Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Closest thing to a UFO for road use is the Arcimoto FUV.
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I think an Alfa Romeo Disco Volante Coupe is even closer. In Italian, its name translates to "Flying Saucer". It also had a 0.25 drag coefficient, in 1952. It weighed 1,653 lbs. Powered by a 156 horsepower 2.0L inline-4, it could top out at 140 mph(gearing limited, and same top speed as the less-slippery but 30 lbs lighter Disco Volante Spyder which shared the same gearing and engine), so for the time, the performance was "out of this world". And it also looks the part of a UFO, especially from the front.
Too bad no one made a kit car replica of the Disco Volante Coupe for sale to put VW TDI engines into... because that would be awesome. Imagine someone putting it together with a 4-cylinder 1.9L TDI engine from the early 2000s in one of those tuned to about 180 horsepower... You'd have a car that got 70+ mpg highway when driven slightly above the speed limit and with typical operator carelessness to fuel economy. With that amount of power on tap in such a light car with such good drag, it would be doing sub-5-second 0-60 times and with optimized gearing, topping out around 170 mph. And it would be such a delightful featherweight for going through the curves...