Hydrogen berm

At Goodwood my friend Louis Monnier of the ACO appeared, saying "Doog, come and meet our President Pierre Fillon, he is here with our 'ypercar and 'e wants to present you with something...".

Ooh, err - well I wandered over, met M. Fillon by the car and with great charm he presented me with this:

That's right - 'Eau de Voiture' - water drained that morning from the exhaust collector on the ACO's ADESS-chassised hydrogen Hypercar prototype, the major by-product of combustion/reaction within the car's power unit.

"You can dab it be'ind your ears - you can drink it - wash with it - cook with it - it is the purest H2O! And it was made by the car during its run this morning, right 'ere at Goodwood!".

Well I never.

Recalling the entries for the original Paris-Rouen Trial of 1894, which included 'system of pendulums' and 'gravity' in addition to 'steam' and 'internal combustion', and considering the natural-gas fuelled Bigata Douze discussed here recently, what other alternative fuels might spring to mind?

DCN

There have been some solar powered cars - there was a trans-Australia race for them, I seem to recall.

I'm still waiting for Ford to actually build a working version of the Nucleon. 'Look and Learn' promised us we'd all have nuclear-powered cars by now ...

There have been some solar powered cars - there was a trans-Australia race for them, I seem to recall.

Every two years since 1987 - pandemic excepted.

But if you have a couple of hundred grand to spare, Lightyear in the Netherlands will sell you a usable one - just in time for Christmas! Dutch teams have been very successful in the World Solar Challenge, so I guess what they've learned has gone into that project.

All that exhaust water could be used to produce steam. Assuming that you use solar power to make hydrogen, you could heat other people's exhaust water to drive a steam piston or turbine in a fairly environmental cycle. I'd use a steam turbine to charge batteries for electric motors, although I'd also love to know how quickly you can accelerate a steam piston engine powered car.

So many possibilities... Producer or wood gas powered vehicles would be interesting for wilderness travel.

Bring on the Mr Fusion power pack.  Back To The Future, Marty!

. . .  what other alternative fuels might spring to mind?

 

DCN

Well, I believe you can make methane from bullsh**

Well, I believe you can make methane from bullsh**

Back in 2017, you could have seen this 'Bio-Bus', which was powered by bio-methane gas produced from human and food waste, in Bristol. It was popularly known as 'the poo bus'. There were high hopes that it was the first of a fleet of anything up to a hundred, but government funding wasn't forthcoming, so the plans were scrapped. In a rare bit of corporate humour, First Bus used it on the number two route.

https://www.bbc.co.u...ristol-38000317

What was the original ****box car? - The Nostalgia Forum - The Autosport Forums

We have a winner!

I don't know if this is safe -- that bottle contains dihydrogen monoxide, which can kill you. I hear that it is in our water, but the government does nothing.

I don't know if this is safe -- that bottle contains dihydrogen monoxide, which can kill you. I hear that it is in our water, but the government does nothing.

Anything to do with the government allowing the water companies to do what they wish these days 

Schloß Wasserstoff, mmmm good water

I'm sure many manufacturers over time have used cars that ran on bulls**t and little else - Andrea Moda springs to mind

Was the berm being held by a minky by any chance?

A little off topic but this reminds me of a talk I was called on to give to my colleagues when I was gainfully employed as a sales engineer. One of my customers was the JET Project at Culham in Oxfordshire. As you will know they were researching into Nuclear Fusion as a source of energy. During my talk I produced a bottle (a ginger beer bottle actually but it was brown and looked quite scientific) and told the attendees that it contained a "super fuel which was essential to the process".. At the end of the thankfully short talk I opened the bottle and drank from it. There were a couple of "Oohs" and then someone quite rightly said , "but that's water".