After 14 years worth of research, design and testing, former Formula 1 driver Guy Negre has done what I did back in 7th grade — make an air-powered car. Okay, my air car was a little less complex than this design, but it got third place in the shop class race off and had flames on its tiny, 8-inch long chassis. Now, Indian manufacturer, Tata Motors, yes, the same company that just brought you the cheap-ass Nano a few hours ago, is backing a car powered by compressed air.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to you two related topics bundled together via the horrors of YouTube. First, in this Beyond Tomorrow segment is MDI's compressed-air car we wrote about back in the dark ages of blogging (2004). Still the same couple of years off as it was then, it remains a fascinating concept with quite a bit of the development work done. Still, it probably needs a bit more cashola to get production going. If the first part of the vid is neat-o, the second part is gee-wiz. It features a funny Italian engineer who is developing an engine that appears to be powered by air and possibly magic. It makes Mazda's Renesis engine look both overly complicated and gigantic. The power to weight ratio is reportedly outstanding. Of course, if the complete engine only weighs a handful of kilos, that's not real tough. Now if you check out the MDI site you'll see they have their own nifty engine hoo-hahs, but I say if you combine these two ideas, you get some actual air-powered magicalness.– Ben WojdylaMore »
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