Here Comes the 100-mpg Car
(Page 5 of 6)
August/September 2008
By Jack McCornack
Did it actually work?
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While we wait for the X Prize Foundation to finalize the rules of the competition, we decided we’d use a Locost frame as our prototype. “A what?” you’re probably asking. It sounds kind of like Lotus and it is indeed inspired by the Lotus Seven sports car of the ’60s. But it’s low cost and simple to build (the Locost was originally designed as a high school shop project). So we wouldn’t be out a lot of money if it didn’t work.
Not that I was worried. We put the Toyota rear axle and front wheel assemblies in the Locost frame. They fit fine, as expected. We put in the brake and clutch master cylinders. Those took some chassis welding to fit but hey, no problem. You can’t make an omelet without welding a few eggs. The steering rack came from a Volkswagen, that took a bit of head scratching. We also had to make a few modifications to the Kubota for ground clearance and plumbing, which was easy once we figured it out. Drafting by night and fabricating by day, I’d pound away on my computer till the wee hours and weld together what I’d drawn when the sun arose.
Throughout the process, people have asked, “Are you sure that a tractor engine can drive a car?”
“I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t,” I say.
Then they say, “I guess we’ll know when you’re done building it.”
At first I thought that would be soon enough for me. But then I chickened out. I didn’t want to build an entire car before discovering I had a defective imagination, so we stuck the Kubota in the Corrode Warrior and went for a test drive. It was fun. It went up to 67 mph before the governor kicked in (we may want to do something about that) and though it was more of a tortoise than a hare, it wasn’t the slowest car I’ve ever owned.
Because I couldn’t drive it to town without everyone asking the obvious question (“What kind of mileage do you get with that?”), I put together an instrument package — a GPS device, an oven timer and a 12-ounce honey bear bottle for a fuel tank. I did four mileage runs, averaging just more than 37 mpg. Not bad for a station wagon!
We could have made improvements and maybe reached 40 mpg, but it was time to retire the Corrode Warrior before a police officer decided the tractor exhaust might obstruct the driver’s vision. We stripped out the good parts and sent the body to the crusher — ashes to ashes, and rust to rust.
What's next for MAX?
The good parts went back in the Locost, and on June 2, MAX ventured to the Department of Motor Vehicles, where it was deemed street legal. We haven’t a hint of mpg data yet, except it only has a 1 gallon tank and we haven’t had to add any fuel for a couple of weeks.
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