Greenbacks For a Green Car

By Adam Ruggiero
Love of Sports Correspondent

Filling up my tank for $64 the other day seemed like an outrage.

Averaging a pathetic 17 miles to the gallon felt like a waste.

Imagine the humbling blast of perspective I received watching the recent Sprint Cup race in Phoenix when I learned that Jimmie Johnson’s winning Chevy devoured a gallon every four miles – and he won due to good fuel mileage!

Oil prices are wreaking havoc on everything from the aviation industry to the environment, international relations to the presidential race. Certainly there must be a way to resolve this crisis. We have the will, we have the reason, and, considering NASCAR’s unparalleled success, we have the resources.

Ironically, the answer may come from unknown engineers and obscure companies. If you’ve never heard of the Progressive Auto X-Prize, now would be a good time to check it out: http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org.

This ingenious initiative, a subsidiary of the four-year-old X-Prize Foundation, is offering $10 million to the winner of a remarkable competition designed to spur innovation and benefit humanity. It is, at its core, a race from the U.S. Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The precise route is yet to be finalized as bidding continues for major cities’ hosting privileges in the multi-stage event.

The centerpiece of this grand spectacle is its guidelines:

--Vehicles must average better than 100mpg or, in non-petrol entries, its mpg equivalent.
--Vehicles must restrict their carbon dioxide emissions – the major greenhouse gas contributing to global warming – to under 200g/km.
--All entries must be production-capable, i.e. not concept cars, and will be judged on safety, cost, features and business plan.

The competition is certain to bring forth groundbreaking technologies, and that’s exactly what it did in ’04 when the inaugural X-Prize was given to Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for realizing a ship capable of private space flight.

But there’s a discouraging note; none of the major manufacturers have signed up. Bob Lutz, vice chair of General Motors, spoke on behalf of the company when he said wasn’t “interested in technology as a science fair project.”

Kudos instead will go to more anonymous auto makes like Delta Motorsport, MDI, Dragonfly Technology, Tesla Motors – all foreign companies – and U.S.-based Illuminati Motor Works and Aperta Motors.

Think, though, of the enormous boon NASCAR could be if they were to pony up with the X-Prize. Their unbelievable wealth, cutting-edge testing facilities and brilliant automotive minds would expedite breakthrough advancements. And the publicity would rally scores of fans to support mass-production of the more successful prototypes.

Jeff Burton, driver for the No. 31 Sprint Cup car, has stated, “From a marketing standpoint, we could have a major impact” by embracing alternative energies.

“We all need to do better,” admits driver of the No.83 Cup car, Brian Vickers, speaking of NASCAR’s alternative-fuel initiatives.

NASCAR, which has proven slow to respond to environmentally friendly technologies, having just switched to unleaded fuel last season, needs to help spearhead the move to clean energy.