Light cars take on heavy trips

[n2doc]

The solar-powered XOF1 electric car takes to the gravel-topped Dempster Highway, the only all-weather road in Canada that crosses the Arctic Circle.



Alan Boyle writes: Automotive innovators are proving that low-weight, high-efficiency cars can go the distance. But can they can make it in the marketplace?

If anyone thinks that lightweight cars can't cover long stretches of the road, the solar-powered XOF1 electric car should convince them how wrong they are. Back in 2008, the spacey-looking car's creator and driver, Marcelo da Luz, steered the XOF1 (which stands for "Power of One") from Buffalo, N.Y., to the Canadian Arctic, then down to California, then over to Florida, then back up to Canada and the Arctic again.

In April, the 470-pound XOF1 became the first all-solar car to travel Canada's Ice Highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk in the high Arctic, as documented in this amazing CBC News documentary. Da Luz now holds the world distance record for solar-powered automobile travel, racking up 22,436 miles (36,220 kilometers) on the XOF1.

Along the way, he's been pulled over 26 times - sometimes just because troopers wanted to take his picture, and one time because somebody told police in Palmer, Alaska, that a UFO was spotted traveling down the road. "They checked to make sure I'm not an alien," da Luz, who was born in Brazil and lives in Toronto, told me today. "Well, yes I am, but just because I'm not from the U.S."

more:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/16/4691609-light-cars-take-on-heavy-trips

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. 8-12 hour driving stints are normal.

:think:

[pscot]

2. ET phone home

n/t

[TheMadMonk]

3. Bloody marvelous, but unfortunately still less practical than this.

De Dion, Bouton, circa 1900

Direct solar power of motor vehicles is never going to amount to more than pissing games for engineers. You can't even really point to the possibility of spinoff applications since to achieve this much solar cars have had to borrow very heavily from the cutting edge of many industries. It's the spinoff/demonstration application itself.