Hey Detroit, I’ve been sketching a modular racing garage that uses kinetic energy recovery to power the lights—thought you might find that design intriguing.

Right, so I’ll design a lightweight composite chassis, about 8 tonnes, that can hit 70 mph on the track. I’ll use carbon‑fiber panels to keep it strong yet light, and integrate a 120 kW electric motor that’s coupled directly to the gearbox. The generator will sit in the rear, driven by a 0.5‑m radius gear train so even at 70 mph it turns at around 10,000 rpm—enough to hit 300 watts of power. For heat, the frame will have heat‑sinks and a liquid‑cooling loop that runs through the bodywork, exhausting through a small turbine that also spins the generator a bit more. That way the garage itself becomes a power plant while it’s racing.

You’re right about the weight penalty; I’ll keep the chassis under 7 tonnes by using a honeycomb core instead of solid panels. I’ll also use a 5:1 gear ratio so the motor can spin the generator faster without losing all that torque. For cooling I’ll run the liquid loop through the side panels, keeping the turbine small so it doesn’t pull too much air, and I’ll use a gyroscopic stabilizer to keep the garage steady while it revs. That should give us the speed and the power we need.

I’ll rework the gear train to a 4:1 ratio and use titanium shafts to handle the load. The turbine will be a 50‑mm diameter that pulls a steady 70 % of the airflow, and I’ll add a secondary fan just in case the first one slips. The gyros will be calibrated to keep the center of mass within 5 mm of the pivot, so the garage stays balanced no matter the speed. That should keep the motor alive and the lights bright.