Young expects the 19-foot-long car to get 100
mpg after it is converted to a biodeisel hybrid.
Posted on 11/20/2007 11:43:00 AM PST by F15Eagle
WITCHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor.
Car buffs may think it's sacrilege to tear apart an automotive classic, but Young wants it to have a new life as a fuel-efficient hybrid.
"If we're going to make a difference, truly make cars more environmentally friendly," Young said, "we have to make that emotional connection."
Young said everyone has a connection with an old car like the Lincoln.
It only took about an hour for Johnathan Goodwin and his four-man team to pry the engine out of Young's Lincoln. He'll have the new engine installed in 45 days. Watch Goodwin show off a biodesel hotrod »
Talking about the old motor, Goodwin says, "Of course, it's not fuel efficient at all. It's a big polluter, one of the biggest rawest forms."
The Lincoln's new electric engine will power the car and when it begins to lose juice, Young will simply flip a switch and the car will run on biodiesel fuel until the electric motor is recharged. "A 19-foot-long car, the longest car ever made at its time. Two and half tons, the heaviest car at its time," Young said, "And it can get 100 miles to the gallon, not 10 miles to the gallon."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
100mpg? Seems a bit optimistic though on electric and bio-diesel but would like to hear what the final figures actually are.
Neal Young lives in Wichita?
This guy will have his own show on DiscoveryChannel,etc. I bet
It is kind of cool but the guy is an idiot. Oh well, if he wants to spend his own money to “save the earth” let him do it.
Highest torque at 0 rpm. Nothing beats electric off the line.
They’ve oversimplified to the point of falsehood, here. It’s a hybrid, and the engine is not your garden variety diesel, it’s a turbine, only run for seconds at a time, to charge the battery pack.
When he tours using a bio diesel, I’ll be impressed. The fact is most likely he runs that caddy a couple of times a year, when he’s not touring.
Basically, this story is a ‘beard’ to cover the huge carbon footprint Neil Young’s concerts, travel, and roadies create 70 times per year, on multiple continents.
You'll get better fuel economy from being flamed, that Goodwin will ever get from a vehicle. You'll see him in jail, long before you will ever see him get 100 mpg from his cars.
That would be pretty cool.
“Expect to hear a lot more about Goodwin in the future.”
$20 says I never hear about him again.
The car is cool, Neil Young is a douchebag. He’s one of those imports Canada should apologize for.
Where’s the turbine from? Is it an off-the-shelf?
Boy, would I ever love to have a 1959 Lincoln.
I have a 1967 GTO and a 1940 Lincoln Continental. I don’t forsee replacing the original drivetrains in either one of them to save the planet from Global Warming.
“Young expects the 19-foot-long car to get 100
mpg after it is converted to a biodeisel hybrid.”
But because of years of drug use and boozing, Young’s estimations have been known to be off a bit.
I’m relying on memory, from a previous article on this Goodwin guy. Whether it’s off-the-shelf per se, I don’t recall, but I believe they’re used in helicopters.
430 Cubic In. 350 HP Nice!
I hope he will remember a southern man don’t need him around anyhow.
I am kind of an anti-environmentalist (at least for the warming part) but the work this guy is doing is very cool. I have read about him in several different publications, he has a hummer he put a diesel in and it gets like 60 mpg on used cooking oil. I think he is on the right track with his stuff.
One TV show they had a truck that ostensibly had the turbine from an OH-6 attack / observation helicopter.
Just like the one on the old “Magnum, P.I.” series.
I could be wrong but wasn't there a recent report stating that Biodiesel actually pollutes more than gasoline?
LOL
It would be cool to get this going and tell the Saudis, and Chavez and Ahmadnutjob we no longer care about oil. We could get all we needed for aircraft from the Gulf and Alaska.
My dad had a 1959 Lincoln MKIV. It was a 4-door hardtop. It had 430 cubes, leather interior and air conditioning. The car weighed over 4000 lbs, was real comfortable to drive, and could cruise 100 mph all day long. The A/C would freeze you, even during the summer in Southern AZ. It was one hell of a car!
I never cared for the late-fifties "Atomic Age" styling, with the slanted headlights. Buick, Chrysler and others did it better, and even those are peculiar. '56 was a great year for Lincoln styling, as was '61. The only '59 Lincoln that doesn't look completely psychotic to me would be the convertible, which this apparently is. The back-slanted rear glass isn't nearly so pronounced, due to the soft top.
I was stuck behind a car that was burning some kind of vegetable oil. I almost hurled. It smelled like rancid tacos.
He’s been on the weekend radio car show. He could end up with a major deal with GM.
LOL I’m with you. LOL
What a load of HORSE PUCKEY! Sorry to flame you here, but how much energy did it take to make that engine that he is tossing out or selling? See my point? He’s ripping out hundreds of pounds of steel and rubber and ceramics and the like . . . all of which cost huge amounts of energy to make and then work . . . in the name of conservation.
