We need some real thought given to what is practical to own and when it would pay you to rent a special purpose vehicle. Do you really need a SUV? Or is it a traveling  storage shed.

Why not a lightweight vehicle built like a grand national stock car. They us lightweight tubular steel frames. Built to withstand 200 mile per hour crashes. They use lightweight plastic outer body panels and a lot more state of the art stuff. You can’t win anything with last years car. What is needed is a local car platform built from the ground up.

In India the largest car manufacturing company is building an AIR POWERED TAXI. Eight thousand vehicles are being built. They are 6 passenger with a top speed of  59 miles per hour and a 125 mile range per tank of pressurized air. ( Source: Popular Mechanics  June 2007. Find it on the internet by searching “air powered car“) This vehicle doesn’t meet U.S. highway standards but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a vehicle that will.

I think you could build a safe electric/steam powered car. With today’s electronics you could make a safe very small on demand boiler. (Same idea as an on demand water heater made for home use.) This small steam power plant could drive an efficient rotary pump or turbine to spin the drive shaft. I’m talking about a 1,200 pound vehicle fully loaded.

Someone is going to get the right town car platform and they’re  going to get rich. My guess its going to use steam.

David Hermanson
Middletown, NJ