Yes it’s not easy. It’s difficult enough to get a certified production model ready to build, sell, deliver, and service, The bigger deal is $Millions needed for tooling a manufacturing plant to scale production numbers to mass produce the new production ready vehicle, when there is no ‘proven‘ mass market. Arcimoto case in point…….6 units per day after 2 years in production with production scale plans in the works. It’s understandably a snails paced process on the road to selling enough vehicles to break even or show profit based on mass market demand.
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Odds & Ends And All Things That Don't Fit Anything Else
- Thread starter Coss
- Start date
RSchneider
Elio Addict
It's not that hard if you got the money. When the CEO decides after the company hit the lottery (aka IPO), that spending money on buying a useless company and developing a useless e-bike as opposed to ramping up production, then you see why Arcimoto is in the shape they are in. I've been in manufacturing for most of my life and the reality is this, the FUV is super simple to build and not even close to a car. This thing should have hit the road 5-7 years ago and be sold in all 50 states. By now it should be international. Yet they were trying to do this on a budget and a CEO that was a dreamer. Hopefully, the new CEO gets this sorted out. At least they will be able to print more money and see if they can get themselves out of the hole they are in. If Vanderhall could do it in 6 years and be way ahead of the game, FUV could have done it too.
Oddly, Vanderhall does not release production numbers. With your limited knowledge of Arcimoto, but vast knowledge of Vanderhall, can you provide a link to how many Vanderhall performance roadsters are painstakingly handcrafted per year? I’ve seen CanAm Spyders, Slingshots, and FUVs on the road, but have never seen a Vanderhall. Seems to be a cult following week end rich boy toy. I like the Vanderhall, and would buy one if it met my personal everyday commuter needs, but Neither does the FUV until it’s fully enclosed option becomes available. Their Mean Lean Machine Tilting Trike concept was being developed by Arcimoto’s Tilting Motorworks Division.
At one time, this was my dream car.. Only 4000 Hours and God knows how much money to get it...
But now, using my meager resources, I can see it would take a substancial percentage of my life to get one. Much more than 4 years if you include earning the money!! If it took 10 years, then that is between 1/6th and 1/9th of my life, depending on how long I live.
Good video in that it shows just what it takes...
But now, using my meager resources, I can see it would take a substancial percentage of my life to get one. Much more than 4 years if you include earning the money!! If it took 10 years, then that is between 1/6th and 1/9th of my life, depending on how long I live.
Good video in that it shows just what it takes...
hawg_ryder
Elio Addict
My fav of all time too! Take a look at these guys... http://race-car-replicas.com/rcr-40-mki-mkii You can probably build one for $75-80 K using their kit...
Nice!
What I ended up instead was building my Chavota, mid-engine Toyota Corona, cir 1970. Total cost was what an Air Force Sargent could afford. :-)
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Johnny Acree
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It looks like it could be mid engine, or maybe even rear engine.
Don't leave us hanging, tell us more.
Don't leave us hanging, tell us more.
OK, I have posted about the car before, a few times, but here it is again.
When I was in the service, Air Force around 1973, I owned a 1970 Toyota Corona. I made a rooky mistake, skip the embarrassing details, and I destroyed the rings in that 1600cc engine. So what to do with it?
I noticed kit cars at the time, and I loved that GT40, which was mid-engine. They had midengine adaptors for the Kelmark GT, which was inspired by the GT40.
And just so happend, there was a bashed 1964 (Corrected: 65 to 67) Corvair convertible at my AF base, missing parts that had been sold off. But it had all the donor parts that I would need for a mid-engine conversion, minus a good body/chassis. But I had a perfect Corona body didn't I?
Given the Corvair transaxle was meant for a engine that turned the reverse way in a rear engine layout, a normal engine would be perfect with that tranny in a mid-engine setup. (although there may have been an issue with that)
I even had access to a complete DIY autoshop provided by the AF via a hobbie club, on base. That also helped me with this; I found a Chevy small-block ?283? and fully rebuilt it. Add a Webber carb, detuned intake manifold and efficency tuned camshaft, aluminum cam covers, it was an interesting build.
I was entertained by the mid-engine GT40 layout just as much as the overall vehicle, and I studied everything else I could find, to answer for me, if this was a viable project. I missed some points, but these didn't turn out to be a problem I couldn't solve. I got a A in drafting in High School, so I had no problems drawing it all up for the one contract welder.
So I had a welder shop put some angle iron into the unibody, and also build a subframe to fit the Corvair suspension and tranny. The subframe bolted into the original 4 leaf spring points, and an extra pair up front for the unibody framing. All rubber mounted. Added was a removable cross bar sub-ed into the subframe to support a V8. I designed my own shift assembly (way-way at the rear..) using push-pull cables and located the hand-held end of the shifter where you would expect a shifter to be.
