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Hybrid car history goes back to over a hundred years ago – long before Honda’s Insight hit the U.S. market in 1999.

What we now call “alternative” power was all there was in the early days of automobiles. Let’s take a fun little journey back through the highlights of hybrid car history.

In 1898, a young German engineer, Ferdinand Porsche, combined a gas engine with an electric motor, designing the first “hybrid” car.

But, by the beginning of the 20th century, steam powered cars were all the rage. They were the fastest on the road, reaching a speed of 197 mph at the annual automobile speed trials in 1907.

Electric cars were also popular. They were clean, quiet, but very slow, and thought of only as cars for women to run errands.

Gas cars were the least popular of all, considered to be noisy, dirty and prone to shake, rattle and roll. Henry Ford introducing the Model T in 1908, but a gas car didn’t break the Stanley Steamer’s world record for speed until 1927.

Even so, it was Henry Ford who revolutionized the automobile industry. Ford’s breakthrough assembly line was able to accomplish what no other carmaker had done – mass produce cars at a price the average person could afford. And gasoline driven cars have dominated automobile history for a hundred years.

By 1913, with the introduction of the self-starting gas engine, nearly 183,000 Ford Model Ts drove off the assembly line, compared with only 6,000 electric cars.

Ford Motors and gas powered cars were now king. For the next 50 years of history, alternative energy automobiles, such as the hybrid car, were just hobbies for amateur backyard tinkers or small, unsuccessful business ventures of a few entrepreneurs.

But, during the sixties, concern for the environment became the rallying cry of a growing numbers of people. Eliminating air pollution was their first priority and gas powered cars were a main target.

In 1966, Congress introduced the first bill recommending electric cars as a way to reduce pollution. However it wasn’t until gasoline prices skyrocketed during the Arab oil embargo in 1973 that interest was renewed in the hybrid car.

But history saw 24 years pass before hybrid cars went into enough production to be sold to the public. In 1997 Toyota’s Prius was introduced in Japan and Audi’s Duo in Europe. The Duo was soon dropped, while European carmakers focused on developing a better diesel engine.

The Toyota Prius, on the other hand, was a commercial success. Introduced in the U.S. in 2000, the Prius has won numerous accolades, including being named the 2004 Car of the Year by Motor Trends Magazine. Buyers for the 2004 Prius had to wait six months. U.S. Toyota President, Jim Press, called it “the hottest car we’ve ever had.”

Hybrid cars are now an important segment of the auto industry and it looks like they’re going to get even stronger. Toyota and Honda, the first hybrids on the market, are now getting competition from Suzuki, Ford, Chevy, GMC, Mercury and Lexus, with others on the drawing board.

It looks like hybrid car history is just getting started.

Maria Cuttini is author of the 40 page “Hybrid Car Buyer’s Guide.” For a limited time, Maria is offering free downloads of her book at alternativecarnews.com AlternativeCarNews.com. Visit the site today to learn more about alternativecarnews.com/category/hybrid-cars/ hybrid cars and alternativecarnews.com/hybrid-cars/how-do-hybrid-cars-work/ how do hybrid cars work.

Camber is probably the most useful and popular alignment adjustment that can be made to a street car. The other alignment adjustments are toe and caster, which I have covered in accompanying articles. Camber is the angle of the wheel from the vertical as viewed from the front or the back of the car. Negative camber means that the top of the wheel is leaned in towards the car, and positive camber means that the top of the wheel is leaned out away from the car.

Maximum cornering force is achieved when the camber of the outside wheels relative to the ground is about -0.5 degrees. A slight negative camber in a turn maximizes the tire contact patch due to the way the tire deforms under lateral load. Hence, it is good to have some negative camber to increase cornering force.

Another reason why it is helpful to align your suspension with a slight negative camber is that camber will change with suspension travel and body roll. Most suspension systems are designed so that camber increases with more suspension travel. However, camber relative to the car’s chassis is not the same thing as camber relative to the ground. It is camber relative to the ground that affects handling. Therefore, even though camber relative to the chassis is made to increase, camber relative to the ground may actually decrease on the outside wheels if there is substantial body roll. To counter this tendency, it is important to use negative camber and to control body roll.

The only drawback to negative camber is increased wear on the inside of each tire. Since the top of the wheel is leaned in, the car is riding on the inside of the tire while it is on straightaways. In a corner, suspension travel and lateral forces on the tire’s rubber compound combine to straighten the tire relative to the ground. Therefore, the car rides evenly on the tire in turns, which improves cornering ability. However, extra time spent driving on the inside of the tire causes that part of the tire to heat up and wear. This effect is small if you avoid adding too much negative camber.

On most street cars (which use a MacPherson Strut front suspension), camber is not easily adjustable. However, if you choose to purchase aftermarket camber plates, you can set camber to improve handling. More negative camber tends to increase tire grip in corners. Therefore, if your car experiences understeer, you can decrease front camber (make it more negative) to improve front grip or increase rear camber (make it more positive) to decrease rear grip. Remember not to add too much negative or positive camber since it will decrease the life of your tires and may cause a blowout. Even pure race cars rarely use more than about 3 degrees of camber. As with any adjustments, make camber changes in small increments, and make sure to test the setup so that you can see the results from each specific change.

Visit my website for more information about camber adjustments:
240edge.com

I have been an automotive enthusiast throughout my life and have participated successfully in various amateur racing series. I specialize in tuning the Nissan S platform cars, particularly the US domestic market Nissan 240SX. Visit my website 240edge.com 240edge.com to get information about suspension setup, quality upgrades, and general 240SX tuning.

Feel free to republish my articles, but please include a text link to 240edge.com 240edge.com.