Don at Built It Solar has posted plans for how to turn a standard scooter into a solar-powered one. Basically it involves attaching a set of panels in a folding wing-style formation on each side of the scooter, and retracting them alongside the scooter when in use. Don emphasizes that this mod is entirely street-legal and that he’s put well over 2000km onto his scooter using it largely for commuting. Since commutes involve a lot of idling, you can multiply that out when calculating how much pollution and fuel he hasn’t touched. [GT]

Don’s solar scooter [via Sci Fi Tech]

Much like how power supplies take in huge amounts of electricity and then wastefully lathe them into the small voltages actually needed, car engines have inefficiencies innate to their design which cost you every day at the petrol pump. However, a new petrol engine design from Purdue University streamlines and eliminates mechanisms between pistons and valves, allowing the valves to, via a process called variable valve actuation, be fine-tuned to vastly improve how efficiently petrol is combusted. The second part of the redesign is called homogeneous charge compression ignition, which is also exciting and technical and the upshot is it’ll let us get a lot more bang (quiet, elegant, low-emission, fuel-efficient bang) out of the fossil fuels we’ve got left. The petrol engine hasn’t changed much since its initial creation, so it’s about time it, like the incandescent bulb, got a high-tech makeover. [GT]

Radical engine redesign would reduce pollution, oil consumption

It’s not impossible that you skip back and forth over the pond enough that you can’t remember if you’re in London or America, and if so, the qStart is for you. Just plug it into the lighter socket and it’ll give a cheery vocal reminder of which side of the road you’re to drive on. As a special bonus, every two hours it’ll nag you to take a break, and probably after you’ve gotten comfortable it’ll start asking why you don’t give it the good petrol or some new mudflaps. £10. [GT]

The Connaught Type-D H specs are as follows: 140mph, 0-60mph in 6.5s, 42mpg, compliant with the 2010 low emissions guidelines. Being a four-seater and emphasizing fuel economy and inexpensiveness of operation, it seems to be trying to straddle the…

The Road Ramp generator is more effective than wind turbines and gives a second bang, so to speak, from what is presently wasted petrol. Optimally installed in ramps where the vehicle has to slow anyhow, the Road Ramp sucks…

While it didn't quite mash the land speed record of 581 km/h set by a Japanese mag lev in 2003, a French train just broke the record for conventional rail by reaching 574.8 km/h on fresh-laid track. The previous…