Lil4X
Elio Addict
Someone asked me a few days ago would the Elio, on account of its minimal frontal area be stealthy to traffic radar . . . well, after a little research and head-scratching I've come to a couple of ideas, if not absolute answers. First of all, the reduced frontal area of the Elio would help make it more stealthy than say your ordinary over-the-road 18 wheeler that can probably be seen a mile away by any competent K or Ku-band traffic radar. But the matter of stealth doesn't always relate directly to size.
At one time Corvettes were thought to be pretty stealthy because of the composite body, but it turned out it wasn't so much the body at all, but the laid-back radiator that deflected some of the incoming radar signals . . . sort of like the F-117 that achieved near radar invisibility by deflecting incoming pulses in all directions, leaving little or nothing to return to the radar's receiver. You could cover your car with "rubber" (actually a sophisticated and purpose-built soft composite containing high-frequency "wave traps") that "absorbed" the incoming radar signal and dissipated it internally. Of course it was lumpen, ugly, flat black, and looked like it had been applied in a barn. And it was expensive . . . if you could get your hands on it. Being a near-military grade product, you might have the FBI visiting you after a fair-sized purchase.
But there was something that was always a dead giveaway to radar, despite the best efforts of highway miscreants who attempted to foil radar - that big honkin' engine block. It stood out like the sun on a bright afternoon. I happened on this phenomenon back in the mid-seventies when a group of us boating enthusiasts "borrowed" a police radar to calibrate our tachometers for "predicted log" contests that work largely as an auto rally. You traveled on a compass heading for so long at a certain speed before turning on a new heading and changing speed. Where (and when) you wound up was judged, and a winner selected from among the skippers who were most accurate. Because a speedometer was illegal (and not too accurate) in these contests, you set your speed by engine RPM (those having interchangeable props had speed curves for each one).
Our "radar operator" stood on a pier as individual boats powered straight toward him, then broke away. The operator would train his gun on a boat and read off the indicated speed via radio to the skipper who made notes of his tach readings. That worked fine on paper, but we had a little difficulty in practice. It seems readings varied considerably in strength. Wooden boats were pretty easily read, fiberglass, not so much. We thought it was the construction, but the answer turned out to be a little more convoluted. It seems that big wooden boats rose high on their transoms at high speed, throwing the bow high into the air. The radar was actually acquiring the engine block(s) deep within the hull and due to the vessel's "squat" they were being partially hidden by the bow wave and the engines were no longer on a "line of sight" with the radar. Fiberglass boats, being somewhat lighter didn't "dig" in quite so much at the same speeds and for the radar, they were somewhat less difficult to acquire, their engine block being slightly more exposed at high speed.
To make things worse, outboards were near invisible because the block was so narrow. We eventually solved the problem by each vessel hoisting a "corner reflector" ordinarily used to make vessels more visible to radar - and because it returned a radar pulse along the line of the incident beam, no matter what the angle it acquired it, the boat, large or small, stood out like a beacon to the radar.
Your Elio, with it's transverse engine block is going to be pretty visible to radar, regardless of its size or small cross-section, thanks to that block presenting a decent-sized target to the incoming signal. But now the good news . . .
Most traffic enforcement is done today with LIDAR, a laser beam reflected off your vehicle that operates pretty much like radar. Your Elio is going to be a pretty small target to illuminate at longer ranges, and you have one stealth item going for you: No front license plate.
It seems that most states have now put a UV reflective sig in the background of license plates that makes them much more easily read by Lidar. It's really the primary reason we still have front plates at all. As a motorcycle, your Elio won't have a front plate, and that Lidar is going to have to find some small flat surface to bounce those UV waves off of. There isn't a lot of that, if you've looked at the front end of an Elio recently.
So, is your Elio going to be safe to drive through speed traps? Theoretically, maybe a bit more so than a conventional automobile, but don't count on it. You may be a smaller target, but you're still in the cross-hairs.
At one time Corvettes were thought to be pretty stealthy because of the composite body, but it turned out it wasn't so much the body at all, but the laid-back radiator that deflected some of the incoming radar signals . . . sort of like the F-117 that achieved near radar invisibility by deflecting incoming pulses in all directions, leaving little or nothing to return to the radar's receiver. You could cover your car with "rubber" (actually a sophisticated and purpose-built soft composite containing high-frequency "wave traps") that "absorbed" the incoming radar signal and dissipated it internally. Of course it was lumpen, ugly, flat black, and looked like it had been applied in a barn. And it was expensive . . . if you could get your hands on it. Being a near-military grade product, you might have the FBI visiting you after a fair-sized purchase.
But there was something that was always a dead giveaway to radar, despite the best efforts of highway miscreants who attempted to foil radar - that big honkin' engine block. It stood out like the sun on a bright afternoon. I happened on this phenomenon back in the mid-seventies when a group of us boating enthusiasts "borrowed" a police radar to calibrate our tachometers for "predicted log" contests that work largely as an auto rally. You traveled on a compass heading for so long at a certain speed before turning on a new heading and changing speed. Where (and when) you wound up was judged, and a winner selected from among the skippers who were most accurate. Because a speedometer was illegal (and not too accurate) in these contests, you set your speed by engine RPM (those having interchangeable props had speed curves for each one).
Our "radar operator" stood on a pier as individual boats powered straight toward him, then broke away. The operator would train his gun on a boat and read off the indicated speed via radio to the skipper who made notes of his tach readings. That worked fine on paper, but we had a little difficulty in practice. It seems readings varied considerably in strength. Wooden boats were pretty easily read, fiberglass, not so much. We thought it was the construction, but the answer turned out to be a little more convoluted. It seems that big wooden boats rose high on their transoms at high speed, throwing the bow high into the air. The radar was actually acquiring the engine block(s) deep within the hull and due to the vessel's "squat" they were being partially hidden by the bow wave and the engines were no longer on a "line of sight" with the radar. Fiberglass boats, being somewhat lighter didn't "dig" in quite so much at the same speeds and for the radar, they were somewhat less difficult to acquire, their engine block being slightly more exposed at high speed.
To make things worse, outboards were near invisible because the block was so narrow. We eventually solved the problem by each vessel hoisting a "corner reflector" ordinarily used to make vessels more visible to radar - and because it returned a radar pulse along the line of the incident beam, no matter what the angle it acquired it, the boat, large or small, stood out like a beacon to the radar.
Your Elio, with it's transverse engine block is going to be pretty visible to radar, regardless of its size or small cross-section, thanks to that block presenting a decent-sized target to the incoming signal. But now the good news . . .
Most traffic enforcement is done today with LIDAR, a laser beam reflected off your vehicle that operates pretty much like radar. Your Elio is going to be a pretty small target to illuminate at longer ranges, and you have one stealth item going for you: No front license plate.
It seems that most states have now put a UV reflective sig in the background of license plates that makes them much more easily read by Lidar. It's really the primary reason we still have front plates at all. As a motorcycle, your Elio won't have a front plate, and that Lidar is going to have to find some small flat surface to bounce those UV waves off of. There isn't a lot of that, if you've looked at the front end of an Elio recently.
So, is your Elio going to be safe to drive through speed traps? Theoretically, maybe a bit more so than a conventional automobile, but don't count on it. You may be a smaller target, but you're still in the cross-hairs.
