Hasta La Gadget!

With gas prices topping $4.50 per gallon in some parts of the country, a car that costs a fraction of a penny per mile to drive (and looks like it belongs on the road) is sure to get our attention. The 275-pound, 2,200MPG Celeritas appears to be the closest we’ve come to having a solar-powered car that could one day take to the streets, however, which explains why the vehicle scored first prize in the Urban Concept category in this year’s Shell Eco-marathon. While it can only transport a single person (the driver), the car includes headlights, taillights, a trunk and even backup cameras. Notably absent from this version are air conditioning and a license plate — the latter of which would (naturally) be required before the car becomes street legal. The Purdue University design team chose “Celeritas” (Latin for “swiftness”) as the name for this soon-to-be-street-legal roadster, though in a category that’s notorious for slower vehicles, we wouldn’t expect the prototype to fly past us in the fast lane. Perhaps we can get Celeritas and IVy together for some alone time before we’re dropping Hamiltons for a gallon of regular?

Purdue’s Celeritas car scores 2,200MPG from the sun, wins Shell Eco-marathon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Will Foreman keeps getting nabbed by traffic cameras for speeding. Believing the cameras to be inaccurate, he analyzed the timestamps and the position of his car in each pair of photos, using them to successfully contest five speeding tickets. More »

Is there any sadder sight than a 1958 Plymouth Fury rotting in the woods, Christine-style, its dead headlights staring into the gloaming? We don’t think so. That’s why we’re downright giddy over Kenneth Cobonpue’s Phoenix roadster, a biodegradable concept car made from bamboo, rattan, steel and nylon. Style wise, it’s propped somewhere between Tata’s Nano and Tesla’s Roadster, and there’s no word yet on what might go under the hood — presumably a smallish electric engine… or a stardust-powered unicorn, perhaps. That funky-looking body should last the average length of ownership; after five years (or even longer, depending on the composition), it can be replaced or naturally returned to the Ma Earth. One potential downside of biodegradable vehicles? No more “dead car” Flickr albums. Also, no warranties.

Kenneth Cobonpue’s biodegradable car: time to ditch the Gremlin rusting in your yard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wouter Scheublin’s Construction Toy is a vehicle construction kit for kids. It is also — if the concept design ever becomes a real product — a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The kit is a lot like Lego Technic, featuring modular splined tubes, bolts, cogs and wheels that can be put together in almost limitless ways. The difference is that Scheublin’s kit results in life-sized toys that can be driven and ridden by kids. Bikes, karts, trikes and (shudder) recumbents can all be put together with some imagination and a little hard work.

I think it’s fantastic — but you knew that, as I’m a bike nut and a DIY fan. I would have loved this thing so hard when I was a kid, and I’d be still be pretty happy to play with one today.

But without parental supervision, little Danny will likely put something together, take it to the top of the steepest, twistiest hill in town and launch himself down it. The amazing machine will lose a wheel at the first corner and poor Danny will be thrown to his doom, ending up broken at the foot of the slope surrounded by Scheublin’s tubes and connections.

But lawyer-bait aside, this oversized construction kit could — with the right parental help — be every nerdy kid’s dream. Note to Mr. Scheublin: If you ever get this into stores, sell it in Europe, or anywhere but the U.S. Over here people like to take responsibility for their own actions.

Construction Toy [Wouter Scheublin]

Pictures: Wouter Scheublin

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• It's a Wind Up: Gorgeous Spring-Powered Toy Car Not for Kids …
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• Wheels

The Toy Car exposes the mechanical innards of the pullback motor

This gorgeous, stainless steel and bronze toy car is simply named Toy Car, which seems an appropriately stripped-down name for such a minimalist vehicle. Without a body, or even a cover over the engine, you can see exactly how the car works.

It’s essentially a fancy version of the pull-back-and-go cars found in cereal boxes and kids’ fast-food “meals” everywhere. Pull the car backwards while pushing down and the motion of the turning wheels is stored as energy in a coiled spring inside the big central toothed wheel. Let go and it unwinds, propelling the machine forward. When the spring has fully sprung, a clutch disengages and lets the car roll free.

I guess I like this especially because I always used to wonder as a kid what goes on inside these cars. Of course I opened a few up to see, but the cogs and springs were always too small and complex to fathom. That and the fact that the things had a habit of exploding on my, sending sprigs and cogs everywhere, somewhat limited my education.

The Toy Car, by contrast, is wonderfully simple and easy to grok. It also looks like the inside of a giant watch, which adds to its appeal. You probably won’t be buying one for your kids, though. The Toy Car, by Wouter Scheublin, is sold as a limited edition art piece through the Priveekollektie gallery, and is priced in the “if you have to ask” category. It does come with a little walnut garage, though.

Toy Car [Wouter Scheublin via Oh Gizmo]

See Also:

• Boattail Racer, the $350 Wooden Toy Car
• Motormouse Looks Like a Toy Car
• Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Runs Toy Car
• Death Race 2000: Model Hearse Toy Car