I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of steampunk, but I love learning about ideas that could’ve been. The monowheel is a perennial favorite of mine (and one that would do well to return today), as well as Henry Ford’s early experiments with ethyl alcohol-powered cars - which had been a feature on many Model T’s until the technology was killed by the Prohibition. It’s a shame that some ideas, especially that one, were abandoned irreversibly (in the mainstream, at any rate) by chance.

One such topic I’ve recently become aware of, however, is the wood gas car. Like the ethyl alcohol car, which ran on that because it could be made easily on a farm, it was born out of necessity. During World War II, wood gas (also known as producer gas) vehicles became a popular and essential substitute for gasoline and diesel, which were rationed for military use. And it wasn’t just one side, either; the technology was popular throughout Europe, everywhere from Scandinavian countries (with over 110,000 between the three of them) to central Europe (France was especially notable, having 65,000 during the period). Germany actually had around half a million wood gas vehicles during the war.

(Image Credit: Automotto.com) Read more about Wood Fired: Producer Gas Vehicles During World War II

As a car enthusiast growing up in the Age of Information, I have played just about every racing game to come out from the late ‘90s to now. I’ve seen the evolution (some would say, “fall”) of the Need for Speed series from a fun-loving Lamborghini-versus-Ferrari staple to the dark, superficial tuner mess it has ultimately become, and watched the simulator genre rise from an overly-detailed racing driver training tool to a fair medium with paths of entry for casual and hardcore racers. While the racing sim genre may seem like a narrow niche, there’s a surprising number of games within the category; rally, road course, oval, street. Developers will come and go, too, like the aforementioned NFS (with its simulator-oriented Shift offshoot) and Codemasters’ long-running Colin McRae rally series (which left the simulator genre for the Americanized X Games vibe with DiRT).

In world of real driving (and real racing), there is a great deal of debate over whether these types of games help drivers or not, and how much the player needs to truly achieve a realistic experience - so let me set the record straight on the benefits of racing games.

It’s fun to take note of the car designs in science fiction; whether the vehicles fly, swim, or drive, the designs almost always reflect a certain condition or environment. The same is true with many concept cars as well, with the inevitable auto show appearance of some concept car that seems better suited to filtering the atmosphere on Venus than, say, hitting a pothole. But despite the outlandish designs that populate the auto show circuits and CGI artists’ screens, the biggest obstacle in the construction of these vehicles is safety regulations. Otherwise, building these peculiar sculptures is completely plausible. Even the really outlandish ones.

One of these seemingly problematic features is the wheels, and that is the subject of this piece. As it turns out, the sidewall-less tires with honeycomb-pattern interiors that you often see in science fiction concept art or as entries in military vehicle contests are not as impossible to create as you might think. Known as airless, or non-pneumatic tires (NPTs), these durable, flexible designs are a surprisingly practical and obtainable devices. Read more about Strange as Fiction: The Non-Pneumatic Wheel

With the advent of stricter safety regulations and a growing focus on bold, thick shapes in car design, the idea of the pillarless coupe has drifted into memories of an era better remembered for its muscle cars. But the design has aged much more gracefully than the simple, immediately-recognizable shapes of 1960s and ‘70s American iron, and even survived by a few obscure luxury cars today.

But what defines these pillarless coupes? The idea at its most basic is simply to delete (or neglect to include) the B-pillar, or at least make it possible to lower that pillar into the body as the windows roll down. The result is a clean look, as if the car has been sculpted from a single sheet of metal.

The typical auto websites will constantly follow every move of the auto industry, every twitch of a spy photographer’s lens, and every upcoming version of popular (or otherwise) vehicles. HittingRedline focuses instead on artistic content, and I try to avoid spending my energy repeating information you’ve probably already seen somewhere else. But for an international auto show like Frankfurt (or the rest in the upcoming auto show season), I figured I’d compose a compilation of some of the most notable cars. And since everyone else groups their lists in fives or tens, I’ll be doing this one with six. Just ‘cause. Read more about Important elsewhere: six notable cars from the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show

A legendary racetrack or motorsports venue, even an obscure one, could be a household name. Here in the United States, most people off the street will have heard of the Bonneville Salt Flats and the host of purpose-built vehicles that challenge nature there. In Europe, the Nurburgring Nordschliefe could be described in the same way; historic F1 races, and now the second home to almost every major sports car manufacturer as well as public track days. But at locations like these two, where there are cars and people on the scene almost every day of the year, the thought of it disappearing is far from most drivers’ and teams’ minds (such thoughts are often replaced by the thirst for faster times and higher speeds). Here, I’ll cover some of the issues at play in several locations around the world that are currently being fought over by the car enthusiasts and the industries. Read more about Endangered Species: Racetracks we should save

As gas prices soar steadily higher, and environmentalists become steadily louder, the Western world is becoming more and more expectant of what I call “pain-killer technologies.” These strategies are any method that involves changing the car in its present form, including hybrids, bio-fuels, and electric power. The first works in the right conditions, but the gain it provides is often cancelled out by its driver’s aggression (not to mention the damage done during the battery-manufacturing process). The second, bio-fuels, almost never claims in its marketing to be any different. The reason for this is that bio-fuels are not actually that efficient. E85 (which is 85% corn-based ethanol and 15% gasoline), the most popular form of bio-fuel, actually lowers fuel efficiency by up to 25%. I have my own opinions on the third option, complete electric, but the short story is this; an electric vehicle cannot be successful as a car. For the technology to grow to a useable form, it needs a designated platform for normal people to identify as “electric.”

When it comes to cars, I’m not exactly “environmentally conscious.” The reason is because, in my opinion, the changes that car companies are making simply aren’t enough to warrant the attention people are giving them; they are often inefficient, overcomplicated, and impractical. Plus, as a driver and car enthusiast, I see driving as something that should include sound and involvement with the vehicle, and no one makes a hybrid Ariel Atom(not that I drive a Atom or anything in that class, of course). What the personal transportation world so desperately needs is a new design, one that starts from scratch and is designed to suit the needs of everyone from the everyday driver to an enthusiast such as myself. Read more about Power with Responsibility: The Potential of the MYT Engine

Six years ago, I visited Lime Rock Park for their Ferrari Challenge with a fellow car enthusiast, Adam H (who was also there this year). Back then, my camera was a camera, my phone was a phone, and there was no such thing as a 430 Scuderia. But despite the huge turnout and prolificacy of fans when it came to covering the place with high-dollar exotics, Lime Rock choose to end the program, at least for a little while.

There’s a saying in school technology circles, “School is where you go to learn how things used to be done.” While I’ll refrain from applying that to public schools in this column, I will say that this applies completely to modern driver’s education courses. This summer, my state asked me to take part in one such course, or wait three years to get my license. Naturally, for three and a half weeks in June and July, I found myself in a classroom at 8:00 each morning, re-learning the ins and outs of driving operating a motor vehicle from a textbook. And, seeing as the most recent car in that textbook was a first-generation Subaru Forester (and the photographer clearly had a fixation with the Toyota Celica), the lessons were hardly recent. As you might expect, that was only the beginning of driver’s ed.’s outdated faults. Read more about By the Book: A tour through the modern driver's ed. course