Motorist of the 21st Century won’t be relegated to the torture of the Smart car if Neil Young has his way.
The rock star and movie maker is behind a project called Linc Volt, a means of transforming the classic American gas guzzling cars of the 50s and 60s into fuel-efficient automobiles.L.A. Johnson, the head of Young’s Shakey Pictures, spent the last week in Adelaide in South Australia working with Uli Kruger, one of the scientists involved in the development of the project.
He told Undercover News that the Adelaide physicist is involved in the technology behind long-range aircraft. Kruger is a researcher in the field of thermodynamics and holds several patents in the field of efficiency enhancement technologies for Diesel engines.
Young and motor mechanic Jonathan Goodwin have been working on the reconstruction of the engine of a 1959 Lincoln Continental Mk IV convertible in the USA and have converted its original engine into a new series-hybrid system. The car has gone from getting 9 miles to the gallon to now achieving around 100 miles to the gallon.
“Neil says he is repowering the American dream,” Johnson tells Undercover.
Once the project is complete, it will be possible for what is affectionately now as “The Yank Tank” to achieve better mileage that a Toyota Corolla.
Johnson runs Shakey Pictures and is producing a documentary of the Linc Volt. He was also the producer of the current Shakey Pictures movie ‘Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young : D??jà vu’, filmed during the 2006 Freedom of Speech tour.
The movie is not a concert movie, instead it is an in-your-face protest at the madness of the Bush regime told as only David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young can tell.
Johnson says he understands why it is still up to the Neil Young’s of the world to be political with music. “There is no draft anymore. The government has become clever in realising that by eliminating the draft, they can eliminate the protest but despite that we have had more than 200 artists submit songs to the Living With War website,” he says.
He points out that Pink’s ‘Dear Mr President’ has been one of the most powerful protest songs of the current generation.
Johnson is also working on Young’s much talked about Archive project. “Neil was always going to release it in the highest quality there was. When we started it, we did not know what that quality would be but we now know it is Blu-Ray”. The collection will also be available on DVD.
The Archive will include everything Neil Young has ever made, including movies. ‘Weld and ‘Human Highway’ will be part of the archive,” he says. “When you reach that part of the time-line, those movies will be there”.
The first part of the Neil Young Archive will be released later this year.
