“Mr. Anton Peterka along with his team, made his ’85 Yugo 45, using wood and coal for fuel. It’s not a new technology, 125 years old. The process is based on incomplete combustion of wood: due to lack of air, gases are created: carbon monoxide, the main fuels, hydrogen and methane. That mixture of gases is as flammable as gasoline fumes. To get the car moving, it is necessary to “fill it up with wood.” Thanks Nikitos! Link.
Looks like this auction was removed from eBay – “Everybody needs one of these, cleaning out the garage, this little car is so much fun, it is thrust powered by 2 GE t-58 turbines, has 4 fuel tanks, power steering, power brakes, fire detection, fire suppression, roll over protection, self starting and quick. I have taken this car to the salt flats twice, the first time it wanted to fly @ 140 mph, but after adding the spoilers and air dam it stayed solid thru 187 mph with a lot more room to go.” Link.
Clever cat hack from Charles Platt who is sitting in for Kevin Kelly on the Cool Tools mailing list – “…Feline Automotive Observation Platform. My cat, Eddie, used to complain constantly during car rides, but his limited vocabulary made it difficult to deduce the precise nature of his problem. When I constructed a simple detachable plywood panel faced with a thin doormat for enhanced claw traction, his complaints ceased immediately. Now he sits happily with his nose pressed to the windshield, enjoying the scenery when I got for a drive. The two supporting struts hook onto the sun-visor mounts, and can be attached or removed in ten seconds.” Link. & main site.
Chris Jang is building his own autonomous robot – “This robot is my first electronics and embedded systems project. I studied Electronic Circuits and Applications by Senturia and Wedlock for six months and then rebuilt and cross compiled my home computer systems with a Linux From Scratch book to prepare for it. This project is also the first time machining moving parts (as simple as the front suspension is, the parts do move). I’ve maintained what a friend referred to as an “mail blog” during the project. After some progress or discovery, I emailed a status report of sorts, usually with pictures and (rarely) movies attached. A coworker convinced me there is value in these emails as artifacts of the project history.” [via] Link.
Joelsprayberry iPod mount Instructable for his Honda Element – “I had been lookin online for ideas on the cleanest way to mount an ipod that wasn’t in the way, with wires everywhere and was not cumbersome to use or to see. I got a ipod mount for a bicycle handlebarfrom gpscity.com and modified it to fit.” Link.
There are a lot of homemade versions of this lately, but here’s a really cool way to pilot your RC chopper – “HeliHobby’s True Vision is a state of the art device which includes a high quality sub-micro camera, sub-micro transmitter ( 2.4GHZ ), base receiver and coupled with EyeTops’s high resolution LCD Eyewear to give you the only True Vision when flying any size R/C Helicopter. True Vision is the only system which will allow you to fly your R/C Machine in first person view as well as third person virew simultaneously.” [via] Link.
Hey Makers – Any large format printing, vehicle wrappers interested in working on a MAKE magazine project with Mister Jalopy? He is looking for a local Los Angeles company to partner with for a MAKE article about wrapping a car. Super exposure and a co-writing credit! Drop Mister Jalopy an email at misterjalopy@gmail.com
