Sports

Sports Car made from potatoes, hemp and cashews goes 150 mph

by Actual News Geezer | July 27, 2007 at 09:48 am

1326 views | 20 Recommendations | 6 comments

This is the kind of story you'd find on an eco-supermarket-tabloid: a sports car that goes 150 mph, made out of veggies, and runs on veggies. Apparently this is no joke, however.

Gizmodo has done a story on what it calls the "salad car" that runs on fuel made from wheat and sugar beets. Now it shows up on TreeHugger

Boasting tyres made of potatoes, brake pads made of ground cashew shells and a body built from hemp and rapeseed oil, this speedy racer — which can attain a top speed of 150 mph — runs on a special biofuel made entirely from sugar beet and fermented wheat. Besides for the car's steering-wheel, seat and electrics — which are all made from conventional materials — only the car's chassis is made from a non plant-based material: steel. As a result, Eco One is 95% biodegradable.

For some fun, check out the slide show of cars that people are contributing (click the link to the right).

I've added a clip from YouTube from a search for "Ford Hemp Car." I have not ascertained the authenticity of this footage but if you do a Google search for Ford Hemp Car you get some surprising results, including this from the website, Hemp Car:

"Ford recognized the utility of the hemp plant. He constructed a car of resin stiffened hemp fiber,and even ran the car on ethanol made from hemp. Ford knew that hemp could produce vast economic resources if widely cultivated."

1 See all footage | View Slideshow

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recommend This comment thread is now closed

mtippett

at 10:35 on July 27th, 2007

mmmmmm, pointy.

Kaitlin

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:44 on July 27th, 2007

Actual News Geezer, this is awesome. I really like the idea of Henry Ford being all about alternative fuel sources. It makes sense--most truly brilliant businessmen know that they have to look for as many different ways to make their product usable as possible. Great stuff!

Jordan Yerman

at 11:11 on July 27th, 2007

That was totally part of a Cheech & Chong movie. Or so I'm told.

liamssoft

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:19 on July 27th, 2007

Actual News Geezer, Thank you for a very amusing story, food prices will
rocket if this becomes popular.Good stuff.

husky liners (not verified)

at 22:38 on June 29th, 2009

This is a really fun and interesting way to promote green cars not only to the American public, but to the whole world as well; especially with the global financial crisis that is happening right now.