car design-can we do better?

[SLO-BOB]

I had waaaay too much time on my hands today as I drove to a job site to inspect some medical equipment 2&1/2 hours away. In my 5 hours of watching road, my mind wandered over the usual guy stuff. Between imaginary x-rated Penthouse forum scenarios (Oh Yea-I KNOW what really goes on at waysides) and sports (I could Soooo kick Schumi's ass if he ever made it to parade laps at Road America), I thought about cars. I innevitably end up thinking about how I could do better than what's out there. No-I'm not talking about Bugatti Veyron better, but daily driver better. Faster, better mileage, more user friendly, safer, eco-friendly, etc. Most of the technology I would use is available now and in some cases, is warmed over from the past and present. I can't understand why we have to put up with heavy, unsafe, slow, cars that rust, dent, chug fuel to the tune of 20 mpg and do it all propelled by one wheel either front or back. In my mind we have progressed little over Model T technology.

Here's what I have so far:


Body panels made from recycled rubber and/or plastic (Milk cartons, soda bottles, tires, etc). The panels would be easily replaceable by the consumer. The factorys and aftermarket would naturally make all sorts of panels to change the appearance of your car in an afternoon. Conversion possible from sedan to wagon to coupe.(Saturn/Nissan/Honda)

Space frame technology. Either aluminum skeleton or composite plastics. (Corvette)

Bio-diesel motor. BMW has diesel cars that get great mileage and hit 100 kph in 6 seconds. Mine would be non-consumer serviceable-not even a hood-You get to play with body panels-leave the technical stuff to the pros or your vintage 911. Motor easily drops out from below for swap. Motors are rebuilt/serviced and used again and again. Rear mounted?(BMW/Porsche)

Seven speed SMG transmission (BMW)

All-wheel drive (Audi, etc)

Fly-by-wire. Everything on a bus-steering, brakes, etc.

Speaking of brakes-some sort of electro magnetic braking rather than the archaic friction crap we are so used to.

Lots of airbags, side impact, and active roll-over protection made from high quality steel or aluminum. (Volvo/Mercedes)

Bose active suspension. Do a search on this-pretty cool stuff.
(Citroen)

Heads up displays including infra-red nightime early warning for deer. The images of people, critters, cars, etc, would be projected onto the car's glass (windshield, side, even back). For example-a deer is running at you from a field. The infra-red picks it up, the signal is processed/projected on to the surrounding glass. Basically you would see a red image of the deer running towards you and an alert (which could be silenced) would sound. (Buick)

Photo-tint glass.

Full on-board, voice activated computer system that has internet access as well as navigation.

Auto-pilot. This would be in conjunction with sensors placed in the car and the road. I think this would be very easy. (Mercedes)

There's lots more, but you get the picture. I think all of this is do-able now. My car would be very safe, weigh no more than 2500 lbs, hit 150 mph easy, 0-60 in about 5.5 seconds, get about 50 mpg, be cost effective o maintain, and cost no more than 40k. It would, naturally be a very nice looking car. I would start with a sport coupe.

[bell]

all you need is a welder and a big checkbook......start building

[Dantilla]

Each item in your last paragraph is doable on its own, but I'm not sure today's technology would allow all of them at the same time. At least not with the $40,000 sticker on the window.

Yes, the holy grail of car design. Lots of professionals at GM, Ford and yes, even Porsche, have been working on this for decades.

Personally, I don't want the photo-tint windows or a bunch of computer stuff. I don't even like white guage faces. A big red needle pointing towards redline, and I'll keep my attention out the window.