2009 NAIAS-Detroit

[gizzy]

Last night I went to the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit with my kids. It's been around for 103 annual shows.

I started going when I was 8 years old...so I have been there a few times as a family tradition. My son loves the show, and there are always a lot of new car introductions and concept cars in the Motor City.

This was the first year that I noticed no Ferrari's on display. A few other automakers such as Nissan, Porsche, and Suzuki were also no shows.

The strongest displays were Ford, Lincoln, Cadillac, VW, Mercedes, Lotus, and BMW. Some cool all electric cars from Fiskar, and Tesla. There was an engineering expert from Tesla who answered all my technical questions. A very unusual older concept car from Alfa Romeo was also hard to miss.

I was able to ride in a hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicle from GM. Good stuff. The pressure tanks can now withstand 10,000 PSI...a milestone for this technology.

Is it possible that H powered electric F1 cars are in the future? They make no sound, but have lots of torque. I don't know if I could accept a race with silent cars. That would be very strange.

-Giz

[foxy]

Jan 21, 2009 2:27:04 GMT gizzy said:

I was able to ride in a hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicle from GM. Good stuff. The pressure tanks can now withstand 10,000 PSI...a milestone for this technology.

Is it possible that H powered electric F1 cars are in the future? They make no sound, but have lots of torque. I don't know if I could accept a race with silent cars. That would be very strange.

I am so excited about hydrogen-powered cars. They seem to be the perfect post-gasolene car

Top Gear test drove Honda's fuel-cell car, the FCX Clarity

here's the vid

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4AUurBnLbJw

[gizzy]

Foxy-
I think there is a future for these types of vehicles. Part of the problem is...where do I fill up?

There are only 3 places around here to refill. One downtown, and the other two are not accessable for normal people. They are at the GM and Ford Proving Grounds/Technology Center/Test Track. Those are only available for a few of the tech guys who are experimenting with this stuff...not the general public.

We need to have a bunch of fueling stations before this is a viable technology. The tech dude I spoke with who has put 1/2 million miles on them says 2015 we will see it on the street.

I likey the new advanced engineering stuff. This guy says it will even be easy for grandma to fill up. No worries with the high pressure fill up procedure...they have it worked out.
-giz

[gizzy]

I'm going to test if this site can handle a bunch of piccy's from this show.

[gizzy]

Some more:

[foxy]

wow nice pics Gizz - which is the fuel-cell car?

[gizzy]

Foxy,
I didn't get a pic of the fuel cell car...It looked like a standard GM mid size SUV. I only took pics of cool looking designs.
-giz