Not really new "news" but an interesting web article: "Last May, Caltech Archivist Judith Goodstein interviewed Victor Wouk in New York. In that oral history, he described, among other things (including his grad school days at Caltech), the hybrid car he built in the early ’70s, a quarter of a century before hybrids finally rolled onto American roads. " http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/ar...XVII3/wouk.html
Wow, quite the conspiracy! Can't believe there existed a Buick Skylark hybrid. Ugly car, but with some pretty good tech under the hood (at the time), from the sounds of the article. If only GM had the foresight then...they'd be ruling the empire instead of swirling in the crapper. Any idea how the system worked in 1975? Great read, thanks for the link.
What a great article! Thank you for the pointer to it. And to think: a Buick Skylark hybrid with a Wankel Rotary engine! I'd never believe it in a million years if I hadn't read about it here. (Wish they could find the car -- they should put it in the Smithsonian.) And talk about a What If scenario -- if only this EPA guy had been less resistant, hybrids might have become popular much earlier. I'm old enough to remember the discussions of electric cars, as solutions to air pollution and (later) gas shortages. Hybrids were never mentioned -- but if they had been, there would have been a lot of interest. Though without the sort of computer power splitter that the HSD has -- which requires a lot of computer control -- I'm not sure when the technology would have been available to really get them going. Maybe we would have had "mild" hybrids (i.e., Honda's design) much earlier: electric assists on acceleration, engine shuts off at stops.
hybrids back then probably wouldnt have been as good because of the lack of computer power, but where would we be now if we had 25+ years of experience?? that much time would allow us to have made plenty of mistakes and still be light years ahead of where we are now which is still essentially within sight of the starting line
