Schmo Better Blues

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[This blog post has been, for some reason, difficult for me to finish. I suppose I feel the topic is one that should be covered responsibly, so that readers will be informed and inspired, rather than the opposite... As Dad once said to me about a circuit model he had built and was attempting to explain, "This is important..."]

After seeing the video, I wondered if I should attempt to perform a much more defiant conversion on my 1981 Cressida...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2czE_HNWl3Q

Never mind the first ~39 seconds. [I don't want to get into the politics of global warming in this space, but considering the subject matter, I can't help it.] There is much geographical evidence to show that warming is a periodic thing. This is supported by recent astronomical observations of increased solar activity and a warming of Mars similar to what we are experiencing on Earth. We certainly aren't helping matters with all our pollution, but there probably isn't anything we can do to slow down or stop global warming.

We just have to ride it out.

Global warming is indeed an inconvenient truth -- I haven't seen the film yet (partly because I suspect it will make me angry, and I don't like to be angry), but it seems to me that global warming is a convenient starting point for an awful lot of misdirection.

"Money makes the world go 'round." Don't doubt it. Money brings power. People with power want to keep it. Fuel prices keep going up and up, then down again until we think we're getting a bargain. Oh yeah -- then they go up again, and on and on, ad infinitum.

It's nice that Elon Musk, a man with quite a bit of money and therefore a certain amount of power, has decided to found and fund Tesla Motors and slowly bring awesome electric cars into the marketplace. It's great that battery technology keeps advancing, making electric vehicles more and more practical and desirable and inspiring me to start designing again.

What's not so nice is that any invention that potentially threatens to upset the apple cart gets suppressed -- often with 'extreme prejudice'. This is not 'conspiracy theory', but an observable conspiracy in action.

http://www.thejoecell.com/

If you visit the history page at the link above, you will only get a hint as to how long the device has been around. It is said that devices similar to the Joe Cell were fitted to tanks in WWII, to increase their range. Tanks from which country, no mention... The origins of this technology appear to date back to a full century before I was born.


So anyway, back to the video. Until I saw it, I'll admit, I knew almost nothing about the Joe Cell, and certainly had no clue as to how it works. I'm still a bit confused, but the video opened my eyes. It shows, once and for all, that we need no longer rely on petroleum for fuel.

JUST ADD WATER, MAKES ITS OWN SAUCE

[Okay, that's inaccurate...] It would take only a few months of development by a qualified team for the Joe Cell to be commercially available in kit form (detailed instructions included), for any Joe Schmo with a certain amount of mechanical ability to fit to a gasoline-burning vehicle, which would never consume ordinary fuel again...

...That is, until the fuel generated by Joe Cells is considered 'ordinary'.

And, it WILL be. Automotive enthusiasts, fear not. With a simple conversion, you will be able to run your internal combustion engines in perpetuity, as long as you are able to maintain them, for close to nothing. You have a diesel? No worries, that will be worked out as well.

All we have to do is get past the power elite, who depend upon us paying through the nose for fuel. This becomes a much smaller hurdle day by day, as the power of our connectivity increases. Elsewhere I've predicted that YouTube will help the revolution more than anything else. Well, the internet in general is fueling the revolution...

...and other formerly suppressed technology is certain to be revealed. Joe Schmo will one day have no energy bills at all. Power lines will be taken down and recycled. Batteries? Only for smaller devices -- but then eventually, none at all.

Proliferation of Joe Cell technology will be a very good thing, but we must remember that electric vehicles are still more reliable and require much less maintenance. Perhaps the best application will be in something resembling a fuel cell, if that is even possible. Its greatest potential may instead be as a fuel source for "bladeless" turbine generators...

THE ICEMAN GOETH

In any case I see Joe Cell conversions for existing ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles as a stopgap measure. ICE may never die, and as a lifelong automotive enthusiast I'd hate to see every single vehicle converted to full electric. However I can see a day when only the most hard-core, purist enthusiasts insist on using gasoline, decades (even centuries) after manufacturers have stopped producing piston engines.

We do have a rich automotive culture on this planet, which should be preserved. I don't want to live in a universe where the 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring, as one example, is nothing but a distant memory...

Automotive designers are almost required to be futurists, and some of us might take it a bit too far at times -- but it's become very critical for our species to consider the future. No planet can sustain the kind of population growth we're perpetrating. We need for our technological progress to continue unfettered, meaning we need to get out from under the massive thumb of Big Oil. Only then will we be able to develop the transportation required for off-planet emigration...




