Cool New Gear for Getting Around
Transportation is fundamentally about getting from point A to point B. It sounds simple, but throughout history, it has been one of the foremost human challenges. Movement through space is a malleable equation wherein the X factor is, inevitably, terrain. Traditionally, people or groups who were able to adapt a vehicle for specific terrain have excelled in their environment. Mongol armies stunned their opponents by moving quickly across wide rivers with the aid of inflated sheep bladders for flotation. On an altogether different front, Brazilian aviation pioneer and fin-de-siècle bon vivant Alberto Santos-Dumont is said to have increased his popularity on the Parisian party circuit by arriving in a handcrafted dirigible.
In a geographically diverse, sparsely populated state like New Mexico, the rules of travel can change in an instant, depending on surface, climate, altitude, and a host of additional factors. Some people wish to get from one end of the state to another without touching a paved road. Others need the most efficient means of daily travel between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. And still others simply want to cross the Plaza and maybe do some aerial stunts on the way. Just as mathematicians develop and rework formulas for grokking gravity and cold- cocking complicated conundrums, independent designers and transportation-industry upstarts work overtime to solve these and other challenges of modern motion. Adaptations to that ever-surprising terrain of New Mexico, and conscientiousness about the energy involved in helping people wander, are making for new designs in transportation that should jazz the most jaded gearhead.
Tesla preps Albuquerque
It’s unlikely that the highly eccentric Santos-Dumont ever met his contemporary, the equally eccentric electrical genius Nikola Tesla, Serbian inventor of AC systems and oft-proclaimed mad scientist after whom Belgrade’s airport is named; Santos-Dumont arrived in Paris after Tesla had left France to settle in the United States. But it’s easy to imagine the two of them combining airships and electric power to create speedy, efficient air travel before the advent of jet fuel and carbon footprints. Alas, such a meeting of the minds never materialized, and it wasn’t until 2003 that Tesla’s name was affixed to an electric vehicle. Or, to be precise, vehicle concept. Tesla Motors, founded by electrical engineer Martin Eberhard, his business partner Marc Tarpenning, and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, was a closely guarded secret until 2006. Its first production vehicle, a high-performance, inductionmotor-powered roadster, with a base price of $98,000, won’t hit the streets until 2008, and then only in limited quantities. The genius of this Tesla Roadster is exactly its elite, high-end standing. Rather than launching a new, all-electric car company with a passenger vehicle that would inevitably have been more expensive than its gas-chugging counterparts, Tesla opted to produce an exclusive electric supercar, fabricated with top-of-the-line materials. Imagine the sum of celebrities and wealthy social icons who have chosen to drive the plain-Jane Toyota Prius just because of its hybrid status, and you’ll have an inkling of the star power in line to purchase a flashy Tesla Roadster. Plus, the two-seat hot rod, based on a concept sketched by Lotus Design’s Barney Hatt, has earned a host of international design awards, including Denmark’s INDEX: award and the Industrial Designers Society of America’s IDEA award. Tesla Motors, based in California, is banking that its apparent success with the Roadster will beat a path of acceptance and excitement to its follow-up passenger sedan, the WhiteStar, aimed at commuters and families. While the Roadster is being built at the Lotus auto plant in England, Tesla announced on February 19, 2007, that it will build a manufacturing plant equipped to tackle the sedans—and other future models—in Albuquerque. (Fancy that.) The company plans to produce about 10,000 cars annually at the plant and anticipates a sticker price between $30,000 and $65,000. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has directed the state to consider adding 100 such vehicles to its fleet once production begins in earnest. Significant use by state personnel would likely mean convenient recharging stations away from home for civilians as well, thus opening the Land of Enchantment to a whole new mode of elegant electro-touring at a reported two cents per mile.
But what about the jacklights?
More than half of New Mexico’s road network is unpaved, packed with washboards, ruts, and sandy arroyo bottoms.And, it seems, at least half of NewMexicans prefer to drive a truck. Those who might be in search of an electric answer to trucks and SUVs, at least in the near future, need to turn to California-based Phoenix Motorcars. Also slated for a 2008 release, the Phoenix SUT (sport-utility truck) features four doors and a short, open-air cargo bed.
Technically a midsize truck, the Phoenix SUT has a sporty, rounded appearance that gives it a nimble, Eurasian sensibility. Whereas the Tesla Roadster will travel from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about four seconds, and the WhiteStar sedan will do the job in six, the more laid-back Phoenix will require ten seconds to reach a respectable speed. Tesla models, with a battery range of 250 to 300 miles, also outdistance the 130 miles a Phoenix will travel before needing a recharge. The Phoenix, however, is capable of achieving a fully refreshed charge in ten minutes flat, while Tesla cars will demand at least 31/2 hours. You do the math.
The flying game
When your journey begins in the vast heart of the American West, distance is the name of the game—and nothing beats getting off the ground and letting the earth rotate beneath you while you burn toward your destination. Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation is at the forefront of what it terms a very light jet (VLJ) revolution. An uncommon success story among post–World War II aviation startups, Eclipse has competition on the ropes by virtue of its high quality, significant performance, technological advantage, and relatively low price point.
