Isn't that a Renault concept car from 1995?

BALLS!

I noticed they never mentioned what his Prius beater would cost the average car buyer if al his technology was put into production...

Something similar to the $92K of a Tesla perhaps? I don't see that fitting into my budget any time soon.

Glad I was the only one let down with that show.

For the most part it was nothing new but when Tom asked the GM exec why they built "shit"...well that was pretty damn funny.

@LTDScott, Porcubimmer pilot: err wasn't.

...and the future is a Pontiac Vibe!

yeah, one of the worst Nova's ever. And that includes the NUMMI one.

I was a bit irritated when they made a case of the weight of vehicles increasing in the last decade by 1000 lbs but never connected that to safety legislation.

Work it harder, make it better
Do it faster, makes us stronger
More than ever, hour after
Our work is never over!

@LTDScott, Porcubimmer pilot: @abgwin: Aw c'mon. It's Click and Clack. You don't expect them to get too cutting edge and technical, do you?

I taped this show (VHS Tape! Video Format of the Future!) but haven't watched it yet. Now, with further diminished expectations, I'll watch it with my wife, who loves these guys, and probably enjoy it.

Amory Lovins.

I call bullshit that anyone with that name lived past 14.

You are right, that was very interesting... However, with the money automakers spend on wind tunnel work an CD, I am sure they understand that facet. Carbon fiber would be nice, but it is hugely expensive and suspect to UV problems and requires special paints, etc. to minimize the problem which is also hugely expensive. Rolling resistance is a great way to improve MPG but in general, the less rolling resistance, the less traction... Ok, I will go watch more

Moments of forced laughter from two funny old guys in between John Lithgow talking down to the viewer about the car of the future.

See, if my on-screen menu from DirecTV said that, I probably wouldn't have sat through this thing. Not that I'd have spent my time on anything better. Back to back eps of Funniest Pets & People, perhaps.

The whole alternative fuels subject was given much better treatment 1 or 2 years ago on Scientific American, with Alan Alda doing the patronizing part. In fact, having watched that show, I was able to beat Mr. Lithgow to his own punchlines, esp. during the Iceland bit.

What did click n clack say about being students at MIT at one point?

The Car of the Future looks like a rhinoplastied Prius.

@beercheck: I've been reading about Amory - and his wife Hunter - Lovins since the middle 80's. He used to be straight Mother Earth News fodder - couldn't go an issue without seeing his name at least once.

@BMWCARL: They went and visited one of their old class shops where they were looking for ways to reduce engine friction.

Overall, the program was lame but I'm a Car Talk fan so I had to watch it.

@ abgwin: I too noted the lack of objectivity in the rising weight of vehicles- no mention of the weight and cost of airbags and intrusion protection, etc. The Tesla was the only vehicle that discussed how much it cost and the obvious lack of a place to even put your lunchbox made it clear that the technology would never work for the typical car buyer.

@racerx:

I must watch it, even if for that bit alone.

Why doesn't anyone ever callange the left wing psuedoscientists when they say that global warming caused by CO2 emissions is a proven fact. It is nothing more than a weak theory.

And why didnt they talk about biodiesel? Biodiesel from algae is probably the most cost effective alternative fuel on the horizon. It doesn't compete with food or even farmland, it consumes CO2 from the atmosphere, and we can produce enough per acre to make a significant impact. The technology isn't quite ready for prime time but it is a lot closer than most of the things they talked about.

Can I interest anyone in a diesel?

If you follow the trend of tennis racquets, you see it more clearly:

First they played with hands.

And when they figured their hand started bleeding, they invented the wooden racquet.

Then Wilson came out with the metal frame T2000, immortalized by Jimmy Conners.

Yes, then the "oversized": Prince comes out with Prince Pro, with aluminum frame.

Then, of course, the Dunlop Max 200G used by John McEnroe, featuring a composite frame made of carbon fiber and plastic called "graphite".

The name of the game was "lighter, more power, and more control"

Well, the automotive industry is up to "oversize" and some aluminum. So the next step has to be either composite material or a lunatic dude that goes ballistic!

+ Watch video

I was disappointed that Bjork didn't make an appearance in Iceland!

I was totally bored with the show until Click (or was it Clack?) asked the Auto Show model "who the hell needs 500 horsepower?". At that point, I had to shut it off. NPR just lost my meager annual pledge for next year.

@akirachan

The march to lighter stronger materials is also seen in bicycle components and frames, hockey skates, sticks, arrows, military vehicle parts, motorcycles, and in my case making ski poles. (not exhaustive list)
Have you priced carbon lately? with such demand the prices are climbing every quarter, there is simply not enough to feed all the manufacturers. High tech is great but as other posters have said, it always comes at a big price tag.

