9780837608600
Home | Books | The Leading Edge
The Leading Edge share button
Goro Tamai
Genre Engineering
Format Paperback
Dimensions 11.00 (w) x 8.25 (h) x 0.65 (d)
Pages 312
Publisher Bentley Publishers
Publication Date May 1999
ISBN 9780837608600
Book ISBN 10 0837608600
About Book
The Leading Edge is the first book to summarize the aerodynamic design and construction issues of solar cars and ultralight land vehicles. Author Goro Tamai draws on his own experience in designing solar cars at MIT to produce a book for the ground-up streamlined land-vehicle designer or constructor, as well as for the solar/electric/ultralight vehicle enthusiast. As with any engineering problem, the "best" body shape for solar cars, HPVs, or Electrathoners is not the body of absolute lowest drag. The vehicle system, including the driver, chassis, and energy/drive system must work in concert to produce the maximum output. The Leading Edge will help designers quantify the trade-offs, and make logical decisions.
Reviews

Booknews

Written for both the streamlined land-vehicle designer and the casual enthusiast, this book summarizes the design and construction issues of a wide variety of solar cars and bikes, human-powered, electric, and other ultra light land vehicles. Tamai, who designed solar cars while studying at MIT, gives examples from specific race cars and teams to explain how designers solved problems. He discusses design and construction issues, and explains how to do in-the-field testing and diagnosis of aerodynamic performance. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)