Quartet

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In the previous entry here I talked about the idea of using disappearing doors on an upcoming design. Well, I've had a few days to think about it, and sort of know what it will look like...

As my first flat-panel design was named after Dave Brubeck (since I was listening to his music at the time), and the Time Further Out is named after one of his albums, I looked to him again for inspiration in naming this latest design. The title of this post began as "the car with no name", and I thought it might stay like that as I reviewed the titles of his songs and albums...

...but I kept seeing the word 'quartet' -- and this car seats four, so there you go.

The Tellurian Quartet

Unlike most grand tourers (GTs), the Quartet is a true four-seater, not a 2+2. It has all-wheel-drive, thanks to electric motors front and rear. Click here and scroll down for an idea of where the power will come from -- on all Tellurian Motors vehicles.

I'm still not sold on designing it as a convertible, but we'll see. There could be a 2-seat roadster version (with flip-down hardtop), possibly called the Duo, but that almost cuts into the territory already occupied by the Brubeck...

Almost. Okay, I guess I can see the Brubeck remaining rear-drive only, and hardtop only, while the 'Duo' (for lack of a better name) will be larger and more luxurious...

The 'Duo' and Quartet will appear as fraternal twins, looking more like one another than anything else in the Tellurian Motors family and sharing more than a few components.

No, once again, I don't have any images to share (yet). However...



However I do plan to develop the Tellurian Motors website (yes it exists), the URL of which I won't bother to list for now, since there is next to no content at the moment. For one, developing the site will help make Tellurian Motors more real, assisting me with immersion into the fictional world of my novel, Virtual Dreamer. For another? I need to develop at least one website as an example of my ability to do so, for a chance to become a professional webmaster.

This needs to happen by the end of the quarter, so it shouldn't be long before you see a post here announcing the official launch of the site -- and, images of vehicle concepts will be important for that, so I'll be putting pencil to paper and paper to scanner more often.


Once again you may be asking if Tellurian Motors is purely fictional, or merely a fantasy. So far, yes, it's little more than a dream. Yes it will be included in the novel, along with Harmonic Conversions and Parkersburg Robot, which are other ventures I'd like to pursue in reality. I'm including my daydreams in the novel, and I must say they fell into it so easily, fit so perfectly, that it seems everything I've been imagining has led up to the writing of Virtual Dreamer. Perhaps sales will enable me to actually begin to build vehicles of my own design...

TELLURIAN MOTORS
vehicles for Planet Earth and beyond

Phil Smith
January 24, 2009

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Disappearing Doors?

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Maybe.

Now listen: I said maybe.


Some of you will remember station wagons from the late Sixties and early-to-mid- Seventies with tailgates that disappeared behind the bumper, under the back of the car. Don't ask me why no one thought to do the same with passenger doors at the time... Maybe they did, but were shot down for various reasons, I don't know...

One consideration is the safety issue. If the electrical system fails, how will you get out? Okay, well, Tellurian Motors does NOT want to be responsible for anyone getting trapped in one of our vehicles, so I have (just now) thought of a solution: Forward of each door will be a crank, mounted flush to the outer wall of the footwell, with a fold-out handle. If you have your foot over that far, there'll be something spinning against it when your door is going up or down (so watch that it doesn't scuff your shoe). The mechanism will only work on the door itself, though, as the window is operated separately (but in concert with the door in normal operation). In such an emergency you will have to clamber out over the window, trying not to break it, but at least you will be able to exit.


Now you're asking which Tellurian Motors vehicle(s) might get these doors -- and that's a good question.

It becomes a packaging issue, since there has to be a cavity between the floor and bellypan large enough to accept the doors. This results in less headroom, so it's a tradeoff...

Had thought of redesigning the Time Further Out, but that's out.

No, but I'm leaving a slot open for a luxury coupe, a 'grand touring' (GT), yet to be designed. It may well resemble the TFO, and some customers may want to have one of each.

