Tougher than steel

Local inventor makes a vehicle from hemp

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

Source: keysnews.com

It's tempting to rehash the Cheech and Chong weed van cliché when discussing the Renew sports car, a bright red beauty built by local entrepreneur Bruce Dietzen in his own Key West garage.

That's because the car is made from a variant of purple kush, just one of many new products being produced from hemp.

"I started working on this about 10 years ago," said Dietzen, a 14-year resident of Key West. "Now we've arrived at the point that we're ready to start taking orders. We're looking for a site in the lower Keys, hopefully on Stock Island, where we can begin producing these cars."

Dietzen, who describes his hometown as "all over," is a retired national salesman for Dell computers, and a fan of sports cars, especially those from the 1950s, whose sleek lines and dependability he admires.

Four years after "dropping out" of the corporate world and moving to the Southernmost City, Dietzen decided to build a car of his own, one that would combine the best of all his favorite rides.

As he went through the process of selecting materials, Dietzen recalled the story of how Henry Ford created a car in 1941 that was made partly out of hemp -- which was once a huge cash crop for the United States and the source of many products, from paper to rope and more.

"I didn't set out to build a car out of hemp," Dietzen said. "But as I proceeded with the project, I decided that it was actually a very practical material to work with. It's way tougher than steel and a natural fiber. Given the corporate global warming situation that we face, we'd like to build a carbon-neutral, or even carbon-negative, car."

The Renew wasn't built from scratch.

Dietzen, who has owned many sports cars over the years, needed a template on which to produce the hemp body. He finally settled on a first-generation Mazda Miata, which he says is both dependable and cheap.

"There are about 400,000 of them floating around out there, so it's not a rare car at all," Dietzen said. "I bought mine in town for $2,700. So, that's the chassis we built the rest of the car around. In this way, we end up recycling the old cars into something new."

Following the Key West tradition of "you hook 'em, we'll cook 'em," Dietzen is hoping customers will come to him with their own Miata chassis so that he and his workers can begin working on the body, which is held together with a chemical resin.

The prototype, which Dietzen can be seen driving around town, is a standard transmission, but plans call for options, such as automatic transmission and even an electric-powered model, which he can build to order, or even install into an existing Renew.

The price tag for a standard model? About $42,000.

Dietzen unveiled his creation Friday evening at two events held in Key West to support the candidacy of Joe "Weed" Clements for Fantasy Fest king. Passersby were invited to have their picture taken behind the wheel of the Renew for a $20 donation to Clement's campaign.

"I've known (Dietzen) for a while," Clements said. "It just seemed like such a perfect fit with the campaign. It's a beautiful car, and the wave of the future."