High-Tech Concept Car image

GM Ecojet

Announced: 2006 Specialty Equipment Market Assn. show
High-tech applications: Turbine engine, runs on biodiesel

An eco-friendly, 650-hp concept car sounds unlikely, but the GM Ecojet runs on biodiesel that can be made with renewable resources like cooking grease. The Ecojet also revives the notion of a turbine-powered car, a throwback to the days of concept cars that looked like 1950s jet-powered fighter planes. A gas turbine engine in a car spins an output shaft. In an airplane, a jet engine working on a similar principle produces thrust out the back. Ed Welburn, GM vice-president of global design, helped design the car for Tonight show host and car enthusiast Jay Leno.