This is a great thread! I would encourage the original poster to set an initial goal and then go for it! Win-Lose-or Draw, the journey to get there and the educational experience are both priceless!!! There are plenty of tried and true basics as seen here on ecomodder and elsewhere that do work - prove it to yourself with your own project; that is what I did.
As for the Kubota.... I do agree they are pretty low power as advertised, and like so many others, I had a preconceived notion it couldn't fight its way out of a wet paper-bag - that's one of the reasons for actually doing the project. All said and done, acceleration is generally not an issue - especially down low. They key is to match everything with the engine's abilities. To put this into more realistic terms, at the Green Grand Prix, the little 17hp D850 Kubota was hauling a 1080 pound car and two passengers (round the entire mess up to 1400 pounds). To compare that with newer cars, multiply everything by two and you get a 2,800lb car with 34 horsepower. Multiply by three and you come up with a 51 horsepower car that weighs a total of 4,200 pounds - either of these sound like a real winner right? Well, that's the reality of the build and the results still stand today. Travelling several hours down the interstate with traffic - no problem. Then during any of the three Green Grand Prixs there was no need to take it out of its top gear even up that crazy hill after turn #1. RPM's were low (like 1850ish in 8th, or "4th gear in high range" depending on how you want to label it).
Lastly, and to prove the acceleration issue, the car drove to, and rode in, the "Grand Prix Festival". Prior to the event there was a similar concern and I had to assure the Rally (oops, parade) organizer multiple times I could keep up with the group (specifically up the first hill by TOPs gas station). Failure to keep up at anytime during the event, would result in being pulled from it. The car ahead of me was a nice Bugeye Sprite convertible that I could've easily pushed up that hill. The Ford Anglia behind me failed partway up the hill and nobody caught up during the remainder of the two laps. There's no particular problem with the little Kubota if it's setup correctly.
Battery technology needs to make another magic leap and if it does, Centurion's 250mpg record may likely fall by way of a gorgeous fully electric version (which is the third version of these cars sitting here in storage - behind the little gray and black one.) Until that happens, the bar for the tiny Kubota Diesel is very high. It's still running great and continues to see invites to vocational schools, etc...
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~CrazyJerry~
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