Figured I'd post a quick update as to where I am in the design process. Construction is slated to start During Summer of 2013 and I hope to finish the project by the end of the summer. In the meantime, I'll work on collecting parts for the project and work out any design kinks
My budget of $5000 is still standing strong.
Current estimated cost breakdown:
Kawasaki Ninja 250R: $1000
Ecotron EFI kit: $600
Chassis steel: $500
F16 canopy: $400
Steering Rack: $250
ATV spindles, Hubs, Rotors, Calipers $200
Total: $2950 so that leaves me with $2000 for the rest of the stuff which I’m not particular about. It will be whatever I can find for the cheapest that will do the job.
Estimated costs of these parts:
Shocks: $100
Ball Joints: $50
Tie rod ends: $50
steering wheel: $50
racing seat: $100
5-point harness: $80
Lights: $60
EGT sensor(for lean burn tuning) $100
Push Pull cable for shifter $50
Brake, Clutch, and throttle pedals
4x110 to 4x100 wheel adapters $50
Civic VX wheels $150
2 Tires 155/80R13 $100
upper and lower control arms $50
pushrods for suspension $20
A lot of this is just estimates, but I have $1000 of wiggle room based on these numbers. This money will be use for paint, misc. hardware, and anything else I need.
Here is my latest design.
The specifications are just guesses because I don't really have any of the parts with me. I would like to make the car thinner and shorter. shorter is easy to achieve by reclining the major factor in the width is the canopy width. The current design gives me a frontal area of 9 square feet. combined with a estimated drag coefficient of .16, this gives a CdA of 1.44 which is pretty good!
a 2nd seat could also easily be added by extending the length of the trike. I'm not doing this for cost and time reasons, but it wouldn't affect efficiency too much.
Here is another picture to gives you an idea of size. This is to scale.
I also would have loved to make this electric but the cost of lipo batteries is huge and lead acid is too heavy.