K-Way MOTUS
K-Way MOTUS is a three-wheeled vehicle, for two passengers. The vehicle is fully enclosed with a crash proof frame so there is no need to wear a helmet.
Active tilting allows the driver to steer like a car while the vehicle automatically leans into the curve like a motorcycle giving a completely new driving feeling.
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K-Way MOTUS é un veicolo a tre ruote con due posti allineati.
Grazie alla cellula di protezione non c'é bisogno di portare il casco.
Il sistema di inclinazione automatico piega il veicolo verso l'interno della curva quando si sterza, si guida come un'auto ma sembra di essere su una moto.
K-Way MOTUS Official Website
Progressive Automotive X-Prize
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The New York Times
Some X Prize Entrants and Why They Lost
[Alcuni veicoli che hanno partecipato al X-Prize e
il motivo per cui sono stati battuti]
By RONALD AHRENS
The winners of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, the three-year competition to produce 100-mile-per-gallon vehicles, will be announced later this morning in Washington.
Although there are only three winners, 24 vehicles were fielded from countries that included Canada, Italy and Switzerland. Their cars resembled lobsters, Lyle Lovett’s hair and ordinary Fords. For many reasons, they lost.
Here’s how the teams explained it:
[ I Vincitori del Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, la gara durata tre anni per promuovere la produzione di veicoli capaci di fare 100 miglia per gallone (42 km con un litro) saranno annunciati stamattina a Washingon.
Sebbene ci siano solo tre vincitori, sono 24 i veicoli, provenienti da vari paesi tra cui il Canada, l'Italia e la Svizzera, che hanno preso parte alla gara.
Le loro auto assomigliano ad aragoste, alle acconciature di Lyle Lovett e qualcuna a normali Ford.
Per molte ragioni sono state sconfitte.
Ecco i motivi che hanno portato alla loro esclusione:]
American HyPower ZAMS
The name of this converted Toyota Prius comes from the acronym for Zero Age Main Sequence, the point at which a star burns on pure hydrogen.
The vehicle’s hydrogen-conversion process was said to change the state of normal fuel in a gas-electric Prius hybrid and create hydrogen in a device under the hood before feeding the gas into the combustion chambers.
The Colorado-based team of scientific engineers, with one member living in Budapest, had trouble with the fuel tank provided by X Prize officials and was eliminated in June.
K-Way MOTUS
The creation of Stefano Carabelli, an Italian design professor, the ultranarrow tandem vehicle was powered by an Aprilia motorcycle 800cc V-Twin engine and electric motors.
Mr. Carabelli wanted to keep the driver as high as possible to stay in synch with traffic. The cabin automatically leans from side to side, resisting centrifugal forces and keeping the waferlike vehicle from turning over.
“The real innovation here is the tilting mechanism,” he said. An extremely lean fuel mixture resulted in engine failure during testing.
[K-Way MOTUS - La creazione di Stefano Carabelli, professore italiano di Meccatronica, é un veicolo super-stretto con due posti in tandem, mosso da un bicilindrico a V di 800cc della Aprilia.
Carabelli ha cercato di tenere il pilota in posizione piú alta possibile, in modo da avere un vantaggio in visibilitá in mezzo al traffico.
L'abitacolo oscilla automaticamente in curva, per contrastare la forza centrifuga, riuscendo a impedire che il veicolo, largo come un wafer, si ribalti.
"La vera innovazione nel nostro veicolo é il sistema di inclinazione", dice Stefano.
A causa di un difetto di lubrificazione, dovuto alla limitazione del carburante, si é verificata una rottura del motore (da qui il ritiro).]
Commuter Cars Tango T600
Rick Woodbury operates the one-man car company Commuter Cars in Spokane, Wash.
He claims supercar abilities for his tandem and customers who include George Clooney, Sergei Brin and Larry Page.
After the Tango failed efficiency testing in July, Mr. Woodbury said he didn’t design the vehicle for efficiency alone and that one day expressways will have special Tango lanes.
West Philly Hybrid X Ford Focus
A team made up of Philadelphia high school students entered a Ford Focus adapted as a plug-in hybrid.
But it didn’t properly recharge during testing after an electrical cord became unplugged.
“What would have put us over the top is if our team’s charging algorithms would have been more sophisticated” said Ann Cohen, the team manager. “They are now.”
FVT eVaro
George Parker, the president of Future Vehicle Technologies, based the model name on the Avro Arrow, Canada’s interceptor aircraft of the 1950s.
“The inspiration behind that was the Canadian technology,” Mr. Parker said. His three-wheeler uses a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle engine in series with electric motors.
The inventor, from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, had been developing the tandem since the 1970s.
The first of his three eVaros was finished in 2006 “before we heard about the X Prize.”
The vehicle overheated during testing.
September 16, 2010,
The New York Times,
Wheels, The Nuts and bolts of Whatever Moves You
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