After close to one year in front of the drawing board and four design iterations, the KillaJoule body design is finally finalized. You can help us make this reality and write history (see bottom of this post).
Picture: The final body design for KillaJoule.
These days almost all streamliners – motorcycles as well as cars – have composite bodies. Everything shape is possible with composites, the sky is the limit. At least as long as you have deep pockets; an 18 ft (6 m) long composite body is expensive (we are talking several thousands of dollars just for the material).
Unfortunately we don’t have deep pockets; our annual budget is what a professional team spends in a weekend. (If you have missed it – the entire KillaCycle/KillaJoule/ElectroCat racing program is Bill’s and my very expensive hobby. We do this all on Bill’s very modest governmental salary, I am a graduate student in mechanical engineering at University of Denver and that doesn’t generate any income).
So, how can one build a streamliner body without the budget for a composite body? The answer is in the history book: aluminum. Traditionally, land speed vehicles were built like airplanes out of aluminum, but when composites were invented they soon became popular because you can make any imaginable shape. However, airplanes are still built out of aluminum and they go really fast (like 500 mph). If an airplane can go 500 mph with an aluminum body, KillaJoule should easily make 200 mph (320 km/h), which is the goal for this year.
Except for the spherical nosecone (that will be made of fiberglass), the entire KillaJoule body will be made of single curved sheets of aluminum. The body will mainly be riveted together – just like you build an airplane. (It is really handy that Bill actually built half an airplane. We sold it to buy the large race trailer, but we still have all the tools left. 😉
<< You can help us write history! >>
If you happen to have a few hundred square feet of suitable sheet metal, rivets or other “airplane material” hanging around – we would be happy to help you get more room in your garage.
Whoever can help us with material will get his or her name on the side of the vehicle as well in the history books…. We are going to order material very soon, so if you can help us – contact me immediately. eva@killacycle.com
<< 90 horsepower for 200 mph… >>
Oh, I almost forgot to mentioned the most amazing: the CF Design computational fluid dynamics simulation shows that this body design will take 90 horsepower to push the motorcycle to 200 mph (320 km/h). Yes – you read it correctly – 90 HP! I am initially going to borrow KillaCycle’s spare drivetrain (a 1000 amp Zilla controller, a 990 cell A123Systems pack and 2 series wound motors). This drive package will barely be jogging at 90 HP…