Phil Smith
August 2-13, 2007

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Flat-Panel Design

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There have been quite a few vehicles, over the decades, with very straight lines and panels that were nearly flat. One in particular comes to mind (this is the later, smoothed-down version):

1989 Aston Martin Lagonda

The house of Bertone did a lot of wedgy things in the Seventies and into the Eighties, as did former Bertone employee Giorgio Guigaro (original Golf/Rabbit, Scirocco etc), but these designs are by William Towns.

1976 Microdot concept

Behind the Microdot is the Hustler, the only vehicle I know of with purely rectangular wheel openings, and one I wasn't aware of, years ago, when I was messing around in MS Paint and accidentally came up with something that would forever change my design ethos...



The three-diamond wheels you see above? At the time I was hoping to come up with a presentation for a Mitsubishi design contest, so I incorporated their logo. After the deadline whooshed by, I continued to develop the Brubeck...





...and eventually came up with the "Tenfold" wheels shown here, in this crude representation. Each spoke and slot occupies the exact same amount of space. It's a simple yet carefully considered wheel design, entirely appropriate for mounting on a simple yet carefully considered flat-panel vehicle.

WHY FLAT PANELS?

The straight lines on the first Brubeck MS Paint sketch weren't meant to last. I was merely trying to overcome the blank page syndrome (akin to writer's block) by creating a simple image. It was to be something to work from -- or perhaps it was merely an exercise. That contest was over five years ago, so I can't quite recall... Anyway, I was so quickly overcome by the potential of the design that it immediately became my main focus. I was listening to some vintage Dave Brubeck vinyl at the time...

Before long I realized that, beyond being different, flat-panel bodies would be very easy to construct in comparison with what we're used to seeing. Back in the day, curved metal panels were pounded out over a wooden buck. Mass production brought enormous dies that stamp sheets of metal into shape. Fiberglass, carbon fiber, and other composite body panels require a mold. However for flat panels all you need is a pressbrake -- and a welder, if you have more complex shapes such as the Brubeck's endcaps (bumpers).

Then for the windows, readily-available flat glass can be cut to shape -- no need to find existing windshields and backlights to modify, or to have custom pieces made.

There you have it. To build flat-panel bodies, you need fewer tools and no tooling. Add a welded square-tube steel spaceframe for a chassis, and the biggest piece of model-specific equipment you'll have lying around will be your frame jig.

Suddenly, the dream of building a car of my own design was in exponentially closer reach. Still very much a dream, mind you, but one much easier to attain.




Here is an early version of BRUTRUCK, a concept I've recently revisited and refined. The new version, which is based on the EXOVAN platform, might be called BRUTRUCK Model G... Not ready to show sketches yet.

The Brubeck sports car is conceived as a farewell to internal combustion, with its pair of propane-burning Kawasaki Ninja ZX14 engines and rear-wheel-drive -- however an electric version is inevitable. An electric Brubeck will obviously lack one significant feature -- the in-your-face quad exhaust, to be replaced with round taillights -- but there is no reason for body modifications, other than a slight adjustment to the rear cap, closing the vertical gap (instead of a wrapover rear light cluster, there will be a simple horizontal bar for the third brake light).


There is another flat-panel concept I've been toying with over the past few years, that only recently has begun to look right in my mind's eye. Sure to be compared to the Aston Martin Lagonda, the Time Further Out -- yes, named after a Dave Brubeck album -- is an electric luxury touring sedan suitable for chauffeured red-carpet arrivals, something that valets will choose to park out front...


A very recent addition to the conceptual Tellurian Motors stable is the Salt Flats Runabout, which happens to be very similar to William Towns' Microdot, shown at the top of this page -- but then again, it is very different. For one, of course it will use no molded panels. Two, it will not have anything people would normally call a 'body'. Suspended within an exposed metal frame will be sheets of mirrored glass, and battery boxes will hang below the beltlines on the sides. The glass doors, very much like those on the Microdot, will swing up gullwing-style but will have a full trapezoidal profile and small round access ports.

These ports will be very useful. The benefits of the powerful air conditioning unit (running off its own motor) would quickly go to waste each time one of those doors is opened. If you want to talk to someone, or hand off or receive a small item, open a port. A removable, flip-up panel -- call it a moonroof if you like -- in combination with these ports will provide some ventilation at lower temperatures...

/ |_\

--o-o

The one-off Salt Flats Runabout is intended purely for one location, the Bonneville Salt Flats, and various events held there every year. While it has dimensions similar to those of the Microdot, its roof will be a few inches lower, and its sloping sides will allow for only 2 occupants, not 3. Those 2 occupants will be able to navigate around pit areas in cool comfort, shielded from the sun (and prying eyes) while still being able to enjoy the surrounding vista. Battery life will be measured in hours, not miles...

