Whoa! Henry Ford's Hemp Car

By Jen

Editor

We might think that our ethanol and biodiesel "flex-fuel" systems are all very cutting edge, but biofuel development is of course nothing new. Way back in the 1930′s, Henry Ford was hard at work in the alt-fuels sector, and in 1941 he constructed a hemp-fueled and hemp-bodied prototype car. The "plastic" body panels were composed of 70% cellulose fibers, including industrial hemp, mixed with a resin binder, and apparently they were pretty sturdy: check out this video, in which a guy beats on the trunk with an axe and fails to leave a mark. Industrial hemp won’t make you high, kids, but its association with marijuana has historically been a major legal stumbling block. This hasn’t deterred a new generation of hempsters, though: check out Hemp Car, a hemp-oil-fueled Mercedes that completed a 13,000-mile trip around the perimeter of the US.

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Posted at 7:26 pm in Ford, Jen Dunnaway

Comments

warmfuzzykitten
May 11, 2008 at 10:14 pm

retroman is one of those ignorant Americans Lewis was talking about.

Nissan 63
Nov 18, 2007 at 3:04 pm

All I can say is damn our fake government! They want us all to believe that they are looking into alternative fuels and what not, but when we have the ability to do something such as this, it is “illegal”. What the hell is wrong with them? Better yet what the hell is wrong with US for voting these scumbags in?

Lewis
Nov 16, 2007 at 2:30 pm

It is the fact that most ignorant Americans don’t know the difference between hemp and marijuana that neither can be used in the proper context. When some one states something of huge importance to our future in regards to the environment, fuel, food, and everything we need to sustain life on earth- leave it to some jack ass to make a pot joke. There would not be any white people in America with out hemp. No constituion either, No electricty either, and the people who fought to liberate us for our freedom could not have done it without hemp. So pleaae stay ignorant- for there will be no non hemp loving Americans in heaven- put that in your pipe in smoke it.

Dan
Nov 15, 2007 at 9:41 pm

Nice video find. Wonder what happened to the rest of it? We had a little more on the plastic-bodied Ford at the Hemmings blog earlier this year – http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/01/13/plastic-bodied-1941-ford/

eric
Nov 15, 2007 at 8:19 pm

Hey, Hey, Hey Smoke weed everyday.

retroman
Nov 15, 2007 at 8:00 pm

Honest, Officer, I was gonna burn it, just not the way you think. Really, I need it for my car. LOL!! I’d love to see a guy explain that one.