Here is my home built Electric Turbine hybrid car.  Yes Turbine engine, its a Garrett GTP 30-67 adding between 10-15kw of power on demand.

I started this design in 1997 using a software called Alias.  I graduated form a Art/Design collage called CCS in Detroit Michigan.  I hired on at General Motors working in the Design Staff building.  Working in many studios, sketching, working with clay, and working on CAD program Alias.  Some of the images show some of my early cad work, designing the body, interior, general arrangement, frame, interior, and drivetrain all at the same time.  Working rough at first making my tradeoffs from the start. After all products are in the end a bunch of tradeoffs, cost, time, tools available, components, etc.

Refining the design over time, I began to add more details to the concept. Packaging the components, the occupants, reviewing the impact to my styling.  I was looking for a design that was tough looking and perhaps a little sexy.  My influence was military aircraft, because my car has a turbine engine APU or ''auxiliary power unit'', and I design military vehicles as well as civilian OEM cars.

I didn't want to start with a vehicle platform, I wanted to build a car from the ground up, putting all that I had learned in one car.  There probably are not a lot of vehicles designed and built by one person.

Lucky for me I could design what I wanted, not being influenced by anyone else.  I wanted a 4 door, electric/turbine hybrid, making what I would describe as art that you can drive.

I searched Ebay for a small turbine engine, and found this Garrett GTP 30-67 on a farm near Kellogg Michigan.  My daughter and I drove a few hours to see it run, the guy had it powering a Gator side-by-side (how cool) on the farm.  I liked it because it produces 40hp, burning many combustible fuels such as gas, diesel, alcohol, kerosene, bio-diesel.

To generate electricity I needed a generator powered by my turbine.  Again searching on Ebay, I found two Humvee generators at a Ford dealership.  They produced 5kw continuous 120vac or 220vdc each giving my car 10-15kw of clean power on demand.  I know why did a Ford dealership have these?  FEMA installed them in vans during Katrina hurricane for the disaster relief effort in 2005, new they were $15,00.00 each.  Lets just say I got a better deal, and one was new in its box.

Batteries, a major packaging effort in 1997.  There was not a Tesla, or "skate board" battery packs.  So is did the calculations and I needed 29 12vdc motor home batteries to give my car enough range.  So I packaged them down almost front to rear down the centerline of the car.  Knowing this would give my car enough room for a future batteries that needed to be developed. Witch I perched in later years from a company selling LG-Cem cells used by BMW, GM, and others.  They took up about 1/3 of the package space I had originally saved.

Great for placing weight, sliding them front to back give my car the CG weight Distibution I wanted 45/55.

The Motor, I found the motor and inverter I originally designed for the car years later a motor mad by UQM.  They are located in Colorado and make motors for buses and other vehicles.

They are brushless AC motors just what I wanted.

Frame, during my 19 years styling car for GM I was very interested in learning about the entire car manufacturing process from the ground up.  How are cars developed and made?  I became friends with some of the most creative people within General Motors.  Developed a small group and started a mini car company within GM, eventually getting funded from third highest person at GM at the time.  We were developing a car company utilizing tools, Technlogies, and methods to address the changes in automotive market globally.  Great to learning (received a self-awarded MBA, masters, and doctorate, automotive (well everything).  OK the frame, working under ground we pitched developing the production version of the Pontiac Solstice show car to Bob Lutz.  Knowing that GM engineering would try to stretch it over an existing GM platform trashing exterior body during the production design process.  I won the frame design strategy or concept getting a letter covertly left on my desk, acknowledging my contribution to GM the real company.  Taking my knowledge gained I developed my frame, but using stainless steel space frame it has a center spine to carry the battery loads.

Body, well the easy part for me being a car designer, but the most cost intensive part the making a car at home.  Let's not forget the budget, being a home-built car, you have a ''home budget''.  I self-financed Voo Doo's money through doing lots of side work (25 years).  When I completed the Alias design, I sent the data to a friend on the east coast who made his mill (my kind of friend) for his company where he made the scale navy boats for water tank testing, for hull development, His mill was about 20ft long perfect for my panel's molds.  He milled glued foam blocks and made female molds developing a system to create "low-cost tooling method".  He vacuumed a large latex sheet inside the molds to create a smoother surface to vacuum over to produce light weight and strong parts.  In the entire project costs, it consumed about 1/4 of the total cost of the project throughout the entire 25 years.  Thats why I did the body first, knowing it would be less likely to finish the project if pushed that costs down the road.  I can tell you its very strange to sit in a car you designed and only saw it on a computer screen 25 years later.  Kind of familiar but strangely not, due to real life scale effects (I will call it).  You really don't know what you made until you really experience it, imagine a life project you don't know if you will like when finished, and spent 25 years and lots of money.

Volts, there are 3vdc, 6vdc, 12vdc 24vdc, 120vac, 240fac and 350vdc wire systems in the car.  computer, CAN, low and high voltage. Lots of systems to learn and computers to monitor and run the systems.  I guess another self-awarded degree.... sometimes retracted with some smoke pyrotechnics!  :)  In the end it all works correctly.

Dedication, the only advice I would give on this is your probably born with a self-motivated drive to complete a car form the ground up.  IF not you need to do something every day on the project until its finished and have lots of smart friends to learn from.  Its important to know to when to listen to someone and when not.  You must have a set of ground knowledge on many subjects to weigh your thoughts on, what you have herd or learn.  Like a "knowledge proving grounds".  Epically when you are doing something new.  For me making things as a child learning what worked and what didn't, really is accentual for your background giving you your creative proving ground.

Hidden functions, there are many hidden functions in making a functional car.  such as how to make doors seal, how to locate body parts in space, make window tracks, work, how to take frame crash loads, voltage safety systems, battery management, how to make a windshield, wiper system, air conditioning system, turbine engine and controls, designing for seat belt loads, suspension systems, air ride system, motor and inverter cooling, wiring, frame structures, lighting, how to design using CAD, making tooling, 3-D printing, molding, welding, Design, body work, sound system, side view camera system, seat design, seat belt structures, brakes, and lots more.

Why an electric car?  I wanted a EV in 1997 that was ''cool''.  I wanted a hybrid that was a true flex fuel, I wanted to have the ability to decide if or when and what I wanted to ''burn''.  I am environmentally conscious, and love cars.  I decided ''I would just need to build it''.  This site shows some of the process I went through to competition.  

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