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Here's a very interesting read on the At-om mule that was used as the proof of concept car for the new electric Blade.

What's so interesting is that they run the stock At-om back to back with the concept and can talk about the differences, something no one could do with the Delta Wing.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/preview-concept/exclusive-sort-of-driving-the-nissan-bladeglider-concept-16178124

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mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

After reading this article, I can envision a new chassis being developed by somebody on this site. It looks like a new breed of track car. I look forward to seeing that brave pioneer and his/her build log.

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766

Couple of problems,

1/ You need to be a little bit clever to work out the ideal car balance/Center of Mass in the base design, you can get away with a lot more with a normal 4 cornered stance.

2/ People will laff at you.

3/ Car necessarily has to be mid engined to get that CoM.

4/ People will laff at you.

5/ Extra concentration needed in tight mountain roads as to where the rear wheels are and general car placement.

6/ People might laff at you.

Not just mid engined, as in longitudinally mounted, but transverse mounted.

And it appears that going a lighter engine, like a motorcycle engine would make it harder to balance unless you go correspondingly smaller and lighter in the rest of the car.

But you could make a cool looking arrow shaped car if you tried.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

I'm genuinely intrigued by the concept but worry about this aspect of it. It seems to me that some of the "incidents" that the deltawing was involved in one could point to the "odd" layout as being a factor. Perhaps not really an issue on the street but in the tight confines of a race track...



On another note, anyone care to hazard a guess who makes the (probably custom) narrow front wheels as shown in the proof-of-concept?

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-Keith

Didn't Porsche figure out a few decades ago, that a wider rear track and wider rear tires helps a high powered heavily rear weight biased car to corner better? This is pretty much just an extension of that body of knowledge taken to the extreme, and applied to a car that never learned that lesson in the first place. It's neat that it seems to work quite well, and I can see some of the advantages as they're utilizing on a dedicated race car, but a street use version for public consumption makes little sense to me still.

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-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

The original Deltawing concept...

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-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

The on track episodes of the Delta Wing appear to be an issue of 1) it's very light weight, which was a design goal for increased efficiency and 2) it was painted black and wasn't as visible to other drivers as it needed to be.

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

They're just standard three piece wheels with narrow inner and outer shell halves. As a wild guess that wheel center looks, to me, like a Keizer.

Thanks. I'll check 'em out. I'm curious what is out there for narrow tires like these in a 15".

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-Keith

The Smart Fortwo runs 155/60-15 front and 175/55-15 rear, so either of those would be an option.

I'm wondering if the fronts have to be that skinny?

They used an all weather Conti on the At-om and it seemed to work well.

Would you be penalized in handling if you went bigger or stickier?

_________________
mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Lol, I was just on Tire Rack looking at just that! Great minds....

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-Keith