For our tinkerers: With a bit of DIY ingenuity, not to mention what has to be lots of fun, you can build a microcar that gets 100 miles to the gallon. But steer clear of expressways.

As we noted in yesterday’s newsletter, gas prices may have settled a bit in the past couple of months (It is, after all, the season of political campaigning…), but the cost of a gallon still hovering in the $2 range is driving many consumers to look for ways to save some bucks at the pump. And while most consumers seem eager to embrace mainstream alternatives and carmakers are trying to grant that wish, other folks are more hands-on.

Take Jory Squibb, for instance. He decided he’d build his own fuel-hoarder, and thus he set about creating it from second-hand motorcycle parts. The result: christened “Moonbeam,” the three-wheeled microcar gets 80-85 mpg around town and under economy run conditions delivers 105 mpg.

Two scooters for the bits cost US$500, and the entire project took 1000 hours (a year of 20-hour weeks) to complete, with a total of US$2000 costs beyond the initial scooters. Moonbeam uses a 150cc Honda 4-stroke scooter motor and uses the water-cooling from the motor to heat the cabin in winter. The two motor scooters that used to build Moonbeam were a Honda 1987 Elite 150 (purchased in excellent condition for US$400) and, because a duplicate of the first couldn’t be found, a 1984 Elite 125 bike (US$100) for parts.

He wrote:

You, yourself, might choose different vehicles than I did, but I think you will conclude that you need a 4-stroke engine for clean emissions, a 150 cc engine for good pep in the 0-40 MPH service range, water cooling for heating the cab in winter, variable speed drive for simple driving, and a 3-wheel configuration to avoid the many 4-wheel vehicle regulations. There are many Japanese and Chinese motorcycles, scooters, and moped possibilities out there, both old and new.

Moonbeam has a Variable speed transmission, so there’s no gear shifting (Hand controls only: “Twist the right grip to go. No reverse.”). According to the prototype maker’s Web site, fuel cost is about 2.5 to 3 cents a mile on this little half-car, which can fit into your life as an addition to another car. So for $2,500 and 1,000 hours, you can build a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon.

The car goes 53 mph on the level, but best cruising speed is 35-40 mph with the occasional 45 mph.

OK, so this vehicular experiment has no business on an expressway and is probably best used to run errands, but imagine the fun building one and the looks you’ll get driving one on less-populated streets!

Check out Squibb’s site for specifications on how to build your own microcar, street legality issues, recaps of test drives, photos and more.

via GIZMAG/BusinessWeek