(unofficial) Ideas Thread. Pitch those concepts here!

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by ecofreak

What if you pull a low-HP VW diesel from a Thing or Beetle...

The Beetles and Things were all gassers. There were a few (very few!) diesel VW flat-fours made and installed in Beetles, but the NVH and lack of power were deemed unacceptable. This for a car that started out at <20 HP, and may have made 40HP at the time!

Lots of Beetle-based kit cars out there. I can't think of any that are aerodynamically that good.

-soD

[ecofreak]

Here's a wild idea: a bicycle with a 450-tooth chainring and 18-tooth sprocket setup. once you get it going...

Patrick: Yep, it's true. Some joke bikes had incredibly large chainrings, and I've heard of a few people who put 110+-tooth monsters as a sort of anti-granny gear.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by ecofreak

Here's a wild idea: a bicycle with a 450-tooth chainring and 18-tooth sprocket setup. once you get it going...

I think they've done that for world land speed records.

[ecofreak]

Would cutting weight on engine blocks and the engine as well as numerous deletes allow you to increase the weight of the flywheel? Would a rear engine, or mid engined vehicle get better MPG when FWD, or RWD? What is the best drivetrain setup?

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by ecofreak

Would cutting weight on engine blocks and the engine as well as numerous deletes allow you to increase the weight of the flywheel? Would a rear engine, or mid engined vehicle get better MPG when FWD, or RWD? What is the best drivetrain setup?

Why do you want to increase flywheel weight?

[ecofreak]

Originally Posted by Patrick

Why do you want to increase flywheel weight?

Coasting inertia.. also, the RPM would be lower, so the gas consumption increase to work the flywheel would be negligible. But I'm no expert here.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by ecofreak

Coasting inertia.. also, the RPM would be lower, so the gas consumption increase to work the flywheel would be negligible. But I'm no expert here.

Well conventional wisdom is that you want to reduce weight as much as possible because you have to accelerate it, and that takes power. Flywheels have the weight that they do to make the engine run smoothly.

[Arragonis]

Something I have been musing about for a while.

The idea would be to make a tunnel suitable for testing models - I think full sized cars may be tricky. It would work based on a fish tank or similar tunnel of glass or clear plastic. At one end would be a fan, one of those area coolling ones you can get from power tool shops. The air would be ducted through the clear tunnel.

The floor of the tunnel would be raised a little and would have a small slot in it lengthways. Sticking up through this slot would be a thin but stiff piece of metal onto which the models would be attached so that they were just (perhaps a couple of mm) above the floor. Supporting the thin piece of metal would be a trolley or something on wheels which would be connected to some kitchen scales.

The idea is that when the air blows through, the resistance of the model being tested would push the trolley through the slot and move away from the wind. The amount of resistance could be calculated by measuring how much 'weight' was registered on the scales.

By the power of MSPaint:



Obviously completely barking mad.

[tumnasgt]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Something I have been musing about for a while.

The idea would be to make a tunnel suitable for testing models - I think full sized cars may be tricky. It would work based on a fish tank or similar tunnel of glass or clear plastic. At one end would be a fan, one of those area coolling ones you can get from power tool shops. The air would be ducted through the clear tunnel.

The floor of the tunnel would be raised a little and would have a small slot in it lengthways. Sticking up through this slot would be a thin but stiff piece of metal onto which the models would be attached so that they were just (perhaps a couple of mm) above the floor. Supporting the thin piece of metal would be a trolley or something on wheels which would be connected to some kitchen scales.

The idea is that when the air blows through, the resistance of the model being tested would push the trolley through the slot and move away from the wind. The amount of resistance could be calculated by measuring how much 'weight' was registered on the scales.

By the power of MSPaint:



Obviously completely barking mad.

That's an amazingly cool idea, I think I'm going to have to build one during my midterm break. The hardest bit will be finding a scale model of a 98 camry, they're hardly the kind of car that collectors consider exciting.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Obviously completely barking mad.

In this design, gravity is perpendicular to the force executed on your model, and you'd need to compensate for the associated drag.

Tilt the set-up 90° so the test subject hangs vertically from a scale.
That way, you'll eliminate gravity as a disturbing factor and you'll measure both forces (gravity and drag) in a linear system with only one variable.
Far easier ...