The Red Car

One journalist from a local newspaper somehow got to know about our project and he brought along a friend from a news channel with him.

Here's a scan of the article that was published on our project, it's in hindi.

Our project in the newspaper (Dainik Bhaskar)

We were also interviewed by a channel and they showed a clip of our car running on their channel.


We're a group of four members (Arpan Garg, Mahesh Sharma, Lucky Maheshwari, Divy Bhanu Tolambiya), all from the same field of engineering. If you want any more information on the project (since many more things are there), of you are working on something new and think that we could be of assistance or if you have any job opportunity for us or anything else, feel free contact us at arpansac@gmail.com.

Three things were left now. Wiring both the engines and connecting them to batteries (including lights), testing the car on road and getting it painted.

Wiring: This was a complicated part. We did a lot of study on the wiring present in running vehicles but couldn't figure out much at first. So, we went to a nearby car showroom and got some 'real' car mechanics from there who could explain the whole wiring to us. They did it and so we could complete it. We installed the batteries, headlights, brakelights, indicators, fuel indicator, battery indicator and the speedometer.

For the rear engine, we had to get in three more car batteries as it required 4 batteries to run. The car was on the jack and everything tested well, with the wheels rotating on acceleration.

We used one accelerator for both the motors (front and rear), it was a great hack!

Test Run!!: This was the most awaited after 5 months of construction. We started the car, but wait, it was getting full acceleration, but not moving. We were certainly not going to sit and watch that. The engine needed some oil change, the wheels needed more grease, and we needed to make some more changes to the engine's acceleration to make the car moving. We did it.

Paint: We chose the red color to be put on the car. Got it done at a local spray shop who did the job pretty well.

No more words, look at the pictures of the outcome:

Paint job done, seats to be installed

Rear motor with alternator coupled to the same belt and wiring. The batteries are to be kept on the rails behind the rear motor

Accelerator and the brake

The Final Product!

From here on we test drove the car for about 100kms fixing minor glitches coming up here and there. But one more thing, our car could not run on three fuels, petrol, electricity and LPG (because the petrol engine can be fitted with a kit which enable it to run on LPG also).

Final Car Dimensions: Length: 7ft; Width: 4.5ft; Height: 3.5ft.

An additional benefit was a 4 wheel drive mode where both the axles were churning out power. For more technical details on this, you can contact me via mail at: arpansac@gmail.com.

Right now I'm looking for a job in a similar field or some software development because it is also an area of interest for me just like cars and am learning some of those skills.

Now was the task of installing the rear motor (electric) which would make our car, a hybrid one. For this, one of our friends had an electric scooter with a 750W motor in it. It was the best testing vehicle for us. Three of us sat on it and it was still running! This was perfect, because earlier we thought of which motor (what capacity) should be used and we would have to spend a lot of time on it which we didn't have because it was our final semester.

Rear axle and motor

From here onwards the car started to take shape, though it still didn't look that good, but it was never about looks. We wanted to keep it light, get some good amount of space in it to install the rear motor.

Side view of the car with the covered rear portion

The topmost rear portion opens up so that we can have access inside

This was a major change that we had to think of during the construction. The upper part of the frame was adding weight plus was not getting stable, so we had to cut it off. Plus, there was a need to cover the engine and wiring to protect it from the natur (it was a rainy season).

Steering Assembly: We borrowed the steering assembly from the same car that we borrowed the axle.

Engine Installation: In scooters, the rear wheel is fixed on to the engine's rotor. This meant for us to again think of another hack or a tweak so that we could fix it with the front axle of the car. We put it horizontally (meaning that if the wheel was attached to the rotor, then it would have been perpendicular to the car's wheels).

A pulley was mounted on the engine's rotor and a belt from the rotor was connected to another smaller pulley mounted onto the front axle of the car.

Additionally, we used iron sheets (22 guage) to cover up the whole frame and make it look like a car, atleast from the front! These pictures will say the rest.

Right now it looks like a cart but later on the rear end is covered

The hood, some patterns were made by the owner of the shop just for fun

Engine mounted inside the hood

Also, we fixed the master brake cylinder, but the brakes were jammed due to rust, so we fixed them in further days.

Though we had a clear though that we would be using a 100cc engine, but a lot of thought needed to be put on installing it on the chassis and mating it with the front axle.

