Friday, 21. December 2007

1 Gallon of Gas, 100 Miles — $10 Million: The Race to Build the Supergreen Car


Standing on the roof of a boxy old Buick, Kevin Smith has a great view of the vast boneyard at Kertow Auto Salvage, outside Taylorville, Illinois. He's here looking for the key to America's super-fuel-efficient future. "Found it," he says to me, spying a cluster of mid- to late-'90s Dodge Neons in the middle distance. He stomps down off the trunk and, followed by three buddies, converges on 11 promising carcasses. They pick through gaping engine compartments and weedy wheel wells, searching for an intact manual transmission — its rudimentary design should be easy to fit to Smith's custom-fabricated hybrid engine. "The geometry has already been engineered," he says. "There's no need to reinvent the wheel."

wired.com

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