Power Wheelchairs, Star Tours And The "500" Platform: Taking The Road Car Concept Into The Future...

This year, I didn't plan-on picking anyone's brain; 2015 was a year for personal vision. But this was a frustrating process, because I was growing-apart from my family. I never meant for that to happen, but because none of us seem to know how, effectively, to communicate our frustrations, we bicker instead!

For myself, it's not pleasurable. But I do get to a point, where I can not visually show--my parents and others--what it is that I have in mind. So this is a blog, but this is also my "love letter" to the aftermarket. I need your help, because my dad does a decent job of teaching me what he knows, but his resources and mine are just not enough, at least for a custom build.

Nobody in my social circle, including myself, will be able to do this financially. But what my "sketch" is essentially representing, is a disabled-accessible platform, but one that is based on a pre-existing road car.

Here's why I use that phrase: muscle car refers to Chevelles and things like that. There's nothing wrong with that platform, except that what used to be a $25-30k Chevelle is now a $100k+ muscle build. This is mainly due to a need for adaptive equipment, and that will end up cutting-into an original, factory-certified muscle car.

With a kit car, or "road car," it's expensive. One thing I will grant everyone who reads this blog, is that by the time either the "Permobil 500" or Cobra-based, "CSX500" are completed, either would be a $250-300k, one-off car. Either is to be a custom, and either is to cater to the physically-challenged, yet higher-functioning enthusiast.

Included in this blog are some nice-quality shots of what the finished result could look like. But what I want people to really see, is that these cars can cost as much as any conventional hot rod, and that's still under the assumption that you're trying to make the car/vehicle accessible. Take a look at the overall sketch, and I think that it will start to make sense...

Permobil C-300 Performance Stats

Our mission, for the purposes of establishing performance brackets on our Permobil C-300 power chair, was to run the vehicle under substantial, off-road environments. In this case, our playground of choice was none other than the San Fernando Valley's own, Balboa Lake.

So we were more interested in achieving sustainable distance than we were in grabbing on to any kind of outright performance, but what we did find made sense and was mind-boggling, all at the same time. It appears that when one pilot tries to grab on to all three of the power chair's performance variables simultaneously, the chair's running gear simply won't allow for that synchrocity. Maybe because of accessory drag, or maybe the vehicle has some kind of rev limiter.

Whatever the case, we know that if what is true of the C-300 platform is true across the board, then most power chairs currently available simply can not sustain the variables needed to meet most environmental demands. Apparently, the adaptive market has been one of our nation's smallest, even after the dawn of our very own, civil rights bill.