A pair of young Australian researchers are claiming they’re a step closer to the automotive Holy Grail – a car that runs on thin air.
Tim de Souza and Stuart Hanafin, from Deakin University in Victoria are flying out to Detroit tomorrow to take part in the Ford Global Challenge.
The Challenge is being held to mark the 100th anniversary of the famed Model T Ford – with entrants being asked to come up with the Model T of the 21st century.
The conditions? It must be environmentally-friendly and it must cost less than $7000.
Hanafin and de Souza believe their model, which has an engine powered by the release of compressed air, fits the bill.
But if it’s possible to power a vehicle with the relatively old technology of compressed air, then why hasn’t it been done already?
“Fitting the compressed air technologies into cars of today which are quite heavy and large is infeasible,” de Souza told 2GB’s Jason Morrison.
“Whereas the concept we’ve come up with is a really small, lightweight vehicle that can make use of this type of technology.”
“We’ve used advanced materials and advanced manufacturing techniques to achieve this.”
Although the idea of a compressed air engine suggests like it wouldn’t last long without needing a ‘re-fill’, de Souza insists his model would have real staying power.
“One of the conditions [of the competition] is that it had to have a 200 kilometre range. So we’ve engineered it to make sure we have that range," he said.
“It’s a slightly tweaked system where we re-heat the air… which gives it a bit of a boost.
“If you just used plain compressed air you’d probably get 60 to 70 kilometres.”
De Souza says the technology to do this has been around for decades, but the key has been getting the structure light enough.
“We’ve catchphrased this as integrated simplicity and that’s all it is,” he said.
“We’ve taken something that is relatively complex and made it as simple as possible.”
Image doesn't show the Deakin model but an air compression car developed by French inventor Guy N gre - the MDI