Seattle Times, Living:
Monday, July 08, 1991

Discovery

Science In Our Times -- Engineering -- Combo Car

Hill Williams
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A Western Washington University professor has designed an environmentally sensitive car that runs on solar power for pollution-free city driving and on natural gas for freeway efficiency.
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When Michael Seal talks, automobile designers listen. Now Seal is talking about an innovative car that could go a long way toward cleaning up the air in traffic-choked cities.

Seal, a professor of technology at Western Washington University in Bellingham, is proposing a sporty two-seater that would run on solar power with zero pollution in city driving but would be capable of burning natural gas for long distance, highway-speed driving.

Seal's work over the past 20 years, prodding auto makers to improve passenger safety, engine efficiency and mileage, has earned the attention if not always the affection of the industry. He and his students have built a series of experimental vehicles showing that many of the ideas are feasible. The latest, Viking 20, a solar-powered car, has attracted international attention. In fact, it took first place two weeks ago in the 670- mile California Clean Air Race, beating the second-place finisher by more than four hours.

The new brainchild, Viking 21, would be the first of its kind. In city driving, 20 horsepower electric motors on each front wheel would move the car at speeds up to 35 miles an hour. Parked for the day, if the sun was out, recessed solar panels would recharge lightweight batteries for the commute home. If there was no sun, the car could plug into a 110-volt outlet for recharging.

Outside the city, the car could switch to an internal-combustion engine running on compressed natural gas to drive the rear wheels through a five- speed gearbox. Seal estimates the car could be driven at freeway speed the 90 miles from Seattle to Bellingham on natural gas costing about 60 cents.

In snow or mud, the electric motors and gas-powered engine could combine for four-wheel drive.

As usual, Seal's purposes extend beyond merely building a car. He hopes Viking 21 will be still another prod to automobile manufacturers to produce low-pollution cars.

"If the technology has been demonstrated, that puts the auto-makers on the hook" to make cars that meet emission standards of the future, Seal said. "But if nobody does any research to say it can be done, they can count on getting the standards eased."

Seal figures that he and students in the university's Vehicle Research Institute could design and build Viking 21 for $250,000. He hopes that some of the money will become available through the state's new clean-air bill. He said the Bonneville Power Administration and Puget Power have indicated they may join the state in financing the project.

Although compressed natural gas is not widely available in the Seattle area, that appears to be changing. Metro, Seattle and King County recently announced plans to convert a few vehicles to operate on compressed- natural gas (CNG) and to establish a CNG station to service them.

In California a law mandating that 10 percent of vehicles sold in the state by the year 2003 must emit no pollution has prompted utilities and oil companies to consider future use of electric- and CNG-propelled cars.

Seal's research to develop methods of converting gasoline-burning engines to CNG has spurred the use of natural gas in Canada, where CNG service stations are becoming more available. Seal, 54, recently received the university's 1991 Paul and Ruth Olscamp Outstanding Research Award, in part for his work on CNG-conversion methods.

Seal proposes a radical wheel design that he expects will cut road drag in half for Viking 21, further increasing mileage. The new design involves two tires mounted on a single rim for all four wheels.

On each wheel, the inner tire would be made of a hard rubber material. In cross-section, it would be almost round, allowing a very small "contact patch" to touch the road.

"During normal running, only the small inner tire would be in contact with the road, greatly reducing rolling resistance," Seal said.

But he said the small tire would not have a good grip on the road. So the other tire on each wheel would be wider and made of soft, high-grip rubber. When the car leaned during cornering or squatted during braking, both tires would be in contact with the road, greatly increasing traction.

In normal running, the wheels would have a negative camber, which means they would lean so the wheel tops would be closer together. In that mode, the small, hard tires on the inside would be the only ones in contact with the road. During braking or turning, the wheels would become vertical to put the wide, soft tires on the road.

As far as Seal knows, Viking 21 will be the first car with the fuel-saving dual tires. He and his students are building test equipment to be sure the idea works.

Viking 21 will feature automatic safety belts, road-lighting equipment, heater, defroster and a radio-tape deck. It will weigh about 1,800 pounds, compared to 2,000 to 3,000 pounds for typical small cars. (Viking 20, the solar racer, weighs only 600 pounds.)

Viking 21 will be 16 feet long, 5 feet wide and only 42 inches high, about the configuration of a Ferrari or Lotus automobile.

Does Seal really think solar-powered vehicles have a future in cloudy Bellingham and Seattle, or would Viking 21's future be in the Sun Belt?

"We get a surprising amount of sun, more than many people realize," Seal said. "But if there's no sun, you could just plug it in to an ordinary 110-volt outlet. The car will be light and streamlined; it wouldn't take much power."

And, he says, Viking 21 would still meet the toughest anti-pollution regulations proposed so far, even in California.

"The solar-electric power is almost completely pollution free," he said. "We're looking at a lightweight, low-rolling-drag, low-aerodynamic-drag car that is practical to go anywhere you want to. And both its sources of fuel are relatively plentiful."

Copyright (c) 1991 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.