I was watching a show called Future Cars on The Science Channel last night and saw a segment on hydrogen-powered go karts in The Netherlands. They look just like racing go karts from the states. I guess the go karts have a small hydrogen engine that turns alternators that charges batteries (looked like 6 car batteries) which power the electric wheel motors. Also on the karts are about 9 capacitors that are used for a 'boost' for coming out of turns quickly or whatever. They looked just like typical 1-farad car audio stiffening capacitors. When the driver hits the 'boost' button, the kart literally takes off as if it's got nitrous. These karts do 1/8th mile in like 11.6 seconds. My Q's are;
1. Has anyone in this forum heard anything of these karts or even these 'Boost Caps', as they call them?
2.Also, I'm wondering how many farads these caps hold and is this the similar effect they are used for in car audio (You know, a 'turbo boost', lol)?
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2013 Kia Rio -90a alternator
DDX470HD GTO14001 GTO1014D (x3)
Big3 in 1/0G
1/0G to GTO14001
What a "stiffening" capacitor is designed to do in an audio system is make up for voltage drop at the amplifier during peak current demands (heavy bass notes) due to the resistance of the power wire. It basically acts as a small, very fast charging and discharging battery so although it won't "boost" power like a shot of nitrous or a turbo it should in theory help stabilize the voltage.
As far as these go carts...never heard of those type but sounds like a it would be blast to drive em. Maybe next time I am in the Netherlands..lol
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oh..about the farads..it depends, you can get them in different values depending on the power demands. A rule of thumb is 1farad (1,000,000uF) per 1000 watts rms however I find most people don't really use them for their intendened purpose (they think it will stop lights from dimming and other problems that are actually caused by a less then adequite charging system or poor vehicle grounding/wire gauge) or overkill thinking it can make a horrible system sound better. IMHO I belive if everything is up to task they are not needed..but as icing on the cake so to speak..or for the looks.
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How could these things actually provide the significant bursts? They store that much power? -Looked like the karts had nitrous!
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2013 Kia Rio -90a alternator
DDX470HD GTO14001 GTO1014D (x3)
Big3 in 1/0G
1/0G to GTO14001