Ecoboost Challenge
May. 10th, 2015 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sab123Turns out, the Ecoboost Challenge they mention in the commercials is an actual event. Found it on the Internet, thus week in my area, and went there. A fun event.
They even had the manual transmission cars available (and a tent that taught it to the people who didn't know how to use it). The stick cars were as the "reaction time challenge" and the Mustang was available with both automatic and stick.
The reaction time challenge is like the very first moment of a drag race, just measuring the first few inches. With the Focus ST and Fiesta ST. With the prizes every hour for the two best times (and a shoot-out between them for the first prize). I've got lucky enough to win the 2nd-place prize, a model Focus ST. Honestly, there was no skill involved, just luck. I've got my best time on my first run. I could not find a comfortable position in the Focus ST, so I've just lifted the clutch at the last light of 3, fumbling a little, and got the time 0.012s. On the second run I tried not to fumble and jumped the start at -0.017s. At the shootout I've got a different car with different seat adjustments, and fumbled it differently, and got 0.5 second. Well, it worked to the best, since I've liked the model car better than the first prize, a set of fancy headphones, anyway. I mean, I already have a set of fancy headphones sitting in my closet for 10 years, and the only time I took them out was when I wanted to try the hearing test with them.
The rest of activities were: Mustang on a course, trucks/SUVs with competitors on a course, and a variety of cars on a street drive.
I must say, the turbos work pretty decently nowadays. They all felt like normal engines, with no turbo lag whatsoever. Given a choice, I would still probably prefer a normally aspirated engine, but turbos are comparable now.
Mustang seems to have an interesting handling. I've felt it going a little sideways when I've overestimated a turn and had to brake in the middle of it, so it seems to handle well, not just plowing straight like some. But unconsciously it felt large. Maybe it's because of the very long and high hood, and the driver's seat thus being somewhat close to the back. The hood certainly looks very cute from inside but it gets in the way of visibility, much longer than say on the Fox-body Mustang.
The back-to-back comparisons were F-150 vs Silverado, Edge vs Subaru Outback and Escape vs Subaru Forester. As a side note, I can't remember the Ford model names. They all mix into a meaningless blur and I had to look them up now.
The most impressive one was the Edge, it just blew me away. Not only the 3.5L turbo engine is strong, something like 350 horsepower, but it also can handle, the handling felt like a car, and way better than anything else in the test. And it had lots of weird options like air-conditioned seats, every which way cameras, and self-parking - not only the parallel parking but nowadays also the backwards parking into a perpendicular slot. For whatever strange reason, the front 180-degree camera can be turned on only on a standing car, and turns itself off once you start moving above the crawling pace. Maybe so that people don't start driving by the view from it. Well, I'm not sure, how much use is in all these options, but the driving experience itself is impressive.
The second best was Silverado. Compared to it, F-150 is outright crap. The suspension is a little mushier but the thing that really kills it is the horrible slow steering. By the way, Expedition suffers from the same problem. The Ford trucks just always had the horrible steering but a few years ago I drove one at a GM event that felt decent. Either that was a fluke or they tried a better steering and then decided to go back to the shitty one. It's so incredibly shitty that I'd never buy a Ford truck, and try to avoid renting one. Yeah, and acceleration-wise that same 3.5L turbo doesn't seem to stand up to GM's V8.
The Escape wasn't particularly memorable, about on par with the Subaru. I have a vague feeling that Forester felt a little better just from the lower stance and interior standpoint but I can't say for sure, and driving-wise I think they felt about the same. And as Subarus went, the Outback and Forester felt fairly similar to each other.
The street driving included Expedition, Transit 7-seat micro-van, Edge with two engine variants, Escape, Fusion Hybrid, and Focus (no turbo).
The common feeling is that Ford tends towards kind of cramped driver's seats. The feel comes from both the seat itself and from all the panels around it, with tall dashboards and middle consoles. And it repeats in every car and SUV, maybe less so in the full-size trucks. It disturbs me slightly and with other things being equal I'd definitely choose a less cocooned feeling, but I guess it's not so bad to be a deal-breaker.
