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its a bit blurry in my mind now. i have traveled and thought about many different things since the time i knew all i needed to know about suspension geometry. i could blame google, but i like to think sherlock holmes almost had it:

“What the deuce is [suspension geometry] to me?” he exclaims to Watson in A Study in Scarlet. “You say that camber gain maximizes the contact patch during cornering. If i was wing and wing in a '28 sloop it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.” And now that he knows that fact? “I shall do my best to forget it,” he promises.

wise man once said, there is a moment when a field has beauty because it has nothing. here are some more pics of front suspension.

..and then i have something that looks like a car. 360 view. in the sun.

with the chassis looking like a chassis,i dragged it bac into the shop and put it on the floor underneath the i beam. we have a beam clamp and chainfall as well as a engine hoist but it was probably busy at the time. i took the motor and tranny and stripped it down to a clean looking unit. no wires or manifolds, fuel injection or accessories. then it was easy to pull the trans off and get it in under the upper frame cross members. sitting in the cardboard seat i fabbed up with masking tape i got a feel for where i wanted the shifter to sit and how much leg room i needed. we aligned the motor in the chassis with it sitting on a chunk of 5/10" chipboard making sure the alternator, now installed, and the distributor had enough room to clear the body panels to come. fairly solid engine mounts are great for tight tolerances cause oh boy, there are going to be a few, haha.

with the motor in place i did a fairly swell job of notching a hoop for the transmission tunnel because the belhousing wont fit with where i want everything to go, and sort of... found creative ways of installing the bracing for the forward half of the car while keeping space around the engine/tranny combo.

i put the motor up so high because i want a flat bottom car. no turbulance, for ground effects, downforce without wings. and man, it just looks soooo sweet when i put it on the hoist. besides, overhead cam engine? i dont want to distort the lines of the car so badly by making the silhouette of the car so much thicker that it brutalizes the aspect ratio and theres noo way im going to drop the engine 5-6 inches to get it under the hood. then i have to lift the car an unreal amount to get it to clear bumps and on top of that, i dont want it hanging out there cause id rather have my chassis hit first, floor acting as a skid plate. reason being i saw a video of a lotus racing a supermotard around a track and the lotus gets some seeeeeeerious hangtime and i FULLY plan on doing the same. thats why 5/8' hardware and heavy dom tubing for all the control arms.

anyway. i made some plates for the sides of the motor and cut up a few scraps to get the angles for my motormounts and finished out the trans tunnel flat, at the same height as the side of the car. this is another cure. for terrible park lever placement. they look awful. im using one out of a pontiac fiero. their design is great, they always lay flat. pull up to engage, pull up and press button to disengage they are always in the horizontal position. even if you could see it its out of the way and ordered looking, not like a cow lick in the middle of the car. im mounting it in the trans tunnel above the driveshaft under the panel for the center console. funny to put so much thought and work into something i never use. ever.

sorry the photos are reverse order. its like ten to two in the morning and my eyes are pretty blisterd.

Dave- good to see you sweating in "Colin's Vineyard"! I am a teeny bit confused; where are you going to put the 1" wide clutch, brake and throttle pedals? You are obviously trying to accomplish the "10,000 tasks" taken one at a time, and doing well; however the "biter" about three steps forward, and steps backward can eat a lot of time (and steel!).

Chris
PS; Trying to save you from Gonzo skewer- or maybe pics mistranslated by 63 year old eyes!

yeah chris i see that. it is narrow for sure by nature but i only need three inches to get them in there, right? true story is i have pretty long narrow feet so my toes sit up pretty high. ill do a write up on this later but im using (spoiler alert) floor mounted pedals, wilwood specifically, and the way they mount to the floor puts them farther back from the firewall so with the taper i get a little more width. i also mounted the trans tunnel sheet metal on the shaft side of the tunnel structure giving me an extra inch near the clutch pedal too, know what i mean? ill post pics when the time comes so it makes more sense. i actually made it tight in there on purpose so i have a reason to wear those cool simpson hightops everywhere i go im a size 12, in black if anyone is feeling generous. cant justify buying that though while i still need a fuel cell

oooooh... and its right hand drive.

