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I'd be willing to bet there were keys for other ways of securing a vehicle before there were keyed ignitions. In fact, given that the early cars were crank start, probably locking the trunk was close enough.

From what I've read (kind of a car junkie, so this discussion is right in my wheelhouse), Cadillac technically came out with the first keyed-ignition system in 1912, which also happened to be the first self-start (i.e., non-hand-cranked) system as well; it required a key to be inserted and turned to a certain position before the starter button could be pressed.

So yea, call it a hunch, but I bet the law cited above was legislated some time after 1912.

Look - you wanna sell a jillion Nissan Leafs? Make the look like THIS, and I would buy one in a fuckin' heartbeat. Electric cars don't have to look like lumpy golf carts.

oh good god no, get that detroit abortion away from me- apart from looking like a 5 year olds drawing of a Star Wars prop could you imagine actually trying to drive that... parallel parking? impossible... drivers visibility? what's that? stability around corners... what's that for? practical passenger and luggage space "hahahahahahahhhaaaa oh yeh ... wow"

add to that the look of aerodynamics... without actually being aerodynamic and you're on a real winner there... and by "winner" I mean a "hiding to nothing"

there's a reason compact cars look like they do ... functionality and practically, mixed with safety and a small bit of " lets try to make the box on wheals not look too much like a literal box on wheels design styling

Look - you wanna sell a jillion Nissan Leafs? Make the look like THIS, and I would buy one in a fuckin' heartbeat. Electric cars don't have to look like lumpy golf carts.

No offense, but that car looks like a space-age Reliant Robin waiting to happen.

Look - you wanna sell a jillion Nissan Leafs? Make the look like THIS, and I would buy one in a fuckin' heartbeat. Electric cars don't have to look like lumpy golf carts.

Not a tree, a rock, a cathedral, a road, a car, a plane?

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z9596/Bricklin-SV1.aspx

or perhaps these?

http://books.google.com/books?id=kcwHCy6F4vcC&lpg=PA54&ots=FLN5TmAJOf&dq=ESV%20AMF&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q=ESV%20AMF&f=false

or better yes, the AMF ESV

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv21/09-0480.pdf

the ESV PDF is very good.

In other words, what goes around comes around. We keep striving for perfect or near perfect safety and technology is getting closer to giving it to us, however I think the ultimate requirement is that we hand over driving to computers and by then why would you want a car?

Have there been any scientific advances that could make steam engines in general viable for car sized engines?

more than a century ago.

A Stanley Steamer set the world record for the fastest mile in an automobile (28.2 seconds) in 1906.

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z11210/Stanley-Steamer-Rocket.aspxPowered by a steam engine, and did 150 mph back in 1907.

That seems like cheating. I guess the Stanley Steamer Rocket still retains the record for the fastest piston-powered steam car.

(Interestingly, this article also claims that the Rocket unofficially hit 150mph right before it crashed and was totaled in 1907.)

In another article about this car one can read this:

Although weight-saving construction ods have been applied throughout, safety was none the less given close attention during every phase of the 'one-litre' concept car's development. It has an anti-lock braking system, the ESP electronic stability program and a driver's airbag among its safety features. Deformable elements at the front and the space frame construction provide the same standards of impact and overturning protection as in a GT racing car.

This car was a prestige project of the outgoing chairman of VW, Ferdinand Piëch. He wanted to show that it is possible to build a 1-liter car in the time he is at the company. Later he himself drove the prototype from Wolfsburg (where the head office of VW is located) to a shareholder meeting in Hamburg. And all this was in the year 2002!

Since then the project had been frozen and the real news (which appeared in a German newspaper in September 2007) is, that this car, which was only a concept car, should be put on the marked in the year 2010.

The most interesting bit from the German article answers why this project hadn't been developed any further:

"As we introduced this car five years ago, the production-cost per car were around 35,000 euro. Today they are around 5,000 euro."

The cause given for this by Piëch is in particular the industrial production of carbon-fibre.

The 1906 Stanley brother's Rocket didn't burn coal. Very few steam cars did. The Stanley brothers used purified kerosene.

Today it would be called jet fuel, they just didn't have those kinds of jets in 1906. Heck the Wright brothers were still making bikes.

So the new vehicle is LPG, the old record holder was liquid fuel.

No coal.

The photo of the car on the web site suggests this technology is ready to go. IMHO it has a LONG way to go.

That car is actually a Ford concept car it is the Shelby GR-1.

New?! Concept cars are nothing new.

For a bunch of guys discussing cars, it's amazing the number of things you guys don't know and get wrong.

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