Race Car Technology for the Road

January 15, 2006 – Vol.10 No.43

RACE CAR TECHNOLOGY FOR THE ROAD.

Racing cars, such as Formula One (F1) cars, are surprisingly safe. Though accidents are relatively frequent drivers typically walk away from crashes at well over 100 miles per hour. True, helmets help, as do fireproof suits, full body safety harnesses,and special fuel tanks, but the cars are tough even though they’re 1300 pounds light. Drivers stay safe and snug in a crash box mandated by F1 racing rules.

Of course F1 cars have very low fuel economy, a couple of miles per gallon at best by some reports. An 850-horsepower engine doesn’t help.

But what if the better attributes of F1 cars were designed into a street car - light weight, a crash box and aerodynamics - and worst one tossed aside - the big engine - couldn’t an extremely fuel efficient personal transport vehicle be built? How economical would an F1 car be with a 4-cylinder Honda Civic engine?

Accelerated Composites of Carlsbad, California thinks there’s a market for a safe, lightweight and aerodynamically slippery two-passenger hybrid vehicle that would sell for under $20,000 and get 330 miles per gallon. (That’s what they say.)

While there’s no doubt there would be a market for such a vehicle at that price, we’ll have to see if the mileage claims based, it seems, on math and physics calculations, come true in the real world. The company claims it has a prototype called Aptera under construction.

Specifications for Aptera include a 12-horsepower diesel engine working with a 25-horsepower electric motor. Regenerative braking would be available with energy storage via ultracapacitor. (They say super capacitor.) Performance, again by the numbers, would be much like a Honda Insight.

Automotive history shows that small upstarts rarely make it - the cost of developing cars is extremely high, gearing up for production worse. Still, with global warming and the growing insecurity of oil supplies, maybe the entire automotive industry needs a shakeup and should consider concepts such as Aptera. Visit Accelerated Composites at http://www.acceleratedcomposites.com/ .