Teenager Builds Electric Car - $0.02 a mile to operate!

[Logic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9d3wAjdknA

Is Mark King on this forum?
Is he even welcome here if he's not sticking cardboard to a std car..?

[freebeard]

Is he even welcome here if he's not sticking cardboard to a std car..?

He started with a link pin front end, so yes. But he'd get mocked for not sourcing 4" rims and 135s.

[redpoint5]

Way better steering than the one I built at age 17 in high school, but we used beefed up bicycle wheels and sprockets instead of those heavy wheels/tires. Top speed was likely 55 MPH, but the traction was too poor on the 1/4 mile oval track to get above 43 MPH.

[freebeard]

Electrathon racing? His is closer to the Fiberfab Scarab.

The Scarab STM was manufactured by Fiberfab, a company founded by Warren "Bud" Goodwin. The "STM" in the name stands for "Sport Transport Module".[2] The vehicle is a reverse trike design utilizing VW Beetle front suspension married to a rear motorcycle running gear.[1] The Scarab STM is among the rarest of Fiberfab's models, with reports that only six were ever produced.

https://www.ottw.es/ottw/img/3ruedas...ARAB%20(2).JPG

That chassis is trivially reproducible*. A brazed round tube frame and an aluminum buggy front axle beam running 135s would be appropriate for it's weight class.

*IIRC Fiberfab suggested the (potentially electric) motorcycle could be reverted for summer time use, and become enclosed when the weather turns.

[freebeard]

Right now I'm imagining two of those midget motrcycles ganged together for two-wheel-drive front steering. Mechanical Ackermann or torque vectoring in the throttle?

[Logic]

I used to imagine an enclosed motorbike, balancing rock solid at a red light, in a hurricane, without a computer in sight. A steam reformation fed series hybrid without any expensive batteries.
But I'm sick of imagining.

I also imagined that something as easy and simple to try as BA lubrication, that saves fuel, oil and engines would be a big hit on a economy site and tested in old engines.
Look where that got me.

Now I imagine the absolute bliss of ignorance, stupidity and zero pictures forming in my bloody head.

[freebeard]

Look where that got me.

I think you should persuade Xist. He has a lot of ICE vehicles. it would seem.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Electrathon racing? His is closer to the Fiberfab Scarab.

You've exposed a weakness of AI; that it's ignorant of anything that wasn't recently posted on the internet.

It was sponsored by PGE and very similar to Electrathon.


The frame is still in my parent's barn


Shop teacher kept the steering wheel for 22 years, then gave it to me for my 40th birthday


We didn't understand aerodynamics back then, and the internet was useless. Probably should have spent an afternoon at the library on the subject.

The axle bolts were just screwed into the steering knuckle, and we didn't even think to reverse thread the left side (wheel came off in the Linn Benton Community College race).

[freebeard]

You've exposed a weakness of AI; that it's ignorant of anything that wasn't recently posted on the internet.

Not really, I was guessing. I watched Electrathon racers at two tracks in the 1990s.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Not really, I was guessing. I watched Electrathon racers at two tracks in the 1990s.

I should have said you prompted me to expose a limitation of AI. It's telling me there is no evidence of the PGE program.

The program was terminated after the 2000 season due to liability. You can see the frame is bent in the barn photo from when we were hit and spun out into the infield where it struck a real car (owner thought it was safe in the infield).

One gal wrecked in every single race, once rolling the vehicle and breaking her arm as she reached out (instead of holding the steering wheel and allowing the roll cage to do it's job).

I destroyed clothing by haphazardly handling sulfuric acid I stole from the science supplies.

The kid with the arm brace had his finger nearly completely severed because he thought checking chain tension on the inside track of the chain while the motor is running was a good idea.

During high speed testing on the running track, a kid crossed and was struck, sending him heels over head. Don't know how he didn't have broken bones as there was only the aluminum frame to cushion the impact.