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Old 03-31-2011, 04:51 PM   #63 (permalink)
aerohead
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backwards

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtkid2002 View Post
I wonder if I can get tires like in the video that skyl4rk posted and use them legally nowadays...

Nimblemotors - I would try and do something like that, but I don't really want to play with the original body. Considering for starters I'm just having a roll cage and a wire mesh/fiberglass skin to start with, that seems like a ton of work. I would consider doing an EV, but the kits for those are uhh.. pricey. I know doing an engine swap is as well, but I also would really be stuck at home with that because of a lack of charging stations.

Heh. But the concept of driving a backwards VW Bug does sound really amusing.

Pendragon - I'm going to leave the stock suspension in place, I was just thinking about leaving the body (at least some of it that would be easily replaceable) in areas that could get damaged so I could streamline a bit further. Although that just got me thinking. It would be a pain, but make individual wheel pants for the front wheels, and still have them enclosed by the main body (with access hatch of course) so that way the wheel pants would bounce with the tires and not be damaged.
In anticipation of the debut of it's Airflow in 1934,Chrysler Corp. constructed a special DeSoto with backwards body which a famous race driver of the day drove from coast to coast to illustrate how cars were designed 'backwards.'
Reversing the body reduced the DeSoto's drag from Cd 0.612,to Cd 0.51.By 1935-1/2 Carl Breer and his team had modded the Airflow's drag down from Cd 0.51 to Cd 0.244.
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