I would love to design a car with a hydraulic drive someday. Unfortunately I do not have the requisite knowledge of hydraulics to engineer it myself.

My theory is to make the ultimate 'dancer'. have a nice fat hydraulic pump direct mounted to the engine. have hydraulic motors on the rear wheels, and hydraulics on all four corners.

When they make 'dancers' today, it requires a TON of lead in the trunk to run the electric pumps. My idea would eliminate the extra weight of the batteries, and ( should ) allow the vechicle to do more.

I do know enough about hydraulics to see some obvious design problems: first, the hydraulic drive would be a parasitic power loss. The fluid would heat ( power loss ) and any time you transfer power from one type to another ( mechanical - fluid - mechanical ) you suffer power loss. It takes power to convert power types.

BUT.. is seems to me that if you started with a variable flow pump, match your hydraulic motors correctly, you would have one SMOOOOTH acceleration.