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Old 02-24-2011, 09:23 PM   #46
helmet to helmet hitter
footstepsfrom#27's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 16,143

Joe Mays

This thread is a good example of why text driven discussion forums usually deteriorate into mindless arguments over nothing. First off, I didnt' say the sail was the fact I posted both a pix and a Youtube video of this damn thing from the start which makes it obvious how it works and it obviously doesn't show a flying windmill. Nobody who watches the video would think it did.

The point I was trying to make, albeit not well I suppose, was that this thing carries a portable turbine so you can crank the battery without plugging into the power grid...I see now I also used the word "tow" so I probably had the kite on the brain and yeah that's probably a poor choice of words but like I said in the beginning, the original story says the turbine is carried on board the car between the two seats...carried, towed, transported...whatever. The point is it carries it's own power generation system. I don't think it actually states whether it can be used while the vehicle is moving but I drew that conclusion by virtue of the fact that it doesn't have to use the turbine's energy while it's moving. Since the kite is capable of moving the car by wind power alone, it seems apparent that the portable turbine could theoretically be used to charge the battery at the same time, assuming it doesn't flip the thing over. That seems like a very problematic issue, a 20 foot pop up turbine rising from a lightweight vehicle might easily cause it to capsize. But yeah, it's probably only used when the car's motionless...I don't know or care because that really has nothing to do with the point.

The point to this story (and what's alot more significant than how I wound up wording a single post) is the fact that two dudes managed to drive what looks like a glorified go-cart 3100 miles across freaking Australia without using a drop of gas. I said this has nothing to do with where you live because obviously nowhere in this entire story is there the slightest indication that the two guys who invented this thing had any intention of marketing this as some kind of practical car you can drive around town in, yet most of the posts are arguing the impracticality of this. No kidding really? A car pulled by a huge kite isn't gonne make it on the freeway or let you take the kids to soccer practice? Duh...who said it would? It's not about that. Cripes even the headline tells the story; it's about two adventurous sorts who trekked across Australia in this contraption. I'm guessing they chose Australia since it's probably the only place they could have driven that distance without encountering insurmountable obstacles like cities and traffic, power lines, etc..

The story has nothing to do with a marketable vehicle, and it's a complete head scratcher that anyone thought so. It's a human interest thing, nothing more, and the story as well as the video make that clear. But instead this got turned upside down and made into "footsteps is a prick" and "footsteps thinks it's powered by a flying windmill". Whatever...I just decided to point out that the story itself has the answers so why not read it? Or in this case, why not watch the video? I can't imagine anyone watching the video of this thing and coming away with the impression that this is meant to go in your garage, yet people came away thinking exactly that. Why...I have no idea beyond what I've said before....people don't freaking read **** before they post.
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