EL PASO, TX. - The myth of a "super motor" or "miracle car" has been floating around the world and the Internet for many years. However, many believe an El Paso man came close to revolutionizing the way the world moves.

Almost 30 years ago, a young inventor named Tom Ogle may have developed a way of introducing fuel into a motor that would allow a car to travel from El Paso to Austin on just six gallons of gasoline!

It was the first weekend of May 1977. The Eagles "Hotel California" was the number one song on airwaves. The El Paso Diablos were victorious over San Antonio and the country was feeling the sting of the unforgettable energy crisis

Against this backdrop, Tom Ogle, an El Paso High school drop out believes he is on the verge of reinventing modern transportation. Local car dealership owner Mack Massey and a supporter of Mr. Ogle's device says, "He had an idea..an invention ... it would revolutionize things. I agreed."

His invention: a device that would allow a car to go 200 miles on less than two gallons of gasoline. According to experts, witnesses, and even newspaper reporters, the 24 year-old Ogle showed the world how to do it

UTEP Engineering Professor Dr. Gary Hawkins said of Mr. Ogle, "Tom needed advice on what to do and how to do it ..." Mr. Ogle was not a UTEP student, just a young man with a vision. Dr. Hawkins adds, "He had an innate ability to know how to make it work better. He was right. It took a kid to show us."

Mr. Ogle's idea: a vehicle will run much longer if gasoline is introduced into the engine in a different form. Dr. Hawkins elaborates, "He found a way of inducing fuel into the internal combustion motor the way it was meant to be... in vapor form."

In layman's terms, the way a vehicle's fuel delivery system works now, is like a spray bottle. Gasoline, its liquid form, is sprayed into the carburetor. Ogle's system converted the gas from a liquid into a vapor form before reaching the ignition. Gas vapors are sucked into the engine and burned at a more efficient rate.

Dr. Hawkins said that simple change is what gave the motor its power. "You can light a match on liquid gasoline and put it out...with gas vapors, you'll get a power several times that dynamite!" Mr. Massey agrees, "I saw the car run on vapors...he got it done. The car ran for several hundred miles."

In the Spring of 77, Mr. Ogle equipped a 1970 Ford Galaxy with his new invention. On less than 2 gallons of gas, Mr. Ogle and a friend drove from El Paso to Deming (NM); a distance of over 200 miles.

As the story goes, before crossing back into Texas, a rock flew underneath the car and punctured the gas tank. None-the-less, history was made. Newspaper articles that weekend quoted other engineers as saying: "this is the hottest thing of this century." and "Is a young high school dropout the most important American inventor since Thomas Edison?"

ABC-7 has learned that the US Energy and Research Development Administration (now the Department of Energy) declared Mr. Ogle's vaporized fuel system "not a fake." Mack Massey thought he saw an opportunity of a lifetime. He immediately became a financial supporter of Mr. Ogle.

Massey tells ABC-7 that, "We took it to the manufacturers, we thought we'd change the world. So did Tom...but we ran into roadblocks. When we got to looking at it, it cost hundreds thousands of dollars."

To add fuel to the fire, Mr. Massey says it was an invention that would have cost the oil and gas companies billions of dollars. Mr. Massey adds, "If it's going to put them out of businesses, they're going to fight!"

ABC-7 uncovered records showing that Mr. Ogle obtained a patent for his device in December of 1979. Records also show at the same time, there was already a similar General Motors patent. That's when the frustration set in."

Mr. Massey says, "We gave up. We thought we had something. The rigamarole....gas companies and government, and more patents, it threw us off course."

Dr. Hawkins says he heard of a government and big businesses conspiracy to keep Mr. Ogle's invention out of mass production. However, he remembers an even bigger obstacle.

Dr. Hawkins says, "Gasoline is a blend of different materials and they have a different vaporizations point. Heavier fractions would not burn off. So if you cannot convert everything in the gas tank, it won't really work on a long term basis."

According to Dr. Hawkins, Ogle's initial invention needed a lot of tweaking and with a fuel that burns at a higher temperature, it would have perfectly.

It's the overall concept though, that Dr. Hawkins feels has been ignored for decades. Dr. Hawkins adds, "[The] point is, hey, we can get more fuel economy by doing it differently. That was the point people should have focused on."

Despite years of hard work, Tom Ogle never become a household name. Dr. Hawkins tells ABC-7 that, "he [Tom] was despondent over the fact that nothing had been done."

Tom Ogle died of a reported drug and alcohol overdose on August 19, 1981, four years after that historicl cruise to Deming. Still, others say he was murdered. We may never know for sure.

Dr. Hawkins says one day, relief will have to come and it could be modled after Tom Ogle's invention. Hawkins adds, "it will be forced on us...if you run out of oil, are going to walk everywhere? I'm not. Necessity is the mother of invention."

And it would seem that necessity still hasn't caught up with Mr. Ogle's invention, nearly 30 years after one historic ride.