Aerohead -- Thanks—that's a good suggestion. Do you have the ISBN (number) or the publishing house? I suspect a librarian would want to know.
Metromizer -- I admire Dick Beith's car. My thinking is evolving away from what is shown in my profile picture. I'm going to be Away From The Keyboard for a few days. When I'm back I'll try to document an Edison inspired Very Light Volkswagen (VLVW).
The side windows are an aero-problem. The flush-mounted Lexan looks good; and I'm thinking a user applied coating like
Nanoclear
(today) or
Spray-on Glass (tomorrow) would make it easier to live with.
I was thinking a shop sized vacuum gauge mounted right under the backlight where I could monitor it in the rear view mirror. But then I also want a boat-tail that covers the backlight with a 20" LCD screen for the rear view webcam that I could see in the rear view mirror—in Infra-red!