Was gasoline the mistake of the century?

Was gasoline the mistake of the century?

Not dismantling Germany was the biggest mistake of the 20th century

No, but abandoning steam cars was.

>tfw no steampunk monstrosities puffing out great clouds of steam when they accelerate

>wanting vaper cars on the street

As cool as steam engines they are some of the most horribly inefficient engines ever.

Development practically stopped in the 20's. They might have became a lot better if it was developed with modern manufacurting and engineering skills.

>1925 Dobel E-20

That damn car had 150hp and roughly 1000nm. it was 'competitive' in it use of fuel for the time aswell, it could reach 90mph and restored ones these days reach 120mph and get roughly 15-17L/100.

Steam is amazingly powerful and can be so very efficient if done correctly with generators rather then boilers.

No, you are.

>15-17L/100
so
like every normal car any american drives

No, the mistake of the century is probably not pursuing Thorium reactors to instead use other nuclear reactors.
Quite simply if the United States kept going with Thorium, it probably would have peacefully ended the Cold War decades early.
We would not have an energy crisis at all.
We would not have climate change as an issue at all.
There would be no push for solar and wind "renewables".
We had working reactors to boot. Literally the only reason we scrapped it is to make more nuclear weapons.
Gas? Diesel? Small fries. Without polluting coal or natural gas power plants, we'd never need to worry about our fleet of cars.
Expand the rail infrastructure for more shipping, put god damn thorium reactors on international shipping boats.
There. You've now solved the two biggest carbon contributions on the planet. Now drive two muscle cars to work, you redblooded Americans.