AZEqualizer
02-12-2008, 08:41 AM
Here are a couple of quotes from over at FTR site on What's it like to Drive a Carver:
Hey Guys,
This morning I just had the privilege of test driving the Carver One. It was fantastic!!!
First off if anyone can put pressure to either have the Venture or the Caver mass produced in Europe to bring the price down DO IT, DO IT, DO IT! I can now totally see why Ian Bruce went into this "venture". (I think it was just an excuse to drive the carver for a living).
I am currently trying to convince my girlfriend to go half’s with me so I don't have to wait for the price to drop to an acceptable level (Personally I think £10-15k) or import a Venture One from the states when they are available.
My thoughts on the test drive and Venture:
I left sunny Australia to live in the UK and as per usual it was raining this morning which actually was a good thing because I found out first hand the Caver handles really well in the wet. It felt a lot more steady round corners than a car in the wet. The dealer was getting me to go faster and faster around the roundabouts (Great fun). Doing about 40km's on a small tight round about in the wet isn't something I would do in a car unless I wanted to go sideways or at least skid a little. The carver really felt like it could do a lot more and seemed to love the corners and want to go faster.
I am 6 foot 3 and in the back seat i had head room. It is a unique sitting position and probably not great for long trips if you are tall in the back (Can't move your legs that much). Venture seems to have altered the seating arrangement I am assuming they have taken a lot of the wires and cables out and replaced them with electronics to make more room in the floor. The driving position was very comfy. Although I am not all that fat i have pretty wide shoulders and long legs and everything fit pretty well. The pedals where perhaps a little close together if you wanted to get picky.
I like driving quick and being a little silly on the road of course always in a safe manner and the speed of the Carver seemed pretty adequate. If the venture hybrid can do 0-60 in under 5 seconds it would be insanely scary. Along with speed I got it up to just over 70mph and it seemed just as steady at that pace than at lower levels. The dealer said he had it up to 100mph and it felt just as good (I am sure it was on a controlled track..)
I was driving one of the prototypes and the back where the exhaust was very low apparently they have raised this a few inches on the production model which it looks like it needs. (I would love to see the venture or subsequent models even a bit higher so you could have some fun on dirt roads without worrying too much, ps I am talking Australian dirt roads with pot holes the size of walrus's).
The gears were not all that smooth and there was a bit of a clunk in the transmission from 1st. The steering was a little stiff at very slow speeds. I was assured all these where fixed in the production model with more powerful power steering and some jigery pokery to the transmission and gears.
Personally I think the Venture design sketches look cool and slightly more appealing than the carver (mainly the nose). I was looking at the cargo space issue there is pretty much no room in the carver for more than a small brief case. The removable roof however did look like it could easily have a custom roof rack made up and I love the idea Venture have with the snowboard or extra baggage room on the roof for the occasional long weekend away.
One thing that did appeal to me was that the technology in the Caver was pretty much all standard car stuff except the tilt hydraulics and mechanism. The RAC Breakdown servers checked the Carver out and said it was one of the easier cars to work on because of the easy access. Also a interesting fact for reliability wise is that apparently one of the first carvers built now has 300,000km on the clock (So it works in the long haul).
I love the idea of hybrids and also care for our environment. I think Venture are going to be hard pressed to jam all that equipment into such a small space (So good luck!). I also would be lying if I didn't say I am a little concerned about driving around in an tilting computer on wheels running on a battery. I mean come on electronic ABS controlled by the separate engines seems like it is just getting too complicated. The more complicated it gets the harder it is to fix. Instead of a mechanic you will be needed computer programmers to fix the problems! (I guess you already do...*sigh*). I really don't think a vehicle like this needs abs it is light enough to stop pretty damn quick regardless and potentially abs on this type of kit might do wacky things to you on a corner... Why not put all the wiz bang features on a Venture Two?!?!
Anyway if you have any questions drop it in here and I can try and answer as honestly as possible about what I thought of the Caver one!
Oh yeah best of luck with Venture One!!! (top idea)
Mik
The first person to ask me that question was my friend, and soon-to-be-partner, Howard. We both flew to Holland to test drive this vehicle, and see if there was an opportunity for it in the States. I took it out first, and after returning said, stone-faced, "I'm not saying anything. Just... get in... and... go... GO!"
Once he got back, all pretense our professionalism collapsed into a idiotic grin-fest (so much for staking out our tough negotiating position). We were suddenly a couple of kids, on Christmas day, with the biggest, coolest damn toy we'd ever seen in our whole freakin' lives!
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Checkout2.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Checkout2.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Ian_Checkout.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Ian_Checkout.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0509.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0509.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0520.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0520.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_1014.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_1014.jpg)
Everyone who's asked me since gets the same answer: "It's like flying your own personal jet fighter two feet off the ground!"
