08-26-2021, 06:40 PM
|
#1 (permalink)
|
EcoModding Lurker
Join Date: Aug 2021
Location: Southern Arizona
Posts: 57
Thanks: 7
Thanked 11 Times in 11 Posts
|
Seating in tandem in vehicles
I never understood why tandem seating in high fuel economy cars isn't more prevalent. The smaller frontal area would help fuel economy. There have been some of these vehicles over the years but they seem to fade away and disappear.
|
|
|
Today
|
|
|
Other popular topics in this forum...
|
|
|
08-26-2021, 06:44 PM
|
#2 (permalink)
|
Human Environmentalist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Oregon
Posts: 12,482
Thanks: 4,219
Thanked 4,393 Times in 3,366 Posts
|
The FUV has it, but I wonder the same thing since the Aptera doesn't. Heck, I saw a sailplane on TV that had side-by-side seating.
That said, it does allow the taper to begin sooner, so that may offset some of the inefficiency of side-by-side. There's no way someone could sit behind the driver in the Aptera due to lack of head clearance. The vehicle would have to be longer to accommodate the slick shape.
|
|
|
08-26-2021, 06:56 PM
|
#3 (permalink)
|
Somewhat crazed
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: 1826 miles WSW of Normal
Posts: 4,104
Thanks: 471
Thanked 1,124 Times in 991 Posts
|
All your glass homebuilt aircraft are side x side so apparently not much of a drag penalty
__________________
casual notes from the underground:There are some "experts" out there that in reality don't have a clue as to what they are doing.
|
|
|
08-26-2021, 07:06 PM
|
#4 (permalink)
|
It's all about Diesel
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Posts: 12,571
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1,628 Times in 1,453 Posts
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
The vehicle would have to be longer to accommodate the slick shape.
|
Unless the vehicle could remain as short as a motorcycle, and perpendicular parking could be done too, I wouldn't really hold my breath for tandem-seating to become so common.
|
|
|
08-26-2021, 09:33 PM
|
#5 (permalink)
|
Master EcoModder
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: northwest of normal
Posts: 27,773
Thanks: 7,801
Thanked 8,607 Times in 7,088 Posts
|
The traditional shotgun seat?
If the second occupant (typically a spouse) has any input in the decision, it will be a tandem side-by-side.
With the FUV, conversation is possible because both are beneath an elongated dome, which has excellent acoustics. An inside mirror allows for eye contact.
__________________
.
.Without freedom of speech we wouldn't know who all the idiots are. -- anonymous poster
____________________
.
.Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Last edited by freebeard; 08-26-2021 at 10:58 PM..
Reason: edit to be less wrong
|
|
|
08-26-2021, 09:35 PM
|
#6 (permalink)
|
EcoModding Lurker
Join Date: Aug 2021
Location: Southern Arizona
Posts: 57
Thanks: 7
Thanked 11 Times in 11 Posts
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
The traditional shotgun seat?
If the second occupant (typically a spouse) has any input in the decision, it will be a tandem.
With the FUV, conversation is possible because both are beneath an elongated dome, which has excellent acoustics. An inside mirror allows for eye contact.
|
|
|
|
08-26-2021, 11:58 PM
|
#7 (permalink)
|
EcoModding Lurker
Join Date: Aug 2021
Location: Southern Arizona
Posts: 57
Thanks: 7
Thanked 11 Times in 11 Posts
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Piotrsko
All your glass homebuilt aircraft are side x side so apparently not much of a drag penalty
|
Flip side is every two seater sailplane I've flown was a tandem.
|
|
|
08-27-2021, 03:50 AM
|
#8 (permalink)
|
High Altitude Hybrid
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Gunnison, CO
Posts: 1,998
Thanks: 1,061
Thanked 552 Times in 441 Posts
|
I guess the answer lies in the Smart Car. It fits everywhere and looks small.
Ironically going tandem has two benefits if mage long enough. Not only does it have less frontal area but longer less pronounced curves are also more aerodynamic.
But apparently few people would buy a tandem Aptera that's as long as a 15 passenger van.
__________________
|
|
|
08-27-2021, 07:00 AM
|
#9 (permalink)
|
Master EcoModder
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Posts: 4,159
Thanks: 120
Thanked 2,790 Times in 1,959 Posts
|
Here is the deal in my area, if a vehicle doesn't occupy the full with of the road as in it's narrow like a motorcycle, larger vehicles tend to bully them over and even run them off the road - seen it several times.
In my old small Porsche 911 I've had people try to do the same thing to me.
Many full sized pickup truck and SUV drivers drive with their tires on or over the bicycle lane stripe because they feel compelled to take up the entire width of the road. If they spot a vehicle not taking up the full width they often take action to take that territory from the narrower vehicle.
I wish that I was just making this up, but sadly I'm not.
|
|
|
The Following User Says Thank You to kach22i For This Useful Post:
|
|
08-27-2021, 10:50 AM
|
#10 (permalink)
|
Master EcoModder
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Sanger,Texas,U.S.A.
Posts: 15,914
Thanks: 24,000
Thanked 7,227 Times in 4,654 Posts
|
tandems
For all the really fine tandem designs offered over the decades, none seemed to ever fire the public's interest, regardless of how great they might have been.
GM, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen all tried.
James Bede's 100-mpg Lightstar never caught on. Aptera.
In the 1950s, if you bought a Cadillac, they'd give you a Messerschmitt 3-wheeler for 'free.' I've only seen one of those on the road, and only because my Air Force roommate's girlfriend's brother had one.
I started to mockup a 3-wheeled tandem 'mini-hypercar' and soon abandoned the project after experiencing how traffic treated me when riding the motorcycle the car would have been based on.
It was one thing to lay a bike down on Ventura Boulevard commuting to high school in the late sixties, something else just to be run over by a local good-ole'-boy in a pickup, just 'cause I happened to be on the same road.
There is no right to life in Texas.
__________________
Photobucket album: http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/aerohead2/
|
|
|
|