point where on road trips, we do not want the tire, wind noise, etc. want a quiet relaxing drive. As I start taking it apart, I am planning on doing a thread on the project so folks can see what all I end up doing to it.
  6. G. David Felt
    Seems the Raptor has a competor from PaxPower as a 3rd party package for Chevrolet Dealers. 442 V8 power plant! https://www.motor1.com/news/395149/chevy-silverado-jackal-video/ Want to enter for a chance to win a Sharp looking C10 Pickup? Enter here. https://www.motor1.com/features/363506/win-custom-chevy-c10-truck/ Gotta love a good match up for a Drag Race, how about the Mustang GT500 versus Hellcat? https://www.motor1.com/news/395001/gt500-vs-hellcat-drag-race/
  7. G. David Felt
    For sports car fans, seems Mazda is not giving up on possibly bringing back a new updated Rotary sports car. Head of Mazda R&D says they are not stopping the idea of a new rotary sports car for select markets even with the drive by Mazda to go PHEV/EV. https://www.motor1.com/news/395292/2022-mazda-rx-7-rendering/ Who knows those that like sitting on the ground might get a new RX7 yet!
  8. G. David Felt
    How do you take a drivers enjoyable car with lack luster HP/Torque and make it a blast to drive? Convert it to Electric. Latest project is one that took a Toyota 86, a car well known for driving dynamics much like a Miata and removing the lack luster ICE powertrain and going Electric with one from a Nissan Leaf. Yes they say they could have gone straight 6 of LS V8, but in this case it was easier and more straight forward to change out to the Nissan Leaf EV powertrain. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31967/nissan-leaf-swapped-toyota-86-is-an-electric-torque-monster
  9. G. David Felt
    Seems the up coming refresh of the MB E-Class auto got leaked, nice looking but still the bland look of all MB Auto's IMHO. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31984/this-sure-looks-like-the-facelifted-20201-mercedes-benz-e-class WOW Ferrari dealership attempts to cover up crashing a consignment 458 and then pressures to sell it for less than expected. Ouch. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31983/ferrari-dealer-tried-to-cover-up-customers-240000-458-spider-crash-lawsuit Ice Ice Baby Mustange from Video is Back, restored and upgraded. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31980/ford-mustang-from-vanilla-ices-ice-ice-baby-is-back-after-four-year-restoration Latest Ford Bronco Spy Shots, Looking good! https://www.thedrive.com/news/31982/new-2021-ford-bronco-spy-shots-check-out-those-tires Have to say that the pictures show this to be a true Wrangler competitor with some of the Raptors bulging fenders. Liking what I see so far.
  10. G. David Felt
    EV News, Seems China Owned Karma is joining the ranks of everyone else with throwing their hat into the ring for a full size electric truck and suv. Concepts will be unveiled this coming fall of 2020 with production slated for fall of 2021. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-27/karma-fisker-s-reincarnation-plans-an-electric-truck-and-suv Looking to make a difference in PHEV Sales, Mitsubishi is bringing a much needed improvement to their Outlander PHEV with more power, longer battery life for pure electric drive mode doubling from the current 22 miles to almost 50 plus a much needed update interior and exterior. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/01/27/mitsubishi-outlander-phev-more-power/ Good News on the Battery front for EVs. In 2010 if you bought an EV, you paid an average price of $1,100 per Kilowatt Hour compared to at the end of 2019 the price had fallen to $156 per Kilowatt hour. 87% price drop in 9 years and expected for the 2023 model year of EVs the price will be at $100 per Kilowatt hour. Industry trends and goals is to get battery packs down to $61 per kilowatt hour by 2030 if not sooner. EVs are expected to be on price parity with ICE auto's by 2024. https://about.bnef.com/blog/battery-pack-prices-fall-as-market-ramps-up-with-market-average-at-156-kwh-in-2019/
  11. G. David Felt
    Cool Auto News Cadillac has added auto lane change to their Super-Cruise system. 2021 CT4, CT5 and Escalade will get it. Next week is the reveal of the 2021 Escalade in LA. Sadly the CT6 goes out of production this week according to GM. 1/3rd of CT6 sales had super cruise and 85% of those owners say they will only buy their next vehicle with super cruise. https://www.autonews.com/future-product/cadillac-adds-automated-lane-change-super-cruise GM's investment in Detroit Hamtrack is actually $3.5 billion of which $2.2 billion is part of their deal with the state on the Mega Tax Credit and they got increased flexibility on how they count the 45k plus workers that are covered by their 10 year mega tax break package. https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/gm-make-origin-d-ham-after-pickup
  12. G. David Felt
    400 miles was $30k half the price. I honestly thought the same thing when I originally priced it out over the holiday break, but then thought about this as just like @balthazar auto project that he has been working on for years, this will take me a few years too and the last thing to buy and install will be the battery pack. As such, I expect big changes to happen in the battery industry over the next 18 to 24 months and costs to come down considerably by the time I purchase the batteries. I am also going to update the interior with new carpet, insulation, etc. All things bulbs will be replaced with LEDs, so this is a long term project for me, I am excited to start.