I actually like Click and Clack, they are true car nuts and have forgotten more about cars than most of us will ever know.

@smart42: ah but therein lies the beauty of capitalism - with demand and prices on the rise, additional competitors will hop into the market and the costs and quality will eventually respond accordingly.

@smart42: Yes, fascinating thing, this lighter/stronger material thing, and furthermore didn't JoeKing post about a bicycle made of bamboo?
[www.calfeedesign.com]
[jalopnik.com]

They build bridges in China with bamboo, why not cars?
[www.eurekalert.org]

@lascauxcaveman: VHS is the new vinyl.

I sat through this show too, and I was also disappointed. I'd have assumed Nova viewers on average, and car nerds in particular wouldn't have needed this to be so dumbed-down. I wanted to slap the guy who worked on cellulosic ethanol for trying to hard to be accomodating that it made him sound stupid (microorganisms need a microscope to be seen? HOLY SHIT.).

Too bad. I like Nova, and I like Car Talk, but the collision of the two was just contrived and goofy.

I do like the ideas that Amory Lovins' car contains, though.

@akirachan: A lot more things need to be made of bamboo. It's easy to grow, grows very fast, and can be made into just about anything that needs to be rigid.

@Paul Y. is Going Dumb at the Sideshow: Total threadjack, but I use cuts of bamboo for all the posts/markers/etc in my garden.

Just gotta be sure to hammer them in upside down or they start to root again.

We have a big stand of it that keeps growing faster than we can cut it down.

Like most PBS programming, Nova has become a shell of it's former self.

Nova isn't that an exploding star.

I am not sure on their math.. did they say that only 1% of the energy used in a car goes to moving the driver around? Is that taking into account the manufacturing/maintenance/recycling too? That sounds terrible... (agenda check)

@morrisseyscoot: We need something more Aerodynamic to get us Around the World.

I've just recently become aware of Lovins and his RMI. He was recently a visiting professor at my university.

My impression of him is that he is, in general, too optimistic. His message is often something like “if we do this handful of really easy and inexpensive things, we can save the environment with no sacrifice to our way of life.” It's a message that sounds great, but I'm skeptical.

Still, it's important to have people like that around. Many of their ideas have merit.

@TRAMS_AM: Is that a Daft Punk reference?

@Mad_Science: Yeah, in response to morrisseyscoot's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger reference.

Good catch!

Does it come with batteries?

@Elhigh: "Wife"...

That is a pretty bitchin' Prius-thing... as long as it's 4wd and has a four-cylinder turbodiesel?

No?

Then it can blow me.

I would just like to state the my name is from the (old) car, not from the increasingly lame PBS show. Years ago we used to watch that faithfully and then it became less and less interesting, more dumbed down, and more blatantly showing various biases.

@Novaload: No worries, dude- the words "Nova" and "load" are a natural fit; I knew what you meant.

I'm also assuming you meant Chevy Nova, of course, and not Toyota Corolla Nova, but either way it works.

My favorite part is how "environmentalists"(pronounced "Hih-Poe-Krit")keep saying that a gallon of corn-derived ethanol burned pollutes 28% less than a gallon of gasoline. What they NEVER say is that corn-derived ethanol contains 30% less efficiency. So, it polutes less, but you burn more. So... umm... I guess we're just going to look the other way on that one?

I actually had the CEO of Green Fuel Technologies tell me that "There is no difference whatsoever in fuel mileage unless you use E30 or greater." So... mixing 71% gasoline with 29% of a lower-energy-density fuel does nothing, but 69%/31% and it all goes to crap? Wow... someone failed physics.

@abgwin:
Can you make that connection? What new saftey legislation came out in the last decade that would add a half a ton?

@AustinMiniMan: Actually, had you WTFS you would've heard that critique on ethanol from enrivonmentalists and even ethanol researchers. Those same folks went on to say that it took far more energy to produce it than it was worth. Then there were the limitations on how much of a food crop that could actually be used for fuel. Etc, etc.

Of course, you WTFS before you commented, so you knew that already. Otherwise, you'd be a complete and total hypocrite for making such a hasty, asinine statement.

@akirachan: Great posted, but you forgot a third choice for a next step. A guy who suffers a humiliating breakdown and ends up shoeless and crying on the court.

Man, whatever happened to The Baumer?

@Elhigh:
That is where I became familiar with them. He is one of my modern day hero's.

@AustinMiniMan:
I am not sure if I should call you a moron or an a*&hole. One or the other seems fitting.
Let's see your bonafides to comment on this subject SFB.
Who are YOU to call anyone a hypocrit? Seems to me it is not the ENVIROMENTALISTS who are pushing ethanol turd boy. It is the AUTO INDUSTRY.
Perhaps you should engage our VERY SMALL mind before you post twit!