I am going to share a long-held secret. As long as I can remember one of the manifestations of my OCD has been to utter a phrase to myself in a soft whisper. I usually do this several times a week.
The phrase used to not really be connected to what was happening at that moment. That phrase was often a variation of “The 1958 Baltimore Colts.” Today’s Monday Musings “number” reminded me of that.
Of course, I was not alive in 1958, but that team is probably the most important one in the history of my former hometown. It was Baltimore’s first major sports championship of the 20th century as the city was without major league baseball from 1903 to 1953, inclusive. As for football, Baltimore had a team in the AAFC from 1947 to 1949 and that team was included in the NFL-AAFC merger, but only lasted one season before folding. A year before the St. Louis Browns relocated to Baltimore (1954), Baltimore rejoined the NFL.
In the last ten years, the phrase is more often related to what is happening in the moment–although not necessarily at that exact moment–and, as a result, has become far less benign and far more angry. I hope the move to the desert elevates my mood, at least a little bit, and perhaps the phrase can go back to being about the ’58 Colts.
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Either tomorrow or Wednesday will be the last day I post before we move. As photobyjohnbo has pointed out, I could write some posts that would automatically publish at times I select, but I think I’ll just use this time as an organic break. PLEASE don’t forget about Disaffected Musings. Barring a horrible turn of events, I will resume posting.
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This Corvette Blogger article from two weeks ago is titled, “What The Reveal Of The C8 Lineup Tells Us About The Future Of Corvette.” First, the “obligatory” photo from said post:
From the piece:
“The cadence of a modern Corvette product roll-out is like the beat of a familiar song for us faithful fans.”
“First, the base model breaks cover and its newness is leveraged for all its worth. Then, over the lifespan of the car, multiple trim levels debut creating lustful thoughts from existing owners who yearn to trade up to the latest version. A clever (and profitable) strategy by Chevrolet to maintain interest and sales over the lifespan of the car.”
“The trim level names include a familiar cast of characters. Stingray, Grand Sport, Z06 and ZR1 with the only deviations being where they are slotted in the performance hierarchy.”
“While the all-new C8 is going to continue this strategy, there’s a new twist that is rarely talked about in the open air. First, we told you about the electric hybrid E-Ray trim level that will not only replace the Grand Sport, but will introduce all-wheel drive and electric propulsion to the Corvette for the first time. Combined with the LT2 V8, the hybrid will be estimated at 600hp and will slot nicely between the base model and the 650hp, flat-plane crank DOHC V8 Z06.”
“A top-of-the-line Zora model will take the E-Ray a step further with 1000hp and nest at the top of the lineup. Motor Trend brings us a deeper dive of the new model mix, but if you read between the lines, the future of Corvette unfolds further. Based on this article, when the full C8 lineup blossoms, fully half of the lineup will have hybrid-electric power.”
I have offered the thought that the LT2, the current base motor for the C8, will be the last pushrod engine for the Corvette. The author of this piece, Dave Cruikshank, goes one step further. He believes that the next-generation Corvette, the C9, will offer only an all-electric drivetrain and not even a hybrid setup like the McLaren P1 or Ferrari LaFerrari. It is true that long ago and very quietly, Chevrolet/GM trademarked the name “E-Ray.”
I must admit a feeling of disappointment in reading Cruikshank’s opinion. I don’t know why a modern DOHC gasoline engine can’t be offered along with hybrid and all-electric drivetrains. Yes, having three drivetrains is expensive, and Chevrolet will want to amortize its non-ICE development costs over greater output so a DOHC engine could be an impediment. Still, I strongly believe that a significant segment of the car-buying public, especially in the US, will want to continue to buy ICE-powered vehicles for decades to come. Taking that option away could be a losing strategy for the Corvette. My 2¢.
I would like to read your thoughts.