Man what torque that thing had. But alas...Torque is NOT cheap.
![](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:R8sR7daexSBGmM:www.ted-kyte.com/3D/Pictures/Spark%2520Plug.jpg";)
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....
I=E/R.............
It’s his money and his car. And we’re free to laugh at him.
That’s all fine and dandy but what’s the bottom line here? The bottom line is you still have a polluting vehicle that is likely far too expensive to maintain, not to mention build, for 90% of the nation.
WAY too early in this technology to even see any benefits other than the coolness factor. Even they guy doing the work states it is NOT cost effective.
Perhaps. And yet, nothing at all would get done unless folks tried to do it the first time.
Go for it, I say.... There's a tremendous, and likely long-lasting financial incentive for this sort of stuff. Technological improvements will probably come a lot quicker than we expect.
None of that matters. Selling cars matters. Chevy is doing the hybrid treatment to the Silverado, GM stock has been talked way down, somebody is going to make his nut over this.
Everybody’s been making light of GM’s “mild hybrid” but the cost-benefit equation works out much better than, say, a Prius or something equally pricey. Modestly improved mileage for a modest cost, with far less mechanical complexity sounds like a low-key route to success, to me.
“somebody is going to make his nut over this.”
Or lose his ass. I see your point but right now it’s a fad. I just see the American people forced to pay more for the same because car companies jumped the gun on this to cash in on the latest marketing campaign, “Go green”.
Personally, I’m already sick of the fraudulent concept of “green” and have no desire to feed the beast. These folks will not be happy until the days of cheap reliable personal transportation are gone. There is one constant about being “green”. It is as expensive as hell.
“I was stuck behind a car that was burning some kind of vegetable oil. I almost hurled. It smelled like rancid tacos.”
Horrible!
My dad bought a green one. The back inward-slanting window went down with the a push of a button, just like the other windows. A beautiful monster of an automobile.
Well, it suffered a better fate than those caught up in the 70s gas crunch.
My brother was an insurance adjuster then and said you be amazed at how many of those gas-guzzlers had “mysterious” engine fires that totaled the vehicle.
On most of them the smell of kerosene was heavy as the owners just tossed a bucket of the stuff into the engine compartment and followed up with a match.
My brother told the insurance companies that these were frauds but the companies preferred to pay off rather than go through a lawsuit. They even paid off when one yahoo threw gas in the back seat, lit her up, and then claimed an “engine fire”.
Interesting. I had a car catch on fire once while driving. It threw a rod but I didn’t know what happened, just saw smoke come up the hood seems.
Jumped out having pulled the hood lever from inside. COULD NOT find my fire extinguisher (I always carried one) so tried what I thought was 50-50 antifreeze and garden hose water from the trunk.
It wasn’t. It was 100% antifreeze. doused part of the fire but started about a dozen more little ones where the anitfreeze burned. Found the dry chemical extinguisher and two shots - poof - engine was completely out.
It never burned the hood and I guess the grease and oil coating the engine were on fire (plus probably oil sprayed on the exhaust headers). A guy on the other side of the freeway saw the fire (at night) and called 911.
By the time the trucks got there, highway patrol was there and they doused the engine. I told the fireman I put out the fire. He said “YOU put out the fire????”. I’m like yeah, just point the exinguisher and shoot, LOL.
Had it towed home and the engine started right up (rough though). So sent it to the mechanic, told him of the fire, and to report any fire damage. Insurance guy looked at it and said there was no fire. The mechanic said I can’t lie to them. I said who is asking you to lie? Report the damage. He said you got a rod through oil pan and the insurance guy said there never was a fire (fire truck doused the engine with water after they got there). I said, there most assuredly was a fire, because I fought it. And a guy on the other side of the freeway called the Fire Department (duh!). Wound up buying a used engine.
Yeah, the 56-57 Lincoln Mark II’s were my faves as well. Classic.
A few seconds to charge the batteries? What kind of charger and battery do you think exists?
The Mark II was gorgeous, but even the Lincoln Premier was beautiful for that one year, 1956. Very sleek, even the four door post, but especially the coupe. Messed it up for ‘57, though. Over-chromed, stacked quad headlights, just lost the proportions on it and covered it with doo-dads. It went from excess to excess from there, until ‘61, when Elwood Engel chucked all the frippery and came out with the Continental, which actually was a competing design for the ‘58 Thunderbird originally, that was not accepted. Add the famous suicide doors, and voila. Engel left in ‘61, went over to Chrysler, and was responsible for some beautiful designs there as well, most notably the Chrysler Turbine concept.
I suggest you direct your query to Mr. Goodwin, who makes the claim.
Maybe - but it would be our pollution not the saudis which makes it better pollution :)
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