[brian]

Over the last few weeks I've been putting together a pretty thorough review of my car. I had to edit it like crazy to keep it from being an hour long, but the results are still about 27 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnYuO0bGSTc&feature=channel



-Brian

 

[brian]

Thanks! Apparently YouTube's gamma setting is a little whacked because the video wasn't so dark when it was a Quicktime movie. Not sure what happened there.

Anyways, I edited out a ton of stuff due to the length of the video. I had a few interesting bits in there that ended up on the cutting room floor, but I think I still covered the most important items.

-Brian

 

[brian]

Also it's impressive that you have a radio voice! You could be Movie Preview Guy #3

I get that a lot. My dad was in radio (he was a DJ in Detroit during the 60's), so I guess I inherited some of that.

Thanks,

-Brian

 

[brian]

Most of it was with a semi-pro Panasonic HMC-150. It was shot 1080p and was crystal clear, but in the process of converting it for YouTube I reduced it to 720p and at a mediocre bit-rate (which still resulted in a 3.5 gig file). It took me 3 attempts to upload it to YouTube before it worked because YouTube tends to choke on files over a gig or so.

The driving footage was shot with my little Panasonic Lumix TS2. It's a great little camera which I was able to stick to the car with a single suction cup mount that I got on eBay for like $3. Unfortunately, the TS2 shot only 720p @ 30fps which didn't match up right with the 24fps video from the HMC-150 which is why the footage you see of the road are a little jerky. Next time I have to remember to set the HMC to shoot 30fps so that it'll match the TS2.

-Brian

 

[brian]

Great job Brian. You impress me by the amount of time and effort you have put into this and Fisker Owner's Club. Even though I have had a somewhat different experience and impression of some of the features of the Karma, I must say I agree with the vast majority of your statements.
Now my question for you is: What roads are you on in the video. I'm definitely coming to Austin to drive some of those. Just can't decide if I will bring the Karma or the Gallardo yet.
Cheers,

Those were some roads that run along Lake Travis by my house. Very scenic, but very slow roads. In one clip there was a cop on the right shoulder waiting for speeders to come around the corner, but that shot got cut from the final edit. Those are some of the most scenic roads in Austin, but not really the best for driving. There are better yet less scenic driving roads farther to the west and southwest.

 

[brian]

The best driving roads in Texas are actually west of Bandera, and the 3 highways that make the scenic loop are called 'The Thee Sisters'. I've had the opportunity to drive a few Ferraris, a Lambo, and others on those roads and they're spectacular! Scenic and absolutely perfect roads for hauling ass!

 

[brian]

Fantastic review!! Incredibly well done. I am envious of your 42 mi range on electric. I am getting 32-35 mi. on Long Island. Do you think the colder temperatures have some effect? I am still averaging 70 mpg with my driving habits so i am still pleased. Again great job.

You know, I'm confused about my mileage. In the video I stated that I usually get 42-44 miles on a charge, but I'm starting to question that. I was calculating that based on what the battery indicator was telling me as I drove over "known" distances, not what the actual trip computer said, since I was just letting that run up to 1000 miles to get an average.

Now that I've been resetting it daily to check what actual ranges I'm getting, it's significantly worse. However, I've been driving in rain every time which will affect it, but last night I got only about 34 miles on a charge, and then I reset the trip odo when the gas kicked in, and on my 20 mile drive home it said I only got 17mpg on gas! I should note that that was in somewhat heavy rain and with a total altitude gain of around 300 feet.

When it stops raining next week I'll have to try this again and see. I'm fairly certain I was getting ~42 on average when I was driving w/o rain and w/o the heater or A/C going.

-Brian