A few years back, engineer/inventor Dean Kamen attempted to make walking obsolete by inventing the Segway. By now, most of you have seen these gyroscopic marvels tooling around malls and airports. This limited application is probably not what Mr. Kamen had in mind, but now he appears poised to go after a far more encompassing project.
Mr. Kamen is attempting to apply the marvels of the Stirling engine into a hybrid car technology. What the heck is a Stirling engine you ask?
Unlike an internal combustion engine that takes in gasoline to create the necessary explosion that drives the pistons, a Stirling engine uses external heat to drive the internal pistons. In Kamen’s hybrid, this engine will be used to operate all of the secondary battery-draining applications such as the heater and defroster.
Kamen’s prototype is said to run for approximately 60 miles on a single charge of the lithium batteries that drive the car. Additionally, using the Stirling engine means that drivers wouldn’t have to worry about being stranded if their batteries run out because the engine could recharge them.
The inventor hopes that a public version of the car can be made available by the end of 2010. I hope that I can get one without having to ask my mortgage broker about a super jumbo mortgage.
In these tough economic times it seems that almost everyone, consumers and car-makers alike, are striving to reduce costs without compromising performance. There seems to be no end to the news of the next potentially revolutionary vehicle about to hit the roads.
But there is also another tactic car lovers are employing to reduce the costs associated with their love of cars. In particular, those who love exotic cars.
Exotic car clubs are not new and exist in most major markets (e.g., New York and Chicago). However, they are now poised to take on a more prominent role in the lives of car fans.
Typically, these clubs allow their members to access the club’s exotic car inventory based on their membership plan. This means that members can access their favorite cars without having to worry about buying, storing, and maintaining the cars themselves.
“We try to take all of the negatives associated with high-performance vehicles off of the table so that our members can focus on enjoying the car,” says DFW Elite Car Club (www.dfwelitecarclub.com) owner Ron Sturgeon.
Sturgeon’s exotic car club takes the unique approach of using a tiered membership system that allows his members to purchase points that are redeemed for exotic car drive time.
“With memberships that start at under $1,000 per month, we feel we offer the ability to drive some great cars to those who wouldn’t necessarily by in the market for such machines.”
Written by G.D. Gregory. If you are interested in having me write web content for you or seeing my portfolio of web copywriting, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com.
