WIRED's Top 10 fastest green cars (one goes just 30 mph?)
WIRED has compiled a list of fast green cars. The magazine looked for the fastest cars that ran on a type of green fuel or no fuel at all, like the Volvo Aria in the picture above. That car runs on gravity and won the 2005 extreme gravity race. Ethanol, steam, hydrogen, electric, solar, gravity, human power, wind - they're all in WIRED's list. Of course, Autoblog and AutoblogGreen have covered all of these great, green cars. Except for the Nuna4 solar car, which we somehow missed. Below is WIRED's list with links to our coverage of these cars. Alongside the links are the speeds the cars reached. We were disappointed to see that the White Zombie and especially Buckeye Bullet did not make the list. So, we just might have to make a fastest list of our own. Please vote for your favorite fast green cars in the comments.
- Ethanol Viper 220.7 MPH
- Steam Inspiration 215 MPH
- Hydrogen Ford 207.3 MPH
- Diesel Audi 204.5 MPH
- Hybrid Prius 130.8 MPH
- Electric Tesla 130 MPH
- Solar Nuna4 80 MPH
- Gravity Aria 54 MPH
- Humancar 30 MPH
- Wind Venturi 31 MPH
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SCS 9:04PM (1/23/2008)
This is just bad journalism, I'm upset that they wanted the list to be "dramatic" rather than "truthful." If you're going to compile a list of fastest green cars, include all green cars, like the Buckeye Bullet, White Lightning, Killacycle, etc. I know I'm forgetting some too. I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this blog could've gotten this list better than wired did.
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Andrew 2:36PM (8/27/2007)
Any fuel or source of energy can be used wastefully (except possibly gravity). Just because it runs on "green" fuel does not make it "green".
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rgseidl 3:28PM (8/27/2007)
A fast green car is a contradiction in terms, especially when cruising at high speed for extended periods of time. If you desire a fast car, you don't really give a hoot about your carbon footprint to begin with.
Sure, marketing departments like flogging fast cars: accelerating hard and driving fast is fun, may impress your friends and may attract the opposite sex. Evoking a strong positive emotional response has always been the easiest way to part men from their money. However, conspicuous consumption of crude oil distillates will make you a social pariah these days, so car makers are trying hard to give their most profitable offerings a thin green veneer such as E85 capability. All such attempts are essentially bogus, here's why:
At high speed, the power demand on the drivetrain is proportional to vehicle air speed cubed. The ratio in fuel consumption rates may be even higher, especially for a turbocharged engine, because near rated power the mixture has to be enriched to lambda = 0.75..0.9 to avoid thermal damage. When lambda is outside the narrow window of 0.98..1.02, a three-way catalyst cannot clean up the substantial amounts of NOx generated during combustion.
Ergo, driving 100mph in a car with a top speed of say, 105mph (Toyota Prius), means you're burning fuel at ~3.3x the rate observed at 65mph and belching NOx all the way. A stock Prius will never do 130mph.
If the car's top speed is say, 155mph, the rated power of its drivetrain has to be ~2.5 higher than that of the Prius. Ergo, it will be running at ~40% of rated power when driving at 100mph. In overdrive gear, it will actually achieve respectable SFC. However, it's the *absolute* fuel consumption that causes problems for national energy security and perhaps, climate change. And that number is still ~2.7x higher than the one for cruising marginally less efficiently at 65mph.
Granted, traffic moving at 100mph is common on parts of the German autobahn network but not on US freeways. Still, even driving 85mph instead of 65mph increases fuel consumption by ~25% - even more if you're driving a car with a low-powered engine like the upcoming Loremo.
Ergo: it's not the car that's green so much as how you drive it. If you care about keeping your carbon footprint low, plan ahead to avoid being in a hurry, engage your overdrive gear on the freeway and avoid maxing out your engine for extended periods of time.
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Kardax 4:47PM (8/27/2007)
Why is a 220 MPH Viper sharing the same list as a 30 MPH "human car"?
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Juerg Hoelzle 1:02AM (8/28/2007)
Missing in the list:
The TWIKE electric car (http//www.twike.com) with a top speed of about 52 mph
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Chris M 9:07AM (8/28/2007)
Actually, the speed record for human powered vehicles is a bit faster than 30 mph, I believe it's over 60 in a highly streamlined recumbent bike.
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Lascelles 9:08AM (8/28/2007)
Chris M, bike not car.
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Manu Sharma 1:48PM (8/28/2007)
Actually, HumanCar has been recorded to go over 60 MPH... downhill.
ABG's own post mentions this
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/08/21/humancar-is-about-as-green-as-walking-but-faster/
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Carbon_Boot 2:50PM (8/28/2007)
Carbon foot print? Stop breathing that will help!
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JamesWB 4:53PM (8/28/2007)
Why no Koenigsegg CCXR?
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darkstar4d 2:41AM (12/04/2007)
Well I have to say I am gradified that it is happening, the intro of high performance electrical based vehicles. The Buckeye Bullet has become my favorite footage of what the concept is capable of producing but it's still crude to what has the potential to be designed. So where am I going with that remark well hopefully in the same direction as the students of osu have done but with a difference a surprising design with higher performance. But all n all I have to forward congrats to OSU keep up the good work, the world is watching you.
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