Yes, it could be made available for futuristic music videos and movies, should such a demand arise...


Any questions?


Phil Smith
July 31, 2007

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Electric Dreams

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A short article in Autoweek, mentioning Volkswagen's plans to sell Chinese-built cars in North America, includes this photo of Santanas on the assembly line:

The Santana is a continuation of the second-generation Passat. It is the seventh generation that VW wants to build in China and sell here. Still, seeing brand-new Santanas got my wheels turning.

BOXY, BUT GOOD

One of the reasons I'm so fond of my 1981 Toyota Cressida is its crisp styling. In the Eighties, cars gradually began to turn into jelly beans. They're becoming more distinctive, but the days of simple, clean, functional lines seem to be long gone.

What a pleasant surprise, to find that Shanghai Volkswagen is currently producing this nice boxy 'throwback'...

The business opportunity here is obvious. In car-hungry China, the tooling for older models is put to good use, producing lower-cost alternatives. Just imagine -- a deal could be struck to import these freshly-manufactured 'old' cars (minus their engines, fuel tanks etc) to an assembly facility, where they could be completed as electric vehicles.

Would you pay $25,000? Sure, an electric Santana might not do great in crash testing, but you'd never have to purchase fuel for it, and it would be a lot simpler and less expensive to maintain than any internal combustion vehicle.

Santana: I'm Winning

There are rumours of older Subarus (yes, the boxy ones) being produced in China as well, and that's something I'll have to look into.

By the way? The second-generation Passat, in three-door hatch form, was sold here as the Quantum. Ring any bells?

For whatever reason, the Santana didn't sell all that well here in the United States. Chances are that many new-car buyers wouldn't recognize it, especially without VW badging and those huge US-market bumpers. It would be new, and different.

Could this be the production version of the Tellurian Motors Defiant? Would Volkswagen be interested in selling electric cars in China -- and elsewhere?



Phil Smith
July 24, 2007

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Highway Voltage

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Was doing a little online research this evening and eventually found a surprising number of photos and specifications of electric vehicles, the majority of which are conversions: EV PHOTO ALBUM

Some of these owners have the right idea -- converting interesting older cars into full-electric vehicles. Of course, any electric conversion is interesting, and arguably the right idea. Questions: Would you rather be driving an old Geo Metro, or a well-restored Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia? What kind of impact will your conversion make with the public? If the only thing 'cool' about your electric vehicle is that it's electric, is that cool enough?

While some of these conversions cost surprisingly little, those are the ones with a low-tech approach. They have short ranges and mediocre performance. Still, they are a viable alternative for trips around town -- exactly the kind of driving that most motorists do most frequently. I know I rarely get our family car above 45 MPH, and rarely drive more than 30 miles a day...

I also know that my driving habits would change drastically if I had an electric vehicle. I'd be cruising around for the fun of it, like I used to do in my Pinto when gasoline cost around a dollar a gallon. Guess what that means? I'll want as long a range as I can get, and I'll want better performance than my Cressida gave before its conversion.

The good news, I found, is that my Defiant conversion is possible without having to pry the components away from Tesla Motors -- and it won't cost as much as I thought. It still won't be cheap, but it beats paying for refurbishments and performance upgrades on its original-equipment gasoline engine.



Okay, now let's imagine a Tellurian Motors dealership, with the Harmonic Conversions shop in back. Out on the lot are former project vehicles, ones that their owners gave up on after being faced with the difficulties of restoring or replacing their original gasoline engines. Others are well-kept examples whose engines weren't doing so well. Each will have been chosen carefully. Not just any car, truck, van, or whatever will qualify. My 'quantum' mechanics will be kept busy enough with customer conversions, after all...

What's that you say? The lot is empty? You're probably right. If it's full, maybe there's a gathering of the local electric car club, all converging around the latest offering in the showroom.

That latest offering may be a Tellurian Motors original, not a conversion...



Phil Smith
July 19, 2007

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The Defiant

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I have in my possession a 1981 Toyota Cressida -- a non-running 1981 Toyota Cressida. I call it the Defiant, after a ship in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It has a fuel clog and a faulty starter. Just as I'm a designer and not an engineer, I'm much more of a driver than a mechanic...





I'd work on it myself, but I have no garage -- and for that matter no driveway. I could do it in the back yard if I could get someone to push me in it down the street and up the alley. I even have a pair of ramps...

