Cal Poly students create streamlined trike capable of 2,752 mpg
The Black Widow, as it's called, is the winner of the Shell Eco-marathon. Looks the business doesn't it? What's thoroughly amazing is that they did it without any electrical propulsion at all. Just a 3 hp Honda 4-stroke engine no doubt geared to the ceiling. Good stuff. More details here.
The Brütsch Mopetta
Via the kind Mr. Gregory La Vardera, this Brütsch Mopetta is as charming as its driver's attire. I think I may require a dedicated Streetliner smoking pipe. I'm pretty sure that now that I'm going down this "building stuff" road, I'm not going to be able to go back. Perhaps a tribute microcar would make a great follow-up project.
A great piece of inspiration
Courtesy of the one and only Merlin Mann, this 43 Folders interview with Seth Godin is a great conversation about the video below and being "a person who ships." Their discussion about overcoming the mental hurdles we all face when doing something new or different is truly inspiring.
Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.
What Seth and Merlin spend most of their time talking about is Seth's most recent book, Lynchpin. More specifically, they talk about the commodity of ideas and the real value of actually shipping whatever it is you make or do. I realized that with the Streetliner, neither the concept nor the design are particularly remarkable. What would make it an amazing would be to actually finish. That's all. Completing the Streetliner at all will be a huge accomplishment. Being literally in the idea business, it's easy to lose site of the fact that success is 99% showing up — that is 99% "shipping" whatever it is I do. Sure, I have to be creative and innovative, but it's all pretty meaningless if I never actually ship anything. If I never get my prototype built, then the actual Streetliner is sure to never happen. With that in mind, it's time to get back in gear. Thanks guys, that was just the push I needed.
Spendy toys with great aesthetics
Via Mr. La Vardera, these fantastic little modernist toys have me wanting to part with about $130 I need not spend. You can find them here and here.
The Cycle Kart
Fellow MINI enthusiast Lavardera shared this fabulous site about Cycle Karts — a whole class of DIY automobile that I didn't know about before now. Fantastic stuff. I especially love this one.
This is what I saw in my head
When I first saw that little pedal car at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, this is what I saw in my head that started this whole project growing from a little seed in my mind.
Inspiration for sale!
I'm checking all my coat pockets and couch cushions for $100 so that I can buy this. This little pedal car more than anything else has inspired my design thinking for Project Streetliner. That it's available for purchase at so reasonable a price is just thrilling!
Pedal cars
Part of my inspiraton for this project is classic pedal car design. Saw this one at the local hobby shop.
The 155 mpg California Commuter
Another gem from the fine folks at the Yahoo! Tilting Vehicles group. Amazing how long ago this was. It looks SO much like Luke's Tatooine speeder from Ep 4.
I’m not the only one!
Here's a very similar project: Scooter + shell = mpg!
See the whole project here.
