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Micro cars designed to get great gas milage have the
downside of having very bad survivability in a crash with a
standard size vehicle, not having any crumple zones to
absorb
the impact. A little scooter size car colliding with a big rig
would end up being scraped off the bumper. With this
design
however even such a mismatch might be survivable in a
collision.
The car is designed to slide under the other full sized
vehicle, picture a limpet with wheels,
strengthened to become a ramp rather than a battering
ram.
The re-enforcement needed to prevent a car from being
crushed as another car rolls over it, while substantial, is
nothing near what you'd need to absorb the impact of a
head
to head collision.
This takes the disadvantage of the car being very small and
turns it into an advantage. Make it as low to the ground as
possible and use masts with flags or other means to make it
visible to taller vehicles, something already done with
recumbent bikes.
This design approach would be better for the large car in
the
collision as well. While it's not great hitting a 3 foot ramp
head on at sixty miles per hour and getting tossed into the
air
of flipping over, it's a heck of a lot better than having 2,000
pounds (about the weight of a Smart Car) plowing into your
passenger compartment at a combined speed of 120 miles
per
hour.
Somewhat the exact opposite
Bumperless_20Ramping_20Vehicles
[FlyingToaster, May 23 2014]
found a mini- wedge car
http://alternative-...ond_bug_ca_1970.jpg
[xandram, May 23 2014]
Limpet-mobile v0.1
http://imgur.com/CDLMjCJ
Prototype mock up [the porpoise, May 23 2014]
A larger version
http://upload.wikim...9/Leonardo_tank.JPG
Just use the top half [TomP, May 24 2014]
[link]
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What if two of these cars collide? |
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Wouldn't it be a bit easier all'round to have the smaller vehicle do the flying-in-the-air bit ? |
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They need pre-emptive air bag crumple zones. Ones
that deploy outside of the car just before the impact
occurs. |
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Put one underneath the car, and it can bounce up in
the air, flying over the other vehicle. |
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So would this car look like a wedge? Or possibly a
double edged wedge for both directions? |
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//What if two of these cars collide?// |
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//Wouldn't it be a bit easier all'round to have the
smaller vehicle do the flying-in-the-air bit ?// |
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//Put one (airbag) underneath the car, and it can
bounce up in the air, flying over the other vehicle.// |
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I considered ejection seats then pictured a horrible
fatal crash taking on the black comedy tinge of a
Monty Python sketch. Besides, you'd probably only
get launched up to the windshield of the oncoming
car with the time you'd have to eject. Plus, even if
you shot free, you're landing on a freeway. |
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To make up for the wimpy look of the vehicle, it
would be called "The Rampage". As in, "Announcing
the 2016 Chevy Rampage!" |
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Marketing gold. In fact, dump the rest of this idea,
"The Rampage" is the most awesome name for a car
ever. Lends itself to a huge off road vehicle. |
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The roof reinforcement would probably outweigh any benefits of having a small car. |
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It would be easier to simply ban all cars bigger than yours. |
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Alternatively, ban all cars smaller than yours. |
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Alternatively, ban all car crashes. |
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This would work...until larger vehicles start installing spinning arms designed to hook under your little limpet-mobile and flip it. |
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That's not a problem if you fit a srimech. |
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Prototype mock up image [link]. Seems possible. |
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Wow, did you make that? That's very cool! |
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Ahh, now you're just being shellfish... |
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The surest way to ensure that you survive a micro
car crash is to make sure you're not in it at the time. |
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