Legendary rocker Neil Young is a crusader for fuel-efficient cars, and he’s now out to win the automotive X Prize, a $10 million challenge to make a vehicle that gets 100 miles per gallon by 2009. The ambitious competition harnesses the spirit of engineering ingenuity, and includes in the prize’s goal a demonstrated capacity to produce more than 10,000 vehicles a year.
Young’s platform is a large 1959 Lincoln Continental that is being retrofitted with a rotary engine that will burn natural gas. The 20-foot long, 5,000-pound car, provides a great point of contrast for the technology that’s under the hood. If they can make this beast perform well enough to reach the fuel efficiency goal, then they’re leap-frogging well past less ambitious goals of others.
Using a vintage car for this project is also part of their approach. The plan is to create technology that can be retrofitted into older vehicles rather than simply replace all the cars on the road today. This cuts down on the use of resources and trades on the capacity of local dealerships and mechanics to conduct the work.
The project has sponsorship from a number of different sectors, including Sun Microsystems/Java, with the vehicle transmitting diagnostics live to a java website. There’s also a nice list of a number of small innovative companies that are providing the batteries, electric engine, wheels and other components.
You can learn more about the details on the Link Volt project website. There’s also a YouTube channel, and a documentary film in the works.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
It is not just fluctuating gas prices that make people switch to alternative fuel powered vehicles; it is also a higher sensitivity towards the environment, emissions, and vehicular pollution and the desire to make a difference by lessening one’s personal carbon footprint.
Whatever… it’s still a combustion based vehicle which means it still loses more than 70% (min) to friction from engine to tire.
We, as a society, must realize that the combustion engine has not essentially changed in the last 150 yrs… and neither has the wheel.
Is this the pinnacle of our stagnant technological evolution?
Ready to beam aboard Mr. Scott. This planet has no resources available.
Great articles & Nice a site?.