233 mpg three wheeled diesel hybrid!

I ran across this project while mining wiki for one of my obsessions (three wheeled vehicles!). Needless to say what I saw amazed me and I'd like to know what y'all think of it.

aptera motors how it works presentation

It won't let me cut and paste any small blurbs so I'll give the basics that I got on wiki and their site.

The car will weigh 850 pounds, get 233 mpg, it's diesel engine is going to be around 26 horsepower. The car is slated to seat 2 has a drag coefficient of .04 (compared to a normal cars .4) and it should top out at 95mph top speed getting 0 to 60 in under ten seconds.

IMO this is the type of technology we need in america due to the unbelievable sprawl most cities are. This is a quantum leap but still inherently doable. Not only that but they are touting a projected retail cost of $20,000 dollars.

Very interesting thread, there have been a few friend's of mine that have ventured far into the existance of cheaper more economical has been around for some time. I have been allowed privy to some thing's of this nature, and if you wish , I will share them with you.

First of all there is a vehicle designed and operational called the air car. There are no toxic admission's and the video is quite , how would you say ? "Refreshing!!" excuse the punn.

Source:
www.youtube.com...

And for as having the breaking tech for such alternative fuels to create abitilty of personal functio, there is always the study of 'Physics'!!

Source:
(P.S.... This will blow your mind!!!)
www.metacafe.com...

There is also this story that was released from the Pegasus goup on Yahoo. I am a member and they have quite intelligent folk's in that neck of the woods, as far as I am concerned. It is kind of a long quote, but worth the read, ecspecially if you are an 'Engine Efficiency' buff.

Source: Times Online
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003
Oil Industry Suppressed Plans for 200-MPG Car
The original blueprints for a device that could have revolutionized the motor car have been discovered in the secret compartment of a tool box. A carburetor that would allow a car to travel 200 miles on a gallon of fuel
caused oil stocks to crash when it was announced by its Canadian inventor
Charles Nelson Pogue in the 1930s.
But the carburetor was never produced and, mysteriously, Pogue went
overnight from impoverished inventor to the manager of a successful factory making oil filters for the motor industry. Ever since, suspicion has lingered that oil companies and car manufacturers colluded to bury Pogue's invention.
Now a retired Cornish mechanic has enlisted the help of the University of
Plymouth to rebuild Pogue's revolutionary carburetor, known as the
Winnipeg, from blueprints he found hidden beneath a sheet of plywood in the box. The controversial plans once caused panic among oil companies and rocked the Toronto Stock Exchange when tests carried out on the carburetor in the 1930s proved that it worked.
Patrick Davies, 72, from St Austell, had owned the tool box for 40 years but only recently decided to clean it out. As well as drawings of the carburetor, the envelope contained two pages of plans, three test reports and six pages of notes written by Pogue. They included a report of a test that Pogue had done on his lawnmower, which showed that he had managed to make the engine run for seven days on a quart (just under a litre) of petrol. The documents also described how the machine worked by turning petrol into a vapour before it entered the cylinder chamber, reducing the amount of fuel needed for
combustion.
Mr Davies has had the patent number on the plans authenticated, proving that they are genuine documents.
He said: "I couldn't believe what I saw. I used to be a motor mechanic and I knew this was something else altogether. I was given the tool box by a friend after I helped to paint her house in 1964. Her husband had spent a lot of time in Canada."The announcement of Pogue's invention caused enormous excitement in the American motor industry in 1933, when he drove 200 miles on one gallon of fuel in a Ford V8. However, the Winnipeg was never manufactured
commercially and after 1936 it disappeared altogether amid allegations of a political cover-up.Dr Murray Bell, of the University of Plymouth's department of mechanical and marine engineering, said he would consider trying to build a model of the
Pogue carburetor.

Hope my post acquired to your taste's?
Great thread by the way .
Maybe you should check out Pegasus.

