1962 Pontiac Grand Prix on 2040-cars

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Vitruvian Energy crowdfunding to make EEB, a trashy biofuel

When sewage is treated at a wastewater treatment facility, biosolids are the byproduct. After being separated from the water, biosolids are usually sent to a landfill or incinerated. That doesn't mean that they're without value, however. Vitruvian Energy has created a process to make a usable fuel out of this human waste product, and while the source is pretty gross, it is undeniably abundant, and the results are much cleaner. EEB can be made for less than $4 a gallon. In a process that Vitruvian Energy claims is energy efficient, biosolids are femented and introduced to a type of bacteria to create PHA plastic. Reacting the PHA with ethanol creates the ethyl-3-ethoxybutyrate (EEB) biofuel. Vitruvian says EEB can be blended up to 20 percent with gasoline or diesel without any engine modifications. This lowers the carbon footprint of the fuel it's blended into, and serves to oxygenate diesel, leading to fewer harmful emissions. EEB can also be made using other organic waste products, such as corn stover, rice straw and distillers grains. EEB can be made for less than $4 a gallon and isn't subject to the maddening market fluctuations and international politics of fossil fuels. Furthermore, EEB's carbon footprint is 70 percent less than that of fossil fuels. Vitruvian also sees potential for EEB to be used on its own to power vehicles or burned to produce electricity for the grid. So far, Vitruvian Energy has used grants from the California Energy Commission and National Science Foundation to develop EEB, and has tested the fuel in a Pontiac Solstice at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Now, Vitruvian is wants to test EEB on a larger scale in the real world in order to prove EEB's viability to interested parties in the wastewater treatment industry. In an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, Vitruvian Energy hopes to raise $200,000 to build a prototype EEB production line and to run a test vehicle for a year on an EEB-diesel blend on the streets of Seattle. Donors can score some interesting perks such as shirts and bumper stickers that say "Get Clean with Poopaline." Learn more about EEB in the video and press release below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Porsche Sports Car Together Fest is a labor of many Porsche loves

Over Labor Day Weekend, Porsche held its second annual Sports Car Together Fest (SCTF) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We happened to be nearby, so we swung by to check out an event we’d never heard of until a few weeks before. Reading about it on Porsche's U.S. web site made us think it would be something like Rennsport Reunion for the Midwest. Turns out SCTF is just as much of a different kind of fun. The fest Tom MooreÂ’s the man behind Dark Horse Motorsports, the motorsport consultant for Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) PR. "People love Rennsport Reunion, but thatÂ’s every three to four years," he explained. “We wanted to gather people on those off years, and we didn't want to just do a mini Rennsport, because thatÂ’s its own thing. WeÂ’ve maintained the motorsport history at Rennsport. Here [at SCTF], we're doing the current look at what Porsche racing is for." In this case, that means gathering what Moore called "our Porsche motorsport pyramid." ThatÂ’s the range of enthusiast drivers from novice to hotshoes trying to get to top-tier endurance racing, "[starting] with the progression from Porsche Club of America track days up to the top of the ladder of one-make racing in North America," the Carrera Cup North America, a series made up of nothing but the latest 500-horsepower 911 GT3 Cup cars.  The three days of racing action allowed almost any kind of Porsche owner interested in clipping apexes to compete around an Indianapolis Motor Speedway layout tweaked with an infield section. This year, that included ex-NASCAR star Jeff Gordon, coming out of retirement to reunite with his longtime NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham for the top-class Cup races.  Evernham told us Gordon hasnÂ’t raced in five years and he hasnÂ’t been a crew chief in 22. On very short practice, Gordon finished in 14th in the Pro Class in the first Carrera Cup race of the weekend driving the #24 Hendrick Performance Group Porsche, and 11th in the second race. Afterward, he said, "I made a pass on the white flag lap. That made my whole weekend Â… I must say that yesterday, I thought ‘man, I am getting beat out hereÂ’ and I donÂ’t like that. If I am going to be in an environment like this, I want to be competitive. But today turned the corner for me. So, I hope I get to do another one day."  When we strolled the paddock after the event, exposed sheet metal proved "Rubbing is racing" is a thing in the Carrera Cup as well as NASCAR.

World's only 1964 Pontiac XP-833 Banshee coupe for sale by Kia dealer

It seems like there has been a spate of especially odd car sales in the first part of this especially odd year, from the numerous barn finds and homebrew specials to the time capsule cars — like the BMW wrapped in a protective bubble for 23 years. Napoli Kia in Milford, Connecticut, brings us another, via Motor1. Len Napoli is the dealership principal and die-hard Pontiac maven; his father opened Napoli Pontiac in 1958, and Len held onto the franchise until the early 2000s, just before GM shuttered the brand that built excitement. Napoli got hold of the 1964 Pontiac Banshee XP-833 coupe concept, and put the car up for sale through his Kia dealership for $750,000. The exceptional price comes from the fact that Pontiac built two Banshee concepts in 1964, one this silver coupe with a red interior, the other a white roadster, making each concept a one-of-one collector car.      Motor Trend wrote a detailed piece on this one in 2013, the editorial tour hosted by Bill Collins, the Banshee's lead engineer. The short story is that GM exec John Z. DeLorean — yes, him —  gave approval to a small crew at Pontiac to create a two-seater sports car to compete with the Mustang, because GM had nothing to fend off the four-seat coupe that would sell one million units in just 18 months on the market. Collins and his team took inspiration from the 1963 Corvair Monza GT concept, working up a fiberglass body over a steel frame, with a 230-cubic-inch overhead-cam straight-six producing 165 horsepower and 216 pound-feet of torque, a four-speed manual transmission, and 9.5-inch drum brakes at all corners. The idea was that the XP-833 would be "an affordable and fun two-seat sports car," the concept demonstrating the base-model price leader offering a lengthy list of options for those who wanted more. The white roadster, in fact, fitted a 326 cubic-inch V8 under the hood. Rumor says that Chevrolet execs didn't like having another two-seater sports car in the GM fold, especially one with a fiberglass body that held weight down to 2,200 pounds. GM execs took one look at the two concepts in 1965 and shut the project down. The two XP-833s lived in a garage for years, Collins and his colleague Bill Killen getting permission to buy the cars from GM in 1973 before Collins left to help engineer the DeLorean DMC-12. It wasn't until just before Collins departed that the XP-333 got the name Banshee.