Sir Clive tries again

[highlandsflyer]

Well the Carver is impractical, with a footprint way larger than the space created internally. Nice toy though.

For the brief of designing the most practical small car you want a box with wheels on each corner, and a large interior space.

Anything less than 100mpg is pretty lousy really.

Close but no cigar for the McLaren as currently specced. I don't see it as revolutionary, more evolutionary. I guess they are talking about the construction, etc. though so maybe I am missing the point. If you have space for two abreast in the back, there is no reason at all you can't make it a four seater.

Incidentally, there is currently no way to make such a small car safe in high speed impact scenarios. External air bags would be a possibility but there really is no substitute for crumple zones.

Interesting area though.

 

[KeepItSteel]

Citroen C1
small, economical, reasonable space all round, cheap.

The problem with most 'concept' vehicles is very simple, they look daft. In a society where looks are all important, 95% of people wouldnt be seen dead using them.

Of the remaining 4%, half of them ride bikes, half of them are skint. All 4% are tree hugging inclined.

 

[MikeD]

Did you know 40% of a normal vehicles power is taken up just overcoming the aerodynamic drag

No, because it's not true It will be some of the time, for some vehicles, but drag is in proportional to the square of speed - go twice as fast, drag increases four times. Maximum power output tends to be constant, so the proportion of it used to overcome drag varies considerably

 

[JohnH]

Okay fellas, does this float your boat?

The Zerotracer is electric!

Moving pictures here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZgAs8H_b04

 

[silverclaws]

I suppose the only way to ease congestion or rule it out altogether and there rid x amount of pollution caused by congestion is to either build bigger roads, or price people off the roads, the latter I suspect is already in motion.

Force people onto expensive and inflexible public transport which depending where it is is viable or not thus forcing people to think of other transport option, pedal cycle or motorised cycle and there increasing the likelihood of death and injury on the roads because this country really has not geared up for human powered vehicles and there are currently no cycles that protect the cyclist from larger traffic, cycle lanes in some parts of the country are just laughable.

So where Clive Sinclairs new design is going to fit is open to question, cycle lanes where they exist or the road.

 

[David B]

I don't know how you're supposed to look over your shoulder to see what's behind you. There aren't any mirrors on it....

I just noticed that too. I'm sure it will have some before its released (although Sinclair will probably charge extra for them).

Be interesting to see if they sell well this time round.

The old one still looks more modern though:

The C5 looks more solidly built, too. That new effort looks as though it wouldn't survive a run-in with a particularly bad cough....

David

 

[JohnH]

...a design that offers a passenger/ load seat behind the driver, the tandem design and with tandem, a much narrower track and less space taken up on the road. What to power these vehicles with, well a lighter more aerodynamic structure requires less power, so electric is a possibility as is a hybrid engine, fuel/electric, but of a much smaller and enviromentally sound design.

...

Did you know 40% of a normal vehicles power is taken up just overcoming the aerodynamic drag, cars are in effect pushing an envelope of air in front of them, that tome is a complete waste socars have not really improved that much over the last century or so of transport. Time to think differently.

I was going to start another thread to show everybody these cars, but I remembered that Silverclaws had talked about cars with tandem seats, so it seemed appropriate to add them here...

The Commuter Cars Tango: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_Cars_Tango

The Lumeneo SMERA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumeneo

The Volkswagen L1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car

 

[uktyler]

Cars with tandem seats, old hat.
One for Al: