I think that a 2 stroke diesel would have a lot to offer. And a re-think on the hybrid technology. All accessories and power options could be electrically powered by a high efficiency alternator and the hybrid drive function only used to boost acceleration.
For me there is no ONE ideal car. Sometimes I have to haul and I need power and towing capacity. Sometimes I just to run errands and want good mpg and a lively car. Sometimes I just want put the top down and enjoy the world around me. So, I have 3 cars. I don’t need blue tooth, fancy navigation, or voice controlled junk. I want a motor that runs with some spirit, I want a nice sound out of the tailpipe, and I want to feel like I can take corners at speed without rolling over. That’s all I need.
My Ideal Vehicle…
1.) Lot’s of space in the interior
2.) Built in DVD player for the passengers in the back…
3.) Blue Tooth Enabled System for hands free cellphone talking
4.) Fast and Powerful
5.) 4wd (I like going camping with my Dad and family and they like to camp in the mountains or desert)
All in all…An SUV and top choices would be…
1.) Nissan Armada (My mom has one and I love that thing!)
2.) Ford Expedition
3.) Toyota Highlander
4.) Chevy Suburban
Phasers.
No hood, no gas cap. Park over coil buried in garage floor and it automatically recharges. Get into Hands Free Lane (HFL) on expressway and it communicates with other vehicles to drive autonomously until exit point. Car is made of flubber. Never damaged if hit, occupants safe at all speeds.
Sounds almost like an Atom Ariel with an electric motor and an inductive charging system. Except for the flubber, of course.
I was hopin’ for some new ideas to add to my list. Much of my own list includes things that I’ve never seen done (like programmable variable alignment setting and dihedral doors containing removable roof panels). As much as I’m enjoying everyone elses descriptions, and I truely am, can anyone add any new ideas? Think “out of the box”.
Ever since the Jetsons there have been all sorts of futuristic forecast on what the car will be like. Even the Journal of Mechanical Engineering in the 70s forecast that most cars would have gas turbines with heat recovery in 15 years.
Automotive development is EVOLUTIONARY; and technology keeps getting better all the time. Hyundai’s latest cars with direct injection and high compression ratios are an important milestone in optimizing the piston IC engine.
I can see onboard cameras that will show you what’s on all sides of your car the next safety feature. Reactive cruise control will be another standard feature in years to come.
As much as I’m enjoying everyone elses descriptions, and I truely am, can anyone add any new ideas?
I trust when you say auto/manual tranny, you mean a dual-clutch system like in Porsches, and not a slopbox system like in Chryslers, right? 
I’d want those new(ish) magnetic shocks that go from comfort to RACE CAR! almost instantly. Expensive, but then this is an ideal car.
Turbocharge the engine. You don’t sacrifice much economy until you get your foot in it, at which point you care more about going fast. If you’re going to have all the other things like pop up air dams and downforce-generating nose cladding, you might as well have an engine with plenty of grunt to spare. I might even think about dropping a Northstar v8 or something in there instead, since you won’t really see much of an mpg hit just cruising, but you have plenty of power to have fun with. Some of the stuff you want is going to add to the car’s weight.
Add a front-facing camera hooked to an SD-card recording deck. If you’re going to have a spiffy car, and knowing you it will probably end up on the race trick, you might as well have an easy way of recording your drives. For bonus points, mount it behind the bodywork and have a small acrylic window for it to see through.
Thanks for some very interesting comments.
Actually, I was thinking of the slop box system to keep the cost down, but you’re right, the dual clutch systems are definitely superior. The slop box systems are just pretend, an automatiic with paddles and the abililty to keep the tranny in a single gear. It’d probably be a Hyundae unit rather than a Chryco. I have reservations about the future availability of Chrysler parts…
I’ve read about those shocks with the magnetic damping fluid. Sounds like an iteresting concept, but the last I read they’re still working the bugs out.
You’re right about the downforce cladding needing oomph. I’ve thought about that, and would probably try natural aspiration with ram air to start. I’m not really a 0-60 guy, I like handling and as long as I have reasonable pep on the highway I’m happy. I’m more of a Lotus Elise fan than a Bugatti Veyron fan. A few weeks back I disconnected my own ram air system for the winter out of fear of icing the throttle body, and it really did make a big difference. I definitely miss the extra oomph it provided.
