Johnathan Goodwin can get 100 mpg out of a Lincoln Continental, cut emissions by 80%, and double the horsepower. Does the car business have the guts to follow him?
“Check it out. It’s actually a jet engine,” says Johnathan Goodwin, with a low whistle. “This thing is gonna be even cooler than I thought.” We’re hunched on the floor of Goodwin’s gleaming workshop in Wichita, Kansas, surrounded by the shards of a wooden packing crate. Inside the wreckage sits his latest toy–a 1985-issue turbine engine originally designed for the military. It can spin at a blistering 60,000 rpm and burn almost any fuel. And Goodwin has some startling plans for this esoteric piece of hardware: He’s going to use it to create the most fuel-efficient Hummer in history … Details & Photos
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With a speed of 88.738 km/h (55.077 mph), the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Sunswift IVy has claimed the Guinness World Record for the fastest solar-powered vehicle. The record-beating run took place on January 7 at HMAS Albatross navy base airstrip in Nowra, Australia, and outdid the previous record-holder by more than 10 km/h (6.2 mph)  … Pictures & More
Sunoco, Inc., the official fuel of NASCAR, has launched the “Decal Raceâ€â€” a contest that gives customers a chance to win a 2011 Ford Explorer or free fuel for an entire year. All contestants need to do is take a picture of a car with a Sunoco decal on the bumper, and upload it to www.decalrace.com where they can enter to win.Â
Consumers can create an online profile, which allows them to upload and share photos when they see a decal out on the road. Sunoco rewards the member who has uploaded the most photos each week with a $100 gift card, and each photo submitted automatically enters them into a grand prize drawing of a 2011 Ford Explorer. The contestant who uploads the most  … More
If you believed the golden age of steam was in the dim and distant past, think again.
This streamlined British supercar that went on a test run at a military airstrip near Chichester last week is about to attempt to smash one of the world’s most enduring records, the highest speed for a steam-driven car.
Known as the ‘World’s Fastest Kettle’, the car is being shipped to America where driver Charles Burnett III will make the record attempt across a dried-up lake bed in the Mojave Desert of Southern California in early June.
The steam-car record of 127.659mph was set by American Fred Marriott in 1906 in a machine called the Stanley Steamer.
He tried to break his record a year later but the car  … Pictures & More