05/31/21 I'm a firm believer that the value of knowledge is in its use. I have learned quite a bit in the 20-some years that I've been designing and building cars. Time to put all of the knowledge gathered so far to use. And that's what the D9 (and the concurrent development of the D8) is all about.

Going forward, the D8 and D9 will be our lineup, with D8 replacing the D2 and D9 replacing both D1 and D4. And, knowing that the future is electric, the D9 will be electric only.

It won't be boring - leveraging our long-running relationship with Cascadia Motion and my separate new venture Modular Battery Technologies Inc (ModBatt). The target spec is 350+KW (470+hp) at 1,500 lbs with driver, in the proven AWD platform that powered versions of D1 to Pikes Peak podium three times. This will actually be a bit more power than the Hartley V8 in the D1 (430hp for that one), at almost identical weight.

A bit of history is in order. Back in '09 I connected with Larry Rinehart, the founder of RMS (now Cascadia), and we used my original dp1 chassis as the test bed for his then-new PM-100 inverter (as a side note, the Hayabusa engine that came out of the dp1 went into the first D4). The project became the dp1/e and much was learned from it. Browse that blog - the ReFuel time trial entry at Laguna was particularly eventful :)

The dp1/e used a small capacity LiFePO4 battery pack and was battery-limited to about 50hp. The motor was a Remy HVH-250 in factory housing. Remy was later acquired by BorgWarner, as was RMS.

Ten years later, with newly formed Cascadia under BorgWarner ownership, we created the two D2EV prototypes and successfully competed at both Pikes Peak and Bonnevile with same car in 2019.

With three Cascadia motors and inverters providing dyno-verified 1,350 hp, the D2EV is the most powerful and complex car we've built so far. The D9 will essentially use one third of that drivetrain, with evolutionary improvements of course.

Originally, the D4 was an exercise in seeing how small I can make a car while still being able to fit real people (up to 6'3" and 250lbs) and put decent horsepower (400+hp) to the pavement. It succeeded at all those goals, but over the years I've come to wish for a slightly longer wheelbase than its compact 68" dimension. It would allow the driver to sit less upright, which is also necessary for raising the feet for the airskirt ducting.

So the new car sports a 72" wheelbase, retaining the 68" width. The front/rear chain drive has proven to be extremely effective and reliable, so that will be retained as well.

Early concept CAD below shows the comparison of D4 (dark body, grey wing) and D9 (light body, black wing).

To evolve our safety architecture, the chromoly rollcage of the D1PPS will be combined with an aerodynamic cover to form the new 'halo cockpit'. There is no windshield, and the front opening is the alternative exit route for the driver should the car end up inverted. The aero effectiveness of this setup was proven during our 2012 Pikes Peak testing.

The new airskirt needs a large air intake at the front so the nose has been redesigned accordingly.

And so with all of that - I present the new D9:

The bodywork will be one piece like on D1/D4 (incorporating the cockpit cover) and will pivot at the back, together with the wing - similar to how the original dp1/e was set up. But again with evolutionary improvements.

The headlights serve a purpose - the modular ModBatt batteries will make it possible for a pure EV to participate in endurance racing, and that is very much part of the plan.

A lot of detail CAD and CFD still needs to be done, but we are moving forward with the project and target being ready for machining the mold patterns by end of June.

And yes we're taking pre-orders, with a refundable deposit. Contact me if interested.

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