[Blue Bomber Man]

So after researching fuel economy for several weeks, reading countless posts, federal studies, academic studies etc I've decided that rather then making significant modifications to my current car (Mazda Protege '00) that I would like to custom design a car. I will likely decide to an electric car, presuming that I can design it to get 100 miles on a charge.

I'm planning on spending around two years in the design process of the car and the first decision I need to do is find a suitable design program that could handle a project of this complexity.


If anyone has any experience with some nice 3D design programs and could suggest some to look into that would be very helpful.



Basic Design:

Likely to be carbon fiber frame/body
-Lightweight
-More expensive materials, but easier to work with than steel
4 wheel, compact car - still need to decide on how many seats
Target weight ~1500 pounds;
Regen breaking
Possibly include solar
I will probably copycat the exterior design of the Ford Probe V (drag of .137!)

I plan on spending around two years of design before actually building it. If I find that it will be too cost prohibitive to build (or complex) then I'll scrap the idea before actually building it. I am planning on spending up to perhaps $15000 on materials and parts, most items will probably be new, but some things I may consider buying used.

Requirements of the design program: I would like it to be capable of exploding layouts from the main design to work on. Be capable of understanding material thickness, tracking weight changes, and perhaps cost as well.

Any help on finding this would be great =)