  13. G. David Felt
    Seems the existing auto companies / parts suppliers have created a new auto alliance to work together for auto's of the future and reduce costs. https://www.autosinnovate.org/ Good read here is that this new alliance also allows them to focus and reduce costs of dealing with various governments around the globe. Some interesting info here to read, but one point was that 2018, most current year of reporting, $125 billion was spent on R&D globally. 5,000 patents were filed that year. https://www.autosinnovate.org/press-release/auto-industry-trade-associations-unite-forming-unified-voice-on-critical-auto-policy-issues-and-championing-innovation/ Karma is the latest auto company to join the alliance. https://www.autosinnovate.org/news/ Seems everyone feels the auto industry over the next 20 years is going to change not just revolutionary, but evolutionary. Hybrid/EV seems to be the focus point.
  14. G. David Felt
    Very true what @balthazar and @ccap41 are saying that those with skills, money and desire for the project will convert. Perfect example is me. I have my 1994 GMC SLE Suburban up on blocks now, planning to pull the ICE powertrain and convert to AWD electric. Love my suburban, love the space, want a nice fast quiet ride and with the space between the wheels underneath, it will fit enough SCRiB Toshiba Solid state batteries to give me an 800 mile charge. Using in-wheel hub motors with dual controllers will according to the manufacture in Detroit give me 800 hp and 4,000 lb ft of torque. Cost of the motors, wiring, controllers, etc. comes in at $12K. Battery pack is almost $60K. Yes, $72K or buy a new ICE Suburban. But the new ones I do not like as much as my old one and it is paid for, I have my SS and Escalade, so why not have a cool project for me to work on and the wife once Rivian and Ford have their EVs out will get a new auto. That is my plans and focus. I do have to find a buyer for the custom built 402 I have in the suburban with trans, diff's and customer chip controller. Love auto projects.
  15. G. David Felt
    Agree, the upgrades will come when 3rd party vendors build bigger EV motors and people take a Tesla S and put in a much larger EV motor.
  16. G. David Felt
    Yup full story here it was all mock up as a joke. https://insideevs.com/news/328334/tesla-model-s-fitted-with-chevrolet-ls3-v8-engine/ QUOTE: "The guys over at East Bay Muscle Cars haven’t given out much info about the build, and that’s because it was a joke all along." "EBMC was actually recruited by Draper University in San Mateo, California, to take a Tesla Model S shell and turn it into a reception desk. It came out awesome, nonetheless, but during the early stages of the build, the guys at the shop couldn’t help themselves and dropped an LS3 into the “frunk” of the Model S shell."
  17. G. David Felt
    Just finished searching YouTube and yup, all click bait, no complete or running Tesla S conversion to ICE. Clearly does not fit without major re-engineering. did find a few Skylines that had been converted to EV using Tesla Motors. Pretty cool.
  18. G. David Felt
    Consumable appliances
  19. G. David Felt
    @surreal1272 That is awesome, Congratulations for getting the updated system and phone capability. Life is way better this way.
  20. G. David Felt
    Betting with building the Ford / Lincoln models the prices come down even more. Gut tells me that Ford will want to get the price lower asap.
  21. G. David Felt
    Yes, another reason I like Rivian is truly US backed start up with no Chinese influence yet. One does have to wonder about Tesla and the affects China has had with him to push the building of cars there.
  22. G. David Felt
    Rivian had originally stated much higher starting prices that were in the high $70,000's, but at the San Fransico Road Show this last weekend RJ stated this: Company founder RJ Scaringe told Reuters in a chat that the electric R1T truck and its R1S SUV counterpart would cost less than originally announced. He didn't provide full pricing, but he indicated that a mid-range R1T with 300 miles of range and an electrochromic glass roof would sell for $69,000, while a comparable R1S would sell for $72,000. The automaker had pegged the starting prices for the R1T and R1S at $61,500 and $65,000 respectively. https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/26/rivian-ev-prices-lower-than-first-announced/
  23. G. David Felt
    Pretty much all the Hydro dams in my state, Washington have had their turbines running since installation. You are right that these old mega dams were built to last compared to newer stuff. I understand that oils, grease and petrochemicals go into building solar / wind generation equipment. If built right it should last a long time, but I also get that companies have looked for the cheapest way to build things. At least they do not require petro on going long term like a gas / coal power generation plant and motor along with no emissions once in production of electricity. Nothing is perfect, but some are better than others long term when you look at what it does. I have not looked but I suspect that emissions of a wind turbine other than when in production of the motor is significantly less than a Coal or Natural gas electric production system. Regardless of where the power comes from, we are in a new era of how auto's are looked at and powered and I honestly think we are back in that time of a major change that happened in the 1920's as plenty of auto companies came and went and we are there now again with the Hybrid / EV auto's. Sadly this also means billions spent and lost as many of these companies will get bought up or go bankrupt. What we have in the end will be interesting to see. One thing I know, we will never loose our trucks, after all regardless of sci-fi movies like A.I. where you saw all these electric auto's that were 1, 2 or 4 person, you never saw a truck. Yet we know we will always need trucks as constructions to basic hobbies will always require hauling and people will always have a need for the usefulness of a truck.
  24. G. David Felt
    I understand your point, I also believe as many do that the 80yr old truck was over engineered as we really did build things back then to truly last compared to many auto's in the last 40 years that I believe would never go the distance in lasting that long on mechanical linkage. I also agree that some of the electronics are built cheaply to wear out and generate repair revenue for the dealerships. There is plenty of evidence that TBW can be built to military grade spec and last way longer than people would think even in a war zone. Depends on if you want to pay or not.
  25. G. David Felt
    Gonna Say some states might be toxic using Coal, but BS on the inefficient, costly toxic renewable energy. That is NOT TRUE!
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