just a little ditty i've been spending a little portion on each day. in an inspired moment, i sketched it out on paper first, and since then, i've been rediscovering blender... blender 2.5alpha2 to be precise. ...and it's way easier and flowing than 2.49b ... although... there's a minor niggle of window pane management... havnt figured out how to close new panes yet.
anyways, this little bike/car thing... i'm working on doing it right, so that this can be an actual design template. it's still utterly early on in the construction... just the chassis, tires, window/door, mudgaurds and much of the steering rig-up so far. but i've loads of cunning ideas for it.
the vision i had for it, is for low-down, maximum visibility, component simplicity, down-force, form following function, a real driver's experience kind of deal, everything compact and lean, much like my dream linux distro. i am often thinking on such analogies of distros to cars.
every little bit i put on it, i tweak and re-tweak many times over.
not seen in these preview renders is the skeleton humanoid frame, hunkered down in his race-ready seating possition.
i suppose in some ways, this has been partly inspired by my friend's new lotus elise, which i've been out in a couple of times. lotus's general modus opperandi, as i recall jeremy clarkson once saying, "is to simplify, and add lightness". this thing is looking set to be so light, i've had to be thinking where i could ADD weight, just to make sure the thing will stay on the ground or have enough weight above the powered wheel.
engine-wise, i've still to get to that part.
i'm not the most nerdy when it comes to traditional combustion engines, but as you might expect from a free software geek, i dont mind reading up about more exotic options. so besides the GEET implosion engine, and electric engines, i am actually very very keen on the idea of those combustion engines which instead of using pistons and combustion chambers that are rather 1 dimensional, and which the energy then has to be mechanically transfered yada yada.... there's those mad ones that are um.... cyclical... the explosion chamber is integrated more deeply into the whole thing, and the rotary motion is perpetually pushed in one direction... around and around, rather than pistons having to waste energy on fighting the inertia of back and forth... i'll have to look them up again on http://peswiki.com/ ( http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Engines )so i remember who came up with them, and what they're called. suffice to say, you get to fit the power of a normal car engine, into the size of a cd-rom drive. ...so i was thinking of upscaling it a bit more. ;)
ideally, i'd just throw some john hutchinson inspired zero-point energy battery/generator devices in it, and maybe some unity bending power ramp up stuff, but i dont want to make myself any bigger a target for corporate / secret-gov / OPEC / etc b[w]ankers to take me out. ;D
but anyways, i do like the idea of only one gear... in which case electric would be the way to go... and then that would add all the weight i want, i could pepper the floor and rear with heavy batteries.... :/
oh it's good being free to play n dream up these things.
( /me considers including a dozen talk links from ted.com focussing on the value of play, and experimentation, and goal-less development, and exploration of ideas, and what incentives do, and what motivates people... but that might get in the way o all i really wanted to focus on for this ramble... blender & my little fun ditty )
track-day, road-car, or mere concept-car... i dont mind, i just like the creative process. :) the inspired evolution of ideas, the spontaneous a-ha ideas, the reveling in imagination, the hands-on manifestation, the... you get the idea. :)
i'll likely be back with updates to this.