Engine: As mentioned earlier, we devised that a 100cc engine was sufficient to carry around 350kgs. We went to the scrap store and bought an old engine from Kinetic Honda, an automatic scooter that was very popular around 15 years ago. It was not in a very good condition, but was very cheap, we tested it, it started, so we bought it.

A 100cc 2-wheeler engine borrowed from Kinetic Honda

Rear Suspension: For this, there was nothing available on the internet. We took the springs which are used as suspensions in the Kinetic Honda, cut them and had to weld them using iron strips to the back of the
chassis which in turn was connect to a rod passing through the rear wheel axle. Have a look:

Rear suspension

Next up, we installed the engine and went through a major change in design.

From here, the real construction started, since it was a project and we wanted to keep the cost low, we had to use iron rods (round and square ones) for the construction.

Axle Parts: For the axle and suspensions, we used the parts of Maruti Suzuki 800, a car that was very popular in India and can be seen commonly on the road even today, though it has been out of production for more than a year now.

Suspensions: The next step was to install the front suspensions, weld them to the frame and set up the steering wheel rods so that we could fit them as per the width of the frame. There was some cutting and welding required. You can see it clearly from the pictures that follow.

Front suspensions

 These were mounted in a similar way like it's done it a car, except that this time there wasn't a complete body, we had to use to thick iron strips (0.5 inches thick) welded to the frame. The suspensions were then screwed on to them.

It can be seen clearly in these pictures. We still had to figure out the rear suspensions because we had to fit in an engine/motor at the rear also.











Wheels and Tyres: You can see that the tyres in the above pictures are much smaller than those of a small car. They are borrowed from a scooter (you can Google LML Scooter for getting the idea). The specification as marked on the tyre is 30:50:10.

The question here arises that how did we screw the wheels of a scooter to the axles of a car? Well, that was also not a straight task, we had cut a circular iron disk with holes cut out in two radii. The outer one for screwing the scooter wheels and the inner holes for screwing it to the car axle (It can be imagined easily). You can see it in the picture below if you zoom into the rear wheel.

Zoom into the far end rear tyre to see the disk.

You can contact me if you want to see more pictures.

Finally we were beginning to make it. We found a small open workshop in a village (under a tin shed, literally) with some old tools to use including a welding kit, a drill (don't know the exact specs) and a metal cutter (not the technical name) apart from the usual other tools. It was a very basic set by a mechanic who needed some money and we needed some facilities and space to work. 

The basic outline

 

Checking to see if we could fit inside

 
Okay, now the question arises, how did we decide the dimensions, we took a look at the dimensions of go-karts and some other small cars on the internet and came up with the dimensions of the frame. Though this was not final and a major change was to come up, all thanks to the mechanic.

Thinking on the line of doing something different, we all thought that, today, we see cars coming out with smaller engines, multiple fuel options, smaller size and better fuel efficiency. What could we do?

Then, we saw that in India, in smaller cities (like the one our college was situated in) there are mostly more than 2 people riding a two wheeler. I mean that's even the case with all other forms of ground travel, be it cars, trains or buses, everything is overloaded! But then that's what made us calculate that if a 100cc engine can carry 4 to 5 adults (around 350 kgs) then we could surely use that engine in our car.

But that wasn't enough, we had to make it better. So, I did some research on hybrid cars, their different configurations, on the basic level. Here's what I presented as an abstract to my college:

This is the time, around 5 years later, when I was in the 3rd year of my graduation (Electronics and Communication Engineering, a 4 year course). All the students have to make major project which starts in the third year (at that time it is called as the minor project during the initial period). Again, I thought that this would be the only time that I would get my chance to make my car.

This time I wanted to make a proper car, with a proper steering wheel, accelerator and brakes.

A representation that we got approved.

I had a talk with some of my friends and we explored the city (Bhilwara, Rajasthan, India) to find out if we could get some automobile mechanics who could help us with tools, give us some help in tasks like welding and assembling the chassis and also, a workshop was very much necessary, because we knew that our college wasn't going to fund this or provide any facilities.

Though there was a doubt in our minds, as many people (friends and teachers) laughed off what we were trying to make, still we talked to the Department Head and got our project approved (not the financing part though, but one needs to take the permission to make anything because it gets you marks).

Finally, I could see my dream coming true, making a car. But this time it had to be unique. This time I was a grown up and also had three of my friends to my help. Let's begin!

A simple visualization of the first version of my idea of the car