From DAVID BRIN
A competition in search of environmentally sound automobile designs,
held recently in Australia, was not the first of its kind (Technology, 9
February). That honour goes to the Clean Air Car Race, sponsored by MIT
and Caltech during August 1970. About 20 vehicles were tested for emissions
and efficiency over a course stretching from Cambridge, Massachusetts to
Pasadena, California. Progress was covered each night by Walter Cronkite,
on the CBS evening news.
There were electric cars, ‘hybrid-electrics’, a steamer, and one shrill
vehicle with a Lear Jet engine (it parked outside my hotel window). The
winners used a fuel which today sounds mundane-unleaded petrol. At the time
it was exotic, and publicity from the race is credited by some for the big
push for lead-free petrol, which began the following year.
David Brin Paris France
