[The Toecutter]

Originally Posted by Grant-53

You can use the HPV shell design software at recumbents.com and see the velomobile forum for similar projects. These guys are the experts. The file format can be used with CFD software too.

I'm running a debian linux machine, so .exe files are a no go. Oh well. It looks like a very useful tool.

Originally Posted by kach22i

Looks cool to me.

Might be nice to have a floor vent inlet to direct air-flow to your crotch area, then an exhaust vent at the rear to relieve any built-up pressure.

Might also come in handy against fog-up should you ever put a glass canopy on it.

Are you taping the body panel joins from one side only?

Which side?

I might want to do something similar someday, never figured out how to really glue the stuff or fill in the gaps well.

I already have footholes carved into the floor. I plan to add items not depicted in this drawing, which include mirrors, lights, signals, canopy with wind screen, NACA ducts for cooling, wheel pants, and vinyl wrapping(for coloring and uv protection), all of which will be features of the finished product, and depending on placement, as a combined total may or may not increase frontal area and/or drag significantly.

The body panels will be held with a combination of zip-ties, Gorilla tape, and Loctite 406. Both sides of the joints get tape. They've so far only been zip-tied. I will take more pics when it is finally mounted, but I need to have a steel mounting bracket made to hold it onto the frame.

Originally Posted by elhigh

A flat sheet won't do compound curves, but you can cut darts and stitch the pieces together to create some. It'll look a bit like the Hindenburg.

I've considered such a shape for the front in a previous design, but clearance issues with the steering bars on the sides as well as the potential to generate oversized and unwanted vortices in the front(as the Spearhead coroplast shell is plagued with) made me decide against it in favor of a much simpler and more predictable(with regard to airflow) design.

Obviously you want less frontal area than more, and the sooner you can start the taper rearward, the better, if only to slam the air closed behind you more gently.

The widest point of the body needs to be where the steering bars can move as far as possible while still giving as large a turning radius as possible, without any wheel scrub occuring. This, in turn, determined the parameters and placement of the boat tail section.

The lowest w-h I've seen for an electric car was right at 100 w-h per mile, and that was a nearly full sized car. I don't remember how fast it was going, but it wasn't like an Electrothon vehicle, it was moving at traffic speed.

Reverend Gadget's GT6-bodied Triumph Spitfire achieved 100 wh/mi at a steady 60 mph on flat ground in fair weather. It had minimal aeromods. Better is possible.

The best plug-in hybrid in the EM Garage has a PB of 177 w-h/mi, so getting a recumbent trike to do a good speed at just 100w input should be pretty straightforward. That 100w of rider input might be all it takes.

100W wouldn't get a Milan SL, the world's most efficient velomobile that remains commercially available, to 30 mph. It has a drag coefficient of 0.076. I've heard it can do 32 mph on 150W.

Originally Posted by Ecky

So much yes. I picked this up a few days ago and have similar aspirations:

Nice find. IMO, you will need a suspension for sustained high speeds. My KMX was quite squirrely over road imperfections above 20 mph before I put a front suspension kit on it.