Thread: "Automatic Transmission"
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Unread 16-09-2003, 13:19
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Great Thread
Threads like this should outnumber the pointless threads by 2:1"

M,

Great idea, but I will get back to you on comments I am proving some technical questions out on paper.

Ahecht & M,

The Thunderchicken CCT, while it does manipulate the advantages of a planetary gearset, is nothing like the Toyota Prius Mechanism. On howstuffworks.com it describes how the Prius' gearbox works, but it uses 2 electric motors and a gas engine. One electric motor acts as a generator. Toyota uses the planetary to couple the 2 electric motors and the engine together, but the main electric motor is attached directly to the driveshaft. There are several modes of operation, but the one that gets them fuel efficiency attaches the output of the engine to "help" the electric motor. The other electric motor spins to regulate the speed of the engine.

It is much more complicated than the ThunderChicken CCT and has 2 separate patents filed: 5,914,575 and 6,067,801. We had to reference these patents to make sure we did not patent the same idea.

-Paul