Adventures in Austria - Euro Cars, Transit, Sausages....

[bennelson]

Hi Folks!

I recently returned from a trip to Vienna, Austria.

That was a week ago already. Yipes, time flies! Unfortunately, I then had to work work work, and everything caught up to me with a few days of the flu.

But never fear! I am recovering and starting to blog up my overseas adventures.

The main point of the trip was to attend a brainstorming "think-tank" event hosted by a university and a major auto parts manufacturer to come up with solutions to improve fuel economy and reduce CO2 emissions from new vehicles.

While I can't tell you exact DETAILS from that event, I CAN tell you that BIG BROTHER IS watching you, in a good way. Major auto manufacturers actually DO look to see what guys like us are doing. Sure, they're all hush hush about it, and then they have to figure out ways to do it that appeals to the mass market. But when you see some cool new feature on a car, remember, you saw it on Ecomodder first!

Anyways, here's the start of my first blog entry:

So there I was.

Stumbling down the cobble-stoned back alleys of Vienna on a broken ankle, after bar close, with my pool cue walking staff, my Indian Companion at my side, and Drag-Queen glitter still on my face, when I accidentally walked right into the headquarters of the most powerful organization ever known to human kind….

Sounds like the beginning of a bad Dan Brown knockoff, but it is actually one of the bizarre tales that has become my life.

In this case Adventures in Austria! (Part 1)

The story started not long ago, when I was invited by a public university to attend a conference in Vienna, Austria as part of a public/private partnership think-tank to help design the future of clean transportation. After a bit of “Gee Wiz, really? You want ME?” it was all confirmed legit and travel arrangements were made.

[ENTRY CONTINUES AT 300MPG.ORG)

[MetroMPG]

Sounds like fun, Ben. Going to read...

Another reason we know someone from Big Brother (Auto) is watching: most of the big companies are represented in registrations on the site, e-mail addresses used to sign up here.

[bennelson]

Not sure if anybody knows what this is.

I had never seen one before. It looked limited-production and expensive.
The car was parked just off the large museum campus.

[euromodder]

It's a Lotus 7 replica - one of many that are or were available over the years, so I can't tell you the make of it.
They even come as kit cars based on old Ford hardware.

This one looks like a much more recent incarnation though ...