Some more photos from a recent article covering Karl Laa and his car running on compressed air. For testing purposes the drivetrain was fitted into a Johnny Panther small car
Machine translated text:
A manually operated multi-way valve was responsible for controlling the air supply to the two Atlas Copco turbines, which, each coupled to a rear wheel, provided the drive. To make the vehicle independent of "gas stations", a dynamo and a compressor were also installed in the small car. LAA used the "exhaust air" from the turbines to drive a dynamo, which in turn generated electricity to operate a compressor built into the small car to charge the tanks. The dynamo was also mechanically coupled to the chassis on every downhill journey and provided energy for the compressor - to charge the tanks! (Today, in the case of e-cars, this is called "recuperation". The energy generated when braking is used to recharge the battery). The tanks could therefore be “charged” even while driving. At this point, many questions about the system remain unanswered, which the inventor, Karl LAA, can unfortunately no longer answer due to his age and illness. The four compressed air tanks installed in the small test vehicle, each with a loading capacity of 100 liters of compressed air (from Randeck near Gresten, Lower Austria), enabled a range of around 70 km in hilly terrain, or around 1.5 hours of driving time on flat land. The top speed was just under 70 km/h.
Though the system was well received both in Austria and outside the country too, eventually LAA gave up the experiments.
