sounds like 'air guitar,' but much, much cooler.

Why I'm just now hearing about this, I've got no idea, but in India, the country's biggest automaker (Tata Motors, hee hee) is already manufacturing the world's first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle. The AirCar was developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre, and uses compressed air — yes, just plain old garden-variety air — to push its engine's pistons.

Apparently, it was initially introduced about a year ago, but it seemed unlikely it might ever make it to the U.S. due to a bevy of stumbling blocks. Number one, though refueling is quick, simple and cheap (like, $2 for the whole tank — seriously), it must be done at a gas station equipped with custom air-compressor units, so there's a huge infrastructure issue. You can refuel by plugging the car into the electrical grid, but it takes about four hours to fill up, and the car's driving range is only about 125 miles — which means a road trip from, say, Austin to Dallas would entail a four-hour plug-in pit stop around Waco. Third, the car's lightweight, glued-together fiberglass construction didn't seem like a safe bet in crash tests. And finally, Americans would probably balk at a) the original model's itty-bitty size and b) its 68 mph self-imposed speed limit.

*BUT* the mother of invention is hard at work somewhere, because it now looks like the little gas-free ride that could actually will, American-style. Zero Pollution Motors expects to produce America's first air-powered car no later than 2010, aiming to manufacture about 10,000 AirCars a year. According to Popular Mechanics, ZPM wants to make the debut model a $17,800, 75-horsepower-equivalent, six-seat modified version of the original developers' CityCAT (pictured), with a dual-energy engine that will let the vehicle travel as far as 1,000 miles at up to 96 mph with every teensy-weensy fill-up of air and either traditional gasoline, ethanol or biofuel. And the family-size, four-door CityCAT is already undergoing standard safety tests a la Europe . . .

Personally, I can't wait to see what colors it comes in . . . I'm thinking maybe green??