so, where are we at? chassis, control arms, hoop, tunnel, motor mounts.. did i give good enough pics of those? they are pretty badass. i used canadian made hockey pucks to isolate the motor, juuuust stiff enough to loosen fillings. people say ill hate it.. im telling you now, its the reason im doing it. new cars isolate and comfort me. i need something to keep me awake! i only ride my R6 20 minutes at a time as it is. gets too hot. and i dont mean the motor!

a lot of the stuff i do on the lotus is fairly well thought out and some of it even makes it to 1:1 scale experimentation, brakes were one of those things. ive seen a lot of locost builds and i mean, not to chirp any one because looking at my car this closely for so long i know how shot some of my work is, i just call it character and smile. one quote that stuck with me may have been from the kimini site, 'i have to keep reminding myself its not an F1 car, and get on with it' life is only so long. trust that i fully grasp the meaning of F1 level design and construction. i will admit, while struggling to stay positive, i am not there.

something that bothered me about what i was doing - parts look like they have been moulded for some unibody car and have been used somewhere else. things that look like they dont belong. that and the pedals were too low. my options on this route were, putting the masters above the hood, drastically shortening the pedal arms, creating some elaborate, overcomplicated linkage system in an already too tight engine bay or.. doing a cash deal for wilwood pedals with track use only composite masters out of the trunk of a cop car in a parking lot at the side of the freeway near brockville. oh yeah.

keep life interesting.

im a decent welder. ive done my fair share of projects. but when faced with the immense task of cleaning, prepping, and wellding one milion 1" long beads on tube, im not going to say no if you offer to help. if youre an OCD production welder, good friend, and top three fastest street/track monsters i know, i might even ask.

Joshs intensity and focus shows in everything he does. you can skateboard all summer long and nail down ten different tricks. josh will come out to skate for three days a year and learn 8 of your tricks, and then wake up in the middle of the night to sneak out to the ramp learn the last two. then show you something new he figured out the next day. and im not even mad! hes also so chill bro.

we crushed out the frame, control arms, and roll bar in about 3 sessions after work over the space of a month. and the welds were astonishing. not the quallity alone, but the quality he achieved using one of our tired mig pak 10s. after about 5-10 minutes he was explaining to me techniques he had come up with to compensate on start stops and keeping the stick out of the wire consistantly shorter for startups giving the metal time to heat before filler rod entered the puddle. this stuff might not be fodder for conversation at dinner parties, but here on locostusa im working on an assumption that there are a few people who get a kick out of people that are dedicated tradesmen.

there is a fairly short list of people that'll get the chance to drive this car when its done. and shorter still is the one for people who have carte blanche to thrash the living shot out of what comes of this venture. i can only hope it will show my appreciation for what they've contributed. Thanks josh, dont die.

ever get tired an busy? its spring, and a million projects have melted free of the snow covered ground. sorry if ive kept anyone waiting too long. im trying to get these in when i can, but life is exciting and when i have to choose between living it and writing about it..

rear suspensino.

i think i mentioned that i was putzing about with the original rear struts and long story short they dont fit and look terrible. also, swapping from the 240 hub to the q45 savedme some unsprung weight not to mention bigger rotors (two jobs one part - carrol smith) but it changed the rear mount point from a single shear pin to a.. umm.. awkward aluminum circle with a press in rubber bushing?

sorather than an 'eye' on the lower end of the shock i now needed a fork. google search.. found a motor cycle shock that prety much bolts in. and does a job, of holding my car up. eye on top end, fork on bottom. the spring rate is way too high, the dampening though adjustable is probaly way too stiff. meh. ill deal with it when i get there. it does the simple job adequately for now. i joke to myself while i work around it that its an awesome drift setup. brutal stiffness. not even and inch with all the weight i can put on it. jon found a chinese suplier for me that you can order any spring, enter the coil diameter and thickness. rate etc and the make and ship it for an outrageously low price. ive been looking around at a tien setup but it requires me buying shocks from a couple of different cars and adding custom springs, maybe changing the dampening rate. there is a guy who randomly chose my small hometown to settle his home and small shop in, that builds and rebuilds custom shocks for race cars and he has a contract for fox shocks for bicycles, does all the work for the area. met him through our bike charity and he can probably tear what i present him with apart to create what i need. cool guys are like magnets, if youre moving around and youll find eachother.

