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chaparral
chaparral GRM+ Memberand Dork
9/15/20 10:00 a.m.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

10 lbs/hp is a little bit less than a C5 Corvette. They had upper and lower control arms up front with a manual rack and pinion steering system, and a swingarm in the rear. 

GIRTHQUAKE
GIRTHQUAKE Dork
9/15/20 10:04 a.m.
mainlandboy said:
GIRTHQUAKE said:

You're also only driving the rear wheel- great for responsiveness, but Elio would have had to either make their own transmission or heavily modify a different one to remove the differential, adding to the costs.

 

Pretty sure that they had transverse engines in the front powering the front wheels only.

Huh. Says a lot when I didn't know that for years.

Man, I hope I can snag a Corbin Sparrow soon. The club is nothing but EV hoons and people who wanted a weird daily.

ProDarwin
ProDarwin UltimaDork
9/15/20 10:10 a.m.
chaparral said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

10 lbs/hp is a little bit less than a C5 Corvette. They had upper and lower control arms up front with a manual rack and pinion steering system, and a swingarm in the rear. 

Do you really want that level of power in something that's hamstrung by having only 3 wheels?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXCq-EuHXHE

Duke
Duke MegaDork
9/15/20 10:14 a.m.
chaparral said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

10 lbs/hp is a little bit less than a C5 Corvette. They had upper and lower control arms up front with a manual rack and pinion steering system, and a swingarm in the rear. 

10 lbs / hp is right about where the Manic Miata sits.

 

NickD
NickD UltimaDork
9/15/20 10:30 a.m.

Nope. This thing was never even remotely on my radar for vehicles that I desired, or would work for me. For starters, I can't imagine that tiny, low-slung little thing was ever going to go anywhere in Central New York winter. sure, my used 2010 Yaris gets half the mileage, but it was also half the cost, seats twice the amount of people and is from a large, reputable manufacturer.

tuna55
tuna55 MegaDork
9/15/20 10:55 a.m.

No.

 

They were designing for a person who buys cars with a spreadsheet and has the life cost per mile calculated. That guy (and there are not many of them anyway) is going to buy a used Prius, even if resale isn't considered, which it absolutely is.

 

Then gas prices fell anyway.

GIRTHQUAKE
GIRTHQUAKE Dork
9/15/20 12:20 p.m.
Duke said:
chaparral said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

10 lbs/hp is a little bit less than a C5 Corvette. They had upper and lower control arms up front with a manual rack and pinion steering system, and a swingarm in the rear. 

10 lbs / hp is right about where the Manic Miata sits.

That's actually an even harder sell. Sure, enthusiasts like us will snap that up if it's fun, but average meat n potatoes America? They don't want a car that feels like they aren't in control of it. Even the Corvette's were reigned in from the factory suspension-wise so basic drivers knew when they were pushing it too hard.

Driven5
Driven5 UltraDork
9/15/20 2:37 p.m.
ProDarwin said:
chaparral said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

10 lbs/hp is a little bit less than a C5 Corvette. They had upper and lower control arms up front with a manual rack and pinion steering system, and a swingarm in the rear. 

Do you really want that level of power in something that's hamstrung by having only 3 wheels?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXCq-EuHXHE

The physics of the Slingshot design is vastly different than the Elio design...And not for the better.

While certainly on the high side of what I would expect even with a bit of sporty DNA injection, being FWD and with the mass (crucially including the driver) all being centrally located within the balance triangle, 10 lb/hp doesn't seem particularly outrageous to me. In such a light car, driver weight and drivetrain losses also have a considerably larger effect on this. Accounting for those, the real world power to weight would be within the range of other (stock) sporty FWD cars currently available. Faster than a Civic Si but slower than a Civic Type R. So as long as tire grip is kept in check (not too high) I wouldn't expect it to necessarily be much more ill tempered either.

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