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In Australia, modifications have to be approved by a Government Approved Engineer to ensure the car is safe and complies with all the regulations before it can be registered and driven on the road. If you can present a plan before you start, the engineer can look it over and tell you what needs to be changed so you don't end up with an expensive boat anchor at the end.
The 'tank' has much more frontal area than I'm hoping for but I will try and taper the edges to prevent votice formation, but it's a compromise between having maximum solar area and aero. If I can keep the frontal area really small, the slab sides hopefully wont be too much of an issue.
With 13 inch wheels and a small tyre, the suspension beam will be the highest chassis hard point on the car.
There will be a spaceframe chassis between the pan and the panels that will also house the batteries and other associated electronics. I'll probably use a chromoly steel to keep the weight down. I may even get it made from alloy tube and bolt the spaceframe to the pan. I'll calculate the weight difference and go from there.
I want to house all the EV drive stuff behind the front seats to keep cable runs short and to keep the weight balanced and low.
I tried calculating a few other solar panel options but none could provide the same output in the available space. I may end up using some smaller panels or single cells on the sides, but I'm not sure how much benefit they will provide (although the sun is rarely directly overhead)...
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