The air dam wouldn’t take any extra power, 'cause it’s whole function would be to eat up inertia rather than to provide downforce. I think air dams are a great idea. They eat up speed quickly without adding load to the tires, which should allow better control. And, if done right, they load the rear end when the brakes are applied to offset weight transfer and enable the rear brakes to share the load more.
I like the additional camera thoughts.
Truth is, I’m looking at retirement in another 1-1/2 years, and I’ve been thinking about trying this for quite a while now. It’d give me a challange and a learning platform. I’ll be in a position where I’ll have some access to a machine shop (with machinists), and an automotive shop (with techs). I’ll have access to auto body guys too, but I’d like to try some of that myself. The mechanical design part won;t be a problem, but I’d probably need to hook up with a robotics guy to develop the variable/programmable alignment system. I have some ideas how it could be done, but these guys are fluent in linear controls and feedback systems.
Hyundai has a dual clutch unit, actually. It’s in the automanual Veloster. It’s not as good as Porsche, but then you don’t have to sell your kid to buy the Veloster
I wasn’t referring to needing extra oompfh for an air dam, but rather not needing an air dam if you don’t have extra oompfh. Put in perspective, I get up to about 117 or so on the main straight of Road America before I have to slam on the brakes, and that’s not fast enough to require air dam assist on the brakes. Unless you’re gonna take it out to the salt flats, you need enough grunt to get it going fast enough to justify the air dam.
I hope you keep us all posted on this project. Sounds like a hell of a fun time 
They do? Cool.
My guess is that IF I find myself able to start this after I retire they’ll be even more readily available.
I need to seperate the air dam (front), from the air brake on this discussion. The air dam would probably cost a few ponys. But the air brake…think of how much longer your brakes would last if you could scrub off speed with an air brake rather than taking it all off with the discs? And think of how much better control you’d have slowing down on a rain-soaked highway if much of the energy was scrubbed away with an air brake, lessening the load on the tire/pavement interface? While an air brake may not ne NEEDED at 70 mph, my feeling is that it would certainly be an asset.
As you might have guessed, this has been simmering in the back o f my mind for quite a while. Should I actually endeaver to do the project, I’ll definitely keep everyone advised. I’ll need all the help I can get!
Oh yeah. By then the kids will have smashed up several being stupid in them and you’ll be able to pull a tranny out of a junkyard
With the air brake, below a certain speed it’s not going to matter all that much. They only become really effective at high (read: Non-legal) speeds. Even airplanes will retract their speed brakes once they’re rolling below 60kts or so, because they just aren’t very helpful when the airflow isn’t fast. That’s why you need the big motor - to get up to those high speeds to justify the cool air brake
Well, now, the ideal vehicle for me would be an older 4x4 pickup truck with some modern upgrades. I recently checked out some photos of a 1960 Chevy Apache shortbed in which the owner had fitted the cab with a COMPLETE interior from a 2005 Silverado regular cab; no doubt there was some cutting involved since an’05 Chevy dashboard is a good bit larger than the original 1960 dash; he also relocated the gas tank under the bed (on these trucks the tank was behind the seat, inside the cab). This guy had also put in a modern fuel-injected engine, along with the tranny and drivetrain to match, and disc brakes all around. Now, my idea for re-doing an early 1960s Chevy truck would also include the relocation of the gas tank and the installation of disc brakes, but some of the other stuff would be different. Like I said earlier, I’d want it to be 4x4, with a simple 2-lever box under the seat for the transfer case (like what the old 2-1/2 Ton “Deuce-and-a-Half” Army trucks have); the seat itself would be a late-model Silverado split bench, cloth; the transmission would be a 4- or 5-speed on the floor; the dash and steering wheel would be original, but the dash would have “big-rig” style toggle-switch controls, including one for the electric passenger window (driver window could be hand-crank); I would have a quality A/C system and AM/FM w/ CD installed; the seat belt harnesses (3) would be NASCAR-grade; the differentials would be 3/4-ton units with 3.73-ratio gears; and the engine I’d want would be a big, high-torque inline-6, either a 261 or a 292. It would, of course, be a regular cab (all that pickups had 50 years ago), which is OK since there would only be me and sometimes 1 other person, sometimes 2. Also, a wood-floor bed, made from pine slats, with metal runners between them, like what trucks used to have. And that would be my version of an ideal ride.
