Have you ever wanted a Segway scooter, but thought that having two wheels was one-to-many? Well ladies and gentlemen, here’s your solution. It’s called the RYNO Micro Cycle and it seeks to take transportation in an even weirder direction. The RYNO is for all intents and purposes, the worlds first electric production one-wheeled cycle. It employs a gyroscopic stabilizer to keep you pointed upwards and is said to be able to obtain speeds of 25 mph with a 30-mile range. Powered by a lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack, its recharge time is just an hour and a half. Not bad if you ask me. RYNO is not targeting the traditional scooter buyer, nor are they looking at the Segway customer. Instead their focus is for those who seek reliable green transportation with space saving capabilities.

It’s cool, but honestly this thing just screams FACE PLANT every time I look at it.

Source: Ryno Motors

Ever since I moved out to the West Coast I’ve been noticing a trend amongst those who drive hybrids and electric cars. For one, they’re generally more aggressive behind the wheel and two, they seem to feel that because they drive an economy car that this gives them the right to act like complete assholes on the open road. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been known to fracture an occasional traffic law from time to time, but these hybrid drivers, especially those who pilot the Toyota Prius, are in a class by themselves. On the highway for instance it’s more often than not that I see Prius drivers motoring at 80-85 mph through traffic. I’ve been flashed by them, tailgated by them and even flicked off by a few. I’ve also been chastised by owners while getting coffee for driving what they consider to be gas guzzling automobiles.

Back in NYC the Prius driver used these cars as they were intended – to get great economy. They drove them in a normal fashion and simply enjoyed their little hybrids. Out here in California though it’s almost as if owners used them as a way to be passive aggressive on the open road – “Yes of course I’m speeding and driving erratically, but I drive a Prius, so it’s ok…” Now I suppose I could be imagining this, but I highly doubt it. What I’m curious to know is, has anyone out there experienced a similar occurrence or am I the only one?

Infiniti's M35h runs at Britain's Santa Pod Raceway. Image: Infiniti

Mention the phrase “hybrid car” to most enthusiasts, and their eyes glaze over before they nod off to sleep. By definition, hybrid cars contain two propulsion systems, which makes them heavy and overly complex. Worse, most are built simply to get you from point “A” to point “B” using as little fuel as possible, so typical hybrids are slow, lumbering beasts with the acceleration of moped and the handling of an economy car, Carrying a load of bricks on the hood.

Infiniti wants to dispel that myth, so to commemorate the European launch of its M35h hybrid sedan, the automaker brought the car to Britain’s Santa Pod Raceway. There, officials from the Guinness Book of World Records certified the M35h as the “world’s fastest accelerating full hybrid.”

How fast was it? Fast enough to run from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 5.5 seconds, on its way to an average quarter mile time of 13.9 seconds, at just over 100 miles per hour. That’s not too shabby, especially when you consider that the M35h gets rated at 27 mpg city and 32 mpg highway; in fact, the M35h is quicker than Infiniti’s other six-cylinder M Series sedan, the 3.7-liter M37.

The M35h uses a high-torque electric motor in conjunction with its V-6 engine, so the combined power output is 350 horsepower. Electric motors make maximum torque at zero RPM, while internal combustion engines do not. Marrying the two, if done properly, ensures the best possible performance across all engine speeds. Even though hybrids are heavier than their gasoline-only counterparts, batteries and controller units can be positioned to offset the weight of the engine and transmission.

No one has built a no-compromise, all out hybrid sports car to date, but the Infiniti M35h is a step in the right direction. In fact, the Infiniti may be the first hybrid I’m looking forward to driving, because I’m pretty sure I can improve on that 13.9 time.

Source: Infiniti

Jaguar's C-X16 Concept. Image: Jaguar

I’ll come clean up front: I’m not a hybrid guy. If you’re a long-term reader, you already know this, but if you’re new to RideLust it might be the first time you’ve heard this. I’ve driven plenty of hybrids, but all of them to date have been built with an eye to fuel economy, not performance. In fact, hybrids add weight and complexity, two thing that tend to have a negative impact on acceleration, braking and even long-term reliability.

Image: Jaguar

Enter the Jaguar C-X16 Concept, which is set to make its official debut in Frankfurt next week. The exterior styling is jaw-dropping, and the car seems to blend elements of the Jaguar E-Type into its futuristic skin. Even the interior looks properly sporting, something that we haven’t seen from many Jaguars in recent years.

