For your car

Evolution of design

There are innumerable details that will need to be worked out and documented before I cut the first piece of steel or even purchase a donor bike for this project, but I am very excited to see a lot of the big picture stuff starting to come together. Yesterday I was introduced to the Cycle Kart website and on that site is a PDF that lets you play around with your own race car designs. I took that a step further and what I've come up with may very well be the alpha design for .

Starting with the original artwork, I kept the european style race grill. I am completely in love with this era of race cars. There's a more contemporary tie-in though — a whole class of open-wheel streamliners that race for land speed records at Bonneville.

First step was to make a trike out of it. Go go gadget Photoshop!

With the correct number of wheels in play, it was time to scale them down to the correct proportion, about a 14" wheel. It was at this point that I also realized that the "engine compartment" of a car like this would make a splendid luggage compartment for the . I also faked a bit of the tilting suspension and removed some of the superfluous body shape details.

With the wheels properly sized and placed, I added rough wheel pants. I love the open-wheel look, but with efficiency the name of the game, wheel pants are a must. It's amazing how much they alter the character of the vehicle. What before still looked like a toy '30s era racer, now looks like a '30s era airplane. Whatever the final shape, if the vehicle is strongly identifying with a particular era, I want to carry that through in the design details. I've also thought about perhaps a steam punk influence — lots of wood and brass.

I also lengthened the rear end to accommodate the rear engine placement, and raised the rear up to serve as more comprehensive roll protection.

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