Ultra mileage vehicle design

[sheepdog 44]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

The stock original Insight has a Cd of 0.25 and the frontal area is 20.0 sq ft, so the CdA is 5.0 sq ft.

If you do a full aero drag treatment (bellypan, boattail, mirror delete, front wheel skirts, smooth flat wheels, grill block) and drop the Cd to 0.17, then the CdA would be 3.4 sq ft - which is a 32% improvement!

To do the same thing by deleting the roof etc., you would have to reduce the 20 sq ft frontal area down to 13.6 sq ft - which is very hard to do. The HUGE assumption is that the Cd would remain 0.25 - and I don't think it would. Doing this would completely rejigger the air flow.

What good is a car that doesn't have a roof?

I meant to say then redesign the roof, glass and bodywork around the minimal frontal area.

As you said, "drop the Cd to 0.17, then the CdA would be 3.4 sq ft - which is a 32% improvement." There's no way to reasonably improve beyond a 0.17cd on a conventional car. But, if you half the frontal area (if that is at all physically possible) by removing all interior space (econoboxing the heck out of it) and retain the 0.17cd streamlining your CdA is now 1.7 sq ft which is a (64%) improvement???

It makes you see the potential of motorcycles!

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by sheepdog 44

Also 200mpg on gas is unrealistic and comes at too high a sacrifice, unless you alter the (very poor) hybrid component of the vehicle.

There, someone said it. If you do get to your goal you won't have an Insight anymore

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

What good is a car that doesn't have a roof?

Nothing's off the table, right? How about ∞mpg, but you can only do it once a week?

[redpoint5]

I'm surprised to see so many responses to this ridiculous thread. Nobody is going to get 200mpg from a modified Insight. Furthermore, the OP has only 1 post and isn't interacting with anyone on the forum.

If you want to go 200mpg on petrol, you had better start from scratch, or the top of a very tall mountain.

[NeilBlanchard]

The original Insight has an important thing most cars do not: the rear wheel track is narrower than the front. The AeroCivic has a Cd of about 0.17 and I'll bet that 3-Wheeler's Insight with full bellypan and boattail is darn close to that - it only lacks rear wheel strakes and front wheel skirts.

Both the Illuminati Motor Works 'Seven' and Dave Cloud's Dolphin get over 200MPGe in cars. As has been said, an electric drivetrain will be the only reasonable way to do this.

[freebeard]

I'm surprised to see so many responses to this ridiculous thread. Nobody is going to get 200mpg from a modified Insight. Furthermore, the OP has only 1 post and isn't interacting with anyone on the forum.

I was only getting started. The fringes is where you find the weird stuff.

As has been said, an electric drivetrain will be the only reasonable way to do this.

'It's been said...' I'm going to go all contrarian:

VW Handling & Suspension Tuning

Narrowing Factory IRS Control Arms | Airkewld

https://www.google.com/search?q=narrow+VW+rear+axles

[niky]

Oh God... no... not the 100+++ mpg carbs!

You'd think that at least one of those would have showed up at a proper testing venue like X-Prize or the Shell EcoMarathons by now...

-

200 mpg. Is that with pedal assist or all motor?

[freebeard]

That's only the tip of the iceberg:


Tesla’s Electric Car

[wmjinman]

Damn that J. P. Morgan!!! Damn him!!!

[aerohead]

My opinion is that you should do a body in white,clean sheet build,based on VW's 1st-gen 1-liter car and skip the Insight altogether.
Since VW was getting 237 mpg,it wouldn't be a bad starting/ending point.
Just rob a bank 'cause you won't be leaving your shop for a few thousand hours.Minimum!

[niky]

The Insight body is a really good starting point, I'd think. While it's entirely possible to build a 200 mpg car... high school kids do it every year for the Shell Eco-Marathons... well... 10,000 mpg... you probably can't do it at 55 mph.

Originally Posted by freebeard

That's only the tip of the iceberg:


Tesla’s Electric Car

Oh Lord... the part in the comments where they start talking about death rays!