Welcome to the first world tour of a vehicle powered only by solar energy!
Jay Leno meets the Solartaxi31.07.2008
Comments: 3
Another day in smog-smothering city of Los Angeles. Today started with a trip to Venice beach with the Solartaxi to get some footage for the film, but not before breakfast! We were joined by Chris Paine (director of 'Who Killed The Electric Car'), who also noticed the crew's insatiable desire for chocolate milk (it must be a European thing). Mmmm!
However, time was short and our schedule did not allow for tans and buff bods, so off we went to our golden ticket of the evening: the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! All of us were pretty excited for the opportunity to see a taping of a show and somehow the idea got in our heads that we might even possibly be on the show! I later realized that this was silly for us to imagine Jay Leno just sporadically calling upon us to be interviewed on his show - but what do you expect from a group of dreamers? So we played our best behaviors (Joe even put on a fresh shirt) and made way for the NBC Studios in beautiful Burbank. The line was wrapped around the building and we felt like first class walking right in front of it all. First starts the warmup show where they asked talent from the audience to come up on stage, and Erik didn't hesitate to impress the people with his rendition of Helge Schneider's "Fitze Fitze Fatze" and got the whole audience singing and clapping! It sure beat the other guy who's talent was sounding like Chewbacca ... (on steroids.) After the show we were out of there to go to Jay's garage for an interview.
Needless to say, it was a beautiful collection and Jay even had an electric vehicle in his garage - a 1909 Baker Electric, used for "viewing Christmas light spectacles." I did catch a glimpse at a Vectrix, and Jay even has a solar installations on top of his garage.
All in all, it was another great day for the Solartaxi Crew and a successful one. We celebrated the evening with Chris Paine, who let me drive his Prius on the way to California Pizza Kitchen and Nick Baggarly, founder of Drive Around The World, who's next exciting project includes an expedition to the South Pole with alternative fuel vehicles. Very wonderful evening with wonderful and inspiring people and great food made for the perfect closure to a very successful day for the Solartaxi.
Next stop - Vegas. This should be interesting!
written by Terae De Cou
by: Gael Raoult
01.08.2008 10:08
Fantastique!a mervelous travel! I would very much to have the same car...
Were you cross the France?
Congratulation ! I am a solar panel instalator in Charente Maritime in France.(near Cognac)
Regards Gael.