In Focus, I liked the basic interior much better than one in the ST. I could find a comfortable driving position in the basic Focus but not in ST. Maybe it's because of the extra side bolsters. I passionately hate the Recaro and like-Recaro seats in all the cars, and Focus ST has it much worse than my G8 GXP, about on par with the older Cadillac CTS-V. The electric seats in ST are at least much better in adjustments than the manual ones, the manual adjustments are a monstrosity beyond monstrosity, they seem to have a fixed and very high height of the front of the seat (though ironically I've had my best reaction time in a car with the manual adjustment).
I've really liked the pedal position adjustment in the Expedition. Not sure if it's available in the other cars, haven't found it anywhere else.
By the way, Fusion also seems to have different seats. I've got a Fusion rental car recently, and the seats were not only somewhat strange by themselves, like on a Dodge, but also the electric height adjustment moved not the whole seat but just the cushion. Very strange and annoying. But the Fusion Hybrid here had the normal seats and normal adjustments.
In general, Fusion Hybrid feels like a normal car (by the way, no turbo on it, the one I rented had a turbo but no hybrid). "Starts" without starting the engine, then turns on the engine when needed (and you can feel a little vibration when it does that). Has a lot of indicators, like what percentage of energy was captured in the regenerative braking. But it shows that after the braking is completed, I think it would be more interesting to see some indication in real time when the braking is too hard to recapture the energy.
For me, the reason to buy a hybrid would be if I could use it as a generator for my house. But it doesn't seem to work like that. It has a 110V outlet but a search on the Internet shows that it can do only 150W. Why not make it externally accessible, either multiple outlets or a large generator plug, together capable of at least something like 10KW? After all, the engine and generator can produce more, the generator plug can handle 30KW, and the battery would come handy for not running the engine when there is little load.
Oh, and the trunk on the Fusion Hybrid is seriously reduced by the battery. It gives the strange shape to the trunk. The square-section bags won't fit in the deep part of it. A flat one will, but only one across the car if you don't want it to interfere with the deep part of the trunk at the tail end.
They even had the manual transmission cars available (and a tent that taught it to the people who didn't know how to use it). The stick cars were as the "reaction time challenge" and the Mustang was available with both automatic and stick.
The reaction time challenge is like the very first moment of a drag race, just measuring the first few inches. With the Focus ST and Fiesta ST. With the prizes every hour for the two best times (and a shoot-out between them for the first prize). I've got lucky enough to win the 2nd-place prize, a model Focus ST. Honestly, there was no skill involved, just luck. I've got my best time on my first run. I could not find a comfortable position in the Focus ST, so I've just lifted the clutch at the last light of 3, fumbling a little, and got the time 0.012s. On the second run I tried not to fumble and jumped the start at -0.017s. At the shootout I've got a different car with different seat adjustments, and fumbled it differently, and got 0.5 second. Well, it worked to the best, since I've liked the model car better than the first prize, a set of fancy headphones, anyway. I mean, I already have a set of fancy headphones sitting in my closet for 10 years, and the only time I took them out was when I wanted to try the hearing test with them.
The rest of activities were: Mustang on a course, trucks/SUVs with competitors on a course, and a variety of cars on a street drive.
I must say, the turbos work pretty decently nowadays. They all felt like normal engines, with no turbo lag whatsoever. Given a choice, I would still probably prefer a normally aspirated engine, but turbos are comparable now.
Mustang seems to have an interesting handling. I've felt it going a little sideways when I've overestimated a turn and had to brake in the middle of it, so it seems to handle well, not just plowing straight like some. But unconsciously it felt large. Maybe it's because of the very long and high hood, and the driver's seat thus being somewhat close to the back. The hood certainly looks very cute from inside but it gets in the way of visibility, much longer than say on the Fox-body Mustang.
The back-to-back comparisons were F-150 vs Silverado, Edge vs Subaru Outback and Escape vs Subaru Forester. As a side note, I can't remember the Ford model names. They all mix into a meaningless blur and I had to look them up now.
