Okay, I'm posting the answers to some of the questions that have been asked on this thread/forum about the Edison2 Very Light Car:
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The VLC with 4 seats weighs about 715. It has heat, AC, a radio and every reason to eventually with about 40 lbs of stuff meet FMVSS. As a matter of fact it will deflect in a 40 % offset and may well become the best performer in that event of all (like an Indy car). In a side impact 35% collision the offending car has to travel through 18 inches of absorbing structure and the occupant never sees more than 17 g out of an allowed pass fail of 70 g. That will be better than most cars.
I am 6'4" and 250 lbs and am comfortable in the back. it has more legroom than an Audi A 8.
In effect what the VLC does is this: We substitute distance for mass. It is all about gradual deceleration. We have the world's smallest suspension in order to use that space for a preprogrammed gradually imploding structure. We are the first to do this and it will become the standard. We own the IP
We have done this before. See the horrific crash of the Doran JE4 at VIR (2 cars hitting at 130 mph speed differential (it was on speed channel for a year). Also the Edwards crash at Canada in a Daytona Prototype (that car looked like a Dallara Mc Donalds car it was our chassis design). This was the highest crash data recorded impact in the history of Grand AM we designed both chassis. The drivers walked away each time...
We are very good at this and now we are exercising our craft on this. ERROR number one in automobiles is that they engage. Cars must deflect. The VLC is full of stuff like that. It will take several years to optimize but it will show a new path.
Formula cars have withstood crashes for years with very low injury rates if you consider the circumstances...
We claim a weight of 1000 to 1200 lbs for the VLC because we know we are not over-promising there. The X Prize cars are there to be proofs of concept and they are designed to the minimum and to win. (We read the rules).
A VLC SUV with 6 seats will still get 80 mpg that is important.
We are not pushing our cars at this time. We are pushing our method, a method that is more efficient. You might choose to share this with your interested friends. The VLC is fuel source agnostic. (we really do not care). We just know that for us in the time for the X prize the ICE was more realistic and for those who see the numbers we clearly demonstrated that last week that we are right.
We have no intention to build 1000 units. As one of your friends pointed out we intend to teach someone how to build a million "VWs of the future" and we will keep their designers on task...
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