Get More Miles Per Gallon With…WATER?

So there I was - flipping through some message traffic on an e-forum I belong to and one message in particular caught my eye. It was an advertisement that was offering distributors a unique product: a "do-it-yourself" water-powered car engine! As my car doesn't get nearly the amount of miles-per- gallon that I wish it could, I was naturally interested. I was more interested in not getting ripped off. So off I was to do some research on this wonder car…or whatever it is.

But first….

In case you've been living in a block of ice for the last 10 or 20 years (or longer) certainly you know that the earth's fossil fuels aren't going to be around for ever. There are a lot of estimates floating around that tell us when exactly we are going to get used to walking again. (There's even one estimate that has nothing to do with fossil fuel but says humanity is going to exterminate itself around 2080. But I digress) Anyway, I admire any inventor who is trying to come up with a way to keep us the road long after we have no more gasoline.

Cars that run on water aren't that much of a stretch. That is the basic concept of the steam engine, right? O-k…so I don't think we're going to have a Toyota with a little man in the truck shoveling coal. But the idea is certainly valid.

Apparently there has been a lot of effort. In fact, if you check the following website:

www.geocities.com/waterfuel111/car_electrolyser.html

You'll find a whole bunch of contraptions that are supposed to allow your automobile to run on methane, potatoes, alcohol and probably a thing or two I overlooked, including the one I'm referring to: the little modification that will allow your engine to run on water.

And notice how say "modification" because it's not an engine. It's an attachment that is mounted near your engine. And then in you trunk you place a 10 gallon drum for water. I'm not sure how often you have to fill up the drum with water. Does 10 gallons of water equal 100 kilometers on the auto-strada? I just don't know.

And that's because…

This information isn't free. Who knows what would happen if this kind of information fell into the wrong hands. Say for the example the CEO of Chrysler. YOU of course - for the low, low price of about $50.00 bucks - can purchase the blue-prints that will enable you to build you own little water-fed hydro-generator that will enable your car to run on water and get a hundred miles to the gallon. The ad doesn't tell you how much it costs additionally to purchase the parts and materials you need to build this thing. Materials that apparently you can pick up at Radio Shack. But think about it, can you put a price-tag on the future of your car? What's 50 dollars if you're saving...I don't know…another 50 dollars in the long run?

There are individuals out there with a lot more to gain that me when it comes to creating a car that runs on water. Michael Branson…who know owns Virgin Records, and Virgin Airlines and Vestal Virgins and more…has created an automotive division that will revolutionize the auto industry when it unveils a new car in late 2007 that runs on some sort of "virgin" fuel source. Now what could that be? I don't know. There aren't a whole lot of virgin anythings left in the world these days so I'm as curious as you are.

There are detractors of course. Plenty of nay-sayers who don't believe you can run a car on water. To them I say "phooey!". These are the same people who thought or still think the earth is flat, didn't think man could rocket to the moon, and who thought Doug Flutie was too short to make it in the NFL. They are all wrong. One day we'll have a car that can run on tap water. Now, today might not be the day, and this little gizmo I'm talking about might not be the instrument to get us on the road. But somewhere, somehow it's going to happen.

If you dig around the internet you'll find that there's a guy who builds a still that produces 180 alcohol and he runs his car on that. Or at least he says he does. He'll sell you that blue print also. And it costs a heck of a lot less that this water-hydrogenator or whatever it's called. And if you car doesn't run, you can still sit back and enjoy a stiff drink. Someone else is harnessing the power of corn. Corn has long been known as something we can use for other than popping.

And if it's not corn it'll be something else. Bullshit perhaps? There's a lot of that being thrown around Capital Hill. Certainly there should be a way to harness the energy of bullshit and make a car that goes from "here to there" and doesn't cost us an arm and a leg to do it.

In the meantime, I notice that the family and I drive a lot less these days and bike a lot more. And "that" energy source doesn't cost a thing.