I have been planning an EV build for some time, but recently have been talking to an engineer about the possibility of building scratch built a Solar/EV as opposed to adapting an ICE vehicle.
The two options are a custom built spaceframe or welding a spaceframe to a VW chassis.
The VW option means I only need to comply with 1971 Regs (which in Australia is a godsend).
The car will have a reasonable battery pack and the solar panels will be more for range extension and charging when stationary, but I can easily fit 1.2kw worth of 24V panels on the area I'm thinking about.
The car will be a 2 seater (side by side) with aeroscreens and aero fairings behind the heads of the occupants (much easier than a sealed cabin which requires lots of heavy stuff to go with it.
The passenger opening will normally be sealed.
Aerodynamics is at the forefront of my mind, and I was wondering if It would be better to have a flat wing profile with a fairly horizontal top (like most EV racers) or have a Teardrop as per the 'ideal' profile and send all of the air over the car.
I'm worried that if I go for a slim wing profile, it may mean having wheel fairings that can be damaged and a chassis that would act like a diffuser.
Having the ideal teardrop shape is appealing but the curved 3D aspect required to make an efficient one was daunting me a bit as I have never used composites.
I got thinking of alternatives and recently spotted this -
If I cut the bottom off the truck scoop off just under the scallop and used it as the front body work and then extended the body back as per the template (with the solar panels on the 'tail' would it be close enough to the template ideal?
It would make life a bit easier.