The above picture you see is the latest of the wondrous conceptions to hit the ‘poles’. A team sponsored by Thomson Reuters will attempt to break the previous world speed record of 2 days 21 hours and 21 minutes for reaching the South Pole by land. And to help them in this heroic endeavor will be an adamantly ‘green’ monster – the Polar Performance Vehicle, a truck which can basically run on biofuels as well as solar and wind energy.
Conceived by the Artic Trucks of Iceland (the same guys who outfitted a Toyota to a North Pole expedition for Top Gear, back in 2007), this car seems to be based on a Toyota platform as well. But other than the frame, the truck does incorporate a myriad of distinctive ‘green’ features. They include a 4.0-liter V6 engine with 340hp that can run on an unspecified mixture of bio-fuel. And that’s not all; the truck can also make use of solar cells and a wind-powered generator to generate clean power, in the case of the vehicle stopping for any reason. This can especially be handy during frigid conditions affecting the fluid fuel.
Coming to the design aspect, the frame has been kept as light weighted as possible, though it is reinforced by safety bolstering and crevasse-protection bars. This will certainly help in controls and steering on the treacherous ice sheets. So at the end of it, let us wish them a happy, speedy and a sustainable journey to the South Pole.
Source: Jalopnik
