Chassis design

[shh120m]

Iv had a weekend of burrying my head in the sand and making like an ostrich. Everyone needs to get have a break sometime, no matter how dire life is. Some turn to drink, drugs or kicking the dog! My escapism lately though has been getting stuck into the laptop on sketchup and inventor.

Iv had an idea brewing in my brain for a while to make a whole new chassis, single seater, mid mounted. And since the single seater book is taking forever to publish i thought id have a go at designing my own, but with a different take on things. I wont be building it though as im uber broke, its something i wouldnt mind having a crack at in the future when things are rosier though.

the main ethos is something mid mounted, single seat, although it could be widened. It wants to be "locost" so chain drive diffs are out of the question. Also, i thought it best to design with the use of as many "off the shelf" book parts, mainly for ease of build and familiarity as well as keeping cost down.

So i thought the best way forward would be to use stock rear diff cage, sierra diff, coupled to a type nine and duratech or zetec. A nice simple linkage sees the gear selector straight through to the cabin. No peeing about with clunky bike gearboxes. Ive yet to draw out rear wishbones, but rear uprights are intended to be book spec, with an extended rear track of about 4 inches, so longer driveshafts would be needed. Also the idea is to try and make the body entirely from flat alli paneling, to keep it locost, but it needs doing in a way that is pretty to the eye, hense why iv used round tube for a semi naked look. There is only 5 curved tubes in the whole concept also to try and keep things simples.

Passenger area is spacious enough to accomodate the larger chap, but wide enough at 650mm to take a one piece seat for two, just incase you dont want a single seater. Front of chassis is to take standard haynes wishbones.

I need to shorten the passenger area by six inch or so to het the proportions right, so its about 6inch longer wheelbase than the roadster and alter a few rails/ add a bit of bracing etc. Its not intended to take on haynes or be commercial in any sense. I just thought I needed a pipe dream hobby as something todo and thought id share it with you as it progresses. I do have a shit load of steel left over though so i might have a go at mocking the chassis up when time allows and when i get my welder back (hurry up david!!!!!! ).

Anyway heres a couple of pics, il update it as it evolves if anyone is remotely interested, il add drawings and dimensions too. There is a lot missing at the moment such as rear suspension mounts and shock pickup etc but feel free to coment, imput criticise or even waggle your willy at!! It would be a nice "group" project where we can all play nicely. Now i best get back to the missus before i end up single. again

[Eternal]

Looks real cool but back end does look very long. Is there any other shorter gear box's that can work instead? My friends box out of a 318Ci is about 9 inches shorter than the standard type 9's

[shh120m]

Il have a play...

the front end needs shortening significantly also, that may bring the proportions back in line also. With the engine/gearbox/diff configuration i suppose it will always be a bit on the long side but like you say, if you can get it down nine inches thats a bonus. Im sure though that the configurations a winner, its just so simple and cheap when compared to using chain drives or unobtainable renault gearboxes used in some single seaters a while ago.

[robo]

One of the audi 4pot/v6/v8 lumps complete with transaxle. Driveshafts come out just behind the bellhousing, powerfull and cheap. Manual/tiptronic cool as f@@k with a paddle shift. That would take at least a meter out of the car length. A whole v6 auto car if you get an old one can be had for 500 quid or less

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/93K-Audi-8...item337a8162fa

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A4-2-...item3f0fbec248

Bob

[shh120m]

mmmm nice,

anyone got one ready made in cad?

[shh120m]

shortened passenger compartment. Chassis is now 3710mm long, still 700ish longer than roadster so you might be right with choosing different powerplant it might go against keeping everything simple and from as few different donor sources as possible. It might look a little bit more "right" when the bones and running gear are mocked on. Might be better to change donor completely to audi as suggested.

I might just bin playing with sketchup and get some steel laid out on the floor, its much easier to play in real life!

[Davey]

Why not go with a transverse lump, say a 2.0 Zetec from a Focus? Gearchange can be done with cables and the engine gearbox unit includes diff so no buggering about there either. Even the drive shafts and uprights can be used with mods.

D.

[shh120m]

Thats a blooddy goodd idea, just drop the front endd of a focus in the back, lock the control arms with somme tie bars job done! Why is it the simplest ideas that always pass me by?

Could even keep the struts from the focus mega locost

[wylliezx9r]

Originally Posted by shh120m

Thats a blooddy goodd idea, just drop the front endd of a focus in the back, lock the control arms with somme tie bars job done! Why is it the simplest ideas that always pass me by?

Could even keep the struts from the focus mega locost

That's what mev are doing already I believe. The only problem being that the engine is pretty high up in the chassis.

[PorkChop]

Originally Posted by wylliezx9r

That's what mev are doing already I believe. The only problem being that the engine is pretty high up in the chassis.

They are (or more accurately Road Track Race build/sell them now), with both the Rocket and the Sonic7.