Delta Wing Street Car

[Thenorm]

Originally Posted by xntrx

and a lot of the Jalopnik poster commented the same.
but the delta wing is actually quite stable. It has a massive rear weight bias, so the center of gravity is pretty much just in front of the rear tires.
THat was the whole premise of the thing. Only put as much track width and tire as the weight required.

wheras the robin had most of the weight above that single wheel

[Superfuelgero]

Originally Posted by Thenorm

and a lot of the Jalopnik poster commented the same.
but the delta wing is actually quite stable. It has a massive rear weight bias, so the center of gravity is pretty much just in front of the rear tires.
THat was the whole premise of the thing. Only put as much track width and tire as the weight required.

wheras the robin had most of the weight above that single wheel

Wheelie machine then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIUMOgq2F3s#t=189

[godscountry]

were all fooled into thinking ,ultra efficient vehicles are all concept vehicles and way too expensive to produce.Sure if the body is hand laid carbon fiber,it would be pretty costly to produce,but there are plenty of other materials that work just fine.I bet VW's 120 thousand dollar ? XL1 could be produced tommorrow using standard production methods,off the shelve engines,transmissions and still get 100 plus mpg,2 liter per 100Km.and cost no more than any other car to produce.

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by Thenorm

Jalopnik: If You Want 70 MPG, Your Next Car May Have To Look Like This



"The DeltaWing idea is based on four ideas: reduced weight, increased powertrain efficiency, decreased energy consumption, and improved aerodynamics. They say the street car will do all of these things, and their current targets are zero to 60 mph in six seconds, a 130 mph top speed, and up to 70 miles per gallon with a small four-cylinder engine with somewhere between 85 and 110 horsepower."

The Aerocivic beats those specs except for the 0 to 60 mph time and is safer in a front end crash.

[P-hack]

lol, loved that reliant video. Generally I don't like TGs small car bashing, but it was pretty obvious what a fale the reliant is in the handling department.

I'm fairly convinced that any forward trike arrangement is a bad idea, it is the worst of both worlds. two wheels handles fine (and much better aero potential), as does four. Bought any new 3-wheel ATVs lately?

Three just keeps you from leaning properly without enough leverage to keep you upright, and forces you to radically alter the weight distribution for mediocre handling. Reverse trikes are "ok", but even then you have to widen the track and/or lower the cg, and you will still slide the rear end a lot (oversteer) to keep your momentum up around the corners, not an efficiency "win", plus frontal area is increased with the offset tire.

Building one in your garage is one thing, put a vw and a goldwing in the garage, dim the lights, light the lavender candles and throw on some Barry White and see what happens. But production is going to be limited to "expensive toy".

[Thenorm]

Originally Posted by P-hack

lol, loved that reliant video. Generally I don't like TGs small car bashing, but it was pretty obvious what a fale the reliant is in the handling department.

I'm fairly convinced that any forward trike arrangement is a bad idea, it is the worst of both worlds. two wheels handles fine (and much better aero potential), as does four. Bought any new 3-wheel ATVs lately?

Three just keeps you from leaning properly without enough leverage to keep you upright, and forces you to radically alter the weight distribution for mediocre handling. Reverse trikes are "ok", but even then you have to widen the track and/or lower the cg, and you will still slide the rear end a lot (oversteer) to keep your momentum up around the corners, not an efficiency "win", plus frontal area is increased with the offset tire.

Building one in your garage is one thing, put a vw and a goldwing in the garage, dim the lights, light the lavender candles and throw on some Barry White and see what happens. But production is going to be limited to "expensive toy".

a 3 wheel atv would be fine if it was stretched out and wasnt so tall, and the COG wasnt so close to the front wheel.

[P-hack]

well there is the "utility" aspect of it too, that stretched out portion has to be light, and the front wheel becomes even less load bearing on such an arm. I admittedly don't quite have my finger on it, but my insight is telling me it is off. That cool-factor hype is overruling a proper analysis of the physics involved. Like if you made essentially the same mods to a 4 wheeler it would be just as efficient if not more so, and even more stable and practical. I think basjoos is on to something, if you have to extend anything, extend the tail.

It's fine as a dragster though.

[Frank Lee]

Proper trikes are extremely stable and nimble. Improper trikes are, of course, tippy. Same with quads.

[P-hack]

but how do you do apples to apples? I mean look how wide the actual delta wing is, that width is frontal area aero penalty, and low height can just as easily be applied to a 4 wheeler, with more equal tire loading. Would a 4 wheeler be narrower for the same tip-over force?

[P-hack]

I was going to add that it would predictably handle worse while braking and cornering, but don't ever try a pitt maneuver on one either:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW7qaG9K2_c

Also a lot of interwebbers seem confused as to what "frontal area" means, that somehow moving the area as seen from the front towards the rear of the car makes it not count...