Any interest in a whole forum project vehicle?

[Bicycle Bob]

The biggest challenge in using a fourth wheel seems to be the legal situation. Let's get in a position to decide if this is worth doing before we set a deadline for action.

[Electric Frenzy]

^^ Exactly. It seems as though there is only about 20 people talking in this thread but I was hoping to get a lot of people in the forum involved....like 50+.

With 50+ people donating time/money/supplies it'll stand a chance...otherwise we won't have the resources to make a sincere shot of it.

[dcb]

could probably learn something about aero from the worlds fastest land vehicle (340 mph):



Form what I've seen about 75% of cars on the road are single occupant, so for efficiencies sake, a single person mover would be more appropriate 3/4 of the time.

Being able to carry two people and groceries would probably get you to the 90% mark.

Note, they are working on an electric prototype of the acabion Acabion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia with auto-deployed stabilising wheels (senses speed and sideways skidding too).

But so many preconceptions and biases about 2 wheelers to deal with, it would be easier to just build it and kick everyones arse in the efficiency and performance department than try and get most people on board ahead of time

[Tango Charlie]

Count me in.
I think NachtRitter's suggestion makes the most sense, as it is the most doable, and is in the spirit of this website; i.e, take a car and mod it to be more efficient.

I could see passing it around on a tour. Let forum members commute in it and take it to shows, etc to get it into the public eye.

[Piwoslaw]

After some thought, I think Nacht and Tango are right about modding an existing car. A ground-up project would be cool, but much harder. And, as Terry noticed, the ecomodding word is closer to what we should be spreading.
So maybe we should look at some stats of which models are the most popular (in the US, anyway), and seeing which of those models could be ecomodded with the best gains-to-costs ratio.
By picking a popular car and showing that a few hundred bucks can improve FE by 20%-50%, we can get the attention of the largest audience.
AndrewJ's civic already turns heads, and even without further modding its next owner will answering lots of questions. Maybe something like: buy cheap jalopy for $1000, ecomod it with $500, paint EcoModder.com logo, sell for $2000, buy next car for $2000 (or two $1000 each), ecomod with $500, add logo, etc.... Get as many modded cars on the road as possible.

[NachtRitter]

Piwo -

I like your idea a lot! I think if the group settles on a limited number of existing models, (Honda Civic HB, Geo Metro, others) then the creativity can begin. For example, a standard set of grill blocks, wheel covers, wheel skirts, mirror deletes, boat tails, etc.

In particular, it seems like it'd be really awesome to design a removable boat tail that connects via a standard 1 1/4" box hitch... potentially make it so that the boat tail can even carry stuff: bicycle, kayak, skis, etc.

The boat tail project would require similar types of effort as doing a complete vehicle... design via CAD, welding, fiberglassing, etc. Once designed, the plans can be shared, and local fabricators can do their magic. For those that are good at it, a fiberglass mold can be created and the resultant fiberglass shells could be offered at a moderate cost...

Regional areas can each have their own projects... thereby proliferating the vehicles... Probably could get other forums involved as well...

[dcb]

An interesting idea, might want to do some analysis of how many of what models are on the road, and what % gain they could have. Lotta pickups out there that could improve a bunch.

Is a manual transmission conversion in scope?

[Electric Frenzy]

I'm capable of doing transmission swaps if need be.

What about the idea of selecting a VERY popular car and fabricating our own aero-pieces and modifications and sell them through the forum. Choosing a toyota camry or corolla would ensure that hundreds of thousands of people would be able to purchase our upgrades. They are already pretty efficient as they come though.

[Bicycle Bob]

[QUOTE=dcb;105675]could probably learn something about aero from the worlds fastest land vehicle (340 mph):



I have a friend who has spent years trying to verify that that dalnik can even lift its training wheels, let alone approach the claimed top speed. We think it is a show bike in the hands of a con man.

If we are going to concentrate on modifying rather than building, we might look for examples where one member has copied another's work, and try to provide encouragement to a third attempt. Someone coming to the site might first look up the cost-benefit on various mods. Then, they might look at examples of vehicles similar to their own. Then, having decided on a belly pan, they could look up Tips and Tricks for belly pans - what's easy, what fails, etc. Then, one day, there'd be a note : For a bunch of mounting strips and fasteners - send $ to_____. Or: for cutting patterns for a Kammback for a Civic ___ download this: URL Eventually there would be instructions for most cars, and kits for the popular ones.

[UfoTofU]

Originally Posted by Electric Frenzy

What about the idea of selecting a VERY popular car and fabricating our own aero-pieces and modifications and sell them through the forum. Choosing a toyota camry or corolla would ensure that hundreds of thousands of people would be able to purchase our upgrades. They are already pretty efficient as they come though.

Would you need to get patents?

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

If we are going to concentrate on modifying rather than building, we might look for examples where one member has copied another's work, and try to provide encouragement to a third attempt. Someone coming to the site might first look up the cost-benefit on various mods. Then, they might look at examples of vehicles similar to their own. Then, having decided on a belly pan, they could look up Tips and Tricks for belly pans - what's easy, what fails, etc. Then, one day, there'd be a note : For a bunch of mounting strips and fasteners - send $ to_____. Or: for cutting patterns for a Kammback for a Civic ___ download this: URL Eventually there would be instructions for most cars, and kits for the popular ones.

I like this since more trials means more information