Tesla roadster: 8.8 1/4 from the factory.

if it won't cause fluid to pour out of my eye sockets from the exhaust fumes I don't want anything to do with it. at least my **** will start and run when the power grids start going down

And since you refine your own fuel, you'll be set!!! Because all those big refineries need the power grid too, so, only people like you that can obviously refine your own will be moving after a few months of the refineries being down.

Of course, if you have well thought out home solar, even if the grid goes down, you'd still have power to charge your electric car. Maybe not all the time, but you'd probably do better than waiting in the long *** lines for fuel that would develop in a long term grid issue. Just look at Puerto Rico, they still have fuel distribution problems to go along with their grid issues.

You won't....

Yeah you will. And soon. Battery technology is improving every day. In the next decade you'll see land speed records fall left and right to electric vehicles.

Whenever 'new competition' enters the playingfield, people usually will first ignore it... then ridicule it... then fight it... before they get their *** handed over by it..
I'm wondering if some are still at the 'Ridicule state' or have progressed to the 'Fight it' state already.

IMO, 'all it takes' is one nice breakthrough in the generation of electric power. I think it won't be long before something like that will happen.
I'm also seeing a future (25-50years) where power will be no issue anymore. Pretty much everyone will have the ability to create (electric) power at will from some (portable) store bought/homemade device that is able to efficiently generate/convert an X-amount of electric power from local present things like motion, gravity, wind, heat, sunlight, or all combined.

Now until that time, I want to hear a V8-engine as daily motivation in my cars.

Exactly. People with horses and buggies laughed their asses off when cars started showing up. They they tried to keep them off the roads because they were scaring their horses. And then everyone had a car.

What's interesting in all this is the workers with skillset X and what good will it be to them in 25 years in relation to transportation.... Advancement in technology always breeds new careers but it sure does knock a whole bunch of them down. That's the scary part. Where would the USA specifically be today without the 4 stroke engine in terms of everything as a whole and what is gained and lost by technology such as electric vehicles?

My discipline for making a house payment or 2 is the Graphic Arts industry and it has become extremely automated in the last 20 years. That's all you are really doing with electric cars. Automation. Eventually as time goes on steering wheel companies will be out of business lol..... I hope to not be around for the next big "leap" in all this.....

JW

Unless you're planning on checking out in the next 10 years or less, you'll be around. Yes, the US jumped into and redefined the entire automotive industry, as well as a few others. And that boom fueled the growth of the US, even though really we were initially behind the curve a bit on automotive innovation until Henry Ford blew everyone out of the water. Yes, there will be a big shift in industry, and some of those that don't/can't retrain will have a hard go of things. That's already true in the auto industry, you need a 1/4 of the assembly line workers to run a factory now compared to a couple decades ago. Automation, CNC, etc has already shrunk that job market significantly.

If we were smart, we would be embracing this new technology and pushing it so that we would be driving the next technological revolution as well- electric vehicles, battery technology, solar, wind, etc for power generation. Instead we're marching backward, trying to prop up already near dead industries (coal), and pulling out of funding the kind of technological advancement that will keep up positioned going forward. If we can't move forward, we'll ride the old tech right into economic futility and surrender our place in the world market to the countries that are moving with the technology.

Yeah it's a drag to start to move away from the things that had such a big influence on the development of this country, but if we don't, and we hang onto all that nostalgia without moving forward too, we will get left behind.

All the above is interesting reading. So here's the question, assuming the electric dragster actually appears, what class would it run? Couldn't be top fuel because it has no fuel. The splendor of the burn out, going up in smoke, big bangers, starting line wrenching, it'd all be gone. No nitro smell, no eyes watering, no noise, all gone. Who in their right mind would pay to see that?

If you read the article I posted on the Aussie EV dragster, they're planning on letting that one run right alongside the top fuel cars over there. As for the rest of it, there will still be "wrenching", but it's gonna look a lot different. You'll need electrical engineers and computer programmers instead of grease monkeys. That might fit the upcoming generations skill set better anyway. Tires will still get smoked, and components will still get changed between races. Yeah, the noise will be gone. But the speed will not.

Who would pay to see it? Dunno, but someone had better figure it out. The Isle of Man motorcycle races already have an EV class, in the first year (2010) most of the entrants didn't even finish. Now the fastest lap for those bikes is 119.3 mph, and unlike the first few years most of the bikes are finishing the race with power to spare. The "whir" of those machines is a little anti-climatic compared to the roar of the super bikes, but they're not much slower anymore. The fastest lap average for the super bikes there is 132.7 mph. In the next few years they'll get even faster, as some of the major manufacturers are starting to take notice and put money in.

I have zero experience in regards to electric/hybrid cars. Its going to stay that way.
There was a little training for the ford hybrids,setting up pylons,the high voltage gloves and an insulated sheperd’s hook for the technician in the next bay. That did it for me.
So when the market changes to where these things are everywhere,and the boys start playin with the inner workings,and a few kill themselves then what?
these wont make good tuner cars but they are gonna try.

How do emergency responders deal with these things after a crash?a whole lot of training and equipment, like they dont have enough already.

Fuel burners are going to be around as long as they keep making fuel.

Fast? Who cares.
Who doesent watch races anticipating an engine failure?
It happens and some are quite spectacular.
Electrics? Puff of toxic smoke.

Training is the key and the issue. Like any new technology, if you want to be a part of it you have to learn it. Will kids electrocute themselves hot-rodding EV's? Probably, but how many people have crushed themselves under some old car? It's not like wrenching, but again if we're smart and we're teaching this new tech to the up and coming generations they could be rewinding electric motors like we changed out cams. It's just different.

As for emergency responders, we get more training. It's been going on for years, and as an emergency responder myself that has to take some of those classes it's a lot of info to keep straight. But you know what? It's always been like that. Auto-extrication has been evolving for a long time. Everytime some new crazy alloy comes out it renders our old cutting tools obsolete. Airbags and seat rewinders are like bombs if you cut into them, they're everywhere now. The electric vehicles aren't much harder than a new luxury car, typically all the high voltage stuff is very well marked (bright orange) and usually it's run on the floor and rockers. Yes, it's another thing to know, but we deal with that the same way we dealt with everything else, more training, updated equipment, etc. Adapt and overcome.