In the late spring of 2007 a group of people interested in cool cars and the future of personal transportation came together to design and build a car to compete in the Automotive X Prize. The Prize is a $10 million purse posted to inspire the design and construction of manufacturable practical cars that, among other attributes, could achieve 100mpg.

The group of 25 soon dropped to about 15 people who continued to meet monthly to hammer out the design.

The group had a wide range of interest, skill, experience and egos and by late summer had detailed the construction of a three wheel, diesel powered rear engine front wheel drive car based on the X-Prize guidelines. We developed the group into a nonprofit 501-3c organization called Maine Automotive X Team and due to the generosity of a few key donors were able to buy components and begin building in early autumn.

The first big purchase was a Kawaski Mule, AWD utility vehicle. We had discovered that the Mule was powered with a Diahatsu diesel, which we had identified early on as the ideal small diesel. It is fairly light for its power and is direct injection, which boosts efficiency and clean burning. The Mule also comes with a true differential in front. As we were trying to stay away from auto components as much as possible in a bid to save weight, this differential was a score. The ratio is a bit low at 4.2-1, but it seems to help with acceleration. In spite of that, top speed is 75.

The Mule arrived, and in about two hours an enthusiastic group of ten wielding grinders and sawzalls had reduced it to a pile of junk on the shop floor.

Our group soon dwindled to four dedicated builders who showed up every Saturday morning for about three hours of work. Sometimes we would spend half the time just talking, put a couple of bolts in or do some welding, and go home very satisfied. The X-Prize finals were over a year away, and some contenders were still at the drawing board so were felt quite smug with our headway. Besides, we didn't even have a drawing board. The entire car was built by eye and as we went. There were a couple of nice renderings and a model that was built, but that was it for plans.

The front end was widened two feet, and a steel chassis was built to connect the front end to the motorcycle rear. We had picked up an older Kawasaki 750 with an aluminum wheel, disc brake and inboard air shock. This poor bike was also reduced to basics with sawzalls and grinders, but the rear was left intact and installed on the car as a unit. A roll cage, floor and firewall came next. We had to modify the front brake drums to accept automotive wheels. There was serious talk of converting to disc brakes in front, but not that serious. It turns out that the drums work very well because the car is so light. I haven't been in a situation yet where I felt I needed more braking power.

The engine was fitted in place, and with the exception of the transmission we had a rolling chassis. The transmission had long been the elephant in the room. We really didn't know what to use. We were committed to off-the-shelf technology and hoping to stay clear of car parts as much as possible. We felt a cvt wouldn't have the range we wanted; we considered motorcycle gearboxes but they didn't have reverse. Hydraulics were discussed but the complication seemed too great. In the end, one of the member's wives was junking her 1986 Ford Ranger pick-up and offered to donate the transmission, in addition to whatever we could get from the scrapper for the rest of the truck. We found the gear ratios on line, and while they weren't what we'd thought of as ideal they were close enough. We picked up a piece of one inch aluminum plate and with a skill saw, drill press and a little milling made a very nice adaptor plate to mate the transmission to the engine. The engine flywheel was lightly milled to accept the transmission flywheel and clutch, the whole stack was bolted up and the transmission slid into place. The only odd part of this installation is the transmission is in the car reversed; the output shaft facing forward instead of how it was designed to face aft, the shift pattern is reversed. First gear is over and back instead of toward you and up. Once you have the route, though, it works ok. I still get lost downshifting sometimes.

We made a few test runs without the body and found it would top out at about 50mph. It would hit this wall of wind that 28hp just couldn't punch through; a very good lesson in the importance of aerodynamics; with the body 75 mph is top speed. It was a bit terrifying approaching the first turn: what would this Mule front end do? Never has so slight a sweep in the road inspired such dread and then joy as we just swung effortlessly around. (Compare this with my aggressive decent of Rocky Mt. passes during Rally Green).

We were under a tight deadline to make it to the Green Grand Prix, a high mileage competition in Watkins Glen, NY, so one group finished up details on the frame while another finished the body in a different shop. The day we planned to mate the two involved driving the chassis across town. We were registered and insured but all the paper work was with the body in the other shop. Not that we concerned ourselves with such things as we approached the crecendo of all our efforts. But the police were concerned. He pulled over Rick, who had no idea there were flashing lights behind him as he had no mirrors, but when the sirens got his attention he snapped to attention and stopped. The kind officer approached, looked it over and said: "I don't know where to begin!" Rick's a good talker and explained the entire project and invited him to follow along and have a look at the terrific body we had created. The site of the escort as they pulled into the body shop spiked the already euphoric mood, but one level head prevailed and went to find the papers. The kind officer, however, couldn't be bothered and just wanted to know all the details of the construction and what our plans were. He was so impressed that he returned later with another cop to show him the car and he, too, was very impressed.  I've been driving the car for a year and a half now and have yet to be stopped locally. Or anywhere in New England for that matter. Only in the remote desert of Nevada into which the cop line does not extend has Dirigo been pulled over.

People have responded to the car with great enthusiasm. The kind of energy that you wouldn't get with a conventional economy car. While driving around Boston I've had smiles and thumbs up from men in Lexus and homeless people under a bridge who asked about the mileage. It makes me think about the failure of the Echo: a great car but very pedestrian and just not cool. One of the X-Prize elements was for the car to have "crowd appeal", or some sort of sympatico: essentially it had to be cool. Dirigo seems to have nailed this one. How do you get people who's ego normally won't allow them to be seen in a small, efficient car, go out and buy one? Remove the economy cachet and replace it with cool. Unfortunately this usually means a high price. Witness the Tesla. How to combine cheap, cool, and efficient?

Needless to say, we finished the car in time and set out for western New York state and the Green Grand Prix. That story is elsewhere in this site...