Well, since the oil companies don't hold much sway in Japan, you'd expect (if this technology worked) for someone, somehwere to actually make at least one and release it to the press. If it worked. If it doesn't work, then I imagine it would only exist as a web page somewhere... but then again, people thought you'd suffocate if you drove over 30mph, so who knows.

Incidentally, I have the rest of the Zapruda film, Jimmy Hoffa's body and the Parisian white Fiat Uno in my garage - do I hear any offers?

get one of these, scale it up

http://www.physlink.com/estore/cart/pur ... =39&SID=17

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

as for Japanese car makers....

http://www.monito.com/wankel/hydrogen.html

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

production RX8 on hydrogen to be launched at tokyo motor show...

http://rotarynews.com/node/view/458

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

electric mini

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/electric.mini/

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

There are also other methods using water - The old "Carbide Lamps" had water dripping onto a carbide block to produce acetylene that was then burnt to produce the bright lights of the early cars - also the lamps in movie projectors before electricity. Can an internal combustion engine run on acetylene?

Then my mother used to talk about the "Coke Burners" that were attached to cars during W W II These produced gas from coke that was fed into the engine to save petrol for the war effort. These worked but had a number of quality issues due mainly in part to the haste and "tempory" nature of the war effort. Modern manufacture and materials could probably improve these no end.

Best moden thing I have seen is the compressed air car being developed in Spain. Runs off free air. Read all about it here http://www.theaircar.com/

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

that electiric mini is fantastic....

i wonder how much that lot cost.....hmm....i

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Yes it could, it has the widest flammability range of any fuel gas, and pretty high energy.

One problem- it's unstable above 15psi. Bottled acetylene is dissolved in acetone which is held in a porous mass within the bottle. (I know this crap because we used to make them at Rheem).
That's why acetylene bottles must be stored and used vertically, and there are draw-off rate limits based on the bottle size..

Another reason- the water to calcuim carbide process used to produce `wet' acetylene stinks bad. Used to be used in farmers bird scare guns last century. We had a couple.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.