|
Frank Lee wrote...
> I had a slow sports car once
I've had several! I've got one now, a 32 horsepower Lotus 7 semi-replica painted up like the car in The Prisoner. It's set up for multifuel (petrodiesel, biodiesel, canola oil, Jet A, the list goes on...) and last year it won an over-the-road alternative fuel race from Berkeley to Vegas. It is huge fun to drive--to drive it fast you have to pay lots of attention and plan every pass, keep up momentum, take accurate lines through corners, and "fast" isn't really descriptive, the engine has a governor that stops it from accelerating at 71.5 mph so "fast" in this context means "as fast as possible." This spring I drove a more conventional Locost across the country (Miata powered, with about 5 times the horsepower of the Kubota) and I never drove it anywhere near its limit. As Frank alludes, it's more fun to drive an underpowered car hard than an overpowered car gingerly. But as Frank also alludes, that's no excuse for crummy handling, and an underpowered car with bad cornering habits doesn't sound like much fun on a mountain road.
From Bicycle Bob:
> I think that most light, streamlined cars should have front engines for crosswind stability
I think you're right, with the "most" qualifier thrown in there. Much of car design calls for compromise. My experience is that improving streamlining reduces yaw stability, and unless you're going to add fins, or a tail so long that the rear axle is in the middle of the car, a slippery car is going to be blown downwind by side gusts. This car will have the problem compounded by its light weight, but its small side area will help, and yaw stability is part of why it's getting a Kamm rather than notchback rear end. Time will tell.
The problem with a front engine sports car, from the standpoint of fuel economy, is the tallest part of the car (the roof over the driver) is set so far back, it's hard to do serious streamlining unless you're willing to accept an awfully long car.
Coyote X writes...
> ...keep the random car parts to a minimum and try as hard as possible to use the parts off one or two cars only so 10 years later you can remember what parts to get for it when it breaks down.
Right you are. I'm shooting for Metro parts only. For example, the front wheels are also Metro wheels (sans axles) with a bolt-on upper ball joint adapter. There will be a fair number of DIY-or-buy parts, but when you go to the wrecking yard, I hope you'll only have to visit the Metro/Swift section.
> The only real issue you will have is making a reliable shifter.
You're gonna love it! I'm using the Metro shifter with one funny-shaped tube and one machined fitting. Of course, I haven't actually driven it yet so I may be kidding myself, but dry shifting my mockup it works fine.
The streamlined body for MAX is taking precidence over this project for now, it'll be a while before I have anything to show y'all, but I'm no longer sitting on the fence and this is going to be Kinetic's next project post-MAX.
|