But despite it being a low priority and outside our budget, is there a point to reviving another internal combustion engine? This Cressida may now be technically a 'classic', but it's no more than a footnote in automotive history. Few appreciate its angular design as much as I do, and almost no one (statistically speaking) remembers it as the somewhat luxurious sports sedan it was.

As much as I'd like to restore it to its former glory, as an automotive designer I have the urge to customize. Thing is, about all I'd do to the body is shave the drip rails from above the doors, since they're rusting away anyhow -- I appreciate its design that much.

What I do not appreciate is the effort it would take to get its inline six-cylinder engine back into good working order. Never mind an engine swap or performance upgrades. Internal combustion engines are very messy, especially when their seals break down. Also, they require periodic infusions of lubricating oil, and in this case, untold amounts of gasoline for fuel (not that I would feel better about it if it took diesel).

I had previously considered converting it to run on natural gas / propane (propane is basically refined natural gas), which would be an improvement. There are systems available that would allow home-fueling, and fairly simple plumbing would allow for use of exchangeable propane tanks of the type used for barbecue grills. So equipped, my Cressida would qualify as a low-emissions vehicle...

By the way? I finally got a chance to watch Who Killed the Electric Car? the other night...

...and it finally dawned on me, that the best thing I could do with my old Cressida would be to convert it to an electric vehicle.

Now is the time to suspend disbelief, because what I'm about to lay out is the stuff of dreams.

What if I could acquire all the necessary components from Tesla Motors for this conversion? All the bits that make their Roadster so fabulous, aside from the body and chassis, would transform my old Toyota (acquired from a friend in exchange for a six-pack of Guinness) into a technological wonder.

I've done the math, and those components would add about 1000 pounds -- but remember, the unspecified weight of the existing driveline and fuel tank (much heavier when full) would be removed. I estimate the converted Cressida's weight to end up at around 3000 lbs -- more than the Roadster but likely less than the avoirdupois of Tesla Motors' upcoming sedan, codenamed White Star.

Challenge: Will a White Star be able to match the performance of a converted '81 Toyota sedan? Hey, probably not -- but then Tesla Motors will have to conform with modern safety standards...


If somehow the money came together for this project, and if I were then able to get Tesla Motors to supply the components, the obvious next step beyond Defiant is EXOVAN. Actually, the Defiant then becomes an important phase in the realization of EXOVAN, whether Tesla Motors decides to take on the project or merely agrees to supply components. Will it be the Tesla EXOVAN, or the Tellurian EXOVAN?


For the Defiant, there is no question -- it will be a product of Tellurian Motors. Now I have to work on an image of the hood ornament that just popped into my head...




Phil Smith
June 12, 2007


Postscript:

One of the reasons major automotive corporations have been reluctant (to say the least) to produce electric vehicles is that they require far less maintenance. An electric car will cause you less trouble over the years, costing just a fraction of the maintenance expenses an ICE (internal combustion engine) car will run up. There is much profit to be made from parts & service, not to mention oil & filters. Plus, since they're easier to maintain, electric vehicles don't need to be replaced as often.

Example: The failure of a simple relay in our 1995 Neon (bought new) disabled its cooling fan, and I had no idea anything was wrong until it was too late. It overheated and blew the head gasket, creating conditions where oil and water DO mix -- the radiator was filled with a pudding-like sludge. By this time the Neon was several years old, and what with things being packed so tightly under the hood, repair costs (mostly labour, in dissembling and reassembling systems just to get to the head) would've been more than the car was worth. It was sold for parts. Sad. We loved that car.

Though the high-tech components of today's (relatively) long-range electrics are quite expensive, if they were used to convert an older vehicle the resulting cost might be on par with that of a new ICE economy car.




Realizing this, we gain a new appreciation for the name 'Defiant'. In defiance of the automotive giants, a large number of small conversion shops could spring up, allowing owners of older vehicles to transform them into incredibly efficient and reliable transportation.

If I had such a shop, I would call it 'Harmonic Conversions' and have my mechanics wear coveralls with the word QUANTUM embroidered on the backs...


Phil Smith
June 13, 2007

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Sketchiness, Volume Two

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Despite concerns, here they are... (all clickable for larger versions, as always)


This first represents early conceptualization of EXOVAN:




Originally, EXOVAN was intended to have a vaguely egg-shaped exoframe over a flat-panelled body (as in the quick frame sketches above, done early this year). I don't mean to bitch, but the curves were next to impossible to execute with Alibre Design's trial 3D CAD. Okay, fine. A non-curved exoframe would be easier to construct anyway...

