Total Wheelspin

by Tony Davis

Overview

TOTAL WHEELSPIN is a boot full of obscure facts, bizarre anecdotes and vehicular folly that will have car lovers laughing out loud. A follow up to the bestselling LEMON, EXTRA LEMON and TOTAL LEMONS by the very funny Tony Davis.
tOtAL WHEELSPIN should come with a caution: READING tHIS IS ADDICtIVE. Whether debating the pros and cons of the chosen transport of superheroes, musing on why people (well, men) hang their arms out the car window, revealing the third-bestselling car of all time, or comparing the school run to taking on Vettel and Alonso in the Formula One Grand Prix, each part is so compelling you simply will not be able to stop turning the pages until you reach the end. And you will not be able to stop yourself laughing out loud at the obscure facts, bizarre anecdotes, and vehicular follies of the motoring world as seen through the eyes of the very funny tony Davis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781460701690
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/01/2013
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Tony Davis is a Sydney-based author, journalist, academic and motor racing enthusiast. He has written more than a dozen books, including The Big Dry (a novel shortlisted in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards), Roland Wright (a children's series published in the US and Germany), the bestselling Lemon! books about the worst cars ever made, and Wide Open Road (the companion book to the ABC television history of motoring in Australia).

Read an Excerpt

Total Wheelspin

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By Tony Davi

HarperCollins Publishers

Copyright © 2014 Tony Davi
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7333-3289-0

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Can I power my car with water? 15
TECHNICALITIES
1 Can I power my
car with water?
Of course you can. Don't you read your email spam file? You can add
inches while you're at it ?? and what about helping that nice Nigerian
man with his banking difficulties?
Cynics disagree. But then, they have to. It's part of their job
description.
They say that extracting net energy from water contradicts the
principles of thermodynamics and that, in general terms, running a car
on water will work only downhill, and at the expense of your engine.
This is a very glum view when there are so many advantages of trying
to tap (so to speak) the most wonderfully plentiful fuel supply in the world.
Think how well placed we'd be down here in Australia with 26,000
kilometres of coastline. And wouldn't anyone who'd paid a premium for
a hybrid look like a wally?
Sadly, though, the cynics might be right.
Here's a typical spiel from carthatrunsonwater.net: 'This 90-year-old
technology has finally escaped the grips of those who held it a secret.
?? This modification device can pay for itself within 30 days ?? It will
NOT void your Auto Warranty and can actually add years to the life of
your enigne.'

16 Total Wheelspin
Who can say they haven't wanted to add years to the life of their
enigne?
Cars claiming to use water as fuel gain most prominence when
there is a spike in the price of oil. David Mamet's 1977 play, The Water
Engine, was about a young man who invented just that and became
the victim of all types of skulduggery.
In the 1980s, Stanley Meyer, an American, garnered huge publicity
with his miracle dune buggy. He had replaced the spark plugs with, er,
water plugs. These sprayed a fine mist into the cylinders, which was
subjected to a certain electrical something which broke the H2O into H2
and O and ?? blah blah blah ?? buy shares today or you'll miss out.
Meyer's technology was so radical, and his enemies so vociferous,
he couldn't safely subject his vehicle to independent testing, lest
someone steal his concepts.
To his many admirers, Meyer's later convictions for investor fraud were
proof of how hard the government and other dark forces were trying to
stifle him. And when he died suddenly in 1998, it was obvious he had
been poisoned by agents of the military-industrial-petroleum complex.
A story entitled 'Burning water and other myths' showed that the
supposedly respected magazine Nature was also in on the conspiracy to
discredit the water engine. In a September 2007 edition, Philip Ball wrote:
It's not easy to establish how Meyer's car was meant to work,
except that it involved a fuel cell that was able to split water using
less energy than was released by recombination of the elements
?? [but] water is not a fuel. It never has been one, and it never will
be one. Water does not burn ?? it is spent fuel. It is exhaust.

Can I power my car with water? 17
Ball lamented that 'the myth of water as a fuel is never going to go
away'. Certainly in 2006 we had America's Denny Klein, whose 1994
Ford Escort could drive '100 miles on 4 ounces of water'. Such
'inventions' inspire near-hysterical press, often from very blonde
newsreaders.
'He has already attracted the attention of an unnamed American
automaker,' reported one-such, 'and Klein has been invited to
Washington to demonstrate his technology, with word that he is now
working on a water—gasoline hybrid Hummer for the US military.'
In mid-2008 Japan's Genepax company unveiled a car that could
convert water to electrical power. There was similar media excitement:
1 litre was enough to propel it for a whole hour at 80 km/h! Yet not a
word since. Must be a conspiracy.
Genepax is one of many cars that run on
water. Or don't.


(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Total Wheelspin by Tony Davi. Copyright © 2014 Tony Davi. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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