Added stiffness in the chassis (due to the double floor) is the element that convinces me this model should have a convertible variant -- or, maybe that this new model should be offered only as a (hardtop) convertible. Hmmm...


Stay tuned while I mull over the design, of a convertible GT with extra-long doors. Should it have a Targa top or be a true convertible? I'm thinking, full drop-top. I'm also thinking it will be more expensive than a TFO, and only the Electrum and EXOVAN (and built-to-spec limos) will cost more.

Actually each vehicle will be built to spec...

Okay, enough about this.



Phil Smith
My 42nd birthday, 2009

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The Big, Fast Limo

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For a VERY long time now, and thanks in part to a certain amount of influence from the works of Syd Mead, I've sketched various versions of a purpose-built limousine -- and by that I mean a vehicle designed to be a limousine, as opposed to a stretched-out sedan.

The layout involves a cockpit forward of the front wheels, a passenger compartment with benches facing one another in the middle, and (back when I conceived the vehicle type) an engine between the rear wheels -- basically an updated stagecoach arrangement...

To be clear, and to remind you, I don't sketch very much anymore.  I just checked, and it doesn't look like I've scanned any of my old pencilwork involving this vehicle type -- and I don't feel like opening the Pandora's box of all those old sketches just now.  Sorry, but this means that once again I don't have an image to share.

An interesting thing has happened in recent years:  Wheel manufacturers have been making them bigger and bigger -- not as big (yet) as what I used to put on my high-speed limos, but getting close.  This has made me consider designing something meant to take something as 'small' as a 36" rim -- but with the envelope being pushed as far as it is, I could probably ask a tire manufacturer to supply rubber to fit a 48" rim (4 feet) or even a set measuring 60" (5 feet).  Believe me, I used to draw them bigger than that...

Excessive?  Absolutely -- but there are buyers for vehicles costing millions (of dollars, Euros, pounds, whatever).  There's a market, and there's potential for profit.  It's just that no one has offered this type of vehicle yet.  With recent advancements in electric vehicle technology, owners won't even have to feel guilty about fuel consumption.

Just imagine, if you will, such a machine.  The lines are that of a sports car, but it's much, much larger.  You and your friends arrive in style, more than anyone has before.  It looks like it would do 200mph between LA and Vegas -- and maybe it could.

Please hire a competent chauffeur.

Phil Smith

December 19, 2008

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Big Three Bailouts?

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What's in it for US?

I have questions.  Do you?

The 'Big Three' US automotive manufacturers, in order of viability Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, are asking for a government bailout.

Really?

We -- or, 'we' -- already bailed out several financial institutions.  That was a big deal and very controversial, and now as 'we' slide further into a recession this other shit comes up, much more relevant to someone like ME, a lifelong automotive enthusiast who would like to one day build and sell vehicles of my own design.

Automotive manufacturers are failing, and asking for governmental grants.

To me this is bullshit.  As for the bailouts of other corporations, yeah that's bullshit too -- but it's done and over with already.  Plus, that whole deal is/was beyond my ken.  I don't like math, don't comprehend why anyone thinks credit is a good idea, and the entire phenomenon of the stock market, to me, is an anomaly.  These are people who make money by moving money around, and somehow they failed at it, and somehow it's vitally important to the economy that they don't suffer for their failure -- and you've lost me.

On the other hand we have corporations that produce a tangible product, and are failing.  Okay, that means you're done -- and your corporation is done unless someone else wants to buy it and turn it around, different management, same name.  I understand many Chinese investors would be interested.  Court them, sell, take your money and retire somewhere.  No?

The automotive landscape is littered with failed companies, many of which have been resurrected over and over through buyouts (especially in England, for some reason).  Should it matter how large a corporation is, when it fails?  Shouldn't those involved simply take their licks and move on?

Those at General Motors wanted to buy Chrysler, when Chrysler appeared to be in serious trouble.  What the GM people apparently realized was that they were in trouble too...  I guess there was a slew of conference calls leading to the Big Three's march on Washington...  Buddy, can you spare a dime?

