To Volt or Not to Volt?

Been thinking about electric cars (and hybrids) lately.

First, a note about Solar Power. Here in very sunny Southern California - I never forget that the day I moved here, January 6th, the temperature was 86F - it would seem that solar panels, coupled with a yummy electric hot tub, and an electric car and/or bike, would be the obvious way to go.  But when I looked into it, I found that in the Golden State of the Land of The Free, there's a "law(!)" to say that you may not install more solar electric capacity than you currently use under the old, corporate, polluting generating system!

Who the hell comes up with these obviously insane, unjust, counter-productive regulations? I'm free to buy as many as I want of almost everything (including lethal weapons), but not solar panels?  Huh?

(This image is from an excellent political blog called Prose before Hos; checkitout!)

I've been saying for a while, that we will start being interested in electric vehicles, when they start beating gas-powered vehicles in races.  Well, the time has come, folks.

As one website puts it:

"Nearly every year since 1916, over 100 of the most talented, most heroic, and most bat-shit-insane drivers and riders descend on the base of Pikes Peak outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The goal: make it up the 12.42-mile, 4,720-foot ascent on either two wheels or four – all without flying off one of the 156 gut-punishing turns.

It's Germany's Nürburgring draped on a Colorado mountain nearly three miles above sea level. And it's one of the most phenomenal motorsports events in the world.

For the second year in a row, electric racers and juiced-up motorcycles are joining their fuel-burning counterparts to stake a claim as the fastest machines to Race to the Clouds. And because oxygen starvation isn't an issue for EVs, this could be the year that electrics begin to dominate the mountain."

One of those voltage-driven loonies is Carlin Dunne from Santa Barbara, seen here displaying his chest with a group of admirers (not displaying their chests, for that see our Literary section):

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  Here he is not-roaring up the switchback at speeds of up to 150mph:  

  
  

  

  
  

  There's excellent coverage of the event at Wired.com here.

  
  

  Quote:  "Lightning Motorcycles and racer Carlin Dunne dominated at this weekend’s Pikes Peak hill climb. The team beat out the entirety of the two-wheeled field, marking the first time an electric vehicle has won over its gas-powered counterparts at Pikes Peak"

  
  

  For a more sober, scientific reflection on the experience of owning a Plug-in vehicle, see here: