can anyone help?

[holdens]

hey guys
i have an assignment for school and i was hoping if you would be able to help me out. basically we are designing and developing a concept car aimed at the younger drivers for the year 2010. every aspect from the design to the electricals interior etc.
i was hopeing if anyone could help me, i have searched google and still dont have a great variety of products. does anyone no of breakthrough advancements in braking, wheels, engines, materials etc...
if anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.
shane

[Matra et Alpine]

How inventive are they allowing you to be ?

As a 'concept car' then it would be legitimate to project possibilities rather than pracicalities - anyone remember those nuclear powered flying cars of the fifties ????

With room temp super-conductors the engines and batteries woudl be tiny. The ability to recover energy durign brakign woudl IN THEORY produce a near zero total energy machine. Any energy put into the vehicle to speed it up coudl be recovered frmo teh kinetic energy. So it woudl only be friction losses on the wheels and aero losses and an drivetrain at near 100% efficient.

LOTS Of scope for then doing shapes to match PEOPLE and NEED. Rather than any concept where an engien is the size of current vehicles.

BUT, you'd get ripped apart if they want it to be a practical concept :)
Check out the Peugeot and the Honda annual design competitions for some ideas.

[fpv_gtho]

What subject is it for, something like Design and Technology?

Any breakthroughs, your just gunna have to keep researching it seems, but other things to make it appealing you could make a few surveys or polls etc.

I'd be tempted to try an idea with a hydrogen engine and how they could get energy from water and continually reuse it though, that might get you some browny points.

[holdens]

it is for automotives, a subject offered by my school... the car is meant to be practical but also imaginative, it is to be packed with features that are only just being discovered. such as the "tweel" wheel but i did find this rather interesting http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/science/031215wheel.html

[Matra et Alpine]

it is for automotives, a subject offered by my school... the car is meant to be practical but also imaginative, it is to be packed with features that are only just being discovered. such as the "tweel" wheel but i did find this rather interesting http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/science/031215wheel.html
yeah but with current technologies the unsprung weight is HUGE.
So it will jsut abotu be OK in a bus, but on a car woudl be a nightmare :)
Hence, IF you're allowed to "speculate" then a super-conductor version could be 1,000 the size :) and avoid the unsprugn weigth problem.
OR jsut ignore the weight affectign handling issue - OK as long as they dont dig too deep into your design

[Sauc3]

Along those lines, perhaps this could be of some help?

http://www.japanesecarfans.com/news.cfm/newsid/2050824.001

[kennyknoxville]

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/1631

hemi power yo

[holdens]

hahah nice... thanks sauc3, and kenny knoxville im sure i can fit that somewhere in the back ;)
thanks for the help guys