I dropped a hint about Local Motors and no-one picked up on it. I'm glad to see it mentioned again. They partner with Freightliner(?) and Domino's Pizza for design challenges, why not an eco-modder challenge?
Another thing I like, although it's not open source and limited geographically is I'm a Green Driver:
Green Driver
Turn-by-turn GPS that calculates a route to give you the fewest possible red lights. And allows traffic engineers to know more than those pneumatic tubes they stretch across the traffic lanes to gauge road use. Win-win.
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One of the reason I like a Ledwinka/VW layout is it's so modular.
The drive train, chassis and body can be freely interchanged:
• Drive train — steam, electric or Pinto, Alfa Romeo, Subaru, VW cut down to 2 cylinders
• Chassis — You want double A-arms and over 1G side force on a 100' circle?
Mendeola Suspension - Home
• Body — I don't know where to even start