posted Jul 15, 2008 - 2:35:24pm
Sam Altieri lives in Orange City.
Jeff "Ax Tax" Davis lives in Cassadaga.
Their common bond? They can laugh at the cost of gas as they zip through West Volusia in their über-efficient cars.
One stirs memories of a time gone, one puts the Jetsons' theme song in bystanders' heads.
Altieri's is a gas-powered beauty reminiscent of a 1950s-era race car. Davis' is a futuristic electric-powered car.
Both cars are titled and tagged as motorcycles because they have three wheels, and both are two-seaters.
Altieri has always had a fascination with reverse trikes — motorcycles with two wheels in front, and one in the rear.
"My heart skipped a beat when I saw the futuristic vehicle in the movie 'A.I," Altieri said, referring to a 2001 science-fiction flick. He believed the vehicle could be built now.
He went to work building it. Altieri purchased his yet-unnamed car as a kit. The kit was shipped from China as a four-wheel car. Then Altieri made his modifications
His vehicle gets 60 miles per gallon and can go up to 60 miles per hour. The car's fuel tank holds 2 gallons of gas, so he can drive to the Gulf of Mexico for less than $9.
Altieri said the modifications he made reduced the weight of the car by 400 pounds, and removing the fourth wheel reduced friction and made the car even more efficient.
"This is the future of cars," Altieri said. "I definitely believe this is the future and just another way to improve fuel economy."
Altieri said the construction and modifications took about three months. The kit cost slightly less than $8,000, and Altieri said he spent about $1,000 more for parts while modifying it.
So the sum total of his modern hot rod is less than $9,000.
Florida doesn't require motorcycles to have insurance, but it does require a motorcycle endorsement if a vehicle has an engine 50 cubic centimeters or larger. Altieri already has his endorsement, so once the car was together, he was ready to ride.
He has no plans to market or patent his design.
"I did it just for my own personal satisfaction."
The trike is open, with no air conditioning, windshield or radio. It's fully automatic, and does have turn signals.
The only problem Altieri said is that the little car doesn't have a name.
"People ask, 'What is it?," he said. "I say. 'It is what you see."
That's not a problem for Davis, of Cassadaga. His vehicle is called a ZAP Xebra truck.
ZAP stands for Zero Air Pollution, and its manufacturer, based in California, has produced more than 100,000 electric vehicles, including more than 700 like the one Davis drives.
Davis' Xebra has its steering wheel on the right-hand side, not a typical American design.
"It's a pilot for the post office," he said. Postal Service delivery people frequently use steering wheels on the right-hand side for easier access to mailboxes.
ZAP officials said they are working on a project for the postal service in Uruguay.
The little truck can travel 25 to 30 miles on a charge, and can go up to 40 miles per hour.
"It costs about a penny a mile," Davis said.
The Xebra uses six car batteries, and instead of fuel, it's plugged into an electric outlet. A full charge takes up to three hours.
"You can drive it to work, plug it in at work, and drive it home," Davis said. "It doesn't cost much."
However, it's still a close-to-home vehicle.
"It's not a long-destination car," Davis said.
The Xebra has a cab, a windshield and a CD player. It's virtually noiseless, and maintenance is minimal because there is no combustion engine — nor any of the parts required to keep a typical vehicle engine going.
Davis is an inventor, and he has designed a way to double the life of a battery.
"I have a patent," Davis said. "We've gotten 800 hours from a flashlight battery."
Davis said he hopes he and ZAP creators can come up with a way to increase the speed of the ZAP cars, as well as extend the battery life — so the vehicles can go farther.
He put about 300 miles on the Xebra during the first two weeks he's had it.
Like Altieri, Davis had a motorcycle license when he received the prototype post-office car, and the car was already insured by ZAP.
A new Xebra on the Web site www.zapworld.com costs less than $12,000.
Dealers are starting to spring up for the electric vehicles. So far, there is only one in Florida, Foreign Affairs Auto in West Palm Beach.
"It's very challenging to start a car company," said Alex Campbell, a spokesman for ZAP. "It hasn't been done successfully in 100 years."
Financing isn't available through ZAP yet. Dealers can help customers with financing questions.
Campbell said there has been a big public response to the Xebra. "We can't build them fast enough," he said. "I think it's gas prices and the poor economy."
For other folks interested in buying car kits or ZAP cars, the latter might be easier to insure.
Janie Martinez, representative for V.W. Gould insurance said motorcycle coverage is usually easy to purchase, but not for kits.
"Most of the companies we have won't touch a kit car," Martinez said.
And for financing, if dealer financing isn't available, Betty Doyle a financial-service representative for SunCoast Bank, said a person's best bet would be to go to a financial institution and talk to a loan agent.
"There are a lot of different ways to finance," she said. "You could take out a home-equity loan, you could get a motorcycle loan and use it as collateral. There are a lot of options."
For more information about ZAP, visit www.zapworld.com.
For more information about Foreign Affairs Auto, visit www.foreignaffairsauto.com.
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