Ridiculous studies like the Stauro by Taylor Weldon are surprisingly common at the periphery of automotive plausibility. There’s something about cars that always has someone taking a long, dusty trek in the desert of the unreal. But an orange oil-fueled steam engine in a three-wheel buggy takes the “sustainable concept vehicle” genre to dizzying new heights of suspended disbelief. Although apparently not for Popular Science‘s Mike Spinelli (remember him from when Jalopnik used to be readable?). Spinelli parrots Weldon’s claim that “the three-wheeled Stauro is designed to seat two passengers in comfort and safety. As for the car’s fictional production; all manufacturing facilities and materials sourced would be within 500 miles of the company headquarters, for a super-low carbon footprint.” And then tops the whole surreal scene with a dollop of bizzare commentary by concluding that this “sounds like a plan for the new GM.” Subtle humor or pure insanity? We report, you deride.
How much for the Hayabusa conversion?
As for the car’s fictional production; all manufacturing facilities and materials sourced would be within 500 miles of the company headquarters, for a super-low carbon footprint.” And then tops the whole surreal scene with a dollop of bizzare commentary by concluding that this “sounds like a plan for the new GM.” Subtle humor or pure insanity? We report, you deride.
What’s implausible about that?
Although apparently not for Popular Science’s Mike Spinelli (remember him from when Jalopnik used to be readable?)
Yeah, good times.
““the three-wheeled Stauro is designed to seat two passengers in… safety”
Safety? He’s delusional.
@long126mike
What’s implausible? Seems to be an aluminum-based car, so you’ll need bauxite and a way of smelting it. Right there you’re limited to a few spots on the earth where you can get bauxite out of the ground economically. Hopefully they’re also near rubber tree plantations (tires), oil wells (plastics), lead and copper mines (electronics), silica deposits (glass), iron + maganese or tungsten (steel for some things), etc. That’s just for raw materials, to say nothing of the intermediate refining to turn ore into iron, oil into refined petroleum products, iron into steel, etc.
I think the old Rouge River plant was the closest that’s ever been done for “all in one” and they certainly got stuff from further away than 500 miles. There are no rubber plants in Michigan…
I thought that was a claw-foot tub with wheels at first glance. Tube frame with no crumple zones, that looks safe.
What is orange oil? Oil from oranges or some new type of oil that looks orange?
It’s an incredibly cool looking concept. I’d want one, even if it was powered by vapourware…
Seems to be an aluminum-based car, so you’ll need bauxite and a way of smelting it.
Right, if you just ignore that a very high percentage of aluminum is recycled.
And rubber trees?? I’m pretty sure most modern tires are synthetic rubber, and plastics can be made out of materials out of oil – which I’m sure you’re well aware of, but choosing to omit.
Amazing how much energy some people put into nitpicking a theoretical design exercise when the design has something to do with being gentler to the environment than the status quo. Apparently that’s some unforgivable sin.
Doon Buggie…Italian Style.
Leave the power train out and put it at the top of a long winding road down a hillside. That could be fun, but thats all it is good for. Or maybe put a sail on it.
@long126mike
Gee I’m sorry, I guess I got distracted by the lack of fenders, or a roof, on the comfort part. Or maybe it was the safety claim, given the inherent instability of 3 wheeled vehicles.
I guess I should have considered the practicality of steam powered cars – something that’s been proven again and again in the millions of them produced in the last 100 years.
How silly of me to think that the heat and steam pressure required to generate 700 horsepower might have any safety implications. Or to have doubted that it might even be possible in an automotive application.
Further, the recognition of the abundance of orange oil was just something that escaped me. Why, I just threw away an orange peel that must have contained at least a full ounce of oil, which could have been cheaply and efficiently extracted.
Now I’v rethought my position. A 3wheeled open car with no fenders powered by a claimed 700 hp high-pressure steam boiler run on the oil from orange peels is a serious design exercise and a powerful demonstration of the kind of things vehicles America needs. I can’t wait to have the opportunity to drive one across Arizona one summer, or maybe up to Maine one winter!
Looks like a Meyers Manx and a bathtub had a 3 wheeled fun baby. Add a wheel and hang an air cooled flat-4 out behind that thing and it might be worth something.
Yeah, this is pretty absurd. Car designs have always had this tendency, though. If it wasn’t ludicrous environmental claims, it was ludicrous power and safety claims.
Best not to heed their logic as reasonable, and categorize it under “Futurist Nonsense.”
long126mike — you may be able to reduce the distance to production sources, but what they’re claiming here is nowhere in the near future. The logistics of confining production to reduce the carbon footprint is not a problem we can solve right now. It’s best to focus on more energy efficient rail systems and better overall logistics (e.g. moving what can be moved, such as battery processing plants rather than natural resources).
Powered by a blinding bright bluish ball of light?
What is the world coming to when intelligent educated people can even begin to think this is either plausible, or slightly thought provoking.
The only thought this can provoke is that people lack thought.
Did anyone else notice that although the door has a hinge there is a bar that is not split/hinged along the top edge, and if it was… well it would be pointless.
Three wheels. Check.
Small displacement, efficient engine. Check.
State of the art safety. Check.
Efficiency for tough economic times. Check.
Sounds like a Morgan 3-wheeler.
http://www.mtwc.co.uk/galleries/images_malvern/malvern4.jpg
Well that is funny, although it didn’t bust the laughmeter. How are they going to get enough orange peels to fuel this thing? I compost all of mine. Stauro? Did they mean Sauro, like Sauropod? Oh, I shouldn’t make fun if this.
Didn’t VW have a small 3-wheeler Diesel concept on the road at some point. That thing look way cooler than this, and actually turned some amazing fuel efficiency numbers.
–chuck
A three-wheeled car with two wheels in front has no particular stability problems.
And I can’t see what other parts of the concept have inherent flaws in respect to safety. It looks like a good clean concept to me. With stress on concept: these things are not supposed to be a model for a 2011 car. They are supposed to be an idea of what a 2017 niche car might look like, all kinds of crazy elements included. That is what a concept car is all about.
To me, it tries to answer the question: would it be possible for something with the purity and driveability of a KTM X-Bow to offer comfort and safety as well?
It’s not a stupid question. But of course, if your stock answer to anything about the car’s future begins with a minimum standard weight of two tons, you’ll knock the question, and never find an answer.
So, I really have to agree with long126mike, in particular with his last paragraph.
Slightly behind the Volt, I’d say :-)
But wait, there’s more…much much more..;.
http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/03/elizabeth-carmichael-1937.html
Gee I’m sorry, I guess I got distracted by the lack of fenders, or a roof, on the comfort part. Or maybe it was the safety claim, given the inherent instability of 3 wheeled vehicles.
The “inherent instability of 3 wheeled vehicles”? Guess you never fly on an airplane. Nor are you apparently familiar with the Aptera, Can-Am Spyder, Campagna T-Rex, Piaggio MP3, Honda Gyro family, the VW 1 liter concept car, bikes with sidecars, and Big Wheels.
As for lack of fenders, roof, and comfort, I guess you’re afraid of and hate the Ariel Atom as well. If you hate no roof, you must not be a ragtop man, and if you don’t like discomfort, then I guess that rules out motorbikes, Lotus cars, speed boats, mountain biking, road biking, skateboarding, or pretty much most things that are fun and make life a lot more enjoyable.