I'm 34 years old.
Dabbled a bit in engineering. Know a bit about air induction, bit about exhaust, little bit of fluid flow theory...
... emissions, carbon can design, student of suspension design, ride, handling, DV planning, project management, vehicle electrical distribution...
... vehicle electronics & diagnostics, in-line testing, manufacturing, process development, quality systems, quality in process...
... bit about alloys, bit about FR materials, plastics, moulding, casting, engine dyno testing, cooling systems, braking systems...
... oh, bit about styling, bit about aero, why torque is not important, why power is, thermodynamics, camshaft design, turbo-charging, supercharging...
... fuel systems, fuel types, charge-cooling, water-injection, nitrous theory and why engines that use it need to be built differently, bit a bit of gas turbine work at uni, solenoid valve engines, catalytic engines, direct injection engines...
... road cars, race cars, track cars, drag cars, mid-engined car theory, front-drive, rear-drive, four-wheel drive - heh, even 'SUV's (whatever they are)...
... bit about vehicle history, bit about tyres, bit about safety, crash regs, legals and certification....
... closures, sealing, wind noise - oh, yeah, NVH in general, drive-by noise...
I've worked for Jaguar and Aston Martin, a few tier ones...
I took a composites course in my degree specifically so I knew how to construct a FR tub in the future. Then I bought and built a kit car made in that way... improved the design a bit on the way... flogged it, moved on...
... nothing special, really. Turned down working for IAD at uni. Turned down working for Reynard because the pay was... not good. I know people at Renault F1, McLaren F1, Williams, Prodrive... I chat to Dennis Palatov (his excellent website was mentioned earlier and you'd be a fool not to read it from start to finish) and have monitored the development of a number of 'web-public' vehicle projects with interest. I know a few race drivers of various skills, I've even punted the odd single seater race car around a circuit or two, in among the Astons, Jaguars, Lamborghinis, Bentleys (cough) and Porsches.
I'm fairly bright. I get on.
So far, I think you've written some numbers down and had some ideas. But I'm not sure if you understand what you're getting into here.
Being a vehicle engineer is (oftentimes) getting to the target using the minimum fuss. Sounds to me like you want to make an engine. Well, developing an engine from scratch is hard - not impossible - but certainly a drain on resources when you consider that (as other people have mentioned) there are plenty of easy ways of making 700, 800 or even 1200hp, all on pump fuel. I could build a reliable, everyday usable, all-alloy, twin-turbo 1000hp engine for less than £10,000. It would never pass a single government emissions regulation, but I could do it with a set of hand tools and off the shelf parts. I wouldn't necessarily need to do that... I could probably buy an off the shelf engine for £25k that might even pass emissions regs, but a 9+ litre supercharger big-block V8 would probably look a bit silly in a car weighing just over a tonne.
Okay, you want to develop an engine, fine. What about the chassis? This is an order of magnitude harder. To get the compromise right is extremely difficult - you might spend a year just figuring out what you want. And as soon as your car does more than 120mph (or 90mph, if you bought an original Audi TT) you'll need to have a very good understanding of aerodynamics. Oh, it's not impossible, but it gets exponentially more difficult the faster you go. Ask Koenigsegg - don't forget, their car tried to kill the Stig. Or Spyker - their first C8 Laviolette failed the UK SVA test so badly it had to be towed off the site. Let's try harder - Ascari - lots of race engineers, made a nice car no-one bought, moved out of the UK. Or Gumpert - ex-Audi motorsport chief, knows the odd thing about cars. Ask Lee Noble... or Gordon Murray.
I tell you what. If you can (given all the numbers you've quoted) explain to me what the single most important component (or system) on your car is, how you're going to design the rest of the car around it, calculate the capabilities of the car around it, test it and validate it... and thus know it to be the cornerstone of your machine and therefore the ultimate success or demise of your product around it... then I'll offer my advice and council for free. Lee Noble and Gordon Murray would say it faster than you can snap your fingers.
No-one else is allowed to guess publicly here, mPWRD, this is just for you. What is that component/system?
I've only just stopped laughing about the fact that he considered them!
The Brabus Roadster that is..
