> On Oct 27, 2017, at 7:10 PM, Lawrence Rhodes via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > > I got an idea from an old VW ad. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vATQaJmUdh8Just how much can you cut from the > skin and chassis use lighter wheels and springs and still have some safety. > For instance if you hacked up a VW van and put a Leaf Drive train or even > smaller like a Chevy Spark or Smart drive train. Reinforced with carbon > fiber. Do some aero mods. I bet you could get the shell of a VW Bus from > the 90's down to under 1500 pounds. Our little friend the VW bug was chopped > rather severely but at a lighter weight it doesn't have to be so strong. > Just thinking out loud on how to make a viable solar vehicle without breaking > the bank. The shell of the vehicle would be your guide. You could easily > chop the top. So many places carbon fiber could be used to fill in the > chopped parts and strengthen the vehicle. Lawrence Rhodes
I think in the case of an old VW bug (and even more so a VW bus), your worse enemy is drag. My 1969 VW is pretty light, but gets pretty terrible watt/hours per mile (280-300…on average, 250 if you are careful and avoid hills). My Model S can get below 300 pretty easily, and that car is as heavy as a tank. Aerodynamics and drag are the key factors here, so instead of concentrating on weight you’d have to concentrate on aero, and have some wind tunnel time to make it However, I do know that some P100D/L Model S’s dropped 0.1-0.2 seconds off times by simply removing the interior bits…so weight does mean something. I wonder if a 50kwhr MS pack could deliver the same amount of energy to such a car? If so, the drop in weight would make it a monstrosity on the drag strip. corbin _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
