The affordable, 100mpg, carbon-composite passenger car

[BigWarpGuy]

"It might be affordable but how safe would it be?"

The affordable, 100mpg, carbon-composite passenger car

[Karl Roth]

The raw materials are at an all time high for carbon we need some Smart person to take it from co and co2.
karl

[SuperGeek]

I don't see a Tridion cell, so I'd be wary of its rollover/crush endurance.


Carbon fiber is lightweight, but how strong is it when employed in this structure? That's especially important because people compare hitting the smart to whacking a ping pong ball; hitting a carbon fiber car could be like whacking a raw egg. In which case it'd never pass US safety rules and thus never sell here.

I'm sure someone at Daimler-Benz-Smart said the same thing once.

[Belleveu1]

Since it will be made of the same basic material as the Stealth Bomber, will it be cop radar evading? Hmmmm

[Smart Enuf]

Originally Posted by Belleveu1

Since it will be made of the same basic material as the Stealth Bomber, will it be cop radar evading? Hmmmm

Doubtful. There are numerous supercars made of carbon fiber, and I haven't seen radar evasion as one of their advertised attributes (surely it would be if it were true). Besides, U.S. stealth airplanes rely on more than simply carbon fiber. They use a combination of special coatings and other RAM (radar absorbing materials), internal structures designed to absorb radar signals, and external shapes (the diamond facets, parallel and serrated edges, etc.) that reflect the radar in all directions other than back to the source.

[Pee-wee German]

it looks like a 2000 Honda Insight kitcar fabricated by G-Wiz. (speaking of which; in Four years that car is already gonna be a classic car?)

[headless]

Carbon fibre is very strong, they make F1 cars out of it, and my bow is carbon and it's incredibly strong, so there should be no more problems than with a normal car, our cars are half plastic so we should'nt talk
but why do they have to make hybrids so butt ugly

[rfernatt]

Originally Posted by BigWarpGuy

affordable but how safe would it be?" :cool

From a 2003 article: "Keeping Soldiers Safe: Chemical Engineers Develop Carbon Fiber Bulletproof Vest

Bulletproof vests made of a new material are effective at spreading out the impact energy of bullets and weigh less than current vests. The new carbon-fiber material is made from strings of carbon atoms infused with resin."

[jwight]

...but why do they have to make hybrids so butt ugly

Well, it is a British design...