The Beginning

Every project starts somewhere. Mine began in junior high school, more than 30 years ago, when I stumbled across a picture of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car. I had to special-order the only book then in print that had pictures and descriptions of Bucky's work in transportation, and I promised myself one day I would drive something as cool as that, even if I had to build it.

Well, the Moonray is no Dymaxion Car. Bucky's landmark design seated 4 to 6 people, had a steerable tailwheel, and nothing else like it has ever been made, and perhaps with good reason. The Dymaxion was marginally unstable at speed, and it rolled over twice, once with Fuller at the wheel, and again with a different driver after a collision with another car. Bad publicity from the second accident pretty much finished any hope of production for the car, but that could have been a blessing, as the car had real design problems that even today don't seem solvable. Interestingly enough, the surviving car (of the three prototypes Fuller built) is finally being partially restored in England, and the restorers are also going to build a 4th car- a running replica of the original design. Hopefully that car will answer some old questions about the Dymaxion. Regardless, its a supreme achievement, particularly for a designer with no experience in the automotive industry. The last Dymaxion design that Bucky left on the drawing board, however, (as is so often the case in these matters,) was even more innovative than the built cars: that car was all-electric, with a separate motor powering each of its 3 wheels, and an all-wheel steering control system. It was quite an avantgarde vision for 1935, and if I had unlimited funds, I'd be picking up right there and trying to build something like a modern iteration of it, but that's not my Moonray.

The Moonray is a very different machine- its a featherweight (400lbs) single-seat trike designed to be three things: First, a tangible demonstration that recent Electric Vehicle (EV) technology advances, particularly in Lithium ion batteries and hub motors, now permit a hobbyist to buy standard components and build a practical, roadworthy vehicle that isn't expensive or hard to live with. Second, the Moonray is an electric hot rod in the purest sense- it combines commonly available parts and techniques with exotic bits and thoughtful work to produce something with exceptional performance and looks that just couldn't be purchased. Third, the experience of building Moonray will give me a priceless education in EV technology and operation at lower cost and risk than if I had made a bigger vehicle, or converted an existing automobile to electric drive.

Since Bucky Fuller's work in the 1930s, many people have designed and built light auto- and motorcycle-based trikes, usually borrowing from the patented work of Walter H. Korff, who designed the Duo-Delta trike, below. This breakthrough design uses an intact motorcycle with the front fork removed, coupled to a two-seat frame and front suspension. My project is to make an even lighter single-seater that is practical enough to use as a commuting vehicle, or just to run around in. I wanted to take advantage of the 40 years of advances in design, aerodynamics, materials, construction and EV components since the Duo-Delta to produce a vehicle that is lighter, cheaper, and goes faster and farther on less energy than anything commercially available. That's the essence of hot rodding, and since most of my cars have been modified in that way, more than anything I want to build a hot rod EV.

Now that I have Walter Korff's incredible 1980 book, Designing Tomorrow's Cars, I'm not only very confident that the Moonray can hit those targets, but I'm deeply indebted to Mr. Korff's thorough, excellent work, and his commitment to sharing it. Its very impressive that a technical and design treatise with so much current, even topical information was actually published almost 30 years ago, but it isn't surprising considering the breadth and depth of Mr. Korff's experience. Among many other things, he was the aerodynamicist who shaped the streamlined body on the Summers Brothers' 1965 Bonneville salt flats racer Goldenrod. This innovative car is widely considered the greatest hot rod of all time- it still holds international speed records, and was the fastest wheel-driven vehicle on earth for over 25 years!  After decades of sitting outside and kicking around on display, Goldenrod is also now being carefully restored, at long last, for the Henry Ford Museum.

 

Thank you, Mr. Korff, for your pioneering work in vehicle engineering and aerodynamics, and for pulling it all together and publishing it for the rest of us in this tidy book. I will carefully consider every word of it. From that foundation, we can really get somewhere.

So we begin...