Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Plural of Prius?

Prii?
Cruising at 75 mph on the way home today (man I love spring break, traffic's light) I got passed by two of them. Tailgated by one of them.   Nothing piques the kx59 stubborn streak like a tailgater.  Tailgater was a young guy, with a girl in the car.  The ubiquitous internet word "Really?" came to mind.  I don't know, maybe groovy hippie chicks are impressed by a guy driving a Prius ridiculously fast.
 Either Prius drivers have something to prove, or figure they get such good gas mileage standing on the throttle ad infinitum doesn't matter.
Hmmm, curious about the specs on this hybrid: curb weight 3980 lbs. Holey crap.  That's 1000 lbs. heavier than my tC, and not a heck of a lot lighter than the Astro beater Van.
4 Cylinder 1.8 Liter engine.  Horsepower: 134. Torque: 105 foot pounds.  (I wonder how long it takes to get up to 80 mph in a Prii...)
Oh. Wait. That explains a lot. Once you get that mass moving, you don't want to lose the momentum. Kinda like driving the Astro Van.

The name, "Prius", is latin for "before"**.  Awesome, way to go marketing people. Your car name is a preposition.


**According to Wikipedia. I claim no knowledge of dead languages.

5 comments:

  1. Ah, it is always about seeing the charging vs. sucking power from the gas engine. I think it as dangerous as texting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Top Gear did a segment once driving a Prius and a BMW M5 around their track at the same speed (I think it was 70mph or so). The Prius got something like 25mpg, and the Beamer got 35. The Prius may be good for toodling around town where the motor can turn itself off when you are stuck in traffic, but at speed when that little heart is beating like a hummingbird's, it just aint that efficient.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Keads. Always the Gentleman.
    Summed up in two words.
    Mental
    Masturbation
    Quite distracting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bluesun, 70 at 2000 rpm vs. 70 at 3200 rpm is at least a 33% improvement.
    Oh, btw, there's a Prii stuck on your mudflap. Might want to get the hose and wash it down.

    ReplyDelete
  5. At the end of the day, however fast they're going, they're still driving a Prius!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are not moderated. Disagreement is fine as long as you address the message, not the messenger. In other words, don't be an ass.