Beating the system, stickin' it to the man.
"we need a commuter vehicle that's safe, gets high mileage, that's comfortable and fun to drive."
Even by '90s standards, I'm not sure that he ticked more than one of those boxes, but you have to respect someone who had an automotive vision and made it happen.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:That should be a Lemons racecar.
That was my first thought, too, though the cage might be tricky.
My brother sent me this link; he lives up near this guy. It's also near RPI, so my first thought was this was some student's project back in the Teal Nineties.
I mean, it makes sense. Add lightness, reduce frontal area, improve cD. I do wonder about the left-right weight balance. And the craftsmanship is at least one notch above your typical backyard hack job. I mean, the wheel covers even match the rest of the car!
one of the founders of ecomodders (i think) had a good piece on this and an interview with the builder(?), way back in the day:
https://www.metrompg.com/posts/xfi-aero-car.htm
edit to add "wayback machine" link to original page on the car (original link of which was in the above link):
http://web.archive.org/web/20180523223016/http://www.dougheffron.com/car.html
I would think that a cage would be relatively straight forward to build . Top fuel dragster cage ought to fit right in there
I'd kind of like to see this continue to exist as a hypermiler, but I can't help but see all that former passenger-side luggage space into which beefy powertrain parts could be packed
GameboyRMH said:I'd kind of like to see this continue to exist as a hypermiler, but I can't help but see all that former passenger-side luggage space into which beefy powertrain parts could be packed
No, that's where the mega fuel cell goes to make the first zero-fuel-stops Cannonball run car...
GameboyRMH said:I'd kind of like to see this continue to exist as a hypermiler, but I can't help but see all that former passenger-side luggage space into which beefy powertrain parts could be packed
You want to put it on top of a Supermodified! Too bad it's not RHD, that would have made things easier.
I remember seeing that article years ago. At some point you'd have to wonder when it might just be easier to ride a scooter. Sadly all the ones that I'd ride are less efficient, so maybe he was onto something.
All that work and he didn't even close off the bumper. We built one about 10 years ago that got similar fuel economy numbers without all that body work. Closing off the front end with a big dam, lowering it and removing the mirrors all made a big difference. Instead of changing to a taller final drive ( or taller fifth gear that he claims) we put 13's on it and ran up to 50psi on them. We experimented a lot but ended up with a special cam, a bit more compression and a lot of timing advance to get those numbers, and we didn't even start with an xfi.
Forget commuter, that would be a great contractor's vehicle. Stick the ladders/lumber/plumbing on the side and go.
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