Its funny how so many myths manage to stay alive; heck, this particular class of rumor and speculation is so healthy that someone invented the term “urban legend” to describe them, and a quick spin on the Internet will call up thousands of them. One that never seems to go away is the car that runs on water. It popped up again a few weeks ago, during a conversation at a party. “There’s this car that runs on seawater,” the storyteller declared. “Did you hear about it?” No, as a matter of fact, I didn’t. And I immediately thought of the old tale of a guy who year ago invented a car—or a carburetor, depending on the story—that runs on water, only to have it suppressed by the oil companies. On the other hand, hydrogen fuel cell cars are very real, and one day the technology may finally be viable for mass production. In fact, someone asked me about GM’s efforts in this area, and I cynically replied that you could expect to see it at least five years after it was promised. In fact, GM has launched a test fleet of fuel cell-powered Equinoxes (www.chevrolet.com/fuelcell) so I was wrong on that one. But it got me wondering…how will we hop up these water-fueled contraptions? How long until we’re complaining that water is too expensive? And is there really a miracle water-fueled engine sitting in some oil company's version of Area 51? (Photo by Clearly Ambiguous from flickr.com)