The most impressive one was the Edge, it just blew me away. Not only the 3.5L turbo engine is strong, something like 350 horsepower, but it also can handle, the handling felt like a car, and way better than anything else in the test. And it had lots of weird options like air-conditioned seats, every which way cameras, and self-parking - not only the parallel parking but nowadays also the backwards parking into a perpendicular slot. For whatever strange reason, the front 180-degree camera can be turned on only on a standing car, and turns itself off once you start moving above the crawling pace. Maybe so that people don't start driving by the view from it. Well, I'm not sure, how much use is in all these options, but the driving experience itself is impressive.
The second best was Silverado. Compared to it, F-150 is outright crap. The suspension is a little mushier but the thing that really kills it is the horrible slow steering. By the way, Expedition suffers from the same problem. The Ford trucks just always had the horrible steering but a few years ago I drove one at a GM event that felt decent. Either that was a fluke or they tried a better steering and then decided to go back to the shitty one. It's so incredibly shitty that I'd never buy a Ford truck, and try to avoid renting one. Yeah, and acceleration-wise that same 3.5L turbo doesn't seem to stand up to GM's V8.
The Escape wasn't particularly memorable, about on par with the Subaru. I have a vague feeling that Forester felt a little better just from the lower stance and interior standpoint but I can't say for sure, and driving-wise I think they felt about the same. And as Subarus went, the Outback and Forester felt fairly similar to each other.
The street driving included Expedition, Transit 7-seat micro-van, Edge with two engine variants, Escape, Fusion Hybrid, and Focus (no turbo).
The common feeling is that Ford tends towards kind of cramped driver's seats. The feel comes from both the seat itself and from all the panels around it, with tall dashboards and middle consoles. And it repeats in every car and SUV, maybe less so in the full-size trucks. It disturbs me slightly and with other things being equal I'd definitely choose a less cocooned feeling, but I guess it's not so bad to be a deal-breaker.
In Focus, I liked the basic interior much better than one in the ST. I could find a comfortable driving position in the basic Focus but not in ST. Maybe it's because of the extra side bolsters. I passionately hate the Recaro and like-Recaro seats in all the cars, and Focus ST has it much worse than my G8 GXP, about on par with the older Cadillac CTS-V. The electric seats in ST are at least much better in adjustments than the manual ones, the manual adjustments are a monstrosity beyond monstrosity, they seem to have a fixed and very high height of the front of the seat (though ironically I've had my best reaction time in a car with the manual adjustment).
I've really liked the pedal position adjustment in the Expedition. Not sure if it's available in the other cars, haven't found it anywhere else.
By the way, Fusion also seems to have different seats. I've got a Fusion rental car recently, and the seats were not only somewhat strange by themselves, like on a Dodge, but also the electric height adjustment moved not the whole seat but just the cushion. Very strange and annoying. But the Fusion Hybrid here had the normal seats and normal adjustments.
In general, Fusion Hybrid feels like a normal car (by the way, no turbo on it, the one I rented had a turbo but no hybrid). "Starts" without starting the engine, then turns on the engine when needed (and you can feel a little vibration when it does that). Has a lot of indicators, like what percentage of energy was captured in the regenerative braking. But it shows that after the braking is completed, I think it would be more interesting to see some indication in real time when the braking is too hard to recapture the energy.
For me, the reason to buy a hybrid would be if I could use it as a generator for my house. But it doesn't seem to work like that. It has a 110V outlet but a search on the Internet shows that it can do only 150W. Why not make it externally accessible, either multiple outlets or a large generator plug, together capable of at least something like 10KW? After all, the engine and generator can produce more, the generator plug can handle 30KW, and the battery would come handy for not running the engine when there is little load.
Oh, and the trunk on the Fusion Hybrid is seriously reduced by the battery. It gives the strange shape to the trunk. The square-section bags won't fit in the deep part of it. A flat one will, but only one across the car if you don't want it to interfere with the deep part of the trunk at the tail end.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-10 09:21 pm (UTC)How large/expensive would be a 10kW inverter?
no subject
Date: 2015-05-11 02:33 am (UTC)But that one is from 12V, the hybrids have a lot higher voltage, so the inverter should be cheaper and smaller. And it doesn't have to be pure sine wave.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-11 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-11 07:04 am (UTC)