[Recovering_Democrat]

Amazing how capitalism works, isn't it? This was built without Congressional or Governmental mandate--and if there is a market for such a car, it'll sell.

I wonder why the environmentalists aren't saying Volkswagon's engineers are being threatened with death by Exxon and Standard Oil.

[RightWhale]

This vehicle wouldn't even finish its first litre before it was run over by a tailgater getting to a K-Mart bluelight [all the time] special.

[general_re]

[Sacajaweau]

Weight: 588 lbs

Let's see you hit another car with that thing.

Good Bye

Sac

[Lev]

http://www.vwvortex.com/news/04_02/04_17/front2.jpg:

[COBOL2Java]

You forgot the photo:

[KarlInOhio]

I think you can fit three of these in the wheel well of a typical US SUV.

[martin_fierro]

FOOEY!

[COBOL2Java]

Yeah, but can you pick up chicks with it?

[Centurion2000]

So basically this is an enclosed 2 man motorcycle.

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[Dead Corpse]

8.5 horsepower? My lawmower has more HP than that.

Find me one of these:

If only they could make one that got decent Miles Per Gallon, instead of Gallons Per Mile.

[Johnny Gage]

As a firefighter, I wouldn't even go near this car once it started burning, especially with all the magnesium in it.

About the only thing I'd do is to order a dumptruck load of sand to be poured over it to smother it.

Time Out: 16:40
KMG-365

[Dan Day]

In fact, he's not terribly specific about performance, other than to say that top speed exceeds 70 mph and that it's "not very quick in accelerating."

I'll bet that's an understatement...

Hmm, let's see... Using the figures they give for it, and for the Miata, the Miata has 4.12 times the horsepower-per-pound rating as the "1-liter" car.

That means this thing will accelerate about as fast as a Mazda Miata which is towing three other (dead) Miatas behind it...

[snopercod]

This is a better way to travel in style:

[medved]

One thing I've ridden recently which this one reminds me of a little is a Kawasaki 250 KLR on-off road bike. The 250, surprisingly, had more than adequate power for any rational purpose, including cruising on the highway at 70, and got somewhere between 70 and 100 mpg. I mean, we were out for three hours or thereabouts in Moab and the things barely used a gallon of gas apiece.

[Post Toasties]

The engine produces a thundering 8.5 horsepower and weighs only 57 pounds.

Don't know about the rest of the car, but this isn't very impressive. A normally aspirated Ford small block has no problem approaching 1hp/lb.

[Grampa Dave]

This should be the only vehicle that the whining enviralists are allowed to drive.

One car per enviralists.

It has to last them a lifetime. Which might be really short on our highways.

[Timm]

Getting absurdly high mileage from an enclosed vehicle doesn't require technological innovation. The exotic materials on the car in this car actually make only a relatively small difference at the margins.

Consider that a cheap motorcycle can carry two passengers at about 70 mpg with no modifications. Consider that _bicycles_ can be made with fiberglass fairings that can be pedaled over 70 mph. (Air resistance is by far the largest source of drag for land vehicles at road speeds. Reducing this drag would shoot up the mileage of a motor vehicle enormously.) So, to make a very efficient car, one could reduce the size of a small motorcycle engine considerably, design a frame that places the passengers in seated tandem position, reduce the height of the vehicle above the ground, add a two-wheel front axle, and then cover the thing in a plastic or fiberglass bubble. None of this requires exotic materials and could provide a vehicle that would surely get well over 150 mpg and could get close to 200 mpg.

But no such vehicles are made because gas is cheap. That is the important fact, not the state of present materials technology or aerodynamics. If people ever drive these project cars it will be because the government _makes_ them, not because these vehicles "finally" become available from commercial manufacturers. And environmentalists know this.

Whether we should be made to get into such cars is the real question. But this question the environmentalists avoid since they realize that the overwhelming answer from the citizenry would be "no". So, for now, we occasionally get green-leaning news articles about clever ways researchers are trying to "solve" the problems of low fuel economy for passenger vehicles. That, at least, will leave people with the impression that there is a problem, and that we have to solve it somehow. *Sigh*

[Puddleglum]

If I get so monsterously fat that I won't fit in it, can I sue someone? Or can I sue that I don't get the same MPG as a slim person? Southwest Airlines should branch out and make these...

[Redcloak]

Interesting... but what happens when it get hit by an Expedition doing 70 MPH in the opposite direction? Does it come with a squeegee?