It smells like a scam.. It just may be! The HoJo Motor??

[gus]

As P. T. used to say, there's one born every minute!!

[artvonne]

  My Mom taught me that nothing is impossible, that if it seems impossible, its just that we havnt figured out a way to do it. So I always hold out hope that some day some breakthrough in Science could lead to some of the more fascinating ideas that never seemed to work.

  People did a lot of work on perpetual motion decades ago. Its not a new concept. In its simplest form, an electric motor drives a generator, then, when its up to speed, with the flip of a switch you connect the generator output to the motor, hoping the generator produces enough energy to drive the motor, which in turn would power the generator.

  The best I ever heard they could do was get one to ever so slowly slow down. It could not make enough energy to even power itself, forget taking anything out of it as excess. The problem is energy loss and conversion losses. They tried putting it in a vacuum, air bearings, etc., nothing worked. Some of the best hope came with the discovery of superconductors at cryogenic temperatures, but to my knowledge it simply hasnt shown any fruit. And if it wont work in a laboratory with $$$$$$$ pumped into it, its a pretty sure bet none of us yo-yo's are going to make one work out in our garage built with parts from the hardware store.

  If anyone truly got one to work, and showed it in public, it would be the biggest discovery of mankind since the invention of the wheel, and would likely surpass in importance, at least for the common man, of Science one day sustaining a Fusion reaction within a magnetic field.

[kyle4501]

There ain't no such a thing as a free lunch. Somebody had to pay for it.

[thejumpsuitman]

I just found out that alchemy is real, but it takes a perpetual motion machine to begin the process...  Rats!

[chev49]

mopping up? That's what the storm drains are for...

[artvonne]

As P. T. used to say, there's one born every minute!!

  That was true in the 1930's. But the increased progeny, combined with period decay and the time shift due to the millenium falcon, its now down to 22.7 seconds

[gus]

The biggest discovery of humankind is the microwave oven!!

[Lin]

That's a scam, Gus.  Those things don't really work.

[Van]

Hey Van, i will sell you the Golden Gate bridge for only $10,000......much closer to home for you guys, you could visit it often!   Or if you want a Dam instead, i happen to have one right in your hometown.....call for pricing.

SOLD! Anyone for a dam' Rally?

[Alan Baker]

too bad Steve Jobs passed on. If he had put his mind to it we would have some economic reliable engines

Alan Baker
84 Eagle 10

[Iceni John]

too bad Steve Jobs passed on. If he had put his mind to it we would have some economic reliable engines

We do.   They're called diesels!   Seriously though, when several European cars are getting 80 MPG (only 3 liters per 100 KM!), with real-world economy well over 60 MPG, it makes me wonder why hybrids are so popular here.   Of course, the oil companies wouldn't have anything to do with it, oh no, silly me to even think that . . .

Do you remember Top Gear driving a big Audi A8 diesel from London to Edinburgh, and back, on one tank?   That's 800 miles!   Or a twin-turbo diesel big Jaguar from Switzerland to northern England, all the way through France, driven fast by lead-footed Clarkson who wasn't even attempting to drive economically, again on one tank?   Or a diesel Land Rover going from London to Italy on one tank?   That's what modern diesels can do.   We don't need to come up with Walter Mitty flights of fancy  -  the technology's already out there.

John

[Oonrahnjay]

too bad Steve Jobs passed on. If he had put his mind to it we would have some economic reliable engines

We do.   They're called diesels!   Seriously though, when several European cars are getting 80 MPG (only 3 liters per 100 KM!), with real-world economy well over 60 MPG, it makes me wonder why hybrids are so popular here.  

    I think that a lot of us drive MD diesels and VW TDI's.  I recently rolled over 250K miles in 9 years on my TDI; my overall fuel economy average was very close to 55 MPG; I regularly get around 60 MPG on highway trips and have a number of trip over 60.  Diesels are heavily discriminated against by California and EPA emissions requirements.

[RnMAdventures]

My brother had a 1980 VW Rabbit Pickup that got 50 mpg. It didn't have AC and it topped out about 60 MPH, but it was a money saver and it could haul stuff. I wouldn't mind having one today.

[kyle4501]

I learned to drive in a '78 Datsun B210 4 speed. Would get 40 mpg with a/c on. That car sure took a lickin with 4 of us learning to drive on it. & I taught a bunch of friends how to drive a stick in it too.
I doubt it would pass today's emissions tho . . .

[Nusa]

My brother had a 1980 VW Rabbit Pickup that got 50 mpg. It didn't have AC and it topped out about 60 MPH, but it was a money saver and it could haul stuff. I wouldn't mind having one today.

Those things were only for short people. I test-drove one of those at an auto auction way back then, and I felt shoe-horned into the drivers seat. And I'm only 5'11". I ended up with a Datsun Pickup that I drove for years. One of my cousins still has it sitting in his barn.