MX5 Donor Chassis Unveiled
 

Introducing the new MX5 donor based chassis for the Roadster. We have the plans drawn up and soon to be available for free download on the website! A lot of time and effort has been put into getting the plans right. We have redesigned the book original to take the Mazda parts not just botched the original to fit. A further exciting turn of events is that we are talking with Talon Motorsport about their actually producing the chassis for sale. Phil already has a great reputation and has the experience and skill to produce the parts at a high quality but for a ridiculous price, I just don't know how he does it!



The main difference is in the rear where the Mazda suspension and drive train dictated a new approach, gone are the heavy and ugly plates!

I like the way you are hanging the diff but I don't understand what your suggesting by the open sided transmission tunnel. Great to have new ideas on the forum.

Edit: Ah are you retaining the PPF??

The open side is an ongoing concept, the mazda diff is quite awkward to remove so I am working on a few different designs, one reason for the delay in releasing them. The PPF is totally unnecessary as the transmission tunnel does the same job, there is a bracket to hold the diff nose in place as that is a known point of failure.

Well I say ding dong..:cool:

looks nice ;)

Airhead, looks good. Especially like the way you've done the rear diff mountings. Look forward to being able to download the plans. I just bought a running NC MX5 for $1,000 (Australian), which if you do the conversion would be about 350 or so pounds. Build board has had to be started again so this design would be great help!

Indeed, a lot of hard work has gone into the design to make it right, for instance the diff frame was designed to be both lighter and neater than just welding a huge flat plate on the Haynes frame. As they say the devil is in the detail, and with this design it certainly shows. It won't be long before you can download the drawings and get going ;)

Oh, and wait until you see the bodywork to go with this, just as much thought has gone into that as well.

TK

Quite like how you have done the diff mounts but I still like the look of the saturn bodywork how compatible would it be with the saturn body

Sorry misread your post, The Vodou body is a ground up new design and none of the panels will interchange. The design of the chassis is to the book measurements, so any bodywork that fits the Haynes will fit the Vodou and visa versa. Hopefully that makes more sense.

TK

Trick Kit, you have obviously redesigned the front steering and suspension geometry. Will there be drawings for the front and rear control arms? Also, i hazard a guess there are detailed dimensionings for the mounting of the control arms too?

Yep, answering for John, we have changed the mounting points and the bracket dimensions as necassary on the chassis and have redesigned the front and rear wishbones to suit. The chassis drawings outline the location and dimensions of the mounting brackets and there are a separate set of drawings for the wishbones.

Thanks Airhead, sounds fantastic. Now really cant wait till the plans are up. Build starts again in 3 weeks time. I have a whole long weekend dedicated to the chassis after i get back from a work trip. Hopefully the plans will be up by then.

well done boys or john :D looks ideal i see the its been a total rework not just a bodge conversion over to mx bits just whats needed :) also good to see talon are doing the pre builts we all know thay will be of good quality and with exelent welds
all this is making my ford based car build a bit 2nd class now :( well there is always a second build :D

Airhead, and Trick Kit. Hows the plans and everything going? Probably being impatient at the moment, but i'm away for work and its a bit of a waiting game here for people to break things. Gotta love having a job which is a reactive maintenance kind of thing. Anyway, I'm bored at the moment which is why i'm asking. i'll keep checking in with the website as well.

The plans are imminent - we have a set away with Talon at the moment who is making the first of the production chassis - that will prove that a 3rd party can use my drawings. As soon as he is happy, maybe mid/end of next week they will be on the site. Go to http://www.Vodouautokits.co.uk and register an interest and you'll get an email as things go live ;)

Purely out of curiosity, do you have to have a peculiar wedge shaped fuel tank to fit in the rear?

or is it an illusion and there is some space for a conventionally shaped tank

No, no weird shaped tank required. The space above the diff mount is the same as on the original design we did with the plates, this design has simply freed up some tubes. As it happens we are toying with the idea of a shaped tank to keep the CG low but it isn't necassary.

Any news on when you're revealing new body design/posting plans?

Finally got an empty garage to fill up again... ;)

Hopefully, just waiting to hear back re the first production chassis and they'll be up sooner than you can blink.

