Vettribution87

I have been reading a book called "Surviving Transformation: Lessons from GM's Surprising Turnaround” (Vincent P. Barabba) and the Chevrolet Volt was mentioned several times along with earlier electric and/or fuel cells projects.As far as I know, the intent behind the Volt is not to be the first one to bring a plug-in hybrid and/or fuel-cell electric car to the market, but to be the first to bring out one that is truly overwhelmingly successful. (I.e: To be the one to expand the electric car market outside of just keen environmentalists and novelty car buyers.) It seems as though GM aiming to make the Volt a kind of 21st century equivalent to Ford’s Model T in so far as to successfully mass-produce and market a technology that was for many years considered too expensive and/or impractical. If this IS the intent of the Volt, then I would not be surprised to see others beat GM to the table. However, if GM does manage to make a viable Lithium-Ion battery, they will have a huge advantage over those who rushed in before them using the considerable more expensive Nickel-Hydride type.

I think it was a really bad idea to sell Daewoo’s in Europe re-badged as Chevrolets. If Europeans didn’t think much of Chevrolet before, selling cheap Korean cars under the name is really going to lower it to depths unrecoverable. Even though the Corvette is sold as an independent brand over there, it is still possible that some might learn the Corvette – Chevrolet connection, and this would be very bad thing if their opinion of Chevrolet were the same as ours for Daewoo (ie Cheap runabouts.)

I always believed that forging was stronger because you essentially have a greater density of molecules for a given item then with casting. Casting (as far as I know) is melting the metal to a fluid state and pouring it into a mould to create a part. Forging is more like heating the metal to a soft but still solid state and squishing it into a desirable shape by pressing it into a mould. The down side to forging would be increased mass, which may need to be taken into account when making a part that rotates at great speed. Another example of forging is in the development of swords used by Japanese Samurai of previous centuries. These swords were impeccably strong because the blacksmith that made them would have got a fairly large piece of metal and heated it to a soft, malleable state, before folding it inward to create a cutting edge. The blacksmith would continue the cycle of heat & fold hundreds of times over a period of 6 months. After this, the sword produced would have a virtually un-dullable cutting blade that would seldom break.