Design Your Own Stealth Future-Car
Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:02 am
A recent blog posting I made about runabouts reminded me of an old idea I once pondered for fun. (And by the way, I'm not sure where to put this, so I stuck it here . . . feel free to move it if needed.)
Suppose you could redesign your car (or any modern vehicle of your choice) with canon Starfleet technology, but it still had to look like (and basically function like) a modern-day automobile. As analogy, imagine you're a Gary Seven sort of dude from the 24th Century, and you want to avoid that silly traffic accident thing that killed those other agents. For kicks you could even throw in some Knight Rider-esque tech, or whatever you wanted.
If you prefer, you may use Star Wars technology instead, or both if you're feeling frisky.
For mine:
I would make the outer shell a thin sheet of duranium, which IIRC is the lighter metal (tritanium being more dense), with the frame being the same. Done properly, I imagine you might be able to stay within the weight limits of a real car, while probably having a great deal more strength. Transparent aluminum for all the glass, of course.
For the engine I'd want to use some sort of small fusion reactor or similar, and you could probably use off-the-shelf modern hybrid electric car components for much of this. The fusion reactor could be in place of the gasoline engine in modern cars. (Extra points if you use Star Wars "diesel fusion" tech so you can put gas in it!) Sarium krellide power cells in place of lithium ion, of course (assuming they're canon). And if you need proper engine noise, dampen the real sounds and install an off-the-shelf sound system that replicates real engines (yes, those exist, so that the rice-burners can make 8-cylinder Detroit sound effects).
Assuming that the powerplant is far more powerful than any modern system, you'll probably want to do something with the undercarriage . . . replacing gears and/or upgrading electric motors. Personally, I'd try to make sure the whole engine assembly fit in the central hump/console area so the areas under the hood and trunk / rear hatch are wide open for whatever other equipment is desired.
Inertial dampeners and antigrav tech are the crowning achievement here, for several reasons. First, on the inside you can use them to make even psychotic-speed accidents (or rammings) safe for the occupants. Second, you could make the vehicle capable of absurd turns. Imagine doing a hairpin turn at 200mph because you can . . . tires never losing grip due to the car acting like it's in a 20g environment, and you not being smushed against the side.
Speaking of tires, you'll wanna do something about those, too. Such a maneuver as above would certainly blow any tire now known.
The interior should probably be kept relatively close to stock, in case you need to make it through a checkpoint or have passengers who do not need to know what's up. I'd have a little LCARS panel in front of the sunroof that required some trick to make active.
That panel could control sensors and whatnot . . . one wouldn't want to get caught doing 200mph, would one? Even merely being seen on a traffic camera could be bad. Options here include applying cloaking technology or some other identity-obscuring technology for the vehicle, at least against electronic measures like cameras or radar.
And, of course, no geek wank would be complete without arming the thing. Phasers and microtorpedoes with some sort of steering wheel firing control (cleverly disguised as cruise control or radio controls or something else innocuous) would be my choice there, with some sort of targeting system based on where I'm looking, as well as options for sending a torpedo into structures for specific-room knockouts.
A small transporter would be a nice touch, too, though this works best if you're doing it all in a van. (Indeed, a full-size van would be incredibly pimp for this purpose.)
That's the basic stuff I can come up with. What do you want yours to have?
Suppose you could redesign your car (or any modern vehicle of your choice) with canon Starfleet technology, but it still had to look like (and basically function like) a modern-day automobile. As analogy, imagine you're a Gary Seven sort of dude from the 24th Century, and you want to avoid that silly traffic accident thing that killed those other agents. For kicks you could even throw in some Knight Rider-esque tech, or whatever you wanted.
If you prefer, you may use Star Wars technology instead, or both if you're feeling frisky.
For mine:
I would make the outer shell a thin sheet of duranium, which IIRC is the lighter metal (tritanium being more dense), with the frame being the same. Done properly, I imagine you might be able to stay within the weight limits of a real car, while probably having a great deal more strength. Transparent aluminum for all the glass, of course.
For the engine I'd want to use some sort of small fusion reactor or similar, and you could probably use off-the-shelf modern hybrid electric car components for much of this. The fusion reactor could be in place of the gasoline engine in modern cars. (Extra points if you use Star Wars "diesel fusion" tech so you can put gas in it!) Sarium krellide power cells in place of lithium ion, of course (assuming they're canon). And if you need proper engine noise, dampen the real sounds and install an off-the-shelf sound system that replicates real engines (yes, those exist, so that the rice-burners can make 8-cylinder Detroit sound effects).
Assuming that the powerplant is far more powerful than any modern system, you'll probably want to do something with the undercarriage . . . replacing gears and/or upgrading electric motors. Personally, I'd try to make sure the whole engine assembly fit in the central hump/console area so the areas under the hood and trunk / rear hatch are wide open for whatever other equipment is desired.
Inertial dampeners and antigrav tech are the crowning achievement here, for several reasons. First, on the inside you can use them to make even psychotic-speed accidents (or rammings) safe for the occupants. Second, you could make the vehicle capable of absurd turns. Imagine doing a hairpin turn at 200mph because you can . . . tires never losing grip due to the car acting like it's in a 20g environment, and you not being smushed against the side.
Speaking of tires, you'll wanna do something about those, too. Such a maneuver as above would certainly blow any tire now known.
The interior should probably be kept relatively close to stock, in case you need to make it through a checkpoint or have passengers who do not need to know what's up. I'd have a little LCARS panel in front of the sunroof that required some trick to make active.
That panel could control sensors and whatnot . . . one wouldn't want to get caught doing 200mph, would one? Even merely being seen on a traffic camera could be bad. Options here include applying cloaking technology or some other identity-obscuring technology for the vehicle, at least against electronic measures like cameras or radar.
And, of course, no geek wank would be complete without arming the thing. Phasers and microtorpedoes with some sort of steering wheel firing control (cleverly disguised as cruise control or radio controls or something else innocuous) would be my choice there, with some sort of targeting system based on where I'm looking, as well as options for sending a torpedo into structures for specific-room knockouts.
A small transporter would be a nice touch, too, though this works best if you're doing it all in a van. (Indeed, a full-size van would be incredibly pimp for this purpose.)
That's the basic stuff I can come up with. What do you want yours to have?