A Electrical Engineering Project....

Hey! I'm new to this board but I though you guys could help. I'm an Electrical Engineering (EE) student at Long Beach City College and used to be heavy into road/velodrome racing. Well...I'm trying to apply that knowledge to this competition called the electrathon. Basically, its a competition between a group of schools to build a electric car with 64 lbs of lead acid batteries and set dead weight to go as far as possible within a one hour span.

Currently, the winning cars are going around 50 miles in a hour. I've seen their designs and I think I can beat them.

-More Efficient motor
-Better Aerodynamics
-Lower CG
-More Efficient Batteries
-Less Weight
-Lower Rolling Drag
-Lower Friction with Ground

That's where you guys come in. What I'm looking for is a wheel around 16" diameter and a very efficent hub (This thing is gonna be running at around 50MPH for an hour). Also, some pros and cons on larger wheels.

Last thing is some really lightweight hub mounted brakes. I've never used these but it would allow me to use lightweight carbon fibre wheels instead of metal rims.

If your interested in helping out with everything, check out my more updated thread at http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=486867.

 

Hi - no comment on the wheels, but one other comment:
For your frame, there is a trademarked product called "Glare" from Delft University. If you are getting finance from Boeing, perhaps they could help you with Glare too. It is a fibreglass aluminium laminate - very light and strong. High tensile modulus. Perhaps they have it in tubing - if not scrap this idea since it will need some processing. (Used for airframes mostly.)

Good luck and have fun!