When I spotted this at the Lane County Events Center parking lot the other day, I knew it was something a bit out of the ordinary, especially with the Mother Earth logo and “Kinetic Vehicles” on its side. I thought it might be home-built EV, as that’s not an uncommon thing hereabouts. But the exhaust pipe sticking put the side put that idea to rest. A little Googling quickly brought the answer: this is the expression of one man’s quest to build a 100mpg roadster.
The whole saga of Jack McCornack’s project and its many appearances at events has been chronicled at his website, and in a blog at Mother Earth News. But rather than sift through some six years or more of the construction of a Locost roadster with custom aero body parts and an 1100cc Kubota industrial diesel engine (32 hp), here’s the short story. Well, that is the short story.
Call me a bit jaded, but after decades of enduring gushing stories (and press coverage) about all sorts of homebuilt EVs and things that didn’t really amount to much more than glorified golf carts for the most part, I’m not exactly bowled over by a spartan and crude roadster that gets 100 mpg from a tiny diesel engine. There, I said it. It’s just that…well, cars like the Tesla S, Volt, Prius and Leaf and such have made things like this….a quaint memory of another era. Good for him for building his dream; but if he thinks he’s he’s really adding something to the leading edge of technology or saving the planet, let’s just say that a lot of other ultra-efficient vehicles have been built over the last 50 years or so, many of them more sophisticated or ambitious.
Hey, if a guy wants to build a roadster with a gen-set diesel to get some really impressive mileage, why not? It’s just that this vehicle is really a quest for publicity,as his website makes all-too obvious. And I’m all-too obviously burned out on that, having covered untold EV and ultra-efficient start-ups during the boom years of 2006-2008, back at TTAC. Many feel called; few have what it takes...
Now if it had a VW TDI, and could both go 100mph and get 100mpg, I might be a bit more impressed.
Does that Diesel engine meet emissions requirements? Does it have a DPF or does it use DEF? Current diesel truck engines are completely hamstrung by emissions requirements- using a Diesel engine that does not meet these same standards is not “green” in any way and is completely hypocritical.
No; it’s an industrial engine. As a homebuilt car using some chassis components from an 80s Corolla, it doesn’t have to.
I’m glad you brought that up. Uncontrolled diesels spew lots of carcinogenic particulates. This is a filthy little furnace. Even if it can run biodiesel, its pollution outweighs its CO2 savings. Lung cancer is not green.
I browsed though much of his site, and nowhere could I find how much this rig weighs. I expect it would not be hard to find a small emission-controlled gasoline engine that could achieve 100 mpg in a small light car.
Nowadays the right way to do this is to use an electric motor with lithium batteries, charged by a few solar panels. That’s clean and green. Too high technology for the Mother Earth crowd?
DING! DING! DING!
The motivation behind building this car appears to have been the $10 million “X-PRIZE”, and in it’s class it would have had to achieve 100MPGe, a range of 100 miles and emissions of no more than 200g/CO2 per mile. I have no doubt it could surpass the first two, but an off-the-shelf industrial diesel engine has zero chance of running that clean. Shockingly, the last time his website was updated was to announce it’s withdrawal from the competition shortly after the rules were finalized. The way that entry is written would make you believe that the “MAX” was kicked out for not being production-capable, but looking over the entrants that actually competed, I’m seeing even more halfbaked stuff like a Geo Metro modified with a similarly tiny diesel and a Steam-powered Prius. Obviously the rolling ecological disasters like the Geo didn’t make it far, but there was nothing preventing them from competing.
I thought you guys were being way too critical until I clicked through a few links and read the intro on this page: http://www.kineticvehicles.com/XPrizeIntro.html
In summer of ’06, we put a 100 mpg sports car on our things-to-do list. We moved quickly from “We could do this” to “We ought to do this,” because we quickly convinced ourselves that such a car could be built on a Locost budget, and because it was pretty dang obvious by then that our world needs cars like this.
Uggh… how’s that for self-importance? I’m gonna take a guess that the real story is this: once he realized there wouldn’t be any prize money in it, saving the world suddenly became much less important.
