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Is the tail on that thing good for anything other then holding the 155mpg sticker?
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Yes in the writeup they say it is there for visibility by other drivers, plus it has a headlight in it. Sort of like the original 1950s version of the movie "War of the Worlds".
Boy that would be cool... someone on their cell phone cutting you off.. engage the ray.. Eieieieiei...KaBoom.
ebacherville,
It's up to you of course, but I would suggest motorcycle or moped wheels, something that has tires rated for highway use. Low speed cart wheels may have rubber tires that will not survive high speed heating and flexing, or possibly
even the centrifugal forces of going 35 MPH. I don't think the steel wheel part of it is bad, neccesarily, but I worry about the tires. You would also want to be able to balance them.
Aluminium has one-third the stiffness of steel for the same cross section, just fyi. Also it is much more expensive right now, and you would have to TIG it. For the steel you could use your nice MIG setup. But maybe you already know all this
Or you have a TIG in the garage and you have been holding out on us and not showing it in the pics.
As far as the height.. If you make it up higher sort of (but not as high as) the aptera, you would have the space to do much more drag reduction on the underside, you could make the bottom rounded like an aptera. When I first saw an aptera I though it was kinda strange, but when I though about how it could compete on the road with SUVs and minivans it made sense that they chose the shape they did. Here is somebody making a body shell out of a wing tank.. nice smooth low drag shape but you would need outriggers for the front wheels.
Mike Geokan's Bonneville Bullett
Up higher, you would also have a better chance of seeing over cars, as well as being seen. The "presence" of your vehicle on the road competing with other vehicles would be enhanced if you made a longer car, For example bring the tail out extended to a sharp point, instead of cut off. A longer car should not have much skin drag penalty, the speed is pretty low.