Carbon Fiber parts...

Ahh, so you want a Prius "funny car." I would approach the problem by first getting homebuilt aircraft manuals and sample kits on how to build composite aircraft. Use hot-wire formed foam covered with either fiberglass or carbon fiber and you're good to go to make whatever part you want.

I would start by taking off every removable body part, weighting them, and then starting from the heaviest, make a foam and fiberglass substitute. On my short list:

• doors - keep the safety glass but everything else can be a light-weight, foam and fiberglass door. Use them to make molds for the foam and fiberglass substitute
• hood - use the original to make the mold for the foam and fiberglass replacement
• hatch back - take off the glass and weight the frame
• bumper covers - currently a thermal plastic, foam and fiber glass would be a lot lighter and you can keep the covers to replace them when the foam and fiberglass ones break (make several so you'll have ready spares)
• seats - foam and fiberglass but you need to do a stress analysis to see how much you can take out
• rebuild tank - very advanced, pull the tank, and transplant the guts into a foam and fiberglass tank of your own construction. There are several technical challenges to solve so you'll need the maintenance manuals.
• replace spare with a couple of cans of instant sealer, AAA membership and a cell phone

Understand that after you strip all these parts off, you need to weigh the remaining body and parts. The vehicle will never weight less than that amount. However, after you get experience building foam and fiberglass doors, hood, hatchback, and bumper covers, you'll have enough experience to consider replacing the rest.

Bob Wilson

 

Lowest Cd != lowest drag. The actual drag of the vehicle can be reduced by cutting down on the "wetted area" of the skin. Of course, you'd need to do this while maintaining an aerodynamic shape in order to avoid inadvertantly increasing the profile drag.