Thanks Doc

Hybrid car pioneer dies

NEW YORK -- Dr. Victor Wouk, an electrical engineer and entrepreneur who built one of the first hybrid cars, operating on both gasoline and electricity, died at his home in Manhattan on May 19. He was 86.

The cause was cancer, said his son Jordan.

Wouk's hybrid, a modified 1972 Buick Skylark, was built primarily in response to the growing concern over air pollution that led to the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970, a law mandating a rapid 95 percent reduction in auto emissions.

After the bill's passage, the federal Environmental Protection Agency started the Clean Car Incentive Program to encourage innovative designs from the auto industry and inventors.

It accepted Wouk's proposal to create a hybrid in 1971, promising to consider a nationwide test of vehicles based on his design if satisfied with the prototype.

Wouk's car, which he built with Dr. Charles Rosen, had a Mazda rotary engine half the size and power of the Skylark's standard V-8 and an electric motor used for starting and for extra power.

The electric motor's batteries were recharged during driving by the car's braking action but needed to be connected to an external source to regain their full charge.

In private tests, the Skylark hybrid met the strictest emission standards, got 30 miles to a gallon of gas and had a top speed of 85 miles an hour.

The EPA awarded $33,000 to Wouk and Rosen in 1974 and began its own tests of the prototype. However, the agency declined to produce more of the cars for nationwide tests, and Wouk's experiments ended.

He always said the agency had never adequately explained its decision.

Wouk continued his advocacy of hybrid technology after the EPA's rejection of his Skylark design. He also did research into the use of semiconductors in electric vehicles.

The first hybrid car to be offered to consumers, the Toyota Prius, appeared in 1997. It is based on principles similar to Wouk's, and he leased one when it became available in the United States as a 2001 model.

An active philanthropist, he was a board member of the 92nd Street Y, a chairman of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and a supporter of the Yeshiva University in New York. An annual lecture series at Caltech was named for him.

Besides his son Jordan, who lives in Teaneck, N.J., he is survived by his wife, Joy; another son, Jonathan, of Ottawa; a grandson; and a brother, the novelist Herman Wouk.

-- New York Times

In and amongst the urban legends that populate our tawdry world is the story of the guy who invented the carburetor that got 200 miles to the gallon and then, for any numbers of reasons (depending on which version of the story you're lucky enough to be regaled with) the magical carb disappears.

Here is a guy who actually did it.

And he got a whole $30K from the EPA for it.

R.I.P. Dr. Wouk, and thanks.