Hopefully...

Matt

I check the site faithfully every day, just in case ;)

Hi everybody,

Having had verification that everything fits I am very happy, proud and quite relieved to announce that the VR5 plans are now available for download on the Vodou website http://www.vodouautokits.co.uk.

The variations from the Haynes chassis design are listed on this document

There are likely to be variations and ammendments but theses will be listed as they happen below the download list here.

Thanks for bearing with us, it isn't easy you know? I hope that you find these plans beneficial.

Phil at Talon will be producing the chassis complete and I believe as flat pack kits so keep an eye out for an impending announcement by him :)

Enjoy

Matt

looks intresting however i have a few consurns, the removable peice at the back will have to be vey acuratly dowled and bolted rarter than just bolted as the slightest amount of play here could be vary bad and also i would be intrested to now were the outboad end of the shock absorber will be mounted at the rear since looking at your model even if the shock is mounted to the lower wishbone its angle will be pritty tragic leading to an extreemly high spring rate.

wish you all the best of luck and keep up the good work, it is important to keep pushing the boundrys

tilly

Thanks for that - I think I might have left an old drawing up - the final version doesn't have the removable section, the brace struts now locate differently to add strength and rigidity.

Just about to post that me old fruit gump....removable bit is/was or tiswas:D no longer

I've had some fun with this over the past week or so and has caused some heated discussion as to what should go where or even if it was needed at all. Here is the semi finished rear end made in steel with the diff fitted which goes straight in with every thing welded in place. This reworked design when used with the book spec rear tub will give a 42ltr fuel tank as standard and a large usable boot the whole width of the car.

Thanks for posting those up, I think that shows the amount of metal we have saved and the amount of space we have made. Bloomin' light too. My original design with the plates looks like child play now! So how soon are you going to have the thing finished?

Matt, lets have a game of hang man and see if you can guess what I need to finish the back end before the gallows is finished.

S_sp_ns_o_n / b_a_k_t / l_cat_ons

R_ar / w_shb-ne / d_aw_ngs

For some reason adobe reader says it can't read it :confused:

I'll email them mate, just been uber busy today with bodywork.

The bones are ready to go to IIRC.

Matt

And some gnome filling your head full of stupid ideas...:D

Our car club is going to build a car based on the MX5 so the chairman of the club has downloaded the plans from saturn sports cars as well as the vodou plans. First impressions are the saturn plans are lacking some very important measurements has anyone else had the same problem? The aim is to use the plans that make the most of what is available and so far the vodou plans are far more organised which leads us to ask the question..why is this forum such a closed shop?
Sorry if this annoys anyone as it's not the intention.

Thank you
Daz.

As far as I know the Saturn plans are written as a suppliment to the Haynes book, detailing only the deviations required to fit the MX5 gear.
You need to read them in conjunction with the 'book' to get the full dimensions.

Quite a strange 3rd post if you don't mind me saying.

Why not introduce yourself properly to the forum members :)

Let us all know about your club & what they are all about.

If you percieve any problems with the Saturn MX5 plans, why not give Saturn a phone call or perhaps send Spud69 a PM ? I am sure that he would be only too happy to assist you in anyway he can :)

This forum I by no means a closed shop, don't know where on earth you would get that impression from :confused:

As far as I know, the forum membership will support any company with a proven track record.

Don't loose sight of the fact that this forum is owned, run & financed by Haynes !!

closed shop !!!!! this forum ???? really you cant be serious....
dont have any of that post deleting stuff going on here mate.
must be your imagination..
cheers les g

You have lost me big time on that one Les, not got a clue mate :confused: :confused:

Why not introduce yourself properly to the forum members :)

Let us all know about your club & what they are all about.

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...7eh9edtY2tuExw

Bob

maybe as it could be as there are no completed cars of mx5 doner on the road as yet and the adaptions are quiet new

looking at the plans/pics i would be building the voodoo chassis if i was going with the mx5 doner as it looks to be of a better design :D

Resurecting this thread from the dead...

Does anybody have the plans for this chassis or know whats happened to Vodou Autokits?