Oh da' shame! The first hybrid car was . . . . . a Buick!

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners with an interest in history,

Amazon prime video has a documentary series that highlights some of the inventions that were created in each decade of the twentieth century:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0169W0V24/ref=atv_wtlp_wtl_7

Last night we saw the episode on the 1970s and discovered a very curious tale involving a very seriously molested 1972 Buick Skylark.  The story is described on this Wikipedia article on the man responsible for "da' crime!" - Victor Wouk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Wouk

Quoting from the Wikipedia article: "Wouk began working on ideas for a hybrid for American Motors.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a "Clean Car Incentive Program" that funded innovative designs from the auto industry and inventors. Wouk idea to create a hybrid car was approved in 1971, and the EPA was "to consider a nationwide test of vehicles based on his design if satisfied with the prototype." Wouk and friends invested about $300,000, and successfully converted a 1972 Buick Skylark sedan. This was the first full-sized hybrid vehicle featuring a 20-kilowatt direct-current electric motor and an RX-2 Mazda rotary engine. This vehicle was tested at EPA's emissions-testing laboratories in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it obtained more than twice the fuel economy of the vehicle before it was converted. Furthermore, the vehicle's emission rates were only about 9 percent of those of a gasoline powered car from that era. In 1974, the EPA awarded $33,000 to Wouk and Dr. Charles L. Rosen and began its own analysis of the car, but the agency did not make additional cars for the planned nationwide tests.

This pioneering work gained Wouk the nickname of the grandfather of electric and hybrid vehicles in the United States."

There is some additional information in this New York Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/automobiles/autospecial/24history.html

So by at least some accounts, the first operational hybrid car was a very badly molested Buick!  Oh da' shame! . . .

So the next time you are trying to discourage someone from making excessive "mods" to one of our beloved Buick you now have the ultimate example of molesting! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick owners with an interest in history,

Amazon prime video has a documentary series that highlights some of the inventions that were created in each decade of the twentieth century:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0169W0V24/ref=atv_wtlp_wtl_7

Last night we saw the episode on the 1970s and discovered a very curious tale involving a very seriously molested 1972 Buick Skylark.  The story is described on this Wikipedia article on the man responsible for "da' crime!" - Victor Wouk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Wouk

Quoting from the Wikipedia article: "Wouk began working on ideas for a hybrid for American Motors.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a "Clean Car Incentive Program" that funded innovative designs from the auto industry and inventors. Wouk idea to create a hybrid car was approved in 1971, and the EPA was "to consider a nationwide test of vehicles based on his design if satisfied with the prototype." Wouk and friends invested about $300,000, and successfully converted a 1972 Buick Skylark sedan. This was the first full-sized hybrid vehicle featuring a 20-kilowatt direct-current electric motor and an RX-2 Mazda rotary engine. This vehicle was tested at EPA's emissions-testing laboratories in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it obtained more than twice the fuel economy of the vehicle before it was converted. Furthermore, the vehicle's emission rates were only about 9 percent of those of a gasoline powered car from that era. In 1974, the EPA awarded $33,000 to Wouk and Dr. Charles L. Rosen and began its own analysis of the car, but the agency did not make additional cars for the planned nationwide tests.

This pioneering work gained Wouk the nickname of the grandfather of electric and hybrid vehicles in the United States."

There is some additional information in this New York Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/automobiles/autospecial/24history.html

So by at least some accounts, the first operational hybrid car was a very badly molested Buick!  Oh da' shame! . . .

So the next time you are trying to discourage someone from making excessive "mods" to one of our beloved Buicks you now have the ultimate example of molesting! 

Cheers, Edouard