Business
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10am to 8pm today only.
Merry Christmas!
Cars…
As anyone who reads this journal knows, I’m interested in a small, efficient vehicle for commuting.
So far, I really like the idea of the AirPOD, but it may be some time till it is available in the USA. Additionally, given the recent weather, it is obvious that winter driving is a question.
I’ve seen a lot of designs for small, efficient cars. None of them look like they’d do any good in the snow and ice.
So, being the history minded type that I am, I ask myself, “What was done historically to remedy this?” Well, in days long past, there were horse drawn carts. To cope with rough terrain, larger wheels were used. This allowed them to take bigger bumps easier, as the bump would hit lower relatively, on the wheel, and it would simply roll up over the obsticle. Modern monster trucks in a way employ the same principle. Big wheels allow a big truck to roll right over cars.
Additionally, wider tires give more traction due to more contact area. The extreme of this would be racing slicks on one end and tracked vehicles on the other. For winter use, a snowmobile is a great example. But tracks are a lot of moving parts or one big belt, and so not all that good for every day commuting when you don’t need them. Racing slicks are great on flat roads, but quickly lose their function on rough terrain or snow and hence, you have the big studded tires of all-terrain vehicles.
Now, big wheels with wide studded tires might sound like a great idea, but huge wheels require feats of engineering to turn properly. You either have to get the body up out of the way (lift kits) or point the nose and expose the turning mechanism to the elements as was done for aesthetic purposes in the recent Batmobiles for Batman Begins and Batman Forever. While not out of the question, it opens the design to debris clogging up the linkages. When you’re dealing with New England winters, this might not be such a good thing. Lift kits are fun, but they raise the center of gravity and thus cause potential issues in high speed situations where you might need to swerve to avoid something. Not good.
Additionally, and the Air POD is guilty of this as well, there isn’t much room inside and whether safety is considered, these tiny vehicles simply don’t *feel* safe.
So what to do….
I’d like to explore one possibility. What if you start with a nice roll cage… say… something off a good size dune buggy. Give it a decent, efficient engine – air, electric, hybrid, whatever – and slightly bigger wheels and tires… The completely wide open linkages would allow snow and ice to fall out or be removed easily. Now enclose it all in a light body work, perhaps by simply attaching removable panels to the frame or with fiberglass or injection molded HDPE panels. It’ll need a small heater, but you could remove panels for summer use, and possibly even replace some with vented openings to channel passing air where it needs to go. Air conditioning might be an option, but I’d think that a “semi-convertible” design might be more cost effective and definitely more appealing to those wanting something more sporty while also keeping the rain and cold out.
For the panels, I’m thinking about designing something akin to a hose clamp with integrated receptacles for Zeus fasteners (or something less easily stolen but similarly designed) and integrated molding between the panels to seal the gap. The more pointed front end would provide better aerodynamics at higher speeds, keeping the front tires more firmly connected to the pavement while the rear engine would add weight and traction to the rear tires.
While probably not as efficient as say, a Peel P50, it would certainly be safer and more aesthetically pleasing. (Ok, I admit, the Peel Trident does have that Jetson’s look that is nifty, but come on… I wouldn’t want to be inside one on the road!)
As an additional advantage, you’d get a car that you can commute to and from work in but also something you could easily take off-road for fun on the weekends.
Looking at the prices of various dune buggies and parts, I figure I could make one with the above ideas as a prototype with about $20,000 and once the design is ready, probably market them for more like $10,000.
