I recall a
project Mother Earth News
magazine did back in the late 70's. They built a diesel powered "people's car" from scratch, using motorcycle parts, a welded frame and a small diesel engine made for some sort of farm equipment, I think. It looked a lot like a dune buggy, and they'd managed to keep the cost under $1,000 (in 70's dollars). I went back to my county library a few years ago looking for it, only to discover that they'd thrown their entire Mother Earth News collection (and most other related material) in the trash to make room for some romance and fashion magazines (is it just me, or have most public libraries become essentially useless?). As near as I can tell, Mother Earth News has also purged those articles from their database, nor have I found anything else about it
online, though I have searched off and on. If anyone remembers it, and knows where I can find the articles or which issues they were in, I'd appreciate it.