If I’ve got it all wrong, I sincerely apologize – and I hate that I’m shit-talking a DIY 3-cylinder turbodiesel roadster. The car itself is cool and interesting, but it’s part neat trick and part unique toy at best. Isn’t that enough to be happy with?
This guy took forever to build this. He was in the process back when I was building the classroom EV so it covers some time. The biggest difference between this and the others you mentioned I think is that he covered it in some detail as he was doing it. IIRC the aerodynamics covered a lot of time.
I didn’t follow it very closely because Mother made it seem like cutting edge tech and it wasn’t. This may not be the original engine because I thought I remembered him saying it came from a tractor. Who knows. Memory fades faster than a fad. Whatever, I was going for electric with a charging engine/generator so it didn’t appeal to me.
Coincidence I guess that he was in your neck of the woods. Was he trying to sell something?
It might well be from a tractor. Same difference, really.
It has Oregon plates, so I guess he’s from my neck of the woods.
A diesel powered roadster? I reckon that could happen. Maybe not everyone would buy such a vehicle with a diesel engine, but so what? I would if I were in the market for such a car. Diesel clatter be damned. Emissions requirements? LOL! 🙂
Heck, why not. Even Alpina builds diesels, like this D5 Biturbo.
0-62 mph in about 5 seconds and a top speed of 173 mph.
Alpina doesn’t do 156 mph (250 km/h) speed limiters.
Ha, a typical Autobahn oil burner (see the wagon ?) I mentioned the other day…
(Photo: Alpina)
Well he beats me on mpg I only get 50 mpg on flat running but I dont get wet when it rains have aircon power windows power steer unsurpassed(for a small car) comfort and road holding that his sports car would struggle to match so I’ll stick to my factory diesel thank you very much, good effort.
I followed along as he built this (online). Jack is a really neat guy. I bought a few parts for my Locost from him.
Some more built threads
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1400
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8984
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1892
I think the Mother Earth articles are more heavily slanted to the environmental angle but he just wanted a high mileage fun retro roadster in the beginning.
Without me poring over the entire blog, what are the specs for this car as it sits? MPG? 0-60? Top speed?
I looked at the builder’s website and it looks out of date. They were shooting for 100MPG and 0-60 in 20 seconds, and were counting on the aero body to get them there. That’s all I gleaned from the website.
I rather have a vehicle with crank windows, bearable amounts of noise, and my idea of safety features over wicked high MPG ratings. Veedub’s XL1 sure looks appealing.
Years ago I saw Niki (Polish licence built version of the Fiat 126)
The owner had fitted a 2 cylinder diesel from a Kubota lawn tractor to it.
It would cruise on 85-90 KMH, and run for a week on 5 bucks of diesel.
Was a well engineered job too.
To each his own. If this is what this guy’s idea of a ‘dream car’ is, then my hat’s off to him for not waiting around to buy it but rather building it himself.
That said, in my world hi mpg greenie mobiles are a total ‘who cares’ at best, to ‘screw these arrogant commie tree huggers and their wussy little priii….preeass…ugly hybrids’ at worst.
At the end of the day, its insane to think that you’re saving the world by burning a few less gallons of gas. Do it to save money, do it because the hi mpg car appeals to you in some tangible way. But rather than making cars disposable little appliances that populate landfills with obsolete electronics, plastics that take billions of years to break down or worst off all depend on little toxic waste cannisters (batteries) to move, keep those CC’s on the road, keep them tuned up and enjoy them. Every driving Dart, Mustang, Datsun etc etc is another crappy econobox that doesn’t have to be built then crushed and disposed of.
Boy the lot of you are such eco-snobs…. such hateful commentary. If you really did look into this you would find a car enthusiast. Prob a novel term to you. And actually a heck of a nice guy who is generous beyond your comprehension. Shame on you.
“Eco-snobs”? We’re the eco-snobs? Who set out to build a 100mpg car, so that he can tell the world how ecological he is? I think you’ve mixed things up.