The next X-Prize Challenge: a 250-MPG car?

An idea that I have seen similar versions of discussed before, but here is a link to an article on CBS News that I saw today about creating a 250 MPG car as the next X-Prize Challenge.

One little snippet from the article:



Sounds like a good plan to me. Also, for the metric system using folks, 250 miles per gallon = 106.2859... kilometers per liter (conversion)

I'm working on it but how do you compensate for the Kw Hours that are offsetting the fuel demand?

Energy is still energy and while I am building a solar PV array for charging the batteries I don't plan on all the juice to come from that source. I am also planning on putting HPV calories into the mix. If it is by a single power source engine then I doubt this is achievable with present day fuels and tech.

I will get a picture up tomorrow of a tandem electric mountain bike that I now have operational and in testing here in hill country. Electric hub motors are out there and remarkably efficient. However I am witnessing a really tight set of limits around the problem of diminishing returns with respect to weight and range.

Current battery tech is very expensive too if you try to go beyond lead acid and if you try and use high end materials to reduce the weight, the machine can rapidly equal a Lexus in price. Here for example is model very similar to the one I am working on in principle out of Europe that would sell for $10K here in the states according to their price list. But is very cool.

It is a hybrid human/electric all weather moped trike called the Aerorider.
http://www.aerorider...uct.php?lang=en
Aerorider gallery

Real world view

Here is one that has some interesting but over priced solar PV collectors that I would love to adapt to other designs.
http://www.therapypr..._sunnybike.html

I am intending to make the skin of the recumbent trike I am building a solar PV collector but that is to augment not act as the primary power source or even charger. I am still waiting for nanotech to actually increase amorphous semiconductor tech to even 50% efficiency and actually lower the price of collectors in the market. Currently efficiency is 15% or lower for PV cells.

Oh maybe this link will work to see the tandem before the battery pack arrived.
http://images.tribe....69-dd84b212ea9c

Hey you have to start somewhere right?

For me it is not only building the machines it is getting back in training. I think that 250 MPG can be achieved by burning calories or at least a massive nationwide liposuction program for producing a biodiesel additive. [tung]

BTW I did notice that announcement the other day. I hope it acts as an incentive.

here I found an example that will post in our format of the aerorider.



I want to take this design basically a little farther to make a two seat version that approaches this tech coming out of Canada.



We need to do more than just to introduce competition as an incentive IMHO, we need to make alternative tech and efficiency sexy. I don't want to just make 250 mpg I think we should do it in vehicles that look like Lamborghinis.



BTW this vehicle design is really called the T-Rex and it is produced and sold right now by Campagna

Lots of cool designs. Be sure to keep us updated as to your progress, Lazarus. [thumb]

I think this engine:
http://www.americana.../articles/541/1

Using this to enhance fuel performance
http://hytechapps.com/index.html

Could get close.

The hypercar by the Rocky Mt. Inst. is a theoretical concept car incorporating every tech they could find to improve the car.

http://www.rmi.org/s...ages/pid386.php

I've seen the hyper car before and the promises just haven't been integrated as well in the real world yet but that after all is the challenge. If it were so easy it would already have been done.

That Mighty Engine is an interesting version of the Wankel or standard rotary engine and I suspect it will suffer from many of the same problems in the real world a it does but it looks worth continuing to develop.

Thanks for adding the links and they raise some interesting points.

What are the most important basic challenges to meeting this goal?

Engine types?

Fuels?

Material science?

Operational parameters?

All of the above plus:

Markets?

I actually think we are far closer than most realize on developing synfuels and H2 is a part of that for combustion based engines and the real challenge is in integrating new fuel types with a better engine tech that doesn't *burn* as much fuel into the program. The safest form of H2 would be if it was combined back into a form of synfuel that is stabilized as a liquid and not a pressurized gas unless we are creating a synfuel version of methane. But that is just my opinion. it is however relatively easy to accomplish industrially.

You still have to store, transport and transfer the gas for use in a fuel cell. I know we can introduce some of the same safety factors as we use in Natural Gas but we cannot give it a larger molecular structure without combining it chemically.

Ideas like the proposed engine you link are ones that should be pursued but many good ideas have languished simply because the materials were exorbitant in the past but the advent of advanced ceramics force a return to consideration. The classic turbine for example is one that could be reintroduced in a variety of forms that could integrate a compressor and electric motor and combustion chamber onto a single shaft for smoother operations, cleaner exhausts and probably vastly lighter simpler hybrid motors but I can't build that in my garage.

Thanks rahein

I don't really see a need to get away from the internal combustion engine. I don't think we should stay with it either; we need the best tool for each job. It is silly to have the same engine run a motor cycle, lawnmower, car, semi-truck, small plane ect.
What problems have you seen with the Wankel engine?
This is another design off the Wankel that seems very interesting. No vibrations make it very useful in many applications.

http://www.quasiturbine.com/

Most engines (including the standard piston engine) can run off a verity of fuels. I saw a mythbusters where they ran a car on H2 simply by blowing it in the carburetor, that is until the excess gas exploded but that is just because they are stupid. The fuel delivery system is what needs to change to handle the different fuels. This means that advances today in fossil fuel tech are not lost when we change fuel sources.

I think an engineer should figure out the maximum distance theoretically possible to go on 1gal(or liter) of gas. Then diagram the entire engine/car system to see where each loss of potential power occurs. Then remove the unchangeable factors like passenger weight. This gives a list of the things to target. They should not just try to improve what is already attacking these problems, but find a way to reengineer the car to avoid the problem in the first place. I think the top thing will be engine friction/car friction. Evidence of how much energy is lost to friction is how hot ever part of the car is after running just a few minutes.

I saw this link today showing pics (and a brief description) from the European Eco-Shell Marathon 2006. The top racer got 6,786 miles per gallon (2,885 liters per kilometer), and the top 27 teams broke the 1,000-kilometer-per-liter (2,825-mile-per-gallon) barrier.

Here is a pic from the race:



This is still not the world record, however, which is held by the PAC-Car II at 12,667 miles per gallon (5,385 kilometers per liter).

Here is the PAC-Car II



Of course, if there was another X-Prize about this, there would no doubt be some criteria, such as having to navigate certain terrain, etc.