Thanks, everyone. The HPV's look like they're more or less custom bodies over standard recumbent tricycle chassis? I've thought about that... might not be useful enough for the trouble of building one. I'll be making a custom chassis for this car anyway, so maybe it would be more easy to adapt the ecomarathon car after all.
Kach, the golf cart is an interesting idea. I may have to look into that. What kind of life span would those motors have?
Did another sketch yesterday, this time with more effort. Colored pencil with gouache highlights. I like the purple with light blue interior. The fenders are less prominent... good?
Stromlinet Vogn by
Tyler Linner, Intergalactic Man of Mystery, on Flickr
One interesting thing is that the Microjoule's fabulous proportions are simply the result of styling over the large rear wheel. I love it, but my limiting factor will be the head room. A longer wheelbase will make it more stable at speed but decrease turning radius. Still have to run calcs on turning radius vs. wheel angle to reverse engineer the max wheelbase, and work from there.
I've been sitting on the floor to measure the space needed. Should be less than a meter tall, and perhaps 3m long like the 'joule. I'd like my feet behind the axle for rudimentary crash safety.