The Inhaler Project

We’re still here, and still chipping away at our goals.  All three hot rods are making slow, but steady, progress.  There are more carbon fiber body parts coming up for the Model E, as well as getting the motor mounted and hooked up to the rear end.  Schism is now officially a door-less roadster concept, and getting closer to roaming the streets.  The G-bucket Roadster prototype is also officially underway.

My apologies for nearly two months with no updates here.  Our Facebook Page has been updated pretty regularly, so if you’re ever starving for a little rock star hot rod fix, and can’t find it it here, check there; and please “Like” it.

The main reason for the silence is we were up to our intakes in getting the hot rods ready for an Economic-Education Summit.  We were special guests of the Ohio Department of Education, for the Advanced Manufacturing segment of the event, and pitched the G-bucket component cars as a tool to help vocational-technical students in Ohio schools learn manufacturing.  We took the Model E, and a bare G-bucket chassis (pic below).

Now we’re back to business, back to our regularly scheduled pace, building rock star hot rods.  We now have three, count ‘em three, hot rods going together in the shop.  Of course, the Model E; Todd’s Schism project, the 1st G-bucket prototype; and the 2nd G-bucket prototype (chassis on the fixture, above).  The 2nd prototype will be the actual production mule, to develop the parts and procedures for cranking out kits.  Schism, in the meantime, has been liberated of its roll cage, and production-related responsibilities, and will be used to demonstrate the potential of the platform for hardcore roll-your-own types.

We’re taking orders for kits now!  For our first BETA customers, we offer the opportunity to have your chassis custom-built to suit your individual needs and desires, for the price of a regular production package.  If you’re local to the Central Ohio area, we’ll even work with you to help develop your car!

Contact us for more information.

It took two years, countless hours of research and design, and the mind-numbing pace of technological growth, but we have finally nailed down the plan for the Inhaler Model E’s lofty goals.  Aesthetically, all the essential ingredients had to be hidden, unassumingly, under the vintage skin – in the exact form factor we desired.  Yes, function following form is contradictory to conventional practice, but we are not a conventional kind of company.  Dynamically, those same ingredients had to be capable of delivering over a megawatt of (all-electric) power.  That is because the comprehensive design of the Model E is as much a promise (of incredible performance), as it is a pretty face.  1g lateral, <2 seconds 0-60mph, 8.50 second 1/4-mile ET, and >200mph top speed, from a fine art piece, do not come easily.

Now that the battle plan has been scribed in stone, the elite warriors of Team Inhaler have been hard at work transforming the Model E into a very sinister looking, street-legal, race car.  The rear wheels have been pushed back 18″, affording us 108″ between the axle center lines.  The bed is in the process of being stretched to match (molds created, and stretch panels being made in them).  It should be back together, in mock-up form, in a matter of days.  Pics of the new stance coming soon; until then, here are a few of us in sparks and fumes.

G-bucket F23 Concept Art

Where have we been, lately?  Hard at work, creating the first Inhaler Project commercial products – the “G-bucket” line of component car packages, which will allow you to have a little rock star hot rod in your life!  The first prototype is on the fixture and under contruction as this post is being typed.  We have the “organ donor” (car) stripped, and the parts and supplies we need waiting in the wings.  In a matter of weeks, we will have two unique little hot rods sitting on the Inhaler Project studio floor.  Build coverage of the first prototype, and a revised website to reveal the important details, coming soon…

We hope your holidays are full of joy and laughter!  In the coming year, we will be pushing hard to have the Inhaler running and on it’s way to record-setting performance feats, and we are fast-tracking production of the G-bucket kit cars, so that any of you can have a little rock star hot rod in your life!  Production of the first prototype has already begun, and we plan to be in full production at some point in 2012!  Order ‘em while they’re hot!

We have a long way to go, but the walls are finally standing on the Inhaler Project design and production studio!  The theme of the space is decidely “Romanesque”, featuring large columns and arches.  The metal arc over the doorway (highlighted in green in the second pic) is the support beam for a stone arch that will feature the Inhaler Project logo carved in the center.  The stone arches and columns will actually be CAD/CNC-cut foam, skinned with a faux stone finish, to appear as if the ancient Romans traveled through time to build a suitable production space for the little rock star hot rods and its kit car offspring.  That center arch will be supported by four massive columns, and will frame large etched-glass doors.

