Escape From Berkeley (By Any Non-Petroleum Means Necessary) is an alternative-fueled road rally that starts October 10th and ends October 13th. The rally begins in Berkeley, California, and finishes in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Sahara. Contestants are required to use any fuel other than petroleum, and using only those fuels scavenged “for free” along the way. Fuel cannot be purchased. Judges will present awards for both artistic and technical achievements. If you want to get in on the action, there are a number of ways to participate, from registering your vehicle to volunteering for the event or even sponsoring the route “by the mile” or by landmark.
[via Laughing Squid]
I’d have to drive up there first, wasting fuel. I don’t think this would work out too well.
How about a car that runs on blood?
That’d be cool, but how would you get the blood to light???
Oh if only I lived ANYWHERE(!!) but northern Idaho… I want an excuse to build a fully-electric or hydrogen-electric hybrid I’ve had running around my head for the last year. Alas, I am but a poor college student.
what about an engine running on cigarette butts? there should be plenty around a highway
@yoshi–you can trade me hometowns. I hope you like emptiness because thats what you’ll get in the middle of the nebraska sand hills. I’ll enjoy your mountains and snow and skiing and hiking and fishing and everything else.
I’d love to make a plug-in series hybrid style car (see chevy volt) but rather then drive the generator/charger via petrol I’d use some sort of steam engine. Probably not all that much wood/burnables along the roadside but it’d be neat to build.
@yoshi – I grew up there! Most of my friends just graduated from UofI (I got the hell out before that).
I recommend building a 10×8 foot kite. We did that one summer. Also a trebuchet, and a 33 ft. wingspan hang glider that was fun for running down hills (although hardly flight-capable).
Although I certainly don’t miss the snow, I don’t have the space and freedom to play with fire, medieval seige weapons, etc. that I did when I was up there. Besides, your university has one of the best electric car groups out there, doesn’t it?
Escape from Berkeley and head for Stanford! :)
Can I use plutonium for fuel that’s not oil?
@ david that actually might be a way to win the competition though you also can use whats known as a gassifier and run a normal IC engine on gassified wood and trash.
The stock ECU might have to be replaced with a mega squirt controller to make it work with a gassifier if one doesn’t want to bother with reverse engineering the factory ECU’s code.
Who *wouldn’t* want to escape from Berkeley?
They could probably scavenge enough patchouli oil on Telegraph Ave to run a VW Microbus all the way.
Interested and useful article. Already bookmarked this site, worth to visit again.
The quantity of Hybrid Car lover is keep growing day by day. Let’s stay in touch.