Volt's maiden voyage
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:36 pm
To the beer store, of course. After really driving it hard on the way home (and almost making it on just battery all the way from Salem, over 50 mi), I plugged it in here. Sadly, I didn't have even one full sun day, so I didn't get it all the way up - 21 miles indicated out of 36 or so. But I couldn't resist, so I took it for a spin to the general store. Here's some vids I took along the way there and back. I didn't just run the camera the whole time - that thing makes huge videos that would take till next week to upload, and so far, compressing a long one to decent size with the tools I have makes them fairly crappy and not worth it that way either. I'm learning kdenlive editing but it's a slow slog.
http://youtu.be/NLLEKmTLkfI
I skipped some boring stuff here. After about 2 miles on the next road, I go downhill for a long time. Just taking your foot off the gas makes it regenerative brake, and shifting it to "low" makes that severe. That hill is somewhere between where it's happy in either mode, so I switched back and forth, and by the time I got to the bottom, I'd recovered everything it took to get to that point.
http://youtu.be/VpsbY6hrQts
Testing the cruise control. This one works a little differently, and IMO, bettter than most. It will let you lose a couple mph, then really kicks in, but with little overshoot. The funny thing I noticed is that this most often happens and applies serious power right at the apex of a turn, just like a real driver would do when running and gunning. Neat!
http://youtu.be/aAKWgFJ2zFc
And, the stereo kicks - the camera doesn't do it justice of course - particularly that bottom octave of bass.
Now out onto the flat plains, where I find other people going too slow for me.
http://youtu.be/Sdwhn2y_Fac
At the general store with plenty charge left. But we lost almost 1000ft altitude along the way, the drive home is another story.
Like any snazzy looking new car, it got some attention and people wanting to sit in the driver's seat. I let them, it's fun.
But I didn't take their pictures - not polite around here.
http://youtu.be/ewPAFEmiJ_Y
Checking out the regeneration and cruise control.
http://youtu.be/oWzWyWysWEw
The final hill from hell - transfer to engine mode, so I hammer it - why not? It's just as quick on battery only, but then your battery range is lessened. This thing is astonishingly good power-weight all things considered. I'm going to have to set up a drag with this and the turbo Cruze to see. Subjectively the Cruze might win, maybe, but maybe that's because it *feels* faster with that stiffer ride, and is making all kinds of winding and howling noises when you hammer it. I've never hit that turn at 60 before in the Cruze, but it would probably have been eeking the tires.
http://youtu.be/flZQ_5mpm3k
Rear view camera. It also has ultrasonic oops detectors at all four corners, and the warning beeps come out of the corresponding stereo speaker corner. Sounds cool, but if you're in a really tight place, all 4 can go at once.
http://youtu.be/tIJjhVyxFAU
And, the data at the end of the drive:
http://youtu.be/stFwRenKPYU
Apparently it doesn't reset the data for a charge unless you fully charge it, so this data is for the drive home from the dealer as well as this trip (on the center console). The data for just this trip is in the "speedo" which GM calls a DIC (pardon my french).
I knew this had plenty of horsepower after climing a couple k foot hills on the ride home - passing everyone, even the other speeders. But I'd not had the opportunity to just hammer it from low-mid speed before this trip, and that was one heck of a surprise. No turbo lag, just blam, back into the seat and hang on. It seems to handle better than the Cruze - all the weight here is at or below axle center, so you're not going to roll this thing no matter what. It holds quite level in hard turns to the point (I'm guessing, but I'm sure I got real close) the tires are going to give up.
If this doesn't degrade too rapidly, I'm going to declare myself 100% satisfied and very pleasantly surprised. That drive around traffic near the dealership didn't tell me all this thing had by quite a bit.
Did I mention the stereo kicks, and it attracts nice looking women? So the only thing the Camaro has over it is about .4g on the skidpad and some raw power. This is actually more fun to drive most of the time, and you can see where you're going. The backup camera is outstanding, but it's going to take some getting used to - my driveway is a 30 degree grade, surrounded by sheer drop-offs, with a sharp turn in the middle with a tree on either side, and I tend to back in. For now, the mirrors and the old head out the window, mostly!
