I suspect the thickness of the Leaf A pillar is significantly about rollover protection and weight as someone else mentioned. I am not sure you can move the front glass far forward of the driver and roll it far around to the rear without making it very stout. That little A & a half pillar on the Leaf makes a useless window, but adds a lot of strength.
I have worked with automotive styling (well, truck styling, but I know the drill), the engineers get their marching orders after the styling guys have their fantastic whacks at it. It goes like this: "Here is what it must look like, make it happen." The Leaf workups probably had better visibility, but the A pillar grew for practicalities sake. You can debate the visibility part, but you can't sell it if it won't pass the rollover tests. On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 5:59 PM, Lee Hart <[email protected]> wrote: > Michael Ross wrote: > >> Right, this is not an EV problem per se. But since EVs are range >> compromised, and efficiency is a selling point, the temptation is to move >> the A pillars as with the Leaf. >> > > I'd say this has a lot more to do with styling than aerodynamics. An > A-pillar can be amazingly small if it is designed to be. The auto companies > prefer to make them out of the same sheet metal as the rest of the body, to > save cost. > > There is also a tendency to paint an inch or more of the edge of the > glass, further reducing visibility. I'm told this is to hide the glue that > bonds the windshield to the body. > > -- > Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. > -- Albert Einstein > -- > Lee Hart -- See my Xmas projects at www.sunrise-ev.com/projects.htm > > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/ > group/NEDRA) > > -- Put this question to yourself: should I use everyone else to attain happiness, or should I help others gain happiness? *Dalai Lama * Tell me what it is you plan to do WIth your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver, "The summer day." To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. Thomas A. Edison<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasaed125362.html> A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought. *Warren Buffet* Michael E. Ross (919) 550-2430 Land (919) 576-0824 <https://www.google.com/voice/b/0?pli=1#phones> Google Phone (919) 631-1451 Cell (919) 513-0418 Desk [email protected] <[email protected]> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20131215/c39f2a98/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