Again I say BULLSHIT.  Are these people capitalists, or socialists?  Maybe they switch back and forth depending upon their situations...

The United States of America is SUPPOSED to be a democratic republic -- yeah and I suppose a certain amount of socialism has crept in, not that socialism in and of itself is necessarily a bad thing, but if we are a democratic socialist republic we should know about it...

...and here's the thing:  If we're going to participate in socialism, THE PEOPLE ought to benefit.

It's a simple concept.  If the People's money is used to bail out a corporation, the People ought to gain a percentage of ownership in that corporation.  Please tell me if you think that doesn't make sense.

Money from taxes goes to the government.  Sure, the government decides what to do with it, but if it's invested in corporations, are we not all then shareholders?  Shouldn't we be?

Look, I'm familiar with the argument.  These particular corporations employ a lot of people, and their suppliers employ exponentially more.  If they go down, a lot of people lose their jobs.  But hey, that's capitalism.  If you're leading a large corporation and you're too stupid to not back your shit up, a lot of people suffer -- and it's on your head.  It's your fault for not having enough foresight, and you should know that you have a lot of apologizing to do for people who have lost their jobs -- unless...

...Unless you can arrange to sell your company to someone who can do a better job of managing it.  This is where the Chinese could come in.  They're ready.  They're willing -- and they just might be able.  It shouldn't matter, as long as they have the money (which they do).  This is business.

But no, they have to fly into D.C. on their private jets and whine.  Boo fucking hoo.

I personally don't give a shit if Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler all go down the tubes.  I don't even give a shit about their employees, who thanks to their union make ridiculous salaries for jobs that don't require that much skill.

That's right, motherfuckers, I once worked in a cardboard box factory for minimum wage.  If anything on an automotive production line is significantly more complicated and requires THAT much more skill, to legitimize those wages...  Point is, automotive workers are overpaid, and that's part of the corporations' problem.

Don't get me started about unions.  On some levels, they are quite useful in getting their workers a fair wage (and benefits, and working conditions) -- but some go too far.

Right now I'm cringing at the idea that, in trying to get my cars built, I'll come up against a union telling me how much my workers ought to earn, and what they can and cannot be expected to do, and so on and so forth.  I've never had employees, but it seems to me they can decide for themselves what they are willing to do for a specific wage.  After all, we live in a completely different age from the one in which unions were initiated.

I have digressed, and gone off on a rant.

Maybe letters to Congress can make a difference -- I don't know -- but seriously the People deserve something in return if their tax money goes to corporations.  A friend of mine said:

"I think every US taxpayer (including the working poor who may or may not file but still sure as hell pay taxes)

should be given the choice of $10,000 in cash, stock options or a new efficient subcompact car.

"I am absolutely serious. Financial crisis solved, auto industry saved, environment helped, millions of new jobs created (as so many people would take the car)...  Hell, think how many people would take the money and use it for education..."

Ask me, the automotive industry in the United States of America has been a dinosaur for decades.  It's continually playing catch-up with imports, with mostly dismal results.  This is a result of complacency.  Apparently there exists a passel of executives who are extremely out-of-touch with the reality of the business of peddling merchandise.  They have failed to provide customers with what they want, with enough of a profit...

The whole point of this post is to suggest that, if our government is to throw money at these corporations, this being taxpayer money -- the taxpayers ought to, if not have a say in it, at least get a percentage.  What's that?  My money is being given to GM?  Do I get some stock?

Seriously.

Phil Smith

December 4, 2008

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Runabout

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15 months ago I outlined a small vehicle concept that has been very much on my mind over the past couple of days.  No, sorry, I still don't have an image of the Tellurian Runabout to share -- but I do have this shot of a Polaris Ranger (cropped from a screenshot of the Polaris website):

I'd like to use those rims, and the image gives you a rough idea of how small this vehicle is to be.  Just imagine a trapezoidal frame -- of square steel tubing -- extending out past the wheels, and mirror-tinted windows filling in the spaces...

