Sometimes I think that many people have never had a chance to allow "100mpg" to enter their concousness. When I discuss fuel mileage with people who have come to ask questions about Dirigo and that expression come up often they don't know what to say next. Time is needed to digest the concept. I do remind them that we haven't yet attained 100mpg, but are getting close. Speechlessness is a common reaction.

On the way to the Green Grand Prix, there was a guy who followed me off the interstate into a rest stop where I was in dire need of the facilities. He came wide-eyed up to the car and managed to tell me he was a designer, but aside from that he just didn't know where to start. I knew that I had pressing business elsewhere, but the mission is to engage the public and have these discussions. Fortunately another couple walked up and I was able to get them chatting while I politely but rapidly made my exit. When I got back there were still more people around the car, but my speechless friend had found his voice and we had a delightful conversation about automotive design, of which neither of us were an expert. The beauty of riding on the interstate with Dirigo is that at our cruising speed of 65, cars pass slowly but not at inconvience to them. There is just enough time to look, wave, give thumbs up, and snap a few photos. It happens constantly. I like to imagine that live on the highway is generally rather boring when along comes this cool little car and everyone looks out the window. The one with the smart phone sees the web address on the Dirigo's flanks, goes there, and revels the rest of the folks with technical details and exploits from the cross country trip last summer. How long does this joy and inspiration last? Who knows, but we do get this response. I relate it to the reaction from a work of art: an emotion is touched and a thought process engaged.

We dropped down from I90 in New York to the old east-west Route 20.This was the route of our maiden voyage on the last trip to Watkins Glen when the tow vehicle broke down and Dirigo took us the rest of the way on it's untried tires. The road was again virtually empty, passing through small towns, becoming more prosperous as we approached the Finger Lakes. I stopped in Senneca Falls to call ahead to my host, and a car passed in the other direction, made a u-turn, and came back to park nearby. I know the drill by now, so got out, handed the couple a card, and had a delightful conversation. His parents had driven Chevettes in the seventies and he swears they regularly got 50mpg. Even if it was "only" 40, production cars are just now beginning to approach that.

There were 42 cars on the track at Watkins glen the next day, all working to maximize their economy line through the turns. Except one guy in an old Porsche who figured he'd spend the seventy-five dollar entry fee just to tear around the track until he was black-flagged. It didn't take long, but from the look on his face it must have been worth it. Fuel economy was measured by weight. The cars without mpg computers were weighed befor and after the event, the difference being how much fuel was used in pounds. Dirigo consumed eight pounds, just over a gallon, to go 95 miles, which worked out to 85mpg. Not as good as our 89mpg last time, but not too bad. A few of us had dinner later at a lake front restaurant which was having happy hour. I flaunted all the parking rules and pulled up right out front. In a few second I was surrounded by curious drinkers, inhibitions gone and in full wonder mode. We eventually found a seat in the back. but for quite a while after we would catch tidbits of conversations from the bar with words like "diesel, motorcycle, three wheels, wood body, from Maine, etc." Following is the AP report which made most national papers:

