Green Rod: 600 HP Natural Gas Powered Hot Rod
Many of the advancements made through racing and hot rodding have been passed down to the passenger car segment. Nothing quite stimulates innovation like pushing a vehicle to its limits. AFVTech, an alternative-fuels conversion company, is building a compressed natural gas (CNG) hot rod based on the classic ‘33 Ford coupe.
Equipped with a hand built LS7 engine (the same motor found in the Z06 but massaged to run on higher-octane CNG), AFVTech expects their Green Rod to make 600 horsepower.
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Aside from the alternative-fuel source and Corvette engine, this ‘33 coupe replica will be getting many of the modern amenities we’ve come to expect in our cars including four-wheel disc brakes with ABS and traction control for when the ride gets squirrely, as well as drive-by-wire engine management. I would expect plenty of other features like power windows, air conditioning, etc. to be offered as well. The car is set to debut at the AFVI show in Las Vegas in May of 2010.
AFVTech has been in the alt-fuel game for some time now. Their previous work includes hydrogen and natural gas injection systems with Ford, and a wind-to-hydrogen project that uses wind turbines to provide hydrogen gas.
Source: Green Car Advisor | AFVTech
You don’t really need to “massage” the engine to bump up the power. Quite frankly CNG and LPG have been used in drag racing cars since the late 60’s & early 70’s…
The keys are compression and timing… shave the heads and bring up the compression, use an on board computer management system to control the timing and the deal is sealed.
Anyway, not trying to argue here, that is one slick roadster, I’d love to have one… champagne wishes on a light beer budget.. LOL
Green Rodding is awesome. Anybody can make a 1,000 horsepower these days with enough money…but can you make a 1,000 horsepower with decent gas mileage? Now that is a challenge…