There’s a mighty weird phenomenon going on where people are bringing Toyota Mirais from California to the Midwest. It’s weird because there are no public hydrogen stations in the United States outside of California, and the ones in Canada are too far away unless you live basically next to them. But aha, a reader figured out why.
Jason wrote about the Toyota Mirais that end up in places where they cannot be refueled. I have since found more sad Mirais in the Midwest for sale. JKcycletramp:
If you already own a Mirai, I can understand not wanting to give up on it. Hydrogen is very easy to bond with.
Mighty Bagel:
It’s like a Dad joke if your Dad is a middle school science teacher.
Fineheresyourdamn70dollars:
I refuse to react to that joke.
10001010:
That’s very noble of you.
Manwich Sandwich:
Fine! Stay inert…
New contributor Leslie Hanna wrote about how her 40-year-old Toyota MR2 changed her life. Mechjaz:
Puts a whole new spin on “parts and labor,” doesn’t it?
Congratulations on this whole wild journey!
Lockleaf:
Creative expression is one of the single most underrated, underutilized mental health stabilizers out there. I think our culture over emphasizes certain tools to the exclusion of many other anti burnout tools available. So, well done discovering how to make that work for you. And congrats on the social media success. I am a failed youtuber, never could figure out how to make it work for me. But I also realized I hate editing quite badly, so that might be part of the problem.
Sweet car. Well done.
Josh:
I suffered a bit of disorientation looking at the lede image and the headline.
“Wha…40 years old…???..but that’s an MR2. Those aren’t that old…right? Yeah, it’s only an ’85…2026 minus 1985…borrow one…”
Crap. I’m old.
Data:
Welcome to the club. We yell at the clouds on Wednesdays just before dinner at 4:00 PM.
Finally, I wrote about drifting the 2026 Dodge Charger Sixpacks. Kleinlowe:
Man, Dodge can just not catch a break.
Dodge: Here’s our new electric car!
The new regime has decided electric cars are no longer favorable.Dodge: Uh, okay then, here’s gas version!
Gas prices shoot up to $6/gallon.Most people run out of spoons but Dodge cannot seem to run out of rakes.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: Toyota
There are a few of these around where I live and I’m always blown away by the driver. Elderly driver, EVERYTIME. I’ve checked and there isn’t even a hydrogen station in town.
Maybe they know something I don’t.
That last comment reminded me of a sign I saw outside the men’s room at a golf course adjacent restaurant.
“I played golf today and hit two good balls. I stepped on a rake.”
Maybe those Mirais are getting converted to run on natural gas or propane?
I can’t even begin to imagine how or why one would even attempt that.
I know that you can fuel a fuel cell with propane, but I don’t think Toyota’s fuel cell will do it. They optimized for H2. Different chemistry.
The Mirai uses about 800g H2 per 100km.
There’s 182g H2 per kilogram of propane.
Conservatively, 5kg propane = 100km range, if the propane-optimized fuel cell can convert at the same efficiency as the Mirai system.
To equal the onboard range of the Mirai (650km in the second generation) therefore you would need 32.5kg of propane. As bad as I think the Mirai is, a propane version would be worse; you’d give up a significant portion of the car’s volume to a big, heavy fuel tank.
Well, it probably wouldn’t be propane, but natural gas, which is CH4 instead of C4H10. But you’re right about the chemistry.
Though, if some car youtuber were to buy a used Mirai and try it out, that would be worth watching
Holy balls, “run out of rakes” made me laugh out loud. That was tasty.
Same. I definitely have the Sideshow Bob scene playing in my head now.
Thank you, all my rewatches of Young Einstein led me to this moment.
Whatever happened to Yahoo Serious? He dropped a sleeper hit and then vanished. Also, to really drive home that feeling old thing, he is 73 years old now.
W0000!
Frankly I was disappointed in the article I was expecting more story about the cars use of propane and propane accessories.
I tell you what.
HWHAT?
Taste the meat not the heat
Yep. Propane is God’s gas.