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Flanked by an array of unique vehicles, Bob Gillespie stood in the chilly morning air at Watkins Glen International and spelled out the rules in a drivers’ meeting like no other at the famed road course. “There’s no drafting, no tailgating, stay 50 feet behind the car in front of you, and there shouldn’t be too much passing,” Gillespie warned Friday before the start of his pet project, the Green Grand Prix. “Drive safely. I don’t want anybody going 30 m.p.h. or even 33 m.p.h. at the top of the esses. And if you have to take a potty break, there’s a porta-john over there.” Kent Johnson shrugged in fake dismay, then smiled as he settled behind the wheel of a Honda Insight. “Painful,” said Johnson, who is more accustomed to speeds of 140 miles per hour racing Ford Mustangs around the Glen’s 2.45-mile short course that Nascar uses every August. The Green Grand Prix is a celebration of sustainable transportation that promotes awareness of environmentally friendly vehicles and fuels through motoring events and educational activities. Billed as the only road rally for alternate-fuel vehicles and hybrids in the United States sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America, it was staged for six years on two-lane country roads in and around Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The rally was moved to the storied track this year and the track president Michael Printup said he hoped it would become a fixture. This was no place for Sprint Cup cars that get four and a half miles per gallon, even if they are using 15 percent ethanol fuel this season. “This was right down my bowling alley,” said Printup, the chairman for green initiatives at all 12 International Speedway Corp. tracks. “This is my 300 game right here.” Two fuel-economy rallies were run simultaneously Friday, with one group covering 50 miles and the second 100 miles. The goal was to average 45 m.p.h. — and may the most fuel-efficient car win. Bill Buchholz, one of 44 drivers to compete, could not wait to hop into his three-wheel Dirigo. It was parked right next to Roo Trimble’s Roopod, another three-wheeler with this to offer, “Two people, two gallons, two hundred miles, one hell of a trip.” “I think it’s good to get all these cars together,” said Buchholz, who made the 500-mile trip from his home in Camden, Me., in his Dirigo and has driven it to California. “You feel a little bit lonely sometimes in these odd cars trying to promote fuel mileage, and here’s a whole critical mass of small cars doing it. “I hope there’s a political component here as well that people express the need that we have to take these cars further and get them out to the public. The public should demand high-mileage cars from manufacturers. That’s the ultimate goal.” The Dirigo is powered by a three-cylinder, 950cc diesel motor that generates all of 20 horsepower. Its front end was fashioned from a Kawasaki off-road vehicle, its wheels are from a Volkswagen Beetle, and the body is made of western red cedar “because it’s very light, carbon neutral and you can build nice shapes with it,” Buchholz said. The Dirigo also has a slick cruise control made from a contraption used to hold sails in place on a sailboat. The vehicle remains crude at best — the windows use zippers, and the fumes from the engine are noticeable with the windows zipped. But it works. “We’re beginning to believe that there’s a market opportunity here for a company to design something that’s high-mileage but not dorky,” Buchholz said. “I think that cars can be high-mileage and cool at the same time, and it’s pertinent to where we’re at today.” Indeed. The price of gas is hovering around $4 a gallon and is not likely to go down soon. “I think $4 a gallon gas is a big psychological hurdle,” Buchholz said. “You can see $3.95, $3.98, but when it’s $4.01, all of a sudden it’s $4. I think now people might begin to start to react to that in a different way.”

Trimble hopes so. He spent three years developing the Roopod, which is powered by a two-cylinder, 480cc diesel that provides all of 13 horsepower but still can reach 55 m.p.h. “When I started building this car, it was sort of an epiphany moment,” said Trimble, 43, an industrial designer from Massachusetts who is looking for sponsors. “I was looking at my Volkswagen Beetle and I started thinking that when I’m driving it, nine parts of my gallon of gas go to hauling the weight of the car around. I wanted to make a car that had a better ratio. “The goal is almost met here,” said Trimble, who weighs about 260 pounds. “When there’s two of me in that car, the car and me are almost the same weight, so it gives you a 1-to-1 ratio.” Cornell University entered its Custom Redshift, a diesel-electric hybrid with a license plate number of CU100MPG, in the 50-mile race. Matt Robison, a masters student studying engineering and business, was behind the wheel as the professor Al George lamented that the car would have to try to make it all the way on battery power because of an electronic problem. It did as George pondered the future. “I’m a grandfather now, and basically my grandchildren’s grandchildren are in trouble,” he said. “We’re running out of energy. We cannot afford to keep doing what we’re doing. Each person in the United States is using twice as much energy as people in Europe. We just can’t do it. We don’t have the resources. “We have to improve our vehicles, our home heating, everything we do. People have a very short view of where the world’s going. It’s really a shame.” This was the second time Buchholz competed in the Green Grand Prix. He took second place in his class two years ago at 89 miles per gallon but did not make the podium on Friday. West Philadelphia High School’s Factory Five GTM nailed top honors at 160 m.p.g., and a Chevrolet Volt finished at 129 m.p.g. The day was not painful at all for Johnson, who is the chairman of the automotive department at Alfred State University. He took top honors in his class at 89.6 m.p.g.

The trip home was tough, with rain and a very strong headwind all the way to central Mass. Thankfully the rain tapered off, not that it was a problem, just that the Lexan windshield takes a beating from all the grit suspended in the clouds of water drawn along by big trucks. The exhaust system failed fir the last time in Lowell, as the car and muffler parted ways. I ran back to get it, tossed it in the back, and drove the rest of the way in full Harley-Davidson mode. After the last fuel stop in southern Maine, I decided to have no mercy and abandon all attempts at mileage. The cruise control was pulled full on, and we tore along at over 70mph for the rest of the trip. I'd never done this before, but have always been curious. The engine didn't miss a beat, temperature gauge didn't budge, and we made it home in time for dinner. Great car!