Famous rock star Neil Young dropped in at Virginia International Raceway last week to test his series hybrid 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible.
He and his team were using the Virginia Institute for Performance Engineering and Research’s chassis dyno to test his car’s generator engine and electric motor output, according to a VIR news release.
Young’s project, “LincVolt,” involves building a big American car that provides comfort and safety, while delivering up to 100 miles a gallon.
“We don’t have to change the things that we want to be smart,” Young said in the release. “You can be smart and have the things that you want. You don’t have to give everything up. This is America. Its roads are big. It’s a big country.”
The engine on the LincVolt is being tested to run on multiple fuel sources — gasoline, compressed natural gas, plus “water gas,” which is hydrogen produced via electrolysis from water carried on board, the release states.
“The hydrogen generator produces gas out of water,” Young explained. “It is displacing an unknown amount of fuel at this time and that’s one thing we’re going to figure out with VIPER. We’ve had estimates that it’s displacing up to 70 percent of fuel at this time, but we really don’t know.
“But we know we can get more out of it than were getting now. The big pie-in-the-sky goal is to eliminate the fuel since 80 (percent) of the cost of a gallon of gas comes from distributing and refining it.”
Young has entered the LincVolt into the 2010 Automotive X Prize competition, where it must demonstrate fuel efficiency of 100 miles per gallon.
Young and his crew worked on the car during a three-day stay at VIR and VIPER.
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