You can go to :
landsoflegends.com

[edit on 27-3-2007 by Allred5923]

[edit on 27-3-2007 by Allred5923]

I would love anything you have on any technologies. That pogue article is amazing too!!

Mods please don't trim that quote it is beautiful and I have a feeling a certain oil filter factory manager is having a good laugh from beyond the grave at what he managed to pull off getting the plans out! Better late than never after all.

As to efficiency though I am very interested. My main point in posting this article was something else entirelly though.

THe point of it is these guys have eked around 13 times the average gas mileage of a commuter car (epa estimated average for 2006 models being 21 mpg) with entirelly off the shelf technology!

Not only that but it is technology they are practically daring other people to work with. IN a few months worth of research I have found all of the necessary books tools and components you would need to build something like it in your garage!

On one small engine site I found a nice kubota 26 hp diesel engine for less than 3000 US dollars. Burt rutan's site has a link to buy a book that tells you everything you need to work with composites (kevlar carbon fiber and fiberglass) and resins even moldlessly. That book is less than 50 dollars, and on another site I found out what the general rules are for manufacturing getting a title and licensing your own home built vehicle.

IF people are interested in what I have found I will compile a resource for anyone who is interested. ALso people may want to check on the reprap project the other personal fabrication projects and also the open source car project.

In the meantime though feel free to send me anything and everything you can about new or supressed technology

Oh and here is another gem I have found... are you ready for this?

India is getting a PRODUCTION Air Car!! REmember how they say it can't be done... I guess the laws of physics are different in india. Ladies and gentlemen the dam is bursting and big oil ain't gonna hold back the wave much longer.


But what seriously troubles me is how little of these new developments are being acknowledged or even allowed to get to americans and europeans.

gizmag indian production air powerred car article!

The technology is out there, americans and europeans have the know how, what we can't do is assume corporate america will hand it to us all sparkly new with rough edges sanded off. They have proven their determination to drag their feet and serve as massive obstructions to true progress. Their efforts are half hearted and generally produce expensive limitted production jokes.

If we want it we need to do it ourselves, and I for one am absolutelly determined to use every avenue possible and to work with anyone who will work with me to see progress happen. I could care less whether I make a single dollar in the effort.

reply to post by roguetechie



While it's great technology, the car does not run on air air, but on compressed air. For America or europe to not acknowledging the tech: For starters, the company that developed the tech is located in Carros. That's located in...

MDI is a small, family-controlled company located at Carros, near Nice (Southern France) where Guy and Cyril Negre and their technical team have developed the engine technology and the technologically advanced car it powers. (from the article you linked)

Yep, that's Europe. If that wont shatter your "conspiracy", try MDI's news page.

Or how about a cnn reportage on the not acknowledged tech:



Give it some time and it'll hit worldwide. The question is, will it sell. Them cars aint your average "good lookin" suv's you know.

I'm afraid that as long as mega oil companies remain what there are in the world as we know it, new efficient technologies will keep on being suppressed.

reply to post by Allred5923


Your links are removed videos....
Any coment?

In response to the comments of D. wolf

I am aware of the fact that TATA motors uses a design for their air motor from a frenchman... as far as me saying it ran on air not just compressed air... you can choose to twist my words however you want...

But at the end of the day you should look into the california Ultra low emission vehicle initiative and why it's gone now...

To give you a hint big energy and the american automakers CRUSHED it... and they used the Department of Energy and the EPA to do it by getting the legislation by the state STRUCK DOWN because it "USURPED THEIR MANDATES"

if that doesn't give you pause then you might want to reevaluate the strategy of apologism that the educated in this country are doing on behalf of the CARTEL like interests doing their best to STIFLE progress in the western world.

Apologism on a national scale has a history of ending badly remember the 40's?

reply to post by roguetechie


I'd gladly own one. The only problem is that you're going to get people complaining that they don't have room to carry their #.

