This site is dedicated to the construction of a prototype car.

     I began in 2001 with a high level of naivety and idealism. I believed, and still do, that anything is possible if you have the determination to make it right. It seems the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know and how complex the design process can be. My inspiration came from the great works of Porsche and Ferrari, such as the 917 and 333SP

 My First Concept 

 

  I wanted to build a full fledged, four wheeled, road legal, race car. My design was low sleek and had a look that would spark my interest. I had become obsessed with it and its completion. Unfortunately I had little knowledge of  how cars worked. To My dismay, the Department of motor vehicles would not accept my design for use on public roads, according to the stack of paper work they provided. This could have been the end. 

     One day while riding a snowmobile I realized that the skis could be replaced by wheels and a rear wheel could be powered by a small lightweight engine. It could operate as a car but be legally classified as a trike; and trikes have few regulations imposed by DMV. So the concept of a car modeled after a snowmobile was born. I saved the front of my car design and tapered the back end to fit around one large rear tire. 

     After a year of reading books and CAD designing I began to build the body work for my trike. I wanted to emulate the bold and fluid lines of the best race cars in existence. My design revolved around the car’s out side appearance. It was more of an artistic outlet to build a automotive sculpture, rather than a functional body for a chassis. 

DO NOT DESIGN AND BUILD THE BODY FIRST !!! 

     I was in denial if the phrase “Form follows function”. At the time I believed that form was everything, and that function would fall into place when it needed to. I ended up with a dilemma. How do I make it all fit inside this shape; most of it was only knee high. When designing the body, care was not taken to limit the size of the vehicle. It was 80 inched wide and 15 feet long. With hind sight, it was clearly too big to remain within its weight limit of 900 lbs.

       Once the shape of the body (also know as a plug or buck) was complete, I pressed on to build a chassis to fill this “sculpture”. The chassis was made from 1.5 inch 4130 chromoly steel tubing from aircraft spruce. At $550, it was pricy for me, but at the time, price was no object. Only the best materials could be used. This type of steel is quite strong and difficult to machine. I developed a way, utilizing Autodesk inventor software to plasma cut the tubes with precision. After careful planning, the chassis tubes were cut from the 20 foot lengths with only a handful of waste to show for at the end. The tubes fit together just as they should have; like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. In only two weeks, the chassis was TIG welded together. This success was a great confidence booster.

      Even though the chassis was built, I was still trying to design in a way to attach the suspension, and everything else for that mater. Quickly, it became apparent, that without the internal components in hand, building the chassis was an impulsive mistake. In between work, and school, a year slipped by without a simple solution to my lack of planning. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed in my self. Decisions made years earlier, were coming back to bite me. During this time, I was learning more about race car design. My participation in a college club called the mini-baja team was invaluable. In this club, a group of engineering students design, build, and race their own baja car against hundreds of schools through out the country.  A new and more complete vision of my trike had been growing in my daydreams. If only I could start over from scratch…

Time to make this work

June 2006

      School is out and a new summer is here. For a week I paced; contemplating the future of this project. How could I abandon thousands of $$$$ and thousands of hours of my toile? I realized, I’m not abandoning anything. This experience has prepared me for the next step along the way. I’m sure more mistakes will be made, hopefully new ones, and not repeated ones. Instead of using exotic materials like carbon fiber, Kevlar, or super strong steel, I will use 1020 mild steel. And instead of focusing on car’s exterior shape, I will design a simple light-weight and strong chassis with mounting brackets well thought out ahead of time. A body can be wrapped around this chassis at a later time.

     For years I have worked in secret; hording my design as if it were revolutionary. My biggest fear was to see my design copied and driven before my own. I've come to realize that I am not making money from this project and that its primary goal is to gain hands on experience for employment in the R&D field.  My grandfather once said, “If you never have had a good idea stolen from you, then you probably never had a good Idea.”

 

New chassis and body under development

 

Recently I attended the Formula 1 race in Montréal. I would recommend going to anyone who enjoys racing. Clearly most people are crazy about their automobiles. And formula 1 is the pinnacle of automotive technology. I can only hope that our technological achievements in the future also encourage conservation. When I began my project, I had high hopes of creating a fully electric vehicle. After countless hours of research, I found that the lithium–ion batteries would cost $10,000 plus the cost of motors and other electronics. For now my car will be powered by a 2004 Yamaha R1 gasoline engine.

 

 

 

 

The burning of fossil fuels and the release of CO2 into our atmosphere will change the beautiful and stable environment we all love.  We need to make an effort to innovate our way out of a fossil fuel economy. Our actions have already increased this greenhouse gas to record levels with no end in site. The humans currently alive do not have the right to disrupt the global ecology the way we have. Contact your representative and demand change. As individuals we can do little; change to more efficient appliances and modes of transportation. But real leadership is needed in the United States and around the world to turn this sinking ship back to port. Lets preserve our majestic Earth!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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