Image: Jaguar

Get to the powertrain, and things start to get particularly interesting. First up is a 3.0-liter supercharged V-6, good for 375 horsepower and mated to a eight speed automatic gearbox. Also mated to the gearbox is an electric motor good for an additional 94 horsepower, which gives the C-X16 some truly impressive acceleration. Zero to one hundred kph (62 mph) comes up in just 4.4 seconds, on the way to a top speed of 186 miles per hour. Better yet, the car’s battery pack is mounted behind the seats, giving it an ideal 50/50 weight distribution.

Image: Jaguar

The batteries are charged through a brake energy regeneration system, and the electric motor can be used to provide supplemental torque for sudden acceleration. Think “KERS” on a Formula 1 car, and you get the picture. If you want to focus on the environmentally friendly side of the C-X16, the car can be driven up to 50 miles per hour, for limited distances, on battery power alone.

Will Jaguar build the C-X16? It’s hard to say, since there’s a fair amount of “unobtainium” in the concept. Still, Jaguar has been looking to produce a smaller, less expensive sports coupe, and the styling of the C-X16 fits well with the rest of the family lineup. This is just a guess, but I suspect you’ll see the car hit production within the next three years. The final version may not be a hybrid, but I certainly hope it’s as sexy as the car in these images.

Source: Jaguar Land Rover

The Fisker Karma. Image: Fisker Automobile

The long awaited Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid is now in production, at least according to Britain’s Autocar webzine. The first car in America is set to be delivered at the end of this month, and the lucky owner is… Leonardo di Caprio. Next up on the delivery list are former presidential candidate and global warming town crier Al Gore and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Sometime after the celebrity deliveries are through, Fisker dealers will likely start to get demonstrator vehicles, too.

For now, Fisker claims to be building five Karmas per week at the Valmet Automotive plant in Finland. Valmet is set to ramp up production to 300 units per week by December, but even that production leaves the Karma sold out until sometime next year. Fisker claims to have some 3,000 pre-orders in the pipeline, but it remains to be seen how many will translate into actual sales. Nissan only closed around 50 percent of pre-orders for the Leaf, which cost considerably less than the Karma’s $95,900.

Source: Autoblog

The Fisker Karma. Image: Fisker

In the we-saw-this-coming-months-ago department, deliveries of the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid have been delayed for another month. Motor Authority says that initial deliveries of demonstration vehicles and customer cars will begin in July, but didn’t give any indication of quantities. Their source is Roger Ormisher, Fisker’s director of global communications, so even the July timeline may prove to be a bit optimistic.

The Karma has some impressive stats on paper, but missed deadlines and increasing prices have plagued the car from the start. According to Fisker, the Karma will run from zero to sixty in under six seconds and deliver a battery-only range of up to 50 miles. Beyond that, a range-extending generator powered by a 2.0-liter gasoline engine provides current for the car’s electric motors in a layout similar to the Chevy Volt. Unlike the Volt, the Karma has a top speed of 125 miles per hour and a body shape that’s best described as stunning. Also stunning is the Karma’s price tag, which has gravitated upwards from last year’s projection of $88,000 to a current list price of $95,900. Call me a cynic, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see further delays before we see dealer demo units on these shores.

Source: Motor Authority

Image: Gazoo Racing, via Autoblog

One of my press fleet cars for this week is Lexus’ new CT 200h hybrid. After spending a few days behind the wheel, I understand the car’s popularity. It’s well-appointed, supremely comfortable and not at all a bad choice for urban driving. Despite what Lexus’ ads would have you believe, it’s in no way, shape or form a sports car. Even in “Sport” mode, which calls up a tachometer instead of a power monitor and lights the dash in red, acceleration is best described as “leisurely”. The steering, however, is nicely weighted and the CT 200h is fairly nimble in the twisties. I’d even consider one if I had the type of commute I used to (110 miles a day in rush hour traffic), but I definitely wouldn’t consider building a race car for next year’s One Lap of America from a CT 200h.

That didn’t stop Gazoo Racing from building a CT 200h to run in last weekend’s six hour Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy at Germany’s Nürburgring. Built to compete in the S4 class, the Gazoo Racing CT 200h had a few minor improvements done to make it more competitive: first, the stock car’s 1.8 liter engine was yanked out, replaced by a higher horsepower 2.4 liter variant. The electric motor, controller and batteries were left alone, and the car did indeed run as a parallel hybrid. At start up and under regenerative braking, the car’s engine isn’t used, preserving fuel and reducing overall tailpipe emissions. There’s no word on how the CT 200h did overall, but I promise an update as soon as I can find the results.

