The Leading Edge (Engineering and Performance) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Leading Edge is the first book to summarize the aerodynamic design and construction issues of solar cars and ultralight land vehicles. Author Goro Tamai draws on his own experience in designing solar cars at MIT to produce a book for the ground-up streamlined land-vehicle designer or constructor, as well as for the solar/electric/ultralight vehicle enthusiast. As with any engineering problem, the "best" body shape for solar cars, HPVs, or Electrathoners is not the body of absolute lowest drag. The vehicle system, including the driver, chassis, and energy/drive system must work in concert to produce the maximum output. The Leading Edge will help designers quantify the trade-offs, and make logical decisions.

- Vehicles covered include solar cars, human-powered vehicles (HPV), solar bikes, electrathon racers, ground-up hybrid or pure electric vehicles, and fuel-economy record cars

- Numerous examples using specific race cars and teams, and how designers solved problems

- Full definition of terms, with equations and examples provided for determining key aerodynamic parameters

- All design and construction issues, from body shape, to wheels, to canopy integration, to solar panel sizing

- How to do in-the-field testing and diagnosis of aerodynamic performance

- Special overview section reviews the history of ultra-streamlined land vehicle development

"An excellent review of the problem of low-drag ground vehicle aerodynamics, filled with references and design examples. It allows the reader to understand the issues involved and quickly come up with a preliminary design, leaving time for the oft-neglected detail work and testing." Jacek Gromadzki, aerodynamicist, 1997 University of Waterloo Solar Car Team

"The Leading Edge is an extensive treatise on the aerodynamics of streamlined land vehicles...It is a valuable contribution towards advancing the technology in this important field." Mark Drela, Professor, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

"I wish I had access to this book when I was designing human-powered vehicles. While I've read a lot of the same references, this book pulls them all together and I might have done things a little differently." Douglas Milliken, co-author of Race Car Vehicle Dynamics (SAE, 1995)

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Bentley Publishers; 1 edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0837608600
• ISBN-13: 978-0837608600
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #669,472 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best mix of aero theory and real-world examples., August 21, 1999

By	[e-mail] - See all my reviews

Mr. Tamai has combined understandable theory with real-world operational examples of ultra-light land vehicle aerodynamics. Anyone even thinking about working in this field MUST have this book.

As a person who has worked on such vehicles for about a decade, I can say that there is a vast void in ground-vehicle aero literature; and what is available is pretty incomprehensible to a civilian.

As a person who is trying to figure out how all the formulas and charts relate to something I'm actually trying to design and build, I can say that Mr. Tamai references the theory to concrete examples in a way that is unparalleled in this field.

The biggest compliment I can pay to Mr. Tamai is to say that his book is a key tool for the shop. Builders respect his credentials, which include being a top-notch scholar as well as a winning solar-car racer, driver, and builder for many years.

Our team copy is this minute in the hands of an expert composites person who is building a potential world-speed-record racing dirtboat/land-yacht/sand-sailer.

Amazon, I hope you sell a lot of these books! Mr. Tamai deserves to make some actual money from his brilliant work.

Cheers, Richard Rahders, '96 Aussie Team Manager, TNE @ Santa Cruz Solar Racers, "Pumpkinseed" #69, World Solar Challenge '96, Santa Cruz, CA.

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, May 30, 2009

By	Kyle - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is very useful for anyone working with solar or human-powered vehicles. It is the only book of its kind for these types of prototype vehicles and is well worth the money. I'm working on a car for a supermileage competition and this book has been a big help.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Benchmarking Book for Aerodynamic Vehicles, August 3, 2008

By	Kraig Schultz "Kraig" (Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am working on building my first aerodynamic vehicle platform.

This book was helpful to me. It helped me learn about various ways people are solving aerodynamic issues with light-weight vehicles. It compared various vehicles and presented related data. It has lots of pictures and graphs. It gives a lot of food for thought for someone new to aerodynamic vehicle design issues.

I'd recommend this to anyone designing or building electric or human powered vehicles.