The drive will be too long, the seats too few, and the people too many. I rest my case.

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).

It's feats like this, and the clandestine development story, that make these cars so desirable and dreamworthy.

Argillo-calcite is readily disintegrable by exposure.