But then I got to thinking that the high-performance potent version is just one possible type of FrankenMINI. I found a company that is developing a retro-fit hybrid system; essentially an electric motor that replaces the alternator. This system combined with any of Honda's many powerful, innovative, and efficient four-cylinder engines could theoretically be installed into the diminutive MINI to make for some real clean, green, lean, mean, machines. So in addition to the balls-out fast version, I will also need these other versions:
- Biodiesel Hybrid - Diesel engines are not very popular here in the States because they are seen as noisy, dirty, and stinky. That's too bad because diesel engines are quite a bit more efficient than their gasoline counterparts, producing significantly less CO2 per distance. When fueled with biodiesel, which is produced from crops rather than fossil fuels, the CO2 emissions are virtually erased because the crops grown to produce the fuel re-absorb that CO2 from the atmosphere through osmosis. Pretty much any diesel engine can burn biodiesel, and just as easily switch back to regular diesel. I could even convert it to run on straight waste vegetable oil from restaurant fryers. I thought that the only way I could make a biodiesel MINI would be to use Volkswagen's ubiquitous 2.0 liter turbo-diesel engine found in the Golf and Jetta, but this would have been difficult because the MINIs are designed to take Honda 4-cylinder engines, not VW ones. But then I discovered that Honda actually produces and sells a 4-cylinder diesel Civic in the UK. After reading as much as I could about it, it sounds like quite a marvelous little engine. Although diesel engines are more efficient, they have (until recently) produced a lot more nitrous oxide than gasoline engines. Honda has developed an emissions control system for this engine that reduces Nitrous Oxide emissions down to stringent new European standards. It sounds like it's also a pretty smooth and quiet little machine. In the UK Civic, which weighs almost twice as much as the MINI that I would put it in, it gets about 54 miles-per-gallon. Putting it in the much smaller car and adding the hybrid system, 60 or maybe even 70 mpg don't seem too far out of reach. And with over 250 lb/ft of torque, this little monster would still have plenty of scoot. This car would be difficult to build though because as far as I can tell, this particular engine is only sold in the UK, and has only been on sale for about a year, so finding a used engine (like from a wrecked car) would be difficult. Even if I did find one, this engine has not been approved by the EPA for sale in the USA, so I don't know if it would even be possible to import it here. I read somewhere that rumor has it Honda is planning to sell cars with this engine in the US starting in 2009 though, so maybe in a few years this will be a more feasible option.
- Natural Gas Hybrid - Honda sells a natural gas version of the Civic in California and New York (Civic GX). Natural gas is about as efficient as regular gasoline, but burns cleaner, emitting fewer greenhouse gases. I could also attach the retrofit hybrid system to this. In the civic, this natural gas engine returns the equivalent of about 39 mpg on the highway. This would also be a relatively difficult engine to find just because of its limited sales area and volume. Another challenge would be finding natural gas for it, but I could buy one of these nifty appliances which fills your cars tank using the natural gas supplied to your home. Because of the refueling difficulty, this car wouldn't be able to stray very far from home. This drivetrain doesn't make a lot of power either, but it would be a lot cleaner and more efficient than the balls-out fast one, and in the tiny mini, even the meager power would probably be plenty.
- Gasoline Hybrid - Honda also makes a four-cylinder gasoline hybrid Civic and Insight. At first I didn't even bother looking into this option because I thought it would be way too complex and convoluted to be installed in the MINI. But after doing some more research, it seems that Honda's hybrid system is much simpler than that of the Toyota Prius. So much simpler, in fact, that I think it would actually be entirely possible to just take the engine right out of a hybrid Civic and put it in the MINI. In the Civic, this drivetrain gets about 45 mpg. I would probably try to find a way to convert the engine to run on Ethanol blend fuels like E85. If I already had a biodiesel hybrid, however, that got better fuel economy, had more power, and emitted fewer greenhouse gases, then I would probably never want to drive this gasoline hybrid anyway.
- Plug-in Battery Electric - This one would have no engine at all, just batteries and electric motors. According to Wikipedia (a.k.a. the disinformation dissemination machine) battery electric vehicles are much more efficient and cleaner than gasoline vehicles. Like the natural gas car, though, this one would also have a limited driving range.
I can't find any relevant videos, so I'm just putting up another Muse video because they are still awesome. This one is apparently called New Born.
