Two unusual cars I saw today...

The first, I actually saw in person...Honda Clarity? Man, what a strange-looking car.  Like an Insight had sex with an Accord and had a big baby. Had "fuel cell" badge on it, so I guess this is the hydrogen variant, which from what I can tell are only available as a lease and actually come with a giant tank of hydrogen fuel (to keep in your garage, I guess?). Most things I read say that they're only in California, and that only the EV variant is sold elsewhere, but this one was definitely badged as Fuel Cell, not the EV. IDK. I googled out of curiosity and it looks like there's only one regular gas station around here that sells hydrogen fuel to the public. Anyhow, it was weird.

Somewhat on the same line, I was browsing local CL today and came upon this thing...a 1980 Omni EV, apparently one of only a few ever built. Uses 120V power and supposedly has a 70 mile range, with a manual transmisison to boot. Strange....

https://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/d/1980-dodge-omni-electrica-007/6638491425.html

The Electrica comes up more for sale often than you would tgink, given its rarity. I thought it may have been the same one coming up every time, but I think one of them went to a LeMons racer, IIRC?

I saw the "007" on the front and was wondering whether each car has a unique number, but I guess not since a junkyard photo of one shows the same number on the nose.

There was a Lemons car 007. They put lots of time and money into making hot swappable Volt battery packs and it got quicker, but no way competitive. I drove it around the paddock, pretty weird.

My sister bought a Clarity about 3 months ago, I had never heard of one until then.  It's like driving a space ship.  It drives OK, much like an Accord in fact, but it is much larger.  Her's is the EV of course.  

How exactly does a 4 speed tranny work in an electric car?

In reply to rustybugkiller :

Roughly the same as it does when hooked to an internal combustion engine as far as I know. Only difference is that the electric motor doesn't idle so you don't really need to use the clutch when coming to a stop or taking off. I might be wrong though.

In reply to rustybugkiller :

You lack a clutch since the electric motor generates so much torque, and you can effectively just slam it into what gear you like. There are electric Porsche conversions of 914s/911s that just drive in 3rd.

I also saw one of those Honda Clarity yesterday. 

Ugliest car I have ever seen. 

I like the clarity. I've seen two of the hybrid ones so far. I stand by my statement that cutting edge Japanese cars should look like spaceships to normal people. 

Slippery said:

I also saw one of those Honda Clarity yesterday. 

Ugliest car I have ever seen. 

Worse.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I like the clarity. I've seen two of the hybrid ones so far. I stand by my statement that cutting edge Japanese cars should look like spaceships to normal people. 

The interior looks more spaceship than the exterior. It's like driving the enterprise from The Next Generation.

I had an insurance claim on a Clarity recently. I'd never heard of it. Owned by an anal retentive engineer type (surprise, right?). No parts database in my estimating system meant complete guesswork. I spoke to two Honda dealerships about them and both said they can't remember selling more than one or two. Nobody seems to want them. I wonder if maybe it's because nobody knows about them? Toyota sells a crapload of stupid Priuses; I'm really surprised Honda can't generate a similar following.

irish44j said:

I saw the "007" on the front and was wondering whether each car has a unique number, but I guess not since a junkyard photo of one shows the same number on the nose.

The original L-body Charger was called the Omni 007 or something like that.  Might have just been 007.

American automakers were big on putting random numbers on cars, like Pontiac's Sunbird J-2000 (later just Sunbird again) and the T-1000,  which was a Chevette with an ugly grille, not a memetic polyalloy killing machine.

They also liked the idea of taking a compact car and making a coupe body on its floorpan, like the 007/Charger version of the Omni, and the EXP version of the Escort.  VW waited for the fallout to die down and made the Audi TT to decent success.  (Not shown:  Mercury Cougar, Ford Puma)

There was no "007 Omni" The Omni O24 designation was based on "Omni, 2 doors, 4 passenger"

And you conveniently forget the Scirocco, which was built on the Rabbit (Golf Mk1) architecture all the way back in 1974. 

It was the Omni 024. Why I can remember that and not my kid's birthdays..........

Edit: dang! Sniped by cooter.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Maybe if you named your child "Omni" and his birthday was October 24th? 

We were in Orange County CA yesterday and saw an odd-looking Toyota. I had to look several times to confirm I read it right - "fuel cell". Finding fuel has to be "interesting".