Whoever said you had to a have a big motor to go fast never shook hands with Jakob Hirzel. His challenge was to design a gravity racer for the Xtreme Gravity Series in Irvine, California, and it’s safe to say he did very very well.
His design was meant to capture the “old-school” spirit of design and sportsman ship. The body bears the Mercedes-Benz “Silver-Arrow” on the nose. From there is flows in a long tear-drop and splits into 2 parts. The transparent lower and upper shell are made of impact-resistant glass, while the silver band it a carbon fiber material for load-bearing purposes.
The design was made purely with low wind resistance in mind. Every detail of the car is either polished to reduce drag or shaped to cut through the wind. It was also designed to withstand the exact forces of downhill racing. None of the components are “too robust” for the job which puts the Silbervogel Gravity Racer into the ultra-featherweight genre. Even those thin wheels are made to precise specifications.
via Inventorspot
