Linner Strømlinet Vogn (Now with 3D model!)

[dkruitz]

Is that going to be a mid-engine car? I don't see enough room to put an adult in the front seat with wheel wheels and a front engine compartment to contend with.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Sven7

Here goes. I've been drawing streamlined cars in my sketchbook for over six months now and it's time to make something of it. My plan here is to make a production possible four seat automobile that flaunts its aerodynamics instead of disguising them like the Prius and other contemporary hypermiler vehicles. (Something like a 4 seat EV1)

Here is a tiny sketch I did in my sketchbook. I can't really go too far drawing it because 2D=/=3D. The idea is like a Tatra 77: the body splits the air up and down, and the greenhouse splits it side to side.



Very open to suggestions before I get too far in the model!

Proportions indicate it's like a rounded Aztek with a boattail, size-wise, and with less rear seat headroom and impossibly big wheels. It does not appear to me to be like a stretched EV1 except if you were simply commenting about the aero styling. The sketch is not communicating the classic Jaray form the text describes i.e. two "airfoil" body components, the lower one oriented horizontally and the upper vertically. The styling line at the base of the greenhouse would need to grow heavier as it goes aft instead of fading out. The sketch looks nice tho'

As far as the lower airfoil form splitting the air up and down, Hucho describes wind tunnel tests of bullet shaped front ends; some with the stagnation point up high, towards the middle, and down low. The lowest drag came from the "down low" stagnation point, so if one was to go that route the sketch's nose "point" needs to drop down until it's like the old GM Dustbuster minivans except rounded.

The low stagnation point is my personal preference but then there is the Avion and the rest of the WSU cars with their noses way up in the air and claims for low Cd...

[Sven7]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I will not build this 1:1. It is meant as a design experiment, assuming an established company wanted to take it on. This means they would have the $$$ to make a new windshield. That said I'm going to have to do some work to make the thing feasible. Since glass can only really bend one way at a time for our purposes it'll take a little bit of doing to get that to work out.

The powerplant would probably be a front mounted 3 cylinder diesel with FWD.

Kach you're welcome to come see the stuff and have a talk. CCS has a Tim Hortons inside the building if you want to do lunch

Speedglass may be worth looking into. Is it basically plexi?

Oh, did I mention we also have an original EV1 displayed on campus?

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Proportions indicate it's like a rounded Aztek with a boattail, size-wise, and with less rear seat headroom and impossibly big wheels. It does not appear to me to be like a stretched EV1 except if you were simply commenting about the aero styling. The sketch is not communicating the classic Jaray form the text describes i.e. two "airfoil" body components, the lower one oriented horizontally and the upper vertically. The styling line at the base of the greenhouse would need to grow heavier as it goes aft instead of fading out. The sketch looks nice tho'

As far as the lower airfoil form splitting the air up and down, Hucho describes wind tunnel tests of bullet shaped front ends; some with the stagnation point up high, towards the middle, and down low. The lowest drag came from the "down low" stagnation point, so if one was to go that route the sketch's nose "point" needs to drop down until it's like the old GM Dustbuster minivans except rounded.

The low stagnation point is my personal preference but then there is the Avion and the rest of the WSU cars with their noses way up in the air and claims for low Cd...

The model is based on Scion xB dimensions, but longer of course. It's got (i think) 215/60/15 tires, so it's reasonable. The sketch is cheated to look cooler.

The model has a lower nose as I am aware of the point of stagnation but I don't know what you mean by the bold statement. I'll work on the airfoil forms.

Originally Posted by dkruitz

Is that going to be a mid-engine car? I don't see enough room to put an adult in the front seat with wheel wheels and a front engine compartment to contend with.

Front engine. Remember, due to the wheels being there people can't sit in the very nose of the car- they wouldn't be able to get out! That's where the engine will be. I'll try to block something in and do a cutaway. No promises though.

[autogyro]

Originally Posted by kach22i

I'm also in Michigan (Ann Arbor), I'd like to see some of your progress in person, might even lend a hand.

KTM X-Bow Montenergy
KTM X-Bow Montenergy




There was a Hawk replica importer listed in California, going to cost some to get the glass from the UK in either case. Might be better off with a Lotus Evora windshield, there is a dealer on Woodard in Birmingham.

There is something called "speedglass" which replaces stock glass for a lighter form of plastic. You might want to look into that too.

First thanks for the photo. "Fast" elliptical windshild profiles are so gorgeous..and very tempting because they're only angled projections of cylinders (styling trick!)
In case one is tempted to roll (!) their own, like me, heres a link i've been looking at.
@Sven: we may be on parallel paths. I'm working up a 30% scale model myself, so I can get decent Reynolds numbers in testing. I hope to start a thread soon.

I decided to do this first ,and then go into OpenFoam CFD. You might be familiar with Symscape/Caedium. The beauty of their system if you can "rent" only what you need, by the month.
Caedium | Symscape
They recently announced that they will accept files from non-pro Sketchup. Look like they have Ecomodders in mind

BTW here's a rough version of the streamliner project, that I was lucky enough to get into FlowIllustrator before it blew up. Chernyshenko is very interested in hearing from anyone who has found it valuable, and if enough of us contact him, he said he'd try to get it running again.
Apologies to those who've already seen this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKHURePuSZo

[autogyro]

Dang! I fergot the custom glass link. Sorry.
ProCurve Glass

[Big Dave]

The original sketch cries out for a rear engine drive.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

The original sketch cries out for a rear engine drive.

Rear engine drive was "new wave" in the 1950s and early 1960s - since then the world has moved on and learned the error of it's ways - thankfully.

Alec.

[Frank Lee]

That's where the volume is for it, but it also cries out for a forward center of gravity.

[Frank Lee]

The styling line at the base of the greenhouse would need to grow heavier as it goes aft instead of fading out.

Originally Posted by Sven7

but I don't know what you mean by the bold statement.

The sketch is telling me that the greenhouse and rear fender flanks are blending together like a highlight line that fades out WHILE your text contradicts that and says the greenhouse boattails vertically, like a split window Vette or boattail Riviera. Your instructors haven't taught that?