Automotive X-Prize: "The Very Light Car" (also very aero) with conventional engine

[Frank Lee]

I haven't nailed down the base engine, but it appears to me to be an OHC 1 cylinder turbocharged 4 stroker; could be from a motorcycle or atv. There is something funky going on with that turbo on the compressor side I don't understand yet.

Back in '82 Pa got a Honda Big Red 3-wheeler. IIRC the single was 200cc. Back then I thought that engine and trans would make a PERFECT road vehicle drivetrain!!!

I'd imagine this engine to be 200-500cc.

[Frank Lee]

I don't like what I see re: rear suspension; from what I can tell both rear wheels HAVE to go up and down in unison, making them far less forgiving of different side-to-side bumps and undulations than even an old school live axle on leaf springs. Ride quality will suffer especially vs if they'd used a single wheel in the back.

Edit: Ha Ha, that'll learn me to open my yap before looking at all available info! My above comment was made after looking at the still pic of a rear axle on their site. Looked to me like it spanned the rear; it was the whole thing. NOW I see from the video that there are two of them. Damn but that thing has wide tracks! Incidentally, it sure sounds just like an atv to me... Carry on...

Outside of perhaps this induction thing I don't get, I don't see anything earthshaking as far as new. However, that's not to say I don't love it!!! Were I to enter the X-Prize or even just build my own, they are using the approach I would have. Except I wouldn't put that 4th wheel on there unless the rules required it.

I'd rather have this than an Aptera. They've waved too many red flags already, they have the taste of scammers, almost Palmear-like. Plus their proposals are too expensive for what you get.

[dcb]

I assume you are scratching your head over the large tank like thing on the left of the live foto? looks like some sort of accumulator? Or a diversion?

re suspension, the rear (swingarm) suspension looks like the triangular transfer case gets bolted to the end of the tube so each wheel would be independantly sprung. the springs look like they are inboard on the "kuttner behind the wheel" photo

[NeilBlanchard]

The front suspension is a bit of a mystery: the tube appears to be solid all the way across, but whatever is behind the wheels is not visible. If there is any suspension at all, it would have to involve a trailing swing arm, and combining this with steering would seem to be awkward...

[Frank Lee]

I only see one spring/shock for the rear axle assy.

I don't get the "accumilator" nor anything, really, on the induction side of the turbo.

Regardless, this is my favorite entry so far!

These guys give me the impression of rejecting gimmicks and are grounded in sound, tried 'n' true engineering. Yeah baby!

[Frank Lee]

Post 14: in that pic I see an atv plastic gas tank and a cooler, presumably a turbo intercooler. I don't see the wierd stuff of the lab engine.

Front suspension/steering is a mystery to me too.

OK All four wheels are on short trailing arms; I suppose it is possible for there to be torsion springs in there too, in addition to the coil spring/shock, but that doesn't seem likely.

[shovel]

If I had to speculate on the suspension I'd suggest it's a trailing arm using the beam's torsion (or a separate, interior beam's torsion) as its spring. The beam itself may not be fully circular, lending a plane on which it can resolve torsion. That doesn't resolve the question of damping however, maybe an internal fluid shock? Possibly some trick of mass, where the whole assembly is so light that it can't pick up any road harmonics at any realistic speed so a fluid damper is almost unnecessary?

[MetroMPG]

FYI, the engine image in post 1 is an attachment (because their site wasn't reliably serving the image as a direct link - hope they don't mind).

The original image is called "early engine simple but good.jpg"

[Cd]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

ABG called it a "poor man's Aptera". Not very nice! (Probably not true, either.) Coincidentally, there's an Aptera in the left side of the above photo.

Web site: Edison2: The Very Light Car (X PRIZE Contender) - The Very Light Car

Well, I'm a poor man.

How much is the cost ? I didn't see it on their site.

[cfg83]

Hello -

It reminds me of this :

HyperRocket: hot looking 125mpg reverse trike on Ebay

Did someone save some pictures of that trike? The ebay link is dead. Both designs are by engineers for engineers.

(note: I say EV1 in the next paragraph, but maybe I am talking about the Impact concept prototype).

When the EV1 was being developed, the Aeroviroment engineers created their own versions of the EV1. The GM car-designers were horrified at what they saw, but were designing terrible cars from an aero-POV. Eventually they came up with a design that *worked* for both sides and was closer to the Aerovironment design.

I have a hunch that the Aerovironment fellows came up with proposals similar to this.

CarloSW2