Aero reverse trike project: Ninja 250 or Lifan 200 with electric assist/EV mode

[todayican]

And for the Aero guys smarter then me, I put in a fair amount of "angle of attack" on the horizontal part to protect from lift induced adventures, think its enough?

[botsapper]

A research example & X-Prize competitor.

FuelVapor Alé gets 92mpg, 0 to 60 in 5 Seconds | Automoblog.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y5HG...eature=related

[todayican]

Im familiar with the Ale car, its really nice, Im not ga ga over the look,dont even know why, very "swoopy" I guess.

[todayican]

Found this, a small scale wind tunnell with a real live rocket scientist to go with it ($25 an hour!!)

AeroRocket Products Listing, source for AeroCFD and other aerodynamics software

[Hal]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

What?

What I mean is the diesel engine and the electric motor would be permanently connected - no clutch between them. The engine would be equiped with a compression release (such as holding the exhaust valve open) and keep the fuel supply off until a predetermined point when the valve would close and fuel be supplied so the engine would run. Both would propel the vehicle to cruising speed at which point the excitation current for the motor could be turned off and it would act as a freewheel. A rate-sensitive circuit on the throttle would allow the electric motor to be used for acceleration for passing, hill climbing and the like.

[todayican]

Got the steel delivered for the chassis today :-) Ill post some pics once it looks 'chassis-ish".

[todayican]

Hal, all that compression releasing, torque sharing is beyond my pay grade, but I suspect having ev and diesel drive line at the same gearing for similar speed (they'd have to be) would require a bigger ev motor then I want to spend the money for...

[mnmarcus]

Todayican,

Great project. I've been thinking of a similiar design, reverse trike tandem seating hybrid for a few years, only I am thinking of a 20 something horse diesel with hydraulic pump motors. Some thought, suggestions (for what they are worth)...

Reduce frontal area. Thats part of the reason you came to a reverse trike with tandem seating. I'd say fair the wheels to the minimum, attaching them to the body will increase FA more than the drag coefficient would reduce, I'd think. I plan on trying to locate all the suspension springs etc inside the body and having the smallest cross section attachment to the (smallest) wheels I can get away with.

Reduce lift. My design based background (not an engineer) makes me FEEL that tipping the wing down-forward reduces the ability of the wing to create lift. I think we mostly think of all the air going over the car, but if we design the car for air to go around it the lift forces would diminish and neutralize each other. This could probably make the lightweight vehicle wander quite a bit in different wind conditions. I am planning on making a very smooth curve to the underbelly to at least countact the lift forces from the top of the car. It has been trying to get the aesthetics to look good for this though.

Aesthetics. I think if your making a car, why not make it look as cool as you can? If you start with a rounded-ish front that pretty much tapers back to (nearly) a point, your aerodynamics will probably be near to as good as you can get anyways. If I have to "fudge it" by making the front an oval instead of a sphere and adding some slight changes I figure it will still be pretty darn close. I'm going to slant the windshield way back too! I think it looks cooler and hey, a reverse trike has a TON going against it visually (from most peoples perspective). If you can make it look awesome, you will be happier getting into it, and your friends will think it's cooler too.

I'm planning at around 20 something hp, plus whatever I can get from the hydraulics for launch assist type hybrid. We have hills in duluth MN. What is 10 hp like in Florida?

[todayican]

Does anyone have any formulas or experience with how much cooling air brake rotors need? Im thinking about enclosing the front wheel wells. need some idea how much air needs to flow across a "non race car" highway commuter?

[Frank Lee]

That all depends on how heavy the machine is, how much swept area there is for heat dissipation, how hard and fast you drive, and how often you're on the brakes. If you are in the city and/or mountains you will probably want provision for air cooling; me out here in the rural flatlands can get away with virtually no cooling at all. (My 17 year old truck still has the OEM pads and shoes on it and that's with pulling a heavy trailer w/o trailer brakes!)