i found a few interesting articles about air powered cars http://auto.howstuffworks.com/air-car1.htm http://auto.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?p...CAR/CryoCar.htm
It looks to me as though the only question on the air car is whether a greater stored energy density can be achieved with compressed air or with batteries. The cryogenic nitrogen car has an additional potential not mentioned in the article: A Stirling-cycle engine can run just as easily from a source of cold as from a source of heat; therefore the cold nitrogen could be used to run a Stirling-cycle engine, which would heat the nitrogen and vaporize it, and the now high-pressure nitrogen gas could then power the air motor. (You can buy model Stirling-cycle engines that run on an ice cube, or ones that run on a flame, and I think maybe ones that can run either way.)
Great article, Dave! Truly facinating. Looking over the University of Washington Liquid Nitrogen car, I was struck from the picture of the prototype that: I know exactly where the picture was taken on the UW campus, and It appears that their prototype was built from one of the local ice cream mini-trucks (jeeps, actually) that drive around in North Seattle in the spring, selling ice cream to the local kids. (They're very North Seattle -- the trucks play classical musical to alert kids that they're in the area. :roll: )
actually its a mail truck... now that i say that, i know the ice cream trucks you are talking about and i cant say what if any the difference is between the two.
