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Neil,
I have been looking at your design some more and have a few questions and concerns. I used the 2-D drawing you have posted to create a quick solidworks model of just the tires. First, what tire size are you planning on using? From the drawing I got that they are 24.5" OD and 6.1" wide, thats a pretty tall and skinny tire, would be a hard to find size.
The other thing I noticed was the fact that the rear track width is less than the front, and less than 48". From a vehicle dynamics stand point, less track in the rear would tend to promote more oversteer, or drift. The extent to which this could become a problem would be dependent on the suspension setup. The seating arrangement would also complicate things because there are 3 seats on the left and only one on the right. This would mean the the left side's suspension would need to be stiffer to compensate for the uneven weight distribution, when loaded with 5 people. All this could add up to a vehicle that handles differently turning left vs. right. In any case a safe car is a predictable car when it comes to handing.
The real question needs to be what type of suspension are you thinking about for both the front and rear? Do you plan to make these components yourself or try to use existing car parts? I like your plan to build a steel tube frame and fiberglass body, it should make it much easier to get a prototype rolling and also keep things cheap. For the regen shocks you talked about, where can you get them? I've only heard a few stories about prototypes being made, but nothing in production.
A lot of questions I know, but I want to help things move along, cars aren't built on Cd alone.
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