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Diesel generator in homebuilt car
I would really like to build a homebuilt car, and for a powerplant I would like to use a small diesel engine. It seems that there are a number of small, lightweight diesel generators available, and I'm thinking rather than trying to mate the engine up to a car transmission and disposing of the generator, why not just use the generator as a transmission and use electric motors to drive the wheels? Similar to a diesel locomotive, or a Chevy Volt without the battery pack and a diesel engine instead of gasoline. My thinking is that since the transmission and drive motors are electric, you could run the diesel engine at it's best BSFC rpm all or most of the time and just vary the load rather than rpm.
Does anyone see any problems with this idea? Does it seem feasible? Has this been tried before (and met with miserable failure)?
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