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Disaffected Musings 
I’m pretty certain that sometime in the future, electrics will replace the ICE as the preferred power source for transportation, in much the same way as the ICE replaced the horse and buggy. It will take a while and by then I won’t have a dog in the fight as I’ll have long before become worm food. There will however need to be an advancement in battery technology first. Current range is fine for around town use, but long distance travel is out. Same for the long haul trucking industry. They would also have the penalty of carrying a large, and heavy, battery pack, resulting in shorter trips, with less load capacity. This will likely lead to increases in consumer cost. The one exception would be to increase the use of railways in place of long haul trucking. But being as trains are diesel electric, would you then have to convert the railways to a “3rd rail” system to eliminate diesel?
And then where does this electricity come from? Coal is being phased out for power generating, and natural gas is increasingly becoming the new “boogeyman”. Even with the proliferation of windmill farms thru out the midwest and west, they only generate a fraction of current usage. Same with solar plus it uses up increasingly valuable real estate. The last point would be the age and condition of our power grid. It’s old, barely maintained and should be completely updated or replaced.
Makes my head hurt to think about it. Maybe I’ll go fire one of my old heaps, and go burn some dinosaur bones.
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Good points all, sir. Change will happen, but not as quickly as the narrow-minded “zealots” want.
I am not that versed in solar power, but think that more efficient photo-voltaic technology could be at least a partial solution.
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” photo-voltaic technology could be at least a partial solution”
The cost/benefit just isn’t there yet for a homeowner system for the majority of us. It’s not just the cost of the panel,it’s the associated equipment. Solar is DC so you need batteries and an inverter to convert it to AC. The bigger the panels, the bigger these have to be. Near my business partners home in Florida there is an approx 100 acre “farm”, ran by the local electric company. There are 3 large “bunkers” where the batteries and inverters are. Each building has a large AC unit on it, due to the heat. Between ambient temp, and the heat generated by the inverters these were needed to keep the system from “melting down”. I have no ides how much of the power generated is used on these AC systems, but it’s not insubstantial.
I looked at adding some to my garages 6-7 years ago, as, a stand alone system. I would have been able to generate enough power to run the trickle chargers on my cars/bikes, run a few CFL or standard fluorescent lights (this was before LED lights became widely available) and charge the batteries on some cordless tools. Based on the rates my local EMC charges per KW hour (quite low), my “break even” would have been just short of 19 YEARS. An additional reason was that you had to account for cloudy/rainy days when there would be NO power being generated. And there was the certain likelihood that the panels and batteries themselves would need to be replaced long before that.
Not worth the investment for me at that time, and probably won’t be by the time I quit cheating the buzzards out of a meal.
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Thanks for sharing your knowledge, DDM. Your points explain why solar, as we currently know it, has not had greater adoption.
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Your new home location is a much better environment for solar. There are some huge solar arrays near the Phoenix area that do take up a ton of real estate… otherwise pretty useless real estate.
In years to come, I think much of Arizona’s deserts will be covered with solar arrays in a similar manner to how Washington state has built over 1100 dams on the rivers there to generate power and the great prairies are taking to wind generation.
Those old dinosaurs won’t stop contributing to our energy needs for a long time to come. Mr. McGee mentions the inefficiency of electric power plants for long-haul trucking. It will be even longer before airliners and cruise ships have any realistic alternative.
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Thanks for sharing the information, sir.
The cost of solar vs. traditional fuel really manifests itself in terms of providing a backup power system. A Generac Power Cell or Tesla Power Wall of sufficient capacity for our new home would literally cost about $50k. A generator that operates on natural gas might cost $12k, all in. I’m sorry, but I have no reason to spend four TIMES as much for solar. If the costs were similar, I would opt for solar.
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Cost per kilowatt is not there yet. I was tempted to take APS up on their installing a solar panel on the roof of our house at no cost. For my consideration, they would give me a $30/month credit on my electric bill. All maintenance would be on APS.
Given my current situation and the fact that I don’t run high loads in the summer there, I declined the offer. I don’t know if APS is still doing this or if it was an experiment they tried.
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