When configured for driving the nose and tail sections are in a lowered position.
| The Stackable Rental Car or SRC would be almost 16 feet long
and seat three. It would weigh 2400 to 2800 pounds.
When configured for driving the nose and tail sections are in a lowered position. |
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If designed as a pure electric vehicle the car would have a 40 mile range. This would be sufficient if the SRC was intended to serve as a station car, since millions of suburbanites live within five miles of a commuter rail line. The SRC could also be a hybrid, using a 60 HP internal combustion engine to turn a generator. As a hybrid the SRC would have a 300+ mile range. Since shared cars typically do 50 miles per day, the first SRC would need some form of engine, probably burning natural gas or propane.
| A 50 percentile (average height) adult male, 5 feet 9 inches
tall, is shown for scale. The car is taller at 5 feet, 11 inches.
There would be enough room for two adults and one 8 year old child. The adults shown are 50 percentile adult males. Guide pins are visible beneath the car. These align the car to a track during stacking. |
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Safety Features
The cabin is inset 6 inches from the outside of the lower body. And the cabin floor is 24 inches above the ground. This floor is 18 inches higher than that of a small sedan's. The door is reinforced with two curved, 9 inch wide, metal bars. With a higher, inset cabin and door bars the SRC will be safer than a typical small car in a side collision. The SRC would be longer, wider, and heavier than a VW Cabriolet, which is a convertible. With a longer nose, the SRC would provide better protection from a frontal impact. The complete roof will provide better protection in the event of a roll over. And the SRC's high, narrow cabin, sitting on a wide frame, will provide more protection in a side collision. Consider that the VW Cabriolet is safer than the average car with only 1.3 deaths per year per 10,000 vehicles. The average for all cars on American roads is 2 deaths per 10,000. These statistics were true in 1992
| A pivoting tail section protects the occupants from a rear end collision. The tail section frame is a cushion of aluminum tubing and stabilized aluminum foam which would absorb the energy of a rear end collision. |  |
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The lower body supports the cabin and end sections. This lower body would contain batteries and the motor, as seen on sheet 4, or a conventional engine.
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