Then of course my evaluation period expired, ending my first foray into 3D CAD. If I can extend my evaluation at no charge, I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Nor have I actively searched for another program to use, or managed to get a Linux distro running on this machine so I can find open-source CAD to work with. Among other things, spoon-carving has been keeping me busy...

Today however I grabbed my clipboard and began to re-hone my pencil skills -- I will admit to being rusty. Here's a rough one:




Crude, but here EXOVAN comes to life in a way it can't in CAD without hours and hours of work. There was another sketch on that page, but it's all cattywampus and generally ill (and not in a good way), so I did a crop...

Now to the next (below). The window treatment was not intended to appear 3D -- it just worked out that way. Maybe a version of that could work...





...but then, driver visibility issues arise, as well as problems getting the windows to open far enough.

Being positive about the sketch, it's good to see EXOVAN with conventional wheels (plus they're much easier to draw than Mattracks). The major reason Mattracks aren't more popular (besides the price) is that they can't handle sustained speeds above 40mph. I suspect that many buyers would not choose the Mattracks option -- and that most of those who would, would rather run their EXOVANs on wheels for 'regular' use. With this in mind, I can see that I ought to always render EXOVAN with a trailer hitch -- if for no other reason, so that owners can tow their Mattracks along for fitment at remote locales.

You see that I've done a 'Dutch' door treatment on the rear of this one, a glass hatch above dual swing-out doors. Maybe that's best, maybe it's not. There are many ways to execute that opening, but 'Dutch' doors are a good compromise and will probably be a good solution for the demonstration prototype. Also, rubber bumperettes...

OK now here we go, another sucky sketch:

Here you can plainly see solar panels incorporated into the roof, and side windows that slide sideways. This certainly isn't the most flattering render of EXOVAN, but the sketch is an important development step. Cooling and exhaust vents have been revised, along with forward lighting. A side marker light / turn signal has cropped up at the forward edge of the front-side window, plus we have front license plate mounting and more rubber bumperettes.

As with other flat-panel concepts I've worked with, I find that freehand sketches are a tough way to try and capture something like EXOVAN. I promise, with practice, I'll do better...



Phil Smith
June 11, 2007

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Sketchiness, Volume One

Looking back, I guess you could say it was a dark time in my life. Nothing seemed to be going my way, and my favourite concept to draw was the hearse variant of the car shown in this scan:

It was 20 years ago, summer of 1987. I had dropped out of college and signed up for the Army, too young to know that when my girlfriend said, "Maybe we should just be friends for a while..." that it meant she was done being my girlfriend (I had taken the suggestion literally, hoping for a return to intimacy). I was just a kid, and a troubled one at that...

At the time I didn't know that the pentacle originally represented the path that the planet Venus traverses in our sky. Drawing pentacles, whether in crumbling concrete or in the centers of crosses, was mere irreverent doodling.

Something that I could not possibly have known was that 2 years later, Mitsubishi would 'steal' my car name. Nor did I realize that Peugeot had used it in the 1930s...

Back in high school, a modified 1975 Lincoln Town Car started showing up in my notebooks. It was no more than a hot rod / pimpmobile, but it kept evolving and growing. Something so big and fabulous, to grab your attention and block out your view of anything else, should naturally be called Eclipse. I began to draw a dark spot in the sky in my sketches, and as you can see, the Eclipse has its own unique hood ornament (it lights up in eerie ways). Before Mitsubishi introduced its little 2+2, I had even decided to name my car company the Eclipse Motor Foundation...

Ah, well. Such is life.

Believe it or not, beyond drawing my Eclipse as a sedan, limousine, and hearse, I also did a coupe and a 'speedster'. It was to have a monstrous 24-cylinder engine so that despite its size, it would go like Hell. Its appearance was at once regal and menacing. It was the ultimate in conspicuous consumption, wretched excess pushed to an aesthetic limit.

Perfect for a rock star's funeral procession.


While in the Army I had plenty of free time, much of which I would spend at the desk in my room, drawing for hours on end. Years later, the demands and conditions of fatherhood curtailed that activity somewhat. Still later, the arrival of a computer in my life upset the apple cart almost completely, and these days I hardly ever reach for a pencil...

...but I've been meaning to. Now that I've been able to work with 3D CAD on the EXOVAN concept, I have a clear vision of what it might look like -- and now that I am no longer able to use that program, scanning a pencil sketch seems the best way to share that vision in this space.


Look for more scans, of sketches old & new, in future posts.



Phil Smith
June 5, 2007


PS

I found my big stack of old sketches, tucked away. This one, from 1990 (pretty sure) I remember liking the unfinished look of -- if I continued, it might not look as good...



...and here's one from late '88 or early '89:


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