View Full Version : Don't Discount The Little Guy: Insight Guru Mike Dabrowski
Once again, a guy in his garage comes up with improvements that one of the biggest carmakers in the world couldn't (or wouldn't)...
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/insight_guru_flags_off_100mpg_car.php
Derwin
03-05-2008, 10:44 AM
Wow! What an article. I agree with you, RAN, why in the world can't a major automaker come up with things like this, when a guy can do it out of his garage! It just really don't make any sense at all. I would suggest, though, that that guy stop wearing that foil on his head. It makes him look like a UFO freak or something!
But the fact that he created a system to get 40mpg more on a car is incredible. And that he came up with something that causes the car to get around 180mpg is simply amazing.
I guess the "Big 3" just don't have the mindset to do anything dramatic for the people, or they are in the pockets of big oil..........Either way, it ain't good!
Derwin
As he says in the article:
He doesn't expect the automobile industry to embrace total electric cars because of the financial impact of retooling an entire industry and the impact on the repair and maintenance business (electric cars need less) and all the related industries that electric cars don't need.
So, once again, we can all just bend over so all these outmoded businesses can stay with the Status Quo and continue to bleed us dry.
rogwild
03-05-2008, 12:29 PM
I'll bet the old 'Buggy Whip' makers just 'cringed' at the smell of gasoline!
Yup rog, I was thinking the same thing, and I bet nobody else was crying cause they went out of business.
That "fifth wheel" idea might be a good idea for the V1. :IDEA:
Maybe?
Satt
That "fifth wheel" idea might be a good idea for the V1. :IDEA:
Maybe?
Satt
Sadly, there's no trunk to store it in. I'd like to hear more about that "fifth wheel"... he's not selling that one. I wonder why? It seems that the friction it would cause to power a generator would increase rolling resistance so much that it wouldn't be viable. If it doesn't, he may have really hit on something.
Lumberjack
03-05-2008, 05:26 PM
It would be patently impossible to generate more power from the fifth wheel then what would be lost due to friction.There is also the losses due to power conversion inefficiencies. Any claim otherwise is total BS...
Yeah, well scientists proved that bumblebees couldn't fly too. :-)
Derwin
03-05-2008, 07:04 PM
There are so many things in history where the "knowledgable" people decided that "it" was "impossible" and just would not work. We can see that these people have been wrong soooooo many times. I personally don't know anything about this, but I do know that it takes People thinking "OUT OF THE BOX" to produce new and fantastic things. Dobrowski seems to be one of these people. Who knows what can actually be done until real testing is done? I say dream BIG. Do the testing. Then we can come to our conclusions.
Derwin
Lumberjack
03-06-2008, 05:41 PM
No guys, its just the usual over unity claims. there is no free lunch and you cannot get more power out of any machine then what you put into it. Any claim to the contrary is a blatent violation of physics and pure BS. It is not out of box thinking, it is simply a matter of bad math. While he may be able to recover some energy, losses from bearing drag and generator efficiency all add up. The motor of the vehicle must power both the car and his invention. His invention must consume more power then he recovers. In the end the vehicle motor must generate more power to compensate then he can recover.... This type of claim crops up all the time and not one has ever been true. You cannot get more power out of a machine then you put into it. PERIOD.
Derwin
03-06-2008, 06:23 PM
I, along with many others, just like to dream big, and reach for what may seem to be "impossible" at the moment. Heck, we have no idea what kind of power can be produced by what is seemingly powerless. This is what scientific research is all about.
Sometimes its just nice to think about possiblities, and then discover ways on how we can achieve them. This makes life exciting, and the future hopeful.
Derwin
PHEVadvocate
03-06-2008, 07:23 PM
I see Mike Dabrowski every year at Hybridfest and I have listed to a talk about his MIMA system. I have talked to a couple of owners of his system too. Mike knows a lot about hybrids and how their systems work. He is a avid inventor too and has fun doing it! The funny hat is solar powered and has a built in fan.
A video about Mike's MIMA system is posted here (7 video's down):
http://www.hybridfest.com/PressRoom.htm
Mike's system just makes the car more efficient (No perpetual motion machine here). Mike is a avid hyper miler and gets some fantastic MPG out of his car. (I was a timer for the MPG Challenge at Hybridfest.)
His extra wheel system is interesting, here is a picture of his system I took back in 2006:
242
Mike can raise and lower the extra wheel on the car and drive the car at off-highway speeds without starting the Insight's engine. The Insight is a series hybrid and normally the engine needs to run to move the car.
Mike can raise and lower the extra wheel on the car and drive the car at off-highway speeds without starting the Insight's engine. The Insight is a series hybrid and normally the engine needs to run to move the car.
PHEV, thanks for replying! We had assumed that the 5th wheel was used to generate power, which really wasn't clicking for a couple of reasons, but it's actually a drive wheel, isn't it?
PHEVadvocate
03-08-2008, 12:36 PM
Yep, it is a drive wheel. I watched him zip around the hotel parking lot just using this drive wheel. At that time he had some extra yellow top batteries in his trunk with a boost converter supplementing the battery pack in the car. These batteries could be charged with a conventional charger giving him Plug-in Hybrid capability.
When I saw Mike last year he and Hobbit were working on modifications to make a Pries drive capable of higher electric speeds. They figured out they needed to weld the sun gears in place or add a clutch to the transmission. Seems the Toyota engineers beat them to it with the Toyota version of the Plug-in Prius now running around.
Leave it to stupid journalists to print inaccurate information...
Mr. Dabrowski also developed a fifth wheel — an electric wheel — that drops down from the car's trunk to generate electricity to run the car.
Mike's website, BTW, is http://www.99mpg.com/
I wonder what he'll do to tweak the new CRX hybrid?
PHEVadvocate
03-08-2008, 03:38 PM
Yea, I think that Hybrids and Plug-in Hybrids issues are just too complicated for some journalists to handle. =y:
I guess that is why company’s or people have to be careful who they talk to in the media. I could not believe that idiot in the USA Today that actually published “Plug-in cars could actually increase air pollution”. :confused:
It was astounding how many things he had to take out of context to support that headline! :mad:
Ian if you are out there please give an interview to somebody who is pro EV, pro PHEV, and understands the issues like Bill Moore of EV WORLD! =D
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.8 Copyright © 2012 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.