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Moonbeam
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Travelling at 100 Miles per Gallon by Jory Squibb It you drive in our local towns, you are apt to spot a tiny white three-wheeled car darting among larger cousins. It recently emerged for road tests from my Camden workshop. I grew up in 50's Detroit, so my love-affair with wheeled transport is lifelong. But in recent years, I've grown saddened by the automobiles effect on our planet and politics. For a few years, I drove electric cars, but with their limited range between battery charges, even getting home from Rockland was an adventure. Gasoline, if used frugally, is a wonderful and efficient source of energy. We all know that mopeds and motorscooters often go over 100 miles on a gallon. Why not see if a small, enclosed, heated, comfortable, year-round car can be made using motorscooter technology? So with budgets of $2000 and 400 hours of labor, I bought a welding set, turned up the heat in the garage, and began destroying two Honda motorscooters. I love working in wood, so the switch to steel was a challenge, but it soon became fun. Bending the plastic used for the body panels however, I still find finicky.  What you see is "Moonbeam" ,
which on a recent test run to Belfast at 40 MPH managed to do
105 MPG. The budgets of money and time are at their
limits. But with the eye of faith, I like to think that the
car is in the home stretch, and will soon sport its hinging slice-of-
orange overhead door and the rest of the body.
It is designed to carry one person or two dwarfs, along with 4 grocery bags. It sports an automatic transmission, and all controls are on the handlebars. Weighing only 300 pounds, it is delightfully agile to drive, and cruises easily at 40-45. But at that speed, travelling in a 6 foot by 4 foot box, you become disinterested in going any faster! Height is equally humbling as you look out at the same level as an SUV tailpipe. Driving my usual 120 mile week of errands, I was surprised to see the fuel gauge dropping at the same rate as my other car. Then I remembered that this two gallon tank will cost $5 and not $35 to refill! Looking back on the intense winter, the best part of the project was relating to local hardware stores, auto parts stores, steel sellers and benders, as well as fellow inventors. What we take for granted in a car is an amazing feat of engineering and evolution. Once you leave the two ton 4 wheel box, you find yourself in a land both exciting and baffling. Even the simplest thing-- like how to enter easily a small space through a water-tight door which a great-grandparent could open -- is a real head- scratcher. But these challenges make the project so much fun, I can hardly wait for each new day to begin. I hope that by summertime, folks will see "moonbeam" looking more like a proper car and perhaps take a test drive. Maybe even borrow my welder. Visit Jory's webpage with current moonbeam info |