I'll report more later. It will be interesting to see how well I can solar-charge this at what is my worst season - Fall. In fall, we already have the short (and cloudy) days, but the freezer still runs and draws power, worst case for a solar system.
http://youtu.be/NLLEKmTLkfI
I skipped some boring stuff here. After about 2 miles on the next road, I go downhill for a long time. Just taking your foot off the gas makes it regenerative brake, and shifting it to "low" makes that severe. That hill is somewhere between where it's happy in either mode, so I switched back and forth, and by the time I got to the bottom, I'd recovered everything it took to get to that point.
http://youtu.be/VpsbY6hrQts
Testing the cruise control. This one works a little differently, and IMO, bettter than most. It will let you lose a couple mph, then really kicks in, but with little overshoot. The funny thing I noticed is that this most often happens and applies serious power right at the apex of a turn, just like a real driver would do when running and gunning. Neat!
http://youtu.be/aAKWgFJ2zFc
And, the stereo kicks - the camera doesn't do it justice of course - particularly that bottom octave of bass.
Now out onto the flat plains, where I find other people going too slow for me.
http://youtu.be/Sdwhn2y_Fac
At the general store with plenty charge left. But we lost almost 1000ft altitude along the way, the drive home is another story.
Like any snazzy looking new car, it got some attention and people wanting to sit in the driver's seat. I let them, it's fun.
But I didn't take their pictures - not polite around here.
http://youtu.be/ewPAFEmiJ_Y
Checking out the regeneration and cruise control.
http://youtu.be/oWzWyWysWEw
The final hill from hell - transfer to engine mode, so I hammer it - why not? It's just as quick on battery only, but then your battery range is lessened. This thing is astonishingly good power-weight all things considered. I'm going to have to set up a drag with this and the turbo Cruze to see. Subjectively the Cruze might win, maybe, but maybe that's because it *feels* faster with that stiffer ride, and is making all kinds of winding and howling noises when you hammer it. I've never hit that turn at 60 before in the Cruze, but it would probably have been eeking the tires.
http://youtu.be/flZQ_5mpm3k
Rear view camera. It also has ultrasonic oops detectors at all four corners, and the warning beeps come out of the corresponding stereo speaker corner. Sounds cool, but if you're in a really tight place, all 4 can go at once.
http://youtu.be/tIJjhVyxFAU
And, the data at the end of the drive:
http://youtu.be/stFwRenKPYU
Apparently it doesn't reset the data for a charge unless you fully charge it, so this data is for the drive home from the dealer as well as this trip (on the center console). The data for just this trip is in the "speedo" which GM calls a DIC (pardon my french).
I knew this had plenty of horsepower after climing a couple k foot hills on the ride home - passing everyone, even the other speeders. But I'd not had the opportunity to just hammer it from low-mid speed before this trip, and that was one heck of a surprise. No turbo lag, just blam, back into the seat and hang on. It seems to handle better than the Cruze - all the weight here is at or below axle center, so you're not going to roll this thing no matter what. It holds quite level in hard turns to the point (I'm guessing, but I'm sure I got real close) the tires are going to give up.
If this doesn't degrade too rapidly, I'm going to declare myself 100% satisfied and very pleasantly surprised. That drive around traffic near the dealership didn't tell me all this thing had by quite a bit.
Did I mention the stereo kicks, and it attracts nice looking women? So the only thing the Camaro has over it is about .4g on the skidpad and some raw power. This is actually more fun to drive most of the time, and you can see where you're going. The backup camera is outstanding, but it's going to take some getting used to - my driveway is a 30 degree grade, surrounded by sheer drop-offs, with a sharp turn in the middle with a tree on either side, and I tend to back in. For now, the mirrors and the old head out the window, mostly!
I'll report more later. It will be interesting to see how well I can solar-charge this at what is my worst season - Fall. In fall, we already have the short (and cloudy) days, but the freezer still runs and draws power, worst case for a solar system.