Tom and Ray Magliozzi, hosts of NPR’s Car Talk, hit the road searching for a replacement of Tom’s beloved 1952 MG roadster. The brothers take a light-hearted but shrewd look at America’s four-wheeled future in Nova’s “Car of the Future,” airing Tuesday, April 22 at 8/7 p.m. CT on KET1 and Friday, April 25 at 8/7 p.m. CT on KET2 and KET HD.
Actor John Lithgow narrates as Tom and Ray mix their trademark slapstick with serious nuts-and-bolts analysis of what it will take to make America’s autos more energy-efficient. With a quarter of all the oil ever consumed guzzled during the last decade and oil supplies depleting, the brothers’ screwball automotive odyssey doubles as a serious environmental wake-up call.
Tom and Ray explore everything from the glitzy, high-octane North American International Auto Show in Detroit to the earnest do-it-yourselfers of the AltWheels Festival in Boston, where the brothers squeeze into a tiny three-wheeler that, even at 100 miles per gallon, isn’t quite ready for the rush-hour commute. In Iceland, the brothers wisecrack with the driver of one of Reykjavik’s hydrogen-powered buses and find out how that country is positioning itself as a test-bed for innovative energy technology.
“Car of the Future” examines the promise and pitfalls of tomorrow’s auto technology, and the brothers’ quest inspires cautious optimism that novel green vehicles are about to become roadworthy. But the question remains: do any of these future cars tempt Tom to give up his ’52 MG?
Nova “Car of the Future” is produced by WGBH/Boston.
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