The Runabout has no body to speak of -- it's all greenhouse and exoframe above the wheels and black bedliner-coated 'tub'...  William Towns' Microdot will help you visualize...

Speaking of visualization, I've perhaps been concentrating on this concept (which I see as the logical first Tellurian Motors offering) because I recently watched The Secret.  I see myself with sudden money, able to afford to convert my '81 Cressida to electric while I order a Westfield XI kit (to build as an EV), pay off previous debts, find some suitable real estate, and get to building the first Tellurian Motors vehicle -- a Runabout.

TELLURIAN MOTORS

vehicles for Planet Earth and beyond

The Runabout makes sense as a first because of its relative simplicity -- not to mention its otherworldly, even post-apocalyptic appearance.  It should make a splash and make people ask what's next.  Plus, well, it is to be an electric vehicle that meets a lot of drivers' daily demands -- traversing less than 100 miles in a day alone or with one passenger, with little cargo, at speeds which do not exceed 25 miles per hour (making it registerable as a Low Speed Vehicle, or 'LSV').

The way I imagine it, it could certainly exceed 25, and an owner could enter a 'cheat' into its central processor to disable the limiter -- or simply select an 'off-road' mode...

And, hey, it would be attractive to some buyers as simply an electric UTV...

You know what?  I really don't care how marketable the Tellurian Runabout -- or any of my other concepts -- may be.  I just want to create, and as a lifelong automotive enthusiast and amateur automotive designer I see a niche for every vehicle I conceptualize.  Much more than that, I'd just like to be able to drive the things I dream up.  Automotive design, to me, is the ultimate in 'performance art'.

Deal with it.

Phil Smith

December 2, 2008

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Electric Lotus Land

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A few months ago I may have seemed to have been drooling like a teen over the Tesla Roadster.  Yes, it's impressive, and no doubt it has inspired many.  For that matter, I'd still like to have one -- but I'd rather have an Aptera, if I had to choose...

The Tesla Roadster is about as close to an electric Lotus as you can get, considering the level of involvement Lotus had in its development -- and that Lotus indeed builds most of each Roadster in England, then ships the 'gliders' to California for final assembly.  It was also, more or less, the newest Lotus and the first entirely new Lotus (with the exception of a few specialty models) since the Elise was introduced in 1996...

...but this year Lotus has unveiled the Evora.  Much as I may have wanted an Elise, the Evora is much more 'civilized' and quite lovely (except for its taillights, which could and would be modified, just as those on the TR would be, if I owned one -- don't ask me why Lotus can't seem to design nice taillights these days)...  I'll take one in Isotope Green, please, with a Paprika interior...

HOWEVER.

I can't see myself spending that much on a new car.  The old saying, "They don't build 'em like they used to," still rings true.  As far as I'm concerned there have been very few decent automotive designs put into production since, let's say, the mid-Seventies.  This is from a purely aesthetic standpoint, of course, and being surrounded by late-model vehicles every day tends to soften that opinion, but I stand by it.

Blame the government.  Beginning in 1974, all new passenger cars sold in the United States of America were required to have bumpers that could withstand a 5mph impact with 'no' damage.  Near as I can tell, this (and horsepower-sapping smog regulations) made all the talented American designers give up.  I figure some of them found other creative outlets, while others found drugs and alcohol.  They certainly don't seem to be around to teach the latest generation.

Vehicles simply shouldn't be designed to crash.  You should look at your car and be able to appreciate the art of it.  When considerably more time has been spent making sure it meets safety regulations than goes into making it beautiful, something is wrong.  Of course things have changed, and we can have beauty and safety wrapped up in the same package -- theoretically.

In practice, it hardly ever works out.  Many a gorgeous concept has been transformed into a mediocre production vehicle.  The classics are classics not just because they're of a certain vintage;  They are of superior design, aesthetically.

SO.

So if I had the money to throw at a new car, I'd rather buy an old one and convert it to electric.  Even better, I'd like to build one of my own design (and yes, that's what this blog is supposed to be about).