Source: Autoblog

Some art transcends the human experience, elevates its viewers to a higher state of consciousness—the glory of the Sistine Chapel, the gaze of the Mona Lisa. This astounding tracked VW bus has launched my mind into the stratosphere, has changed my worldview. It’s a life-altering experience. And it’s for sale.

This appears to be a VW bus riveted to a 1945 M29 Weasel, a tracked military vehicle designed to traverse snow and, well, pretty much anything.

The conversion looks rushed, ill-conceived, and utterly brilliant. There’s rust. There are unshielded wires. There are razor-sharp bits of low-grade steel everywhere. And the whole thing has been camouflaged with rattle cans.

Thankfully, it comes with a fire extinguisher. Whether or not it actually works is questionable. Oh, and you steer it with those two sticks.

The M29 Weasel was built by Studebaker for service in WWII, which pins the needle on all the awesome gauges everywhere. It’s powered by a 70-horsepower, 196-cubic-inch, L-head inline six. It can cross a 36-inch ditch and roll over a 24-inch-tall barrier. It carries 35 gallons of fuel and can cruise for 196 miles. Top speed: 35 miles per hour. And it floats.

But here’s the thing: It looks like it trundled out of the VW factory this way. It all . . . just  . . fits.

This brilliant vehicle is for sale at Vehicle Liquidation in Littlerock, California. Price? Not listed. But can you really put a price on something so perfect, so beautiful?

Source: Vehicle Liquidation

P.S. – If any of you wish to purchase this gem and have it shipped to Central Oregon, I’d be more than willing to give it a good home.

Due out this fall is the new 2012 Buick Regal with eAssist, a new fuel saving technology that should boost the 2012 Regal’s fuel economy by 25%. By combining a lithium-ion battery system and electric induction motor-generator that works in conjunction with the Regal’s 2.4L Ecotec direct injection four-cylinder, Buick is predicting mileage figures of 26 city / 37 highway. For comparison the standard Regal without eAssist gets 19 city / 30 highway so the improvement we’re seeing is actually quite good. Quite honestly I have no idea why Buick isn’t calling this a hybrid, but I suppose that’s due to their marketing people as “eAssist” just sounds more fun. Aside from the additional mileage generated by the electric motor, eAssist also provides regenerative braking, automatic engine shut-off when the vehicle comes to a stop and improved under-body aerodynamics with tires optimized for performance and fuel economy. Buick has cars like the Acura TSX dead in its sights with the 2012 Buick Regal eAssist. In fact according to Tony DiSalle, vice president of Buick marketing,

“Buick’s eAssist technology means customers don’t have to trade a premium driving experience for efficiency”.

Having driven both the Regal CXL and CXL Turbo I can tell you that it’s a beautifully made automobile that offers great styling and features. As for the performance on the new eAssist – I’ll reserve my judgment on that until I actually drive one.

Source: GM.com

Today’s automobiles are packed with so much technology that frankly it’s a bit overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all wonderful stuff, but man oh man are our cars becoming advanced. In fact our cars are so complicated now that basic tinkering is almost impossible. I remember a time when you could open a cars hood and know immediately what everything did. Things like the alternator, power steering pump, brake booster, plug wires… these were all things that could be fixed and or dealt with in ones own garage. Nowadays though even something as simple as an oil change or brake job can be a hassle. Hell, the only reason to open the hood now is just to make sure the engine didn’t fall out. These are no longer fully mechanical machines like their predecessors were, and as such, they require very special equipment when it comes to diagnosing and fixing any issues. Technicians nowadays are not what most would consider the typical “grease monkey”, but highly skilled individuals who operate multi-million dollar equipment on a daily basis.

Just think about this for a moment – a basic modern car has at least 30 ECU’s which control the different functions of the automobile. Things like remote start, power door locks and alarm systems all have separate modules. Now bring into the mix advanced braking and ignition systems, throttle-by-wire and computer controlled suspension and well, you can see how things can get complicated very quickly. Many drivers take these things for granted as most of these systems are transparent. For those of us that are into the technology though, lets just say that watching the automobile evolve is simply extraordinary. I look at my old hot rods that are now ancient relics with their old school carburetors and distributors. Then I think of new cars like the Chevrolet Volt and wonder how much farther are we going to go. What will cars look like in 40 or 100 years and how will our modern infrastructure have to change to accommodate them. This is an exciting time to be a car enthusiast, because right now the automobile is going through a renaissance, it’s just that you have to look very closely to catch it.