[master_of_disaster]

Hi ecomodders,
I just had a car improvement idea that would be an appropriate thing to post here for comments.
I'm thinking of recapturing the braking energy from a car by utilizing a small wheel in the rear that goes down to touch the ground and rotate as the car rolls along. The additional rear wheel will drive a compressor which then stores the pressurized air to an air tank. The rear wheel will go down either by the press of a button or activated when the brake lights go off, and will be a supplemental braking system to the standard brakes. The rear wheel connected to a compressor will provide enough resistance to recapture maybe 50% of the braking energy that would have been lost to heat in the brake pads.
When its time to accelerate, the same rear wheel will also go down to touch the ground, but this time, the compressor will act as an air motor via switching of the in/out valves and will rotate using the pressurized air from the air tank. This can be activated via a button or via the pressing of the accelerator pedal. The torque/speed of the rear wheel should be higher than the engine driven wheel so as to not be a drag to the acceleration of the car.
Once the pressure in the air tank goes down a certain level, the rear wheel goes back up.
This mod will make any car into a gasoline-compressed air hybrid.
It should be a doable mod with moderate complexity and cost.
Thanks.
Eric