MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A Mississippi mechanic claims he has invented an electric car that will run 200,000 miles without gasoline, oil, water or even recharging.
Larry Jamison calls the motor 'the Jamison Energizer.' The 65-year-old Nettleton, Miss., man commutes to Memphis seven days a week to labor on his invention, housed in his one-room shop.
'Two years ago I went to work on the idea full time, and I've been working seven days and nights a week ever since,' he said.
Jamison says he can wire the dozen or so cylindrical-shaped motors and energizers into virtually any truckor car -- at a cost of about $6,000.
'The difference between this motor and all the other electrical cars on the market is that mine never needs to be recharged,' he said. 'It produces more electricity than it uses and stores it up in batteries.
'Also, those other cars don't have any real power. I've got a motor that will outdo your Cadillacs and your Lincolns. When we get into production, I'll guarantee the motor for 200,000 miles.'
Jamison Thursday displayed a 1977 Ford Courier pickup equipped with a 'Jamison Energizer.' He admits it has a couple of 'small bugs.'
He said a control switch that acts as an accelerator is giving him problems and keeping him from driving the pickup himself.
Jamison's secret is a shiny metal cylinder a little more than a foot long and about 10 inches in diameter. He won't discuss what makes it work.
'This is the only one like it in the world,' he said. 'I don't care what electrical engineer you bring out here, this is different. It's not in the book.'
Jamison said no one will believe his idea will work.
'For two years, people have been saying, 'You're nuts -- it won't run.' Everybody just said I was throwing my money away -- that it wouldn't run a lick,' he said.
As Jamison talked, an associate drove the pickup back and forth across the shop.
'It's working,' he told the onlookers. 'You can see that for yourself.'
Jamison says he's been contacted by major firms in Germany, France and the United States, but doesn't plan to make a deal.
'But I ain't going to let nobody have it,' he said. 'I want to manufacture it myself.'
