Chevrolet Volt: Quick Drive

I recently was invited to a Chevrolet event at the State Fair of Texas to drive the new Chevy Volt. Chevrolet has a winner on their hands with the Volt, as it lives up to all the recent hype. I only got a few laps around the small test track, but the Volt had great road manners…at our low speeds anyway. All that instantaneous electric motor torque gives it surprising acceleration too!

The idea of this vehicle is genius really. Everyone and their dog seem to be building hybrids and “no emissions” electric vehicles these days. Someone at GM decided to go a step further and mesh the best of both those worlds. The Volt, to quickly summarize, is solely an electric-driven car with a generator (engine) to provide power to the batteries once battery power is drained. I won’t go on with the seriously technical details, but make sure to check out http://www.chevroletvolt.com.

For most people seriously concerned with the environment and/or just saving some cash on fuel, the Volt is a great progression of automotive technology in this day and age. It has a 40 mile range solely on battery power before the “range-extender” generator kicks in to power the batteries, which will keep you on the road for about 300 miles. This means you can take a cross-country trip, which is not easily done (or even possible) in most electric cars. Once the Volt hits the market, the Prius better watch it’s mirrors. The Volt will catch up fast…in more ways than one.

Check out the photo gallery by clicking on one of the below images!

Thanks – Donna McLallan at GM for the opportunity to drive the Volt! And John Stack, one of the Volt fuel system engineers, for some great technical explanations. It was truly an honor and a pleasure talking with you.

New Gallery: Cars and Coffee 2010

Take a look at the various cars I’ve seen throughout 2010 at the Dallas Cars & Coffee meets. Click an image for the full gallery.

New Galleries: Hampton 1 year & 18mos

I’m a little late getting these posted, but here you go. Click a picture for the full galleries.

Hampton turns one:

18 Month old gallery:

Dustball Rally 1500: The Experience

First off, I think a quick description of the Dustball Rally event is in order. The 2010 Dustball Rally, in its fifth iteration, is a 1500 mile event. The 1500 miles are covered over three days…two 750 mile driving days with a party rest day in the middle. A great part of Dustball is it being a gimmick rally. A gimmick rally is basically a road rally where the object is to find answers to clues, which sometimes even direct you along the appropriate route. The gimmick portion, while being a lot of fun, serves a bit to keep the speeds in check. To describe the Dustball Rally best, it is a cross between the Cannonball Run movie and a scavenger hunt.

Some more background might be in order too. A little over a year ago, I had never heard of the Dustball Rally. I helped a friend, of Team Hall & Nass fame, apply the Dustball decals to their Corvette prior to the rally. That day I was hooked. His experience last year brought about the genius idea of purposely running in a pack of cars this year, all with a method to communicate while on the road. So that’s what we did. Team Hall & Nass labeled us the Hamthrax Avoidance Alliance. Our mascot…Pirate Pig.

Continue Reading…