With a vision to provide four- to six-seat small jets to fill a niche in both the personal jet and “air taxi” markets, Eclipse has created a state-of-the-art, infinitely reconfigurable factory in Albuquerque, where a proprietary technique for welding aluminum has allowed the company to eliminate two-thirds of the riveting—and thus twothirds of the labor—from the process of assembling the fuselage and wings (although the wings are assembled offsite). By enlisting BMW Group designers, Eclipse crafted a luxurious interior along the lines of a 7 Series BMW autobahn-eater. A digital display clocks everything from fuel delivery to flight speed, which, by the way, tops out at 426 mph.An Eclipse 500, the company’s only current production jet, runs around $1.7 million. It sounds pricey, but then the closest competition costs a million more, so sales are brisk. Order one today, and you’ll probably take delivery in 2010 or 2011. There’s also hope for pilots who want less luxury and more sport. The Eclipse Concept jet is, says Matt Brown, director of product marketing, “in parity with a sports car—it’s very clean, very modern, and appointed with brushed metal and carbon fiber in place of wood accents.” For the Concept, Eclipse brought in Deborah Randon, a designer who has experience with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Louis Vuitton. The small jet is racing-car crisp, with its stripedand-piped interior a match for its unconventional fuselage and single, top-mounted turbo jet engine. If a good-looking car can be called sex on wheels, this jet is sex on clouds. So far, though, it’s only an exercise in styling and technology: Eclipse has yet to decide whether it will produce the Concept jet
From kit to kite
If the world of private jet ownership is too haughty and expensive, consider an ultralight kite-wing plane, such as those built by Air Création. Manufactured in France and distributed in the U.S. out of Peoria, Arizona, the small crafts aren’t much bigger than a couple of seats strapped to a motor and a hang-glider-style set of wings. They are called weight-shift aircraft because of the body inputs used for steering, and they are an increasingly common sight across southern New Mexico.
Largely this is because of John McAfee, the originator of the McAfee computer-antivirus empire who bailed on the software industry in favor of fun. McAfee has put $11 million of his own money into a network of eight mini-airports around New Mexico and Arizona, complete with runways and hangars for fueling and serving the small planes. He’s part of a group called the Sky Gypsies (skygypsies.com), who fly around the two states at altitudes as low as 20 feet, cackling as bugs hit their teeth and livestock scatter below. The flying band of antigravity merry pranksters (with the twist that all their facilities are drug- and alcohol-free) makes its headquarters in Rodeo, New Mexico, where, in addition to hangars, they maintain a fly-in organic café and an art house movie theater. To join the club you’ll need $20,000 to $80,000 for your own aircraft, and—oh, yeah—you’ll have to be cool enough to be invited. Eat a peach (but, remembering Duane Allman, wear your helmet) As fun as flying a few feet over the land must be, there’s a lot to be said for being on the ground. And very little moves across the ground as quickly and efficiently as a well-designed enduro motorcycle. For those who’d like to have unrestricted access across the smoothest highways and the roughest roads—and would like to accelerate faster than a Tesla Roadster, while still getting 60 miles to the gallon and paying less than $10,000—the BMW Xchallenge fits the bill. You’ll just have to travel light: There’s no trunk and no cupholder, but there is a reliable single-cylinder motor that pushes out 53 horsepower on a vehicle weighing a little more than 300 pounds. It’s powerful enough to be comfortable at supra-speed-limit levels, and lightweight and nimble enough for you to pick up after dumping it in the mud while riding the Continental Divide.
If the kind of focused technology that comes with a BMW motorcycle is too much sport without enough utility, the folks at Santa Fe’s Centaur Cycles and Scooters will be happy to order you a threewheeler pickup truck ($7,000). Long the staple of European and Asian farmers, it’s essentially a scooter with a closed cab and a cargo bed. The Indian-made truck tops out at a speed of 40 mph, but the gas mileage is pure gold at 80 mpg. The bed is big enough for a vendor at the farmers market, let alone a shopper, and, unlike a motorcycle, you can sit side by side with a friend.
Human power
But even a made-in-India truck-scooter can overcomplicate matters sometimes. Interested in the graphic aesthetic of skateboard culture, Arizona artist Douglas Miles began to make paintings expressing issues of Native American identity on the surface of skateboard decks. When he noticed that younger folks—as in too young to afford his artwork, starting at $1,400—were captivated, he decided to have his designs silk-screened in order to reduce the price to $150. And since his own son wanted a working skateboard more than he wanted a work of art, Miles went ahead and added trucks and wheels. Apache Skateboards was born.
“I think skateboarding takes people further than they realize,” says Miles. “The simple act of pushing into the environment… represents a fierce independence and raw abandon, allowing people to transcend personal boundaries and move into other levels and modes of self-expression.” Apache skateboards are now popular decks in Santa Fe, and New Mexico youth are on the company’s official skate team. The graphics carry a note of cultural pride and rebellion against both status quo art and mainstream transportation.
But in watching kids push their skateboards around, Miles noticed an even more basic transportation need, one that is perhaps the most widespread badge of personal design and expression on the planet. He’s just launched a line of sneakers.
