Clever Inventions - Interesting Vehicles

Clever Inventions - Interesting Vehicles

Here we have an assortment of vehicles chosen for their unusual design and radical transport concept.

• The Clever - Compact Low Emission Vehicle
• Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport
• Terrafugia - Escape from the earth
• Road Streamliner
• Clever Family Transport
• Racing Car Powered by Chocolate!
• The Worlds Oldest Car - La Marquise
• The World's Fastest Milk Float
• Giant Motorbike

The Clever - Compact Low Emission Vehicle

Note this not a joke - well not yet!  The Compact Low Emission Vehicle cost £1.5 million to design and build.  Will it be too Clever for it's own good, like Sir Clive Sinclair's C5?  Alternatively could it be from the long line of great British invention that is improved by other nationalities, for example the Hover Craft.

Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport

British scientists have developed what could be a congestion-busting answer to city traffic.  The Clever - Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport - is a cross between a car and a motorbike.  This interesting vehicle has a top speed of 60mph, runs on compressed gas and will do the equivalent of 108 miles per gallon of petrol. The two-seater uses a novel tilting chassis and is the result of a 40-month project by researchers in nine European countries. The three-year, £1.5m EU-funded research project aimed to produce a totally different class of private motor vehicle specifically designed for the urban environment.

'The only solutions at the moment are motorbikes or cars, 'said Ben Drew, a research officer at the University of Bath, one of the institutions involved in the project.' The idea is to try to marry the small size and efficiency of a motorcycle with the comfort and safety of a standard car, 'he said.

Unlike the prototype, the finished version will have a roof and at just over a metre wide will be even narrower than a Smart car.

Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport

Easyglider

A figure skater, Stephan Soder, has designed a new way to commute:12mph electric tricycle.
Stephan Soder came up with the idea as a way to pull himself along while wearing rollerblades. He built the first one in his garage with a small petrol motor. The commercial version is called the Easyglider X6 which riders can use with a skateboard or roller-blades or stand on a two-wheeled rear platform.

It features an electric-powered front wheel, a handbrake, a headlight, and three power levels. Optional extras include a music system, complete with a pair of mini speakers. To use the Easyglider, you simply turn it on, stand on the platform and twist the throttle.

The price may prove too much for some. It sells at £699,[$1400USD] with a children's version available for £399.[$816USD]

Not So Easyglider - Two Wheel Pogo Stick

This gismo reminds us of the Segway.

More Interesting Vehicles

Terrafugia - Escape from the earth

The dream of combining a car and plane has been floating around for 100 years.  Perhaps fantasy will be turned into reality in the wide-open spaces of mid-America, or even Australia.  If the price is beyond farmers, then perhaps executive who live out of town, and frequently travel long distances will be tempted by the Terrafugia.

At the touch of a button the Transition from Terrafugia four-wheeled car extends a pair of wings either side of its main body. Chief operating officer, Anna Mracek Dietrich, said, 'It will take just a few seconds to transform and will be fully automated after the command is given in the cockpit. We're currently sold out for at least the first year, approaching the first two of production.'

The Transition will use low-cost electronics and feature GPS and auto-pilot weather radar. The prototype, which runs on super unleaded petrol, cruises at 120mph and lands at 65mph. The estimated hourly fuel burn of four gallons equates to 30mpg in flight. Terrafugia - which means escape from the earth - are selling for $150,000.   See more about the Terrafugia

Is this the future of high-speed, low-emission transport we ask? Will and Guy investigate.

Terrafugia Flying Car Update

On March 5 2009 the Terrafugia celebrated its maiden voyage at the Plattsburgh International Airport in New York.   The company expects to make the first customer delivery in 2011.  Will and Guy are thinking about getting on the waiting list.

Will and Guy Plan to Beat the Traffic in this Funny Car

We present to you the Moller M400 Skycar which is a funny looking four-seat motor which can unfold its wings in seconds and then soar through the air at up to 600kph (375mph) for a distance of 1,200km (750 miles).

It is designed to be far simpler to fly than a helicopter and it boasts that its fuel consumption is lower than that of a Land Rover or Porsche. The Skycar has cost its Californian developers a reported £135million and is set to retail for £675,000 [$1,033,513.81 USD] when it goes on sale in 2012.

Road Streamliner

A Swiss company has created the world's fastest ever road vehicle, a 340mph bullet-shaped cross between a motorbike and a car.

Called the 'Road Streamliner' it has an impressive specification. The Acabion GTBO looks like a jet fighter cockpit on wheels; it has stabilisers, and has the power-to-weight ratio of a Formula One car. Its makers claim it could reach 300mph in 30 seconds, much quicker than the Bugatti Veyron which takes 55 seconds to reach its top speed of 250mph. An electric version with a top speed of around 300mph is also planned and its designer, former Porsche engineer Dr Peter Maskus, sees it as the future of high-speed, low-emission transport.

