The AMP is not your normal conversion car. It has some power. It goes from 0-60 in 5.7 seconds. It runs like a beast. Accelerates and goes up to 90 MPH, roughly the speed of a Toyota Prius. It’s extremely sexy and yet affordable.

It is using Lithium Iron Phospate batteries. These cells are the safest lithium battery available and offer high rates of discharge and long life cycles. It’s roughly 95% energy efficient.

You do have to purchase the Saturn Sky first, but the conversion will only cost you around 25k dollars. This is an affordable option to the more popular and yet pricey Tesla.

A Popsci contributor had an experiment. Test out Honda’s Natural Gas Powered Vehicle then sell it on Ebay. His results are an eye opener.

I did some research, and found that compressed-natural-gas vehicles are fetching big premiums online in places like Utah and Oklahoma where natural-gas prices are ridiculously low—as low as 60-cents per gallon. When I listed the car on eBay, it sold three days later to someone in Oklahoma for $18,600, about $4,000 more than what I paid for the car when I purchased it from Honda less than a year before, and $2,000 above its Kelley Blue Book value. (The sale price to me reflected various state and federal tax incentives that Honda took when they owned it.)

Who’d have thought that the highest-performing investment of my entire year would be a used Honda Civic? We loved owning the car, and will miss its greenest-car-on-earth cache. But we realized that living five miles from work is probably better for the environment than living 65 miles from work, no matter what you drive.

Source: PopSci

David Pogue of the NY Times had something to say about the rising gas prices. Be thankful your not running on one of these liquids:

Lipton Iced Tea, 16 oz @ $1.19 = $9.52 per gallon

Diet Snapple, 16 oz @ $1.29 = $10.32 per gallon

Gatorade, 20 oz @ $1.59 = $10.17 per gallon

Ocean Spray, 16 oz @ $1.25 = $10.00 per gallon

Toyota Iswing-Concept - The top video clips of the week are here

The Toyota iSwing is an experimental single passenger vehicle developed by Toyota. The vehicle’s innovative quality is that it can recline from a standing position for faster travel.

Toyota engineers are trying to revolutionize travel with new technologies that merge transportation on a personal level with commuter transportation. Imagine a personal vehicle fit for each human that needs transportation.

I believe this is going to be a far better solution that sweating over prices at the pump.

If big cars were the wave of the last generation this generation present and future will surely shift to smaller cars. Take a look at this tiny concept car, called the M-112. Small it is, but small has been proven to be safe if designed correctly and get amazing gas mileage and still be fast and sporty.

As part of the EcoCustom Team that took part in the last Shell Eco Marathon 2008 in France, the Spanish designer set out to prove that super-duper small car design does not have to be comical or embarrassing.

Source: Yanko Design

I took a detour today into the archives of Flickr. I found some amazing photos of cars from eras ago. Particularly interesting and awe inspiring to me are the photos and other images from Fine Cars photostream.

This image was not taken from the Fine Cars stream, but is equally awe inspiring.

There are a lot of smart web developers out there. One caught my eye today while I was doing some research.

Cars For A Grand

This site utilizes the ebay affiliate program to rake in cash from unsuspecting searchers looking for cars. Collecting byte sized accumulations of cash that add up.

I must say I hope the site does well, and I hope this guy realizes that we here at Ridelust are a bit jealous this guy thought of the idea first.

WARNING:PaRoDy

The 33 drivers participating in last Sunday’s 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 were distracted by sky-high gas prices, which rose three times during the race, causing several crashes and an exceedingly high number of caution flags.

After Ryan Briscoe clipped Danica Patrick’s car in pit row on Lap 171, Patrick exited her car in a fit of rage. Instead of confronting Briscoe, she made an aggressive beeline toward her refueling crew to give them a piece of her mind.

Track sources say that earlier in the race, Patrick’s Citgo card had been declined for being over the limit during a routine pit stop. Patrick nearly ran out of gas before her crew was able to cobble together the $584 required to fill her IndyCar’s 35-gallon tank for another 28 laps of racing.

“I’m just the fuel guy; I don’t set the prices!” said Gianni Cutri, the head of Patrick’s three-member refueling team as he ran to hide in an opposing team’s garage.

While this is just funny, the truth of the matter is gas prices have risen 20 straight days with no end in sight, topping 4 dollar a gallon in so many places that now all of a sudden Electric Cars to some is an inexpensive future.

At this rate, people won’t be lusting after any cars, except hybrids and electrics.

Source: Free Associated Pressvia Michelle Miller

Hybrid Technologies is creating a super car that will make the Corvette Lovers in all of us drool. On top of that it will make Prius owners jealous because of it’s amazing efficiency. Limited information is available about this supercar. But it’s got me really excited.

Hybrid Technologies is working on a car coming in two flavors—all electric and hybrid. With the electric, they promise a 150 to 180-mile range per charge. With the lithium-ion hybrid, they promise a 220mpg minimum.

Those specs would be impressive in a golf cart.

But the most compelling part of it all is the alleged performance. Popular Mechanics asked Hybrid Technologies if their car could compete with the Corvette ZR-1 and its crazy V8 that induces mid-600s-scale horsepower. The company responded that they were “way out of the ballpark—it’s gonna be wild.”

For more information on Hybrid Cars check out our Hybrid Car Guide.

Source: Gizmodo

The concept of flying cars is one that has enamored me since I was a kid. I believe the movie I saw that sparked this was Back To The Future. I’m sure this will be the first choice for all of who have ever been stuck in traffic in New York. Where is my flying taxi already?

The Avcen Jetpod T-100 is a proposed flying taxi, a VQSTOL (Very Quiet Short Take-Off and Landing) vehicle that, if you believe the company that wants to produce it, could be airborne by 2010.

It would be used as a transporter for groups of people between city centers and outlying areas such as airports rather than as a replacement for regular cars. That’s a good thing, as I wouldn’t trust most people behind the wheel of a small plane. But with a certified pilot, this could reduce congestion and make getting out of town a much easier affair. I’m skeptical, but we’ll see how this pans out.

Source: Dvice