Okay, but if I'm gonna do that, let's take a few well-thought-out steps toward that goal.  First, yes, convert an existing car to electric.  I already have a candidate languishing out on the street...  Rather than jumping from that straight into an original build, though, let's take an intermediate step and assemble a component car.

The Westfield XI is a reproduction of the Lotus Eleven, a Frank Costin design and one of the most beautiful things, in my humble opinion, to ever hit road or track.

You will no doubt have your own opinion.  There are a number of other kits I could go with -- and maybe I would, after this one.

Anyway, in a nutshell, an electric Westfield XI is my idea of an electric Lotus.  One could be built at a fraction of the price of a Tesla Roadster...

Phil Smith

November 24, 2008

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Adaptation

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Technology keeps marching along, and the atmosphere for 'alternative' technology keeps getting better.

I could have been designing my vehicles, all along, with 'free' energy in mind. I knew it was there, knew it was real -- but also knew that people weren't ready for it.

I talked about the latest in battery technology, then switched over to that very promising development -- ultracapacitors -- after seeing evidence of them as being tangible. Through all this I knew that, eventually, there would be devices that would produce electricity more or less out of thin air. Only small amounts of electricity, if any, would need to be stored.

Any electric vehicle could be upgraded to take advantage of these developments, and that's one reason I swung up onto the electric bandwagon.

A couple of guys in Australia have managed to come up with a viable, reliable, and mass-producible 'over-unity' system. It's a magnetic motor pressed into service as a generator. It works. Give it a kick-start and it will power your house. No, seriously. Buy one of these and you won't need to be on the power grid (though you may still want to, so you can sell the excess to your local utility).

People have been tinkering with this idea for years, but it has been met with skepticism from two fronts. Not only is it a 'perpetual motion machine', it is also an 'overunity device' -- so, to conventional thinking, it's doubly impossible.

You just can't do that. No, no. NO.

Any sense in arguing? Just prove them wrong.


Eventually there will be more elegant (solid-state) devices that output electricity with little or no input, but what we have NOW, after all these years of suppression, is the magnetic motor/generator -- let's call it MMG for short -- and it will do nicely.

The good news is that we no longer need to worry about storing X amount of electricity onboard a vehicle. No large and heavy battery packs, no massive banks of ultracapacitors -- and range is now unlimited. The bad news? Quite frankly I don't see any for Tellurian Motors, except that we will have to wait in line with the rest of the world to acquire these devices -- which is preferable to having to negotiate with Zenn for the rights to use the ultracapacitors made by EeStor (see previous posts).

The emergence of the MMG may spell bad news for many, but no, certainly not for Tellurian Motors -- and it is unequivocally good news for Tellurians (AKA Earth Humans).


As the sole designer for Tellurian Motors, I will be taking on the task of adapting our range of vehicles to carry MMGs. Since each model exists mostly in my head, this is easy as pie. I could design them to accommodate smaller, lighter (solid-state) systems, but I like them to reflect the technologies that are or will soon be available -- tangibly futuristic, if you will.

One thing about powering a vehicle with 'free' energy is that you really don't have to worry about aerodynamics, unless you want to go faster than anyone should think of going on public roads. Use all the energy you want -- or at least, all your systems can handle. Efficiency is still important, but we won't need to bang our heads together trying to make our vehicles slip through the air like so many flightless birds. Weight's not an issue, either. Both curb weight and aerodynamics will continue to be important for performance, of course...

What will emerge (again) as the most important aspect of vehicles, in my estimation, is STYLE. Sure, being stylish can mean using recycled and/or organic materials... Do aluminum and leather count? In any case, I think the public will find themselves ready for my angular designs.


The future, as I've said, is electric, and that becomes more and more evident as new technology is developed. We will adapt, and our world will be transformed.




Phil Smith
July 29, 2008


Update: I've noticed a scrolling message on the Lutec site that reads, "Product release date postponed indefinitely due to possible Transfer of Technology negotiations". Not sure what the means, except that we now have no idea when the LEA will become available... Argh.

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