Endeavour: The Solar Car

Every year colleges from around the world get together to compete in the World Solar Challenge. Of the competitors every year, are students from Cambridge University, who in 2009, built a car they named Endeavour. After previously being referred to as Bethany, it was renamed; after the call-sign of the Apollo 15 mission, which carried the first lunar rover to the moon. The space shuttle Endeavour had a delayed launch near the time of the cars completion, which helped lead students to choose it's final name.

It was finally launched at the festival of speed in 2009, by none other than Jensen Button. For those of you who do not know Jensen Button is a famous Formula 1 race car driver, who at the time was leading in points for the season. On its launch it managed to reach 60 mph with nothing other than its 2 hp engine that got all of it energy from the sun. When you think about it that is really impressive, particularly for students who are still in school.

Links:
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/electric-cars/images/13103660/title/bethany-solar-car-photo
http://inhabitat.com/solar-powered-bethany-race-car/
http://green.autoblog.com/photos/cuer-solar-car-bethany/

The Splinter: A Wooden Supercar

We assume that the average car is generally made with different metals and plastics, while a high end car might have carbon fiber or something similar, but what would happen if you made a supercar out of wood. How about a car with 700 bhp and a top speed of 240 mph. This is exactly what Joe Harmon and other students at North Carolina State University have been working on while in college, building their version of a wooden supercar that they call the splinter.

Their unique car will be powered by a twin supercharged Cadillac V8, but the engine is one of the only things not wood on the car. Even the suspension is made out of wood, as well as the spokes on the rim, and all of the frame and body. While some people question the choice of wood it should be noted that wood has a better strength to weight ratio than steel and is easy to work with. We have made airplanes out of wood, so why not a car? Plus it looks great.

Extra Terrestrial Vehicle

Futuristic cars are cool in movies like Back to the Future and Tron, but would anyone drive a car like this in real life. It appears so. A car company know as The Car Factory and its owner Kit Car Mike have been producing a car that they call the Extra Terrestrial Vehicle.

The ETV looks like a rocket ship for the road, but it is just a kit car. The Car Factory claims to have built ETVs off of chassis of cars like the Chevy Cobalt, Chevy Cobalt SS,  Chevy Aveo,  Toyota Echo, Honda Insight,  Toyota MR2, and even a Porsche Boxster. Despite it being a kit car, they are not cheap. While The Car Factory recommends calling them for a price, we have found one for sale online, for $125,000, with "The Car Factory" listed as the seller.

While this is defiantly a unique car I can't seem to figure out if it is unique in a good way or not. It looks like you are just sitting in a giant bubble with gull wing doors; however, the car is 100% street legal with all of the DOT required lights and glass. Who knows maybe one day we will all be getting groceries in a rocket ship.

W Motor's Truly Unique Multi-million Dollar Car

By the end of 2013 W Motors is expected to begin delivery of its recently unveiled $3.4 million dollar car. When I heard this my first reaction was, what are they making it out of gold and diamonds? The answer is yes, they are. The Hyper-Sport will be fitted with diamond encrusted head lights, a gold plated roof, either gold or platinum keys, and the interior will be made in part with precious gems of the owners color choice.

Aside from these luxuries when you purchase this unique car you get a very unique watch to match. A watch that is valued at more that $200,000. Other that the price tag this car is a standout in the fact that there will only be seven of them produced. Seven was chosen because it is considered to be a lucky number so instead of just making seven cars they based the whole design on the Arabic symbol for seven, a "V".

They used the Arabic symbol for seven mostly because this is the first Arabian made hypercar, and they are proud of it. W Motors plans of relocating to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Doha, and Debbas from W Motors stated “We’d like the first few cars to go to Arabs, even if we have received requests from Russia, China, the US.”

Like many other high end cars this will have sufficient engine and plenty of speed. It is expected to have more than 750 horsepower coming from and RUF made six cylinder engine. This means that the Hyper-Sport will be able to top Ferrari's and Lamborghini's in price as well as performance, with an expected 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of 2.8 seconds.