The welder shop also filled my specs for tri-Y headers that fed into Corvet low restriction mufflers(a.k.a., turbo-mufflers).
I knew I would be driving back to Washington State once the car was done, because it would be near the end of my military tour. So I had a hitch reciever welded into the subframe too. I expected the final car would not have a problem with a small trailer.
But where to put the tank and the radiator? Well, I simply adapted a bigger radiator to the stock location. And I found a beer keg, and had a motorcycle gas cap that seals welded/attached. It perfectly placed where the origonal engine mounted. I had the Toyota gas level sensor installed as well.
True that the tank was exposed to radiator heat, but this never caused me any issues. The after-market fuel pump didn't care either.
An issue did crop-up. The tranny had no output for a speedometer. Only mechanical ones existed back then. But VW used a cable taken from a front wheel-spindle. So I got the VW cable, and drilled out the Corona Spindle, and cut the square hole that was needed into the dust-cap. This worked because the tempered hardening on the spindle was towards the outside, and the middle was softer. However, it did make a hell of a noise as I drilled it.
Once installed, with an after market speedometer (limited to 80MPH), I discovered that 40=50mph, 60=72, and so 80=100, yes?
More on that later.
Another issue, I didn't design for an engine box, there was not a lot of room for that. I just kicked that can back down the road for later. It was not much trouble. The engine didn't leak or smell, and didn't make all that much noise either. It was interresting to see the 4 bolts of the water pully spinning just a couple inches from my elbo between the seats. (no long hair allowed!) Even road dust did not seem to come up from the open gaps in the floor-boards.
How about the radiator fan? I got an electric one. When ever the car stopped, you hit the brakes, right? Well, when the brakes are in use, a switch turned the fan on. This worked prefectly for me. Even at my location, in Tucson AZ.
Just for fun, I added a chrome luggage rack in the trunk lid, and some air craft maker lights too. And some low profile, wide tires, the smallest ones upfront. See image added in my prior post #316 above.
So about that perfect tranny. Either it was broken during it's prior accident in the covair, or the half-shaft broke the first time I put any power into it.
The only effect was that I had to hold the leaver down to keep it in first gear. This could have been a big issue for a 3 speed gear box. The other two gears were perfect.
Frankly, the car didn't give a damn about the first gear. It was mostly useless anyway. What felt like a normal start with the clutch in other cars, was what the second gear felt like in the Chavota. With the exception that you were going twice as fast once the clutch was out. I got the car finished 2 weeks before I exited the AF.
So I took it for a test drive. The road to Oracle was new, and way-overbuilt for it's location. No people on it, ever. I think the posted limit was 55. So I got on it. First, no mater how I triied, I couldn't get any lift out of the front-end. I also couldn't spin any tires. The car would just simply go, very quickly. I liked all that.
Next, I got it up to 80mph, which only took a couple seconds. Then for the first time at this speed, I fully punched it. Where the bushes were flipping past nicely at 100mph (80 on the dial), everything went immediately into a blur, and of course the dial had pegged out likely around 85(106.5mph), so I had no idea how fast I was going, but a 'blur' does mean something! I had no idea how stable this was going to be over 120mph, so I slowed back down to 60(72mph). I was actually kind of shaken (not sturred) by the sudden jump into spaces unknown.
So the day finally came to leave AZ. I rented a 10ft covered trailer. My brother had come down via air to ride back with me. We hitched up and we loaded it up to the brim. It was well packed and not light.
Remember that broken first gear? I skipped using it. The car did't care. zero-nothing. It felt just like driving with-out a trailer attached.
So the other fun was the look as anyone walked up past this tiny car with a meduim sized trailer attached, then looking in the back-door window.
That what-the-heck moment was viceral on thier faces. It was twice the fun if the hood was open for refuling and they spotted the kegg.
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Found this bit of 2019 info- since Vanderhall introduced their first model in 2016, they've produced just under 1,000 units of this purely hand built 3wheeler. At that rate, the FUV are actually producing more. Vanderhall have more outlets but less buyer. The reason: it's not an everyday ride. It's a fancy and pricy ride for those who can afford.
Hog
Elio Addict
love those 68+ 283 motors, had one in my 57 chevy that saw time at the strip (before I bought it). High and quick revving motor, similar to the 327. (1968 was when GM standardized the crank bores, enable much mixing and matching fun), pre 1968 the 283 had a cartridge oil filter and smaller crank bores.