Okay, okay, so maybe the ancient Romans didn’t have the technology to make etched glass doors, and the glass  will actually be polycarbonate, cut on a CNC router table, but it will still be awesome!  Eventually, the walls will be exended four more feet towards the heavens, with more CAD/CNC-cut, stone-finish, panels that will be an artistic interpretation of how the Romans chiseled scenes into stone on the sides of their buildings.

You didn’t really expect us to have a normal place to build extraordinary toys did you?!

Now it gets serious!  The masking tape dashes on the floor mark where walls are soon to rise, establishing the new design studio for ongoing development of the Inhaler Project and its G-bucket component car sibling!  The studio will, eventually, be as extravagant as the vehicles themselves.

Just behind the Inhaler, you can squint a little and see more dotted tape lines marking the location of the frame table/heavy fabrication area.  On the back wall, and also to the left of the Inhaler, are the other workstations.  Center stage, of course, is the one and only rock star hot rod – always the attention hog!  In the far corner, behind it, is the Todd Perkins Design on-site (cubicle) office.  The (design) madness will emanate from this spot, out into the workspaces, into the vehicles, and into your lives, to warp reality, as you knew it!

Since early 2009, I have been experiementing with every conceivable electric propulsion concept I could get my “mind’s hands” on, looking for the ultimate combination.  Though all of the current production and high-end racing EV projects seem to be based on AC induction or BLDC motor technology, the Inhaler has been mostly centered on DC motor technology, because no other format provides the amazing power density if offers.  The main stumbling block has been the availability of a DC motor controller that would facilitate 1+MW of power.  That barrier is in the process of being utterly destroyed by a company named Evnetics, based out of St Peterburg, FL.  I have been talking publicly and privately with them about such a beast, for the past couple years, and its day has finally come!  The first prototype is currently in development.

I have had quite the challenge over the past weeks, tweaking the plans that would allow full and complete exploration of over a megawatt of power, based on the forthcoming Evnetics controller!  Here’s where it stands, so far:  Two 11″ DC motors, coupled end-to-end, located in the center of the vehicle.  Full torque is sent, full-time, to a solid rear end (more on that choice later) from the rear output shaft of the rear motor; and to the front wheels via an electronically controlled torque vectoring unit on the front output shaft of the front traction motor.  The front wheels are driven by a chassis mounted differential, and race-spec CV axles.  Also geared into the front wheels is a third motor, most likely a small AC induction motor.  Its purpose is to provide regenerative braking capability, and electronic reversing.  The large, supercharger style, forced-air cooling unit occupies the other side, and also provides a drive system for power steering and hydra-boost braking systems.  The 1+MW motor controller is located behind the driver, and the LiPo battery pack behind the passenger.

With the antique-inspired skin in place, every square inch of this modern componentry would be totally concealed.  In fact, there wouldn’t even be an identifiable drive system.  The little rock star would, deceptively, appear to be nothing more than a fanciful conversation piece ~ an automotive-themed coffee table!

In the foreground: the first glimpse of the next round of art and drawings for the Inhaler. Lurking in the smoky shadows: its younger sibling.

As we figuratively point the Inhaler’s nose towards the stratosphere, in search of maximum, mid-motored, all-wheel-drive, performance, we find in the clearing smoke of its ascent – a new concept.

A down-to-Earth, practical, ensemble of some of the ideas that didn’t quite suit the little rock star, will soon be introduced as a component car platform, affectionately dubbed the “G-bucket” kit.  With it, you will be able to build and enjoy your own little celebrity hot rod.  To begin this voyage, we have entered the G-bucket plan in a local business launch competition, called “1492″, to be tutored and nudged to excellence by some of the brightest business and technology minds in the city.

Stay tuned for more details…

With the stretch to 108″ between the axles comes the opportunity to explore the limits of the Inhaler design concept.  Incredible freedom in component layout is the most obvious benefit, and the most tantalizing option is a mid-motored, all-wheel-drive, platform, with C5/6 Corvette-based independent rear suspension (IRS).  IRS would also create the need for rear suspension fairings to cover the modern control arms, which might help balance the radical aesthetic component in front.

As of this writing, this is mostly an exercise in design.  Prompted by enough smiles and giggles, it could easily become the little rock star hot rod’s new reality.