Hey Guys,
This morning I just had the privilege of test driving the Carver One. It was fantastic!!!
First off if anyone can put pressure to either have the Venture or the Caver mass produced in Europe to bring the price down DO IT, DO IT, DO IT! I can now totally see why Ian Bruce went into this "venture". (I think it was just an excuse to drive the carver for a living).
I am currently trying to convince my girlfriend to go half’s with me so I don't have to wait for the price to drop to an acceptable level (Personally I think £10-15k) or import a Venture One from the states when they are available.
My thoughts on the test drive and Venture:
I left sunny Australia to live in the UK and as per usual it was raining this morning which actually was a good thing because I found out first hand the Caver handles really well in the wet. It felt a lot more steady round corners than a car in the wet. The dealer was getting me to go faster and faster around the roundabouts (Great fun). Doing about 40km's on a small tight round about in the wet isn't something I would do in a car unless I wanted to go sideways or at least skid a little. The carver really felt like it could do a lot more and seemed to love the corners and want to go faster.
I am 6 foot 3 and in the back seat i had head room. It is a unique sitting position and probably not great for long trips if you are tall in the back (Can't move your legs that much). Venture seems to have altered the seating arrangement I am assuming they have taken a lot of the wires and cables out and replaced them with electronics to make more room in the floor. The driving position was very comfy. Although I am not all that fat i have pretty wide shoulders and long legs and everything fit pretty well. The pedals where perhaps a little close together if you wanted to get picky.
I like driving quick and being a little silly on the road of course always in a safe manner and the speed of the Carver seemed pretty adequate. If the venture hybrid can do 0-60 in under 5 seconds it would be insanely scary. Along with speed I got it up to just over 70mph and it seemed just as steady at that pace than at lower levels. The dealer said he had it up to 100mph and it felt just as good (I am sure it was on a controlled track..)
I was driving one of the prototypes and the back where the exhaust was very low apparently they have raised this a few inches on the production model which it looks like it needs. (I would love to see the venture or subsequent models even a bit higher so you could have some fun on dirt roads without worrying too much, ps I am talking Australian dirt roads with pot holes the size of walrus's).
The gears were not all that smooth and there was a bit of a clunk in the transmission from 1st. The steering was a little stiff at very slow speeds. I was assured all these where fixed in the production model with more powerful power steering and some jigery pokery to the transmission and gears.
Personally I think the Venture design sketches look cool and slightly more appealing than the carver (mainly the nose). I was looking at the cargo space issue there is pretty much no room in the carver for more than a small brief case. The removable roof however did look like it could easily have a custom roof rack made up and I love the idea Venture have with the snowboard or extra baggage room on the roof for the occasional long weekend away.
One thing that did appeal to me was that the technology in the Caver was pretty much all standard car stuff except the tilt hydraulics and mechanism. The RAC Breakdown servers checked the Carver out and said it was one of the easier cars to work on because of the easy access. Also a interesting fact for reliability wise is that apparently one of the first carvers built now has 300,000km on the clock (So it works in the long haul).
I love the idea of hybrids and also care for our environment. I think Venture are going to be hard pressed to jam all that equipment into such a small space (So good luck!). I also would be lying if I didn't say I am a little concerned about driving around in an tilting computer on wheels running on a battery. I mean come on electronic ABS controlled by the separate engines seems like it is just getting too complicated. The more complicated it gets the harder it is to fix. Instead of a mechanic you will be needed computer programmers to fix the problems! (I guess you already do...*sigh*). I really don't think a vehicle like this needs abs it is light enough to stop pretty damn quick regardless and potentially abs on this type of kit might do wacky things to you on a corner... Why not put all the wiz bang features on a Venture Two?!?!
Anyway if you have any questions drop it in here and I can try and answer as honestly as possible about what I thought of the Caver one!
Oh yeah best of luck with Venture One!!! (top idea)
Mik
The first person to ask me that question was my friend, and soon-to-be-partner, Howard. We both flew to Holland to test drive this vehicle, and see if there was an opportunity for it in the States. I took it out first, and after returning said, stone-faced, "I'm not saying anything. Just... get in... and... go... GO!"
Once he got back, all pretense our professionalism collapsed into a idiotic grin-fest (so much for staking out our tough negotiating position). We were suddenly a couple of kids, on Christmas day, with the biggest, coolest damn toy we'd ever seen in our whole freakin' lives!
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Checkout2.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Checkout2.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Ian_Checkout.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/DV_Ian_Checkout.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0509.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0509.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0520.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_0520.jpg)
http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_1014.jpg (http://www.flytheroad.com/2_1_08_post/IMG_1014.jpg)
Everyone who's asked me since gets the same answer: "It's like flying your own personal jet fighter two feet off the ground!"