RideLust

It’s simply amazing what can be accomplished with a little ingenuity, an HD camera and an iPhone. Members of the Brooklyn Space Program wanted to see what it would be like to record the ascent of a weather balloon as it reached the upper edges of the Earths atmosphere. What is also remarkable is how simple a task it actually was for them to gain access to some of the most amazing HD footage that you are likely to see this side of the Discovery Channel. Click play an prepare to be amazed.

Source: Devour.com

My brother in law lives near West Palm Beach, FL, and every summer he does the trek to the family cabin outside of Traverse City, MI. It’s about 1,525 miles each way, and if he owned a VW Passat BlueMotion diesel, he could make the trip without stopping for fuel. If, that is, the Passat BlueMotion diesel were available in the United States.

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External combustion engines are nothing new, and there was a time when steam powered cars were as popular as gasoline powered cars. The convenience, low maintenance and superior performance of the internal combustion engines eventually killed steam powered vehicles. If Cyclone Power Technologies has their way, however, steam powered vehicles may be making a comeback.

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Ever go to the store and see a can of octane booster on the shelf. I know I have and I’ve even been known to purchase a can from time to time. In the back of my mind though I always wondered if it actually did anything, either good or bad. Some people say that if your running low-octane fuel in a higher compression engine that this stuff will in fact raise your octane level, while others say they’ve felt massive gains in performance. For the most part though I think we want to feel justified in our minds because we just spent $8 on a can of the stuff. I recently found this video done by the UK’s Fifth Gear TV show where they put four of the major brands of octane/power boosters to the test and I must say that the results surprised even me.

Photo: Wired

I first told you about the Solar Impulse solar powered aircraft here, shortly after the project had completed a successful flight. I’m happy to say that the project is progressing as scheduled, with the team recently completing a 26 hour flight tto test the planes battery power for night flight.

Pilot André Borschberg took off from a Swiss airstrip at 7:00 AM local time. After climbing to the plane’s maximum ceiling of 28,097 feet, Borscchberg spent the day charging the planes lithium ion batteries via the 12,000 solar cells atop the aircraft’s wings. By nightfall, the batteries were fully charged and Borschberg spent the night slowing descending from maximum altitude.

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Do you suffer from an irrational fear of the end of the world? Do you want the ability to bugout from your dugout in any kind of weather? Is a lifted Jeep Wrangler with 35” tires not manly enough for you? Then hold the phone, because I’ve just spotted your next ride on BangShift.

What you see here is a customized 1972 deuce and a half. It runs on 53” tires and rocks a Hercules 465 multi-fuel turbo diesel motor. What does it run for fuel? What do you have? The owner claims to have run it on used motor oil, used transmission fluid, biodiesel, used gear oil and plain old diesel. You could probably just pick stuff up off the Gulf of Mexico beaches, cram it in the tank and run with it. At 33,000 miles and 2,300 hours, this motor’s barely broken in.

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Toyota drove this fuel cell powered Highlander from Alaska to Vancouver in 2007.

In an attempt to generate some good press for the troubled automaker, Toyota has announced that they will bring to market a hydrogen powered sedan in 2015. Perhaps the most surprising revelation was the projected cost of approximately $50,000, or that fact that Toyota claims such a product will be profitable. Previously, hydrogen fueled vehicles had been prohibitively expensive, costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to manufacture. Major automakers, including Ford, Renault / Nissan and GM have abandoned their hydrogen car development efforts in favor of electric and hybrid car programs, whose technology is both more mature and more affordable.

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The initial track testing phase of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize vehicles has begun at Michigan International Speedway. This video, courtesy of Consumer Reports, gives a good overview of what the competition is all about. Unfortunately, there isn’t all that much footage of cars testing, but some things are clear: the Aptera may be fuel efficient, but it doesn’t handle worth a damn and the Tango (the extremely narrow orange car in the video) really can back its claim of a four second zero to sixty time.

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Photo: American Honda Motor Company

If you want to buy a Honda Civic powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), you need to live in California, New York, Utah or Oklahoma. If you’re going to relocate just to buy a Civic GX, Oklahoma may have just made your “which state to choose” decision a little easier. A state tax credit of up to $7,500 is offered to anyone who buys a CNG vehicle, and Oklahoma is seriously ramping up CNG fueling stations over the next several years.

Since the Feds already kick in $4,000 towards the purchase of a CNG vehicle, your final net price for a Civic GX in Oklahoma could be as low as $13,840 (the Civic GX has a sticker price of $25,340). Drive a new Civic for the cost of a used one and save the planet at the same time? Sounds like a good option to me.

Source: Tax credit incentivizes Honda to retail CNG-fueled Civic GX in Oklahoma

The Zap Alias, one of 32 vehicles in contention.

Sooner or later, any comparison between vehicles comes down to this: it doesn’t matter how good it looks on paper, you’ve got to back that up with performance on the race track. So it goes for competitors vying for Progressive Insurance’s Automotive X Prize, a massive promotional effort to highlight alternative fuel and green car technology. The payout for the winners is a shared purse of $10 million, plus the international notoriety that will come with grabbing the title. We’ve previously told you about teams such as RaceAbout Association and OptaMotive, but there are a total of 32 teams in the competition. Some, like Tata Motors, have the full backing of a parent with deep pockets. Others, like RaceAbout and OptaMotive are working on shoestring budgets.

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