The affordable, 100mpg, carbon-composite passenger car (Free Market is Way Ahead of Gore)

Gizmag.com ^ | 07/17/08 | Staff

[Dr. Sivana]

Looks like four wheels to me.

My mistake, I read the post instead of the article, and somehow the word three-wheeled made its way into the description of the car.

[Dr. Sivana]

No thanks. Plywood might be safer.

Very cool car, is it faster than Barney Rubble's?

[MediaMole]

On the other hand, the carbon fiber chassis in F1 and Indy cars are amazingly strong and safe. They are able to absorb a head-on 150mph impact into a wall without allowing intrusion into the passenger compartment while still keeping G loadings in a survivable range.

Racing bike frames give away all margins for error in the quest for light weight. A little too much torque in an unexpected direction can tear apart the frame.

How will it work in a street car? It will all depend on the design and the budget.

[SuziQ]

*snort* Mellow Yellow!

[DemonDeac]

Is that more of a function of the weight or the aerodynamics?

[Gorzaloon]

And yet Formula 1 and Indy Cars are made out of carbon fiber and allow the driver to survive a 200 mph crash into a concrete wall.

I think it's all in the design. My worry is that a carbon fiber car won't be repairable. One crash and your car is totaled.

I have worked with carbon-carbon composites and they truly are amazing. A little piece of thin-walled tubing exactly the size of one of those cardboard cores used in toilet paper rolls cannot be broken by someone jumping up and down on them yet they weigh nearly nothing.

But carbon/resin is a different story, and there have been delaminations in aircraft, as well as the bicycle failures.

A race car is not really made with a strict budget. But let's look at the Big Three Accountants' goals that begin with "If we can save a nickel on a million cars, we will gain $50,000."

I think we all know where that leads! It leads to places like my wife's injection molded plastic radiator fan that just blew up, taking an $800 radiator with it. (Jaguar)

Examples abound, like Ford's injection molded front end parts used in my Taurus. Plastic control arms!

Now let's extend this to what would happen when the bean counters got ahold of a carbon/resin product! They'd probably use Elmer's Glue-All™ if they could get away with it and get it off the showroom floor before it rained!

Then there is the Enviro-squealing. Making carbon fibre not only requires a lot of energy, it also producse nasty pyrolysis products and can involve nasty chemicals.

So this company's "News"/Press release is probably not going to appear in anyone's driveway.

They might be better off using the sawdust/phenolic horror that the Trabant used! (ROFL)

[catfish1957]

Well if does pan out, you know algore will take credit. What a man..... invented the internet and a 100 mpg car.

[listenhillary]

The lack of weight.