Carnections

Vert-A-Pac Rail Car and Chevy Vegas

Today I learned about a novel transporting method used in the 70s. The Chevrolet Vega was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors from 1970 to 1977. And it was no ordinary car. The Vega was specially designed to be shipped vertically with the front-end facing down. Southern Pacific and General Motors designed railroad cars to hold 30 Vegas each. These railroad cars were dubbed “Vert-A-Pacs”. Normal railroad auto carriers have three horizontal levels and can only hold around 18 vehicles.

Normal vehicles can only be shipped horizontally and so the Vega came equipped with special features that allowed it to be shipped vertically. To protect the engine and transmission mounts, it was secured with four removable cast-steel sockets on its underside and had plastic spacers, which were removed at after transport. Surprisingly, the Vega was shipped topped with fluids and ready to drive to dealerships upon delivery. The engine was baffled to prevent oil from entering the first cylinder and a tube drained fuel from the carburetor to a vapor canister. The battery filler caps were placed high on the rear edge of the casing to prevent acid spills and the windshield washer bottle stood at a 45 degree angle. Additionally, the Vert-A-Pac railroad cars underwent vibration and crash tests to ensure the cars would not incur damage during shipment.

Unfortunately, the Vert-A-Pacs are no more. The last Vega was the 1977 model and to my knowledge, no other vehicles since have been designed to be shipped vertically.

RESOURCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Vega

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorack

The Toyota iQ has been selling in Japan since late in 2008. Toyota has finally announced that it will be coming to America, but will be branded by Scion. They will start selling in California in October.

Scion has a no-haggle pricing scheme and will price the iQ at $15,995 before destination charges. The iQ comes in a 1.3 liter 4-cylinder engine with a Super CVT-i transmission which will pump out 94 HP and 89 ft-lbs of torque. There is no manual transmission planned for the United States. The iQ comes standard with four wheel ABS, Bluetooth, and 11 airbags. The EPA has rated the subcompact a 37 MPG combined in fuel efficiency. This puts it slightly higher than is competitor Mini, who gets an average of 36 MPG combined. Also the new iQ

The new iQ at a 78.7-inch wheel base makes it a foot sorter than the Fiat 500, which was introduced earlier this year. It is also almost two feet shorter in total length. The iQ will have some more competition later this year when Chevrolet releases their subcompact model, the Sonic. Pricing for the Sonic will come in at $1500 less than the iQ, at $14,495 for the sedan.

According to this article
Nissan is working on recharging the Leaf battery with solar power. This would make the Nissan Leaf an ultra green car. Currently the only viable method of recharging the leaf battery is by electricity generated by coal, which pollutes the air. With solar powered leafs, it would be a truly zero-emissions vehicle.

Also, the Leaf’s battery could be reused to power homes and businesses. After a Leaf has reached the end of its life, the battery is likely to have 80% of its capacity still left. Using these batteries to store electricity generated by solar panels is an exciting possibility. Nissan plans to start selling this storage setup in April 2012.

Hello, my name is Chris Johnson and I am one of the co-founders of Carnections.com. On this blog we will discuss anything and everything related to automobiles and auto transport.