Velbly2 - '13 Toyota Tundra 90 day: 18.03 mpg (US)
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CFECO's X-Car Project Re-Do
Since my first Auto X-Prize build attempt was to use composite tubing for the frame, I did not go the VW pan route, even though I had a dead Baja at the time. Now I am going to try to build a car which will mate to the VW pan, and then lighten it once the "Bugs" are worked out. A streamlined body kit which adapts to a VW pan would be a good "Thing" I think.
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Here is the start of my thread on the car I "Wanted to build" for the Auto X-Prize competition several years ago, but was thwarted by lack of funding, and having to move. Since coming back to Ecomodder a while back, I am hooked again, and with my commenting on others conversations usually leading to my talking about MY project, I will take others advice and start my own thread. So here goes...
A little background,
My car idea just sprang from nothing, as I made a clay model of what I thought an Aero car should look like, and then set the lawn chairs on the floor of the shop. That lead to the Drafting board (no CAD then) and scale drawings. My head filled with ideas about everything; power train, composite frame structure, using the ICE waste heat to power an alternator. Everything on the car was new and untried, plus having to make a business plan and find production facilities with the ability to build hundreds of cars per year as required for the X-Prize. I was well on my way, but could not find funding and I lost access to the shop I had, so it didn't work out.
Today...After being in many different conversations here I have decide to try a different course, start my car based on an existing design, a VW Type 1 Beetle, and modify it to get to where I wish to be. I am going to use 1/24th scale models of a New Beetle rear body section for the front of my car, as it almost exactly fits the Template, and adapt that to the Type 1 Pan.
Velbly2 - '13 Toyota Tundra 90 day: 18.03 mpg (US)
Thanks: 174
Thanked 60 Times in 56 Posts
Here is where I am starting from, using the rear of the new Beetle as the mold for the front of a Template-like car, on VW Type 1 pan. I am still trying to find "Pultruded" fiberglass 2 x 2 or 2 x 4 tubing, if anyone knows of a source for small quantities.
CFECO -- Consider this: The frontal area of the New Beetle is greater.
This last October the fastest full Beetle body in the 36hp Challenge was a SuperBeetle body on a '64 pan with the class-qualifing 36hp engine. The bubble windshield was good for ~5mph on the top end.
What one could do is lower the beetle body and rotate it around the front axle line so the door opening is canted backward with the lower rear cut off. Additionally the body could be pie cut so the windshield is the widest part. The body would be radically taped in plan and elevation. The rear axle would be 3" longer and 3" wider (off-road parts) with pantaloons like your X-prize car.
The VW floor pans could be cut off, with a monocoque tub slung under it the depth of one Prius battery or Lithium-ion D-cell.
It would look like your X-Prize model, as a rat rod.
Velbly2 - '13 Toyota Tundra 90 day: 18.03 mpg (US)
Thanks: 174
Thanked 60 Times in 56 Posts
I seems like this VW would better follow the Template going the other direction. In my discussions with the "Template Crowd" here a few years ago, I had questioned why, if the "T" was the best, that the LSR boys didn't go with it, as all the books show it has the least drag? Also in discussion with Paul Glessner, the Aerodynamicist I had talked to about my X-Prize Car, said the wheel pants actually increased the drag over leaving the sides flat all the way to the rear and cutting off the back sharp, like on the Corvette here. The Corvette aluminum frame is also the basis for my fiberglass tube frame, for my X-Car,
...if the "T" was the best, that the LSR boys didn't go with it, as all the books show it has the least drag?
Cars have parts, Thee Template doesn't.
I like the Corvette frame. The Edison2 VLC uses a combination of cast and stamped aluminum. I don't know about fiberglass but what you are asking for is available in carbon fiber: http://http://www.rockwestcomposites.com/browse
I seems like this VW would better follow the Template going the other direction. In my discussions with the "Template Crowd" here a few years ago, I had questioned why, if the "T" was the best, that the LSR boys didn't go with it, as all the books show it has the least drag?
Least drag compared to what ?
Does that mean it has the lowest possible drag ?
Hard , very hard, to believe as it has shapes that are known not to be the most efficient.
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Velbly2 - '13 Toyota Tundra 90 day: 18.03 mpg (US)
Thanks: 174
Thanked 60 Times in 56 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by euromodder
Least drag compared to what ?
Does that mean it has the lowest possible drag ?
Hard , very hard, to believe as it has shapes that are known not to be the most efficient.
The " Template " has the lowest for an object with a flat bottom, as its 1/2 of the ideal airfoil. The LSR VW in the photos are not ideal, in either direction, I just think it would be better going the other direction. narrower in the rear and the cab forward rounded to match the template. Going the other direction, this LSR car would need the old windshield area filled in and sloped to the rear....at least .
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