Gas 2.0

Some automakers can’t make up their minds. Or maybe they just like confusing the public. Such is the case with Porsche, which has been playing a back-and-forth game with the whole hybrid 911 idea. First they dangle it out in front of the public, hinting that maybe they are making a hybrid and spy photographers grabbed pictures of what seemed to be a hybrid Porsche 911 last summer.

Then Porsche CEO Micheal Macht comes out and says no, Porsche will not make hybrid versions of the 911 or Boxster.

Now Porsche says they have a flywheel-electric-hybrid 911 GT3 race car to show off at the 2010 Geneva car show. Oh Porsche, how you toy with our heartstrings.

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Porsche will not build hybrid versions of the 911 and Boxster, according to CEO Michael Macht.

While the company will make a hybrid Cayenne, they have no interest in altering their sports car lineup. Enthusiasts can now breathe a sigh of relief. The Cayenne SUV and the 4-door Panamera have been a sore subject amongst Porsche purists.

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No doubt many of you have read or heard about David Nichol’s woodgas F-150. I came across it during a media hailstorm a few months ago (which has since petered out). But while I was doing research on the One-Gallon Challenge, I saw that David’s truck was going to be participating. I gathered up my camera and notepad and my best friend (who I sort of tricked into coming) and took the drive to Greenfield Mass. last Wednesday night to get a look at this truck, and other fuel-sippers in person.

I learned a whole lot more than I bargained for.

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Hand-built, eco-modified, and wood-powered cars raced across the Bay State this weekend driving 100 miles on just a single gallon of fuel. Aptly named the One Gallon Challenge, the event was part of a four-day long festival in Boston that celebrated clean technologies. Welcome to GreenFest 2009!

Garage-Built Car Gets 105 MPG, Cost $2,500 To Build

Frustrated with the price of filling up his Toyota, Jory Squibb built the Moonbeam. It has been to the Altwheels Festival in Boston twice and has traveled over 10,000 miles. It is powered by a 150 cc gas engine and carries two passengers “if they are on good terms,” he says.

Global warming. Climate change. The greatest threat to continued human survival. The rhetoric these days can be awfully scary regarding new energy and oil. Sometimes it feels like we’ve all been doomed already by a hyper-active media always looking for the “next big story” to terrify us with. But I don’t really take anything seriously, so I am always on the lookout for a fun twist on a real problem.

What could be fun about climate change, you ask? Well, besides the fact that my home might end up as beach front property one day if we don’t mend our sins, how about a race? One that challenges contestants to go 100 miles on a single gallon of gas? That is the goal of the One-Gallon Challenge, where six contestants and their very different vehicles have to make the journey from Greenfield, MA to Boston in three hours using as little fuel as possible.

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A Japanese professor has showcased an electric car capable of reaching a blistering 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4 seconds, quicker than a Porsche 911 .

The Eliica, created by Prof. Hiroshi Shimizo of Keio University, can also reach a phenomenal top speed of 370 km/h (270 mph), powered by li-ion batteries via 100 hp electric motors in each of its eight wheels.

Shimizo is understandably proud of his creation, telling reporters, “The feeling of acceleration you get with this model is something automotive technology could not produce, even in a hundred years of combustion engine cars.”

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You look west to see a barren landscape, tumbleweed breezing lazily through the charred remains of a forest.  The rust laden skeleton of what used to be a city echoes the promise of a future long gone.  You are fighting out your days amidst gunfire and tribal warfare in armor composed of animal fur and long deserted hockey pads.  Ironically water isn’t the most important liquid on the planet that spins where the Earth once spun.  You begin to wash the grease smears off your face in a shallow pool…

…oh wait, am I jumping the gun here?

While our gas crises hasn’t quite reached ‘Mad Max’ proportions yet, things are close enough that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers will make this September “Green Check-Up Month.” After countless years of making oversized and inefficient autos, Ford and Chevy are now going to tell us how to save gas.

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