I just bought an older Honda motorcycle to supplement my car. I figure, once I get a license for the bike and all, I'll use it for short distance trips and keep the car for longer distance trips. Can't argue with 45mpg for the bike.

reply to post by roguetechie


I didn't twist your words, mere ad upon.

There might have been suppressing alternative tech but I think that back has been broken.

I have read into this airflower tech and don't see suppression. It just has to go a long way before it's consumer ready. Even then the western market (we the spoiled consumers) might not want to buy. India's auto market is in its infancy with lots of people never even having owned a car. That's a great market for the airflower, if tata can produce cheaply enough that is.

Europa is pushing towards more energy efficient tech. Subsiding innovations in that direction. Got me €5.5k taxcut and a follow up €1k/year taxcut for at least the next four years. That doesn't sound like suppressing to me. And that's just for a car that does 45 mile/gallon. (It should be able to go 60 miles/gallon, but only if I shift gears before the turbo kicks in and that's well.. no fun.)

Even then, it's a far cry from the 200+ miles per gallon you get from the aptera, but it's a start. The aptera is already on the market (Do suppressed tech's do that?). You might want to read into it at them website

I've considered one myself, but couldn't wait for it to actually hit the European market.

Currently Aptera 2e availability is limited to residents of California. We will work hard to bring this vehicle to the rest of the country and to international customers as soon as possible.

(from them website)

Might be the next car I buy, or maybe I buy me an airflower. Whatever it is going to be, it'll do much better than the 45 miles/gallon Mueslicar I drive now.

Because I and many consumers with me want it to.

While europe is advancing technologically at the consumer level the US is NOT.... you guys have dozens of choices of great off the shelf ultra light but functional vehicles (ford focus that gets 65mpg diesel) In the US they still actively work to keep anything that is truly revolutionary away from people and SUCCEED!!

It used to be that we in the US mocked the rules and regs euro citizens lived under but between Home owners associations and the Department of transportation etc we are basically only free if you consider freedom being ALLOWED to PICK which premade and corporate branded "option" you can afford to finance.

reply to post by roguetechie


Still I think the suppression is market driven. If Americans don't want to drive small efficient cars, they will not be produced in the US nor shipped in. I believe though that the US will make the shift towards the efficient cars eventually. Just a matter of time.

The aptera is going to get going only when enough people buy into it. It's up to the US consumers now. Though I am afraid that the strange, ultra efficient shape of the aptera will throw off a lot of potential buyers.

This is what Euopean 45 miles/gallon looks like.

Trade it for an aptera anytime.

Always wanted gull-wings doors

The diesel power pack ford focus that gets 65mpg would sell like no other here... (the Jetta TDI and AUDI's are FLYING off the lots every model year)

But they don't even offer the engine here...

Also ford developed a Hydraulic hybrid f150 that quadrupled fuel economy and would have added 500 to 1000 dollars to the base cost of an otherwise standard truck... People were going NUTS trying to find out when it was coming out... popular mechanics article came out in 2004

Ford stopped talking about it pulled down references to it and it's never been heard from again. And while people will say oh hydraulic hybrids are loud and etc... but this is the UNITED STATES... people buy brand new trucks on a DAILY BASIS and VOID factory warranties the same day to install glass packs and big exhausts that turn a low exhaust rumble to a Screaming ROAR! truck guys would love it!!

Oh and just for reference: it added a double digit horsepower and torgue gain at low end stop and start.

reply to post by roguetechie


Well, you seem to be right. All the good ones don't sell in the US. But then again, if you would want for example the fuel efficient vw polo bluemotion (2010s world green car.) It would cost slightly less than the GTI version. Without a push from your govt, it wont sell. I would have bought the gti version if I had to pay the full monty.

The pushing of consumers pulls in the manufacturers. The next step is all electic cars. If manufacturers want to survive in Europe, they have to jump the electric bandwagon, and they do.

I cant'see the US stay behind. And with the aptera (supported by your govt.) in it's arsenal, you don't.