"Tango" through traffic in less time

Stuck in notorious L.A. traffic one day, Rick Woodbury got an idea. A longtime hydrogen enthusiast, Woodbury was given an auto magazine written in Portuguese from his wife, Alice. "Someday we're gonna drive hydrogen cars," Woodbury said. "Narrow cars."

"I have heard that to innovate, you don't give people what they ask for, but rather watch what they do," Woodbury explained. "I've been watching what they do for over 50 years and I find it interesting that people driving cars by themselves with four empty seats around them jam up all the freeways, streets and parking spaces in cities throughout the world at an incredible waste of time and resources."

Selling his sailboat was the first step. Cash in hand from the sale, Woodbury was equipped to start his company and create what is simply known as the "Tango." A narrow, fast car, the Tango is battery-powered. "Batteries are extremely efficient," Woodbury said, adding that batteries also have a lot of possibilities. Just like a sailboat, the Tango is ballasted, so it won't roll over. "As you can see from the size of the Tango, by the time you put a couple thousand pounds of ballast in such a small car you have a weight that requires a lot of horsepower to move," Woodbury explains. "To the extent that there is front and side protection, more ballast is needed. There is no room for a gasoline engine of sufficient size to run such a heavy car.

Although traffic is a problem for most cars, the Tango zips in and out in no time at all. On his Web site, www.commutercars.com, Woodbury explains, "In extremely heavy traffic, a Tango or motorcycle can travel in 20 seconds the distance that cars travel in 20 minutes."

"As far as performance goes, the Tango is no slouch," Woodbury states. "Since electric cars, especially small ones, are generally thought to be slow and weak performers, we set out to blow some minds by designing the Tango to accelerate through the standing 1/4 mile in 12 seconds at over 120 mph and travel from zero to 60 mph in four seconds."

The Tango was created by Woodbury and his son, Bryan, a former EWU student. Together, they built what everyone around town loves to gawk at, and what many people wish for when they're at the pump, filling up on gasoline.

The Tango has even gone Hollywood. Having already sold a Tango to actor George Clooney, Woodbury is in the process of building two for the founders of Google. Creating cars wasn't always what Woodbury wanted to do, however. "I love new things and I get bored really easily," Woodbury said.

Woodbury has held a series of jobs and initially made most of his money in the real estate business.

With money came expensive cars, and soon Woodbury found himself driving a Porsche. Next came buying a Porsche dealership with some partners, with Woodbury being the general manager.

After getting sick of that, Woodbury dove back into real estate. Then came some seemingly bad news-his son was misdiagnosed with Leukemia. His world then shattered, Woodbury began thinking of higher things. Although it was a case of misdiagnosing, it still got Woodbury to think of his life and how materialistic he had become. It was a long way from the Tibetan-influenced life he once had where he studied with a Tibetan lama and could frequently be found at the San Francisco Zen Center.

Woodbury has lived in Spokane for 15 years now, and has continued his mainstay business of typesetting. Having led a unique life, Woodbury lends his experiences to his environmentally-friendly, space saving car, the Tango. Hoping to mass-produce the Tango, Woodbury would like to see 150 million of his cars on the road in 20 to 30 years.

For more information on grease cars in this area, visit the Spokane Biofuels group athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/spokanebiodieselcollective

Local restaurants who would like to donate grease to Shelly Murney and her group can e-mail smurney@centurytel.net

For more information on the "Tango," visit Rick Woodbury's Web site athttp://www.commutercars.com