Now we have you well and truly hooked here is the bad news: the asking price is likely to be £1.5million [almost $3million USD] for the 25 limited edition GTBOs.

Stunning, Amazing and Amusing Revelation To Bring A Smile To Your Face

Racing Car Will Be Powered By Your Favourite Food………..........Yes, Chocolate…………..Chocolate?

Will and Guy can reveal an amazing invention which has arrived on the British motor racing scene. The world's first environmentally-friendly racing car, made from vegetables and powered by chocolate, is to be launched in May 2009.

The 145mph ecoF3 has a steering wheel made of carrots, a body made of potatoes and a seat made of soybeans. It is the first Formula 3 racing car designed and made from sustainable and renewable materials and we are very excited about it.

Designers hope the technology used in their car will be adopted by Formula 1 teams such as McLaren and Ferrari. It uses plant-oil based lubricants and a biodiesel engine capable of running on chocolate and vegetable oil. Vegetable fibres are mixed with resins to produce the car parts and the oils in the chocolate are refined to produce fuel. The "WorldFirst" team, from Warwick University, Warwick, England, hope racing chiefs will change the rules so they can compete in races next season. The engine fails to meet current regulations because of its unusual fuel.

A team spokesman has informed us that, 'We hope the Formula 1 teams will see that an environmentally friendly car is not necessarily a slow car. We expect our new materials to be used by the Formula 1 cars of the future.'

Will and Guy will watch this space with particular interest.  Here is a more food for thought - a car made of chocolate.

Clever Family Transport

Dean and Rachel Mullin from Irvington, Portland, Oregon, USA, are towing a Burley trailer with their second youngest child in the back. Rachel is carrying her baby in a sling.  Their two older children are pedalling in front. Apparently when they travel up hill, Dean activates the small electrical motor to that he installed.  The children don't always want to pedal. Dean told reporters that his motto is, 'Burn fat not oil.'

Will and Guy wonder if this contraption will catch on in the UK.

The Worlds Oldest Car - La Marquise

The world's oldest working car is set to go under the hammer - and it is expected to fetch up to £1 million.

La Marquise can reach a top speed of 38 mph The four-wheeled car, called La Marquise, was built in 1884 for the Count De Dion, one of the founders of the automobile manufacturers De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux. It has only had two other owners since, according to Gooding & Company, the auction house selling it in August 2007.

The four-seater, fuelled by coal, wood and paper, takes about half an hour to work up enough steam to go. In an 1887 race, La Marquise hit an average speed of 26 miles per hour on a 19-mile course. The following year it won the world's first motor race, beating out its three-wheeled competition, another De Dion-Bouton.  This interesting vehicle was built in France in 1884 by De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux, one year before Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz each independently built their first gasoline-powered cars in German. Twelve years later, Henry Ford built his first automobile in the US.

La Marquise is being sold by Gooding & Company, the California-based auction house, in August in Pebble Beach.

Is This The World's Smallest Roadworthy Car?

It looks like a circus trick, but this tiny set of wheels could be the world's smallest roadworthy car. The mini motor, only 39 inches high and 26 inches wide, started life as a Postman Pat children's ride.
Car fanatic Perry Watkins has transformed it into the most compact, if not most comfortable, car in the country. Perry, 47, reinforced the fibreglass shell with a steel frame and mounted it on a mini quad bike.

Here is a front on view of the same little car. 

Will and Guy think that the world's smallest car can be seen here.

The World's Fastest Milk Float

A 'souped-up' milk float is to be used in an attempt to smash a land speed record to become the fastest milk float in the west. The 'Electric Blue' has been specially adapted with an extra motor fitted, it has a fin on its roof, to combat turbulence, and has its suspension lowered for the attempt. And owner Kevin Bourne hopes to beat the current record of 71.4mph next year, reports the Metro newspaper.

'Everyone has a stock impression of milk floats travelling at 10mph, so you don't expect to see one accelerate to 80mph,'commented Mr Bourne.

This interesting vehicle has been on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, UK.

Taiki Concept Car

Mazda Motors introduces a new concept vehicle, Taiki, during at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show, 2007.

Giant Motorbike - Interesting Vehicle

A giant motorbike powered by a Russian tank engine has been recognised as the heaviest in the world.  It's been dubbed the Led Zeppelin by creator Tilo Nieber, 39, who commented, 'You don't get much more heavy metal than this.'

The four-and-a-half tonne machine has driven into the Guinness Book of Records as the heaviest motorbike in the world. It is 17ft 4ins long and 7ft 6ins tall and the engine alone weighs 1.8 tonnes after the armour plating tank cover has been stripped off. The bike, which took a team of welders and mechanics almost a year to build at the Harzer Bike Schmiede in Zilly, Germany, is now hoping for a licence to travel on the road.

New Airbag for Mopeds

Footnote:
The world is full of interesting vehicles, please send us pictures of your favorite.

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See more funny pictures of strange and unusual vehicles:

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