Classic nostalgia, sexy supercars, and fruity watermelon rides are concepts that are already on the road or ideas of where we can take automobiles. Which will survive and which choice is best?  Would you personally transform your classic favorite into a futuristic Gattaca ride, buy a big name automakers mixing nostalgia and supercar edge together, support progressive startups or just use a new fuel altogether.

Lincvolt crew, most notably Neil Young, are challenging themselves to build a full size vehicle that will be able to traverse America without refueling.  They chose the Lincoln Continental, because it’s a 19.5 foot 2.5 ton vehicle, and the crew believes it will be able to attain an MPG that most think is impossible.  This electric biodiesel drivetrain puts out zero emissions and gets 100 MPG.  Not bad, not bad at all.

Another old to new project was with a group of students from University of South Carolina that took $10k to turn this MGB into a full electric ride.  The engine was replaced by an AC motor and 100 super compacitors. The owner claims high speeds with short distances, which he says will be replaced by a lithium ion battery to extends its range.

Or you can go for a complete overhaul and go for the latest Mercedes Gull-Wing with a release date of 2015.  With four separate electric motors producing 525 horsepower and a 0-62 time of 4 seconds, this full-electric ride will set you humming down the road thanks to the AMG team.

Now its time to splurge and invest in Hybrid Technologies to be first to get Automotive X, still on the drawing board and destined to get 220 mpg and with supercar speed.  They have a full range of vehicles ranging from a chopper, the Dash (a smart car competitor) and were involved in the development of the electric mini.

There has been a range of vehicles running on various different fuels, ranging from corn to manure to vegetable oil, and if these aren’t your tastes, maybe you will feel like biting down on some watermelon.  Apparently watermelons contain 7 to 10% of directly fermentable sugars that make them great for making biofuels.  Its beginning to look like just about anything can be turned into a fuel, why oil for so long?

via Lincvolt

via Ecofriend

via Wired

via Popular Mechanics

via Inhabitat

Riding with a breeze in your face, the uninhibited landscape and the quiet hum of rubber grabbing the pavement takes care of four  chores at once:  your health, gym fees, daily joy and the last being basic transportation.  The bicycle has taken on varying shapes to fit the road, mountain, touring, fixed, and beach cruiser.  Whichever one’s for you, they all have their own purpose and have cycling enthusiasts modifying them with cargo trailers, fixed gear conversions, attached campers and weather protection.  Definitely thought it was time CWOCA touched on one of our favorite activities.

While in University, I had a friend that put a camper on the back of his truck to forgo paying rent and lessen his student loans.  He was proud of his chosen life, and would probably be jealous to see that Kevin Cyr (pictured above) had a similar idea minus paying for gas.  From conception to construction, Kevin created the ultimate touring machine, except that it may be a little cumbersome when traversing the climbs of the PCH.

[youtube v5L_TK_BbgA 600 400]

Fixed gear riders are snobs of cycling which they will admit.  Any particular niche that has some overwhelming enjoyment and degree of difficulty is going to create hard nosed local and elitist mentality.  “Fixies” also have a special part of the cycling world in them in that they are DIY, either buying off the shelf components to create their own machine or searching on Craigslist for an old Schwinn destined for the fixed conversion.  For those resistant, think its dangerous or don’t see the point, just give it two weeks of adaptation and another two weeks of getting a feel for it, then saddle up your multiple gear free wheel machine and you will quickly dismount and never want to get on it again.  Something you will also learn is that fixed gear bikes are faster than road bikes in an urban setting; you wouldn’t think it, but the proof is in the pudding. Check out Sheldon Brown or the video above for fixed gear conversions.

Bike trailers and pushers, like this one from Cetma Cargo, are making their way on to the scene as well.  Good for tugging along the necessary goods you plan to sell at farmers market, a surfboard, or steal someones brand new tires and rims to make a quick getaway, either opportunity, they have been making a steady comeback.  The contrast of developing and developed countries like China and the US both having human powered cargo transport is interesting, while the Chinese ride a bike with lack of better options they all yearn to have their own personal vehicle while some Westerners are ditching their cars to receive the health and gas advantages of cargo cycling.

A big deterrent that can throw you out of your cycling routine is the rain.  Well there goes that excuse.  Just be careful of hecklers, this will really give them a reason to yell flat tire or steer you off the road.

via Treehugger

via Designboom

via Sheldon Brown

Remember the good ole days of being seven and building forts in the living room with sheets and sofa cushions?  There is something about some of us that doesn’t want to grow up and continue the good times like finding unwanted items and building boats out of them.  Just as we still like to make immature perverted jokes and laugh with our crows feet creasing.  A well known street artist,  Swoon’s, has brought together a crew to join the swimming cities by building art boats that will perform Serenissima “the dreamy story of a drifting metropolis during the Venice Biennale.”

They blog their journey and  encounters with musicians, bird spotting, and technical problems of their motor dipping in and out of the water due to the shifty seas.  Much like the younger version of me sitting with my dreams of spotting dragons and wielding my magical sword awaiting the giants to summon me for afternoon cleanup.

From mystical craft and artistry to a ship important to the econominc machine, a commercial voyager and an article posted by The Guardian has something that could tug on your fog horn.  While these artistic gypsies construct ships out of an over abundance of material possessions, the cargo ships are moving to replace the unwanted wastes and are reportedly putting more SOx and NOx pollution in the air than our vehicles on the road.  From what estimates speculate 15 of the worlds largest cargo ships produce more pollution than 750 million cars.  The pollution being sulfur and nitrous oxide produced from the sludge like diesel fuel that powers these super tankers. The International Maritime Organization recognizes these problems and will hopefully be putting measures into place, because strong accusations of 60,000 deaths in America that result 330bn in health care costs from the pollution may be a strong enough indicator to get some policy makers rolling.  There are some proposed measures to keep the cargo ships at a farther distance from shore, to dissipate the density of the pollution when it reaches land.

These sea vessels are interconnected and a necessary part of our lives. Both illustrate our needs and our consumerism.  Swoon’s vessel, being abstract, and displaying a story of unwanted materials being collected and shaped into a swimming city that approaches Venice, to be admired, and a cargo ship distributing the new desired materials for our daily consumption.

While a group of artists collect wastes and make them into entertainment another sea-going vessel, distributing these new products and future wastes, are roaming the seas pumping pollution in the air.  Now these aren’t directly related and are on polar opposites, but there message is similar.   When does our enjoyment of being a creative youth either with production of the new or old go and harm the world? Were we innocently blind with our fantasies and didn’t see the outcome or was it purely economic?

VIA The Guardian

VIA Swimming Cities