Drifter
That sounds like a truck project I would love to do. Mine would be a modernized 50s Dodge Powerwagon with either a turbo diesel or suitable inline 6 or V8 and a six speed. I’d keep the vintage look on the dash, but i’d fit seats from some thing newer. And of course a sweet paint job. For the wood bed, I might opt for something more durable like white oak or possibly an exotic hardwood like ipe.
But in the mean time what I would really like would be a comfortable but utilitarian midsized wagon with a manual transmission and good fuel economy (30 mpg highway or better) with good long term reliability that retails around $25k. If I could have found such a vehicle I probably would have bought that over my Ranger.
2011 Mercury Grand Marquis LS
I dunno Shadow. When I put in my cold air/ram air system I wondered how much of a difference it would actually make. It made a surprising difference. Since the diference is at speeds above 40 mph, and becomes more pronounced at higher speeds, I attribute it to air pressure into the pipe more than the cold air.
In cycling, when one can directly feel the amount of energy needed, it becomes evident how much effect aerodynamics has. When descending, the speed you’ll reach if you crouch will be noticable higher than if you sit up, and it’ll take less effeort to maintain speed crouched than it will sitting up. “Drafting” has a tremendous effect as well. And those speeds are far lower than highway speeds. Try to ride a bike holding up a foamcore board and you’ll probably have leg cramps in no time, even though I guarantee you won’t be travelling very fast.
I believe an air brake would make a big difference at highway speeds. I don;t believe it’s necessary to do high speeds to benefit from and air brake. However part of the fun of doing this project for me would be finding out of my ideas are actually any good. The air brake is sort of in the category of the long A-frames (pivoting at the car’s center to the extent possible while still making the necessary camber adjustment to keep the track constant). I would hope to find out (a) it if is as effective as I think it would be, and (b) would my idea of powering it with a scoop-operated pneumatic actuator work. The concept as I envision it would be to have four “guides” for the air brake operating on bearings in tracks, the tracks being shaped such that when the brake is slid back it rises to a vertical position. The scoop-fed actualtors would push the air brake backward and thus not have to overcome the air pressure on the dam itself. The scoops would be opened and closed vis simple solenoids, actiavated by eth barek pedal switch. Using air pressure to actualt the air brake rather than hydraulics would eliminate the need to add a hydraulic pump to the crank load.
In summary, I think an air brake would make a very substantial difference. And if I actually do the project I’ll be in heaven finding out of my operating concepts work. Even if in the end they do not.
I’ll be interested to see if that works. Any chance you can start a prototype now so we don’t have to wait till you retire?
I’ll say this - stuffing more air into the engine via ram is easy, as is slowing down 200 pounds of cyclist via air resistance, but if you scaled up your foam core board example to the size of a car, you’d end up with a giant wall sitting on your trunk.
I think you’ll have quite a bit more difficulty appreciably slowing down a 2,000 pound car at low speeds with an air brake unless it’s the size of a sail (which leads me to visualize a Red-Green project involving a snap-up mast, a sail, a slide lock to release it, and a string to retract it). I’ve been envisioning a brake somewhat like the Veyron’s in size. Its brake is very effective, but it doesn’t get used below 120mph because it doesn’t do much until you’re going fast.
Man, I wish I could start the project now. Unfortunately, I have way too little time.
The new McClaren is more the size I envisioned, or perhaps a touch larger. Much of the fun would be seeing of it really would make an appreciable difference at 70mph and below.
Red Green is my idol. He’s not inhibited in the least in trying new things.
I’m sure Red Green could do it to a k-car with enough duct tape and bailing wire. Using a modified garage door opener to deploy it none the less.