Building a 100mpg consumer vehicle

[drmiller100]

I'm going to build a 100mpg consumer vehicle.

Goals:
100 mpg mixed, 75mpg at 75mph.
Legal in Idaho (where i live).
seats me (285 lbs, 6'1") and my lady (not a petite lady) COMFORTABLY.
My lady has to be willing to ride in it.
My lady has to be willing to drive it on occasion.
1000 pounds???
Build it for less then 5000 bucks at my redneck engineering shop.

It will be reverse trike, enclosed, with heater and AC.
Honda engines are cheap, and I have a 93 honda civic hatchback which has been rolled over (DX) as a donor car.
Seatbelts, rollcage, windows, etc.

fiberglass body which my 16 year old son will be willing to drive and proclaim as "cool" (hardest spec, but essential for marketability).

Engineers and people with excuses why I shouldn't do this can do me a favor and keep their mouths shut.

[drmiller100]

I have started laying things out, and prototyping.

Some interesting things. Tandem REALLY SUCKS according to my lady. She refuses to ride around with her knees 2 feet apart, and I don't want a car which is 12 feet long.

So. Lots of trials and fitments. We removed the two seats from the hatch. It appears the inside of the car will be 33 inches wide. This allows the driver to be offset to the port side, the passenger to the starboard side, and behind the driver. It gives room for the passenger to put their legs on one side of the driver, but both have plenty of shoulder room.

front of car appear to be 60 inches wide, main cockpit 33 on the inside, and over all height is going to be 44 inches or so, despite my best efforts to make it lower.

Wheelbase will end up at 10 feet or so.

[oil pan 4]

I don't think a used stock driveline set up for a much heavier car will do what you need it to.

[Frank Lee]

Sounds like fun! Got any sketches?

[tru]

whats wrong with a 12' long car? some added weight, no added sail area, a chance to reduce Cd. and 12' is pretty darn short, a truck is generally over 18'

[drmiller100]

should have clarified - the car will be over 12 feet, but I don't want the wheelbase 12 feet long.

[gone-ot]

...remember, long-thin is better for aerodynamics (lower drag).

[bandit86]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...remember, long-thin is better (lower drag).

That's what she said!

No seriously, get a Ferrari kit car. It's fibreglass so you can cut and mould to reshape aerodynamic problem areas. Put a little diesel inthe back. Kubota has nice little 2&3 cylinder diesels, 10-25 hp eforethey get really big and heavy The 10 hp would run for hours cutting grass on a gallon, very efficient you could find a garden tractor with manual gearbox but they are non syncromesh trannies mate it to a firefly transmission it wil run nice with some tall skinny tires

[drmiller100]

ferrari kit cars pretty much do not exist. We will both probably get a letter from Ferrari's lawyers for even mentioning using a Ferrari kit car - they have a LARGE team of very bored lawyers sitting around sending nasty letters to people like you and me who even think about making Ferrari replicas.

Besides - Lamborghini is a much cooler car. I plan to use a Murcielago nose........
(Grins!!!!!!!!)

[mort]

Hi drmiller,
I wish you the best, this sound really exciting.
I wanted to make a couple obsevations. First a 10 foot wheel base is pretty long, this is necessary for tricycle stability, right?
And have you looked at the links on the Zing post? The Zing is an electric with (opional?) gasoline genset. On the apteraforum Ken Fry makes the point that conventional gasoline generators have really poor efficiency, but he will do better.
To achieve 100 mpg you will still need an efficient engine. I hope you can get a better match for your load than "Honda engines are cheap..."

Good luck, and keep us informed of everything.
-mort

Originally Posted by drmiller100

front of car appear to be 60 inches wide, main cockpit 33 on the inside, and over all height is going to be 44 inches or so, despite my best efforts to make it lower.

Wheelbase will end up at 10 feet or so.