i checked a couple different rule books for my cage and bent it up. my new/best plan is to use the rear supports to act as upper shock mounts. how to do it? drawings. revisions. action.

the fork on the shock i found was too shallow to reach the center of the existing bushing and also too narrow to fit over the same. so grinder out i marked and ground till it was a perfect fit and had my dad cut and part a few aluminum pucks on the lathe and drilled a couple eccentric holes in them orienting them toward the shock fork so it sorta now worked. it took me eons to get to it because of lower fruit on the tree but eventually i drilled and tapped the hole for a locating bolt. internal hex m10x 1.25 for the fastenerds.

i had some 1 3/4 pipe that i tied back into the frame and used 2x3 square to brace and make a spot for the other (check out the compound mitred notch!) piece that forms the upper mount. complicated to explain but.. PICTURES! i picked the beer one, man, i could go for a beer.

p.s. LOOK at those bends. thanks dalt!

you probably saw earlier, the motor, during mock up is a 2.4L ka24d out of a 1991 nissan 240sx. its the same motor that is in their trucks and its pretty great.

i almost want to say this right away. i had an terrible time researching what needs to be done to build this motor the way i want it. you cant imagine the number of forums i visited trying to find information on converting the nissan motor to, yes.. carburators.

the best i managed was to find a confusing reference to a race car class that uses caburators on the L20 and tripped on a lead to a small race shop in unionville that tunes old datsuns and he was probably the best help i had, aside from rod at the canadian tire in uxbridge. legendary, out of the box thinker. into porsches and corvettes and has done everthing you have and better. haha, never says no and is able to bend the part number machines to his will.

funny how something that is basically bolt on and easy as a peach can cause so much controversy. every thread lasted about 4-5 posts before devolving into chirps about 'controlled leaks' and a 'mess of wires'. i dont care.

anyway, i found some side draught carburatrs on kijiji in montreal for reeeeeeally cheap. so cheap that it was worth the 6 hour drive even if they were wrong. it was fun. great food, cool dude. he had already converted his v twin yami to fuel injection and had plans to convert a vw with them that he had given up on.

i got them as a matched pair in brand new condition and brought them home.

the motor was already out of the car and had been used in the making of the chassis so i had it on a stand. nothing was done to the motor becaause it was fairly low mileage and ran good when it was pulled. i stripped off all the accesories, both manifolds and cleaned it before giving it a few coats of high temp engine paint.

my mission was basically to make the engine look pretty/mechanical while having the option to bolt up a 400hp 2.0L turbo sr and 6 speed when i get bored. having the carbs in the shop i took rubbings from the intake and exhaust sides of both the carbureators and cyclinder head. after firming up the lines i transfered the shapes to some 3/8 plate and picked the centers. i used a hole saw and a die grinder to shape the new flange ports for airbox, carbs, intake, and exhaust.

having these, and the engine located in the frame i first bolted carbs to plate, and then the intake flange onto the head. i made a few lines out of tape to help make sure they cleared where i wanted the hood to go and with one of us holding the carbs and a level, the other tacked in 3/8 rods between the plates to hold them properly oriented to one another.

that done, the assembly was unbolted from both and i went about making pipe templates out of bristol board to adapt the round ports of the del'ortos to the dimpled oval of the ka. it was pretty slick.

after mig welding the whole thing together inside and out, it was smoothed out with the digrinder and disc, and painted after checking for pin holes etc. I may or may not have had it machined flat by a certain machinist at a later date. (such a prick to clamp in place apparently, haha.

fantastic. and just so rad.

as a p.s i did the math later and the 45s i got happen to be the best for my engine size and for where i want to make power. so big win there. anybody know a great place to get jets etc for del'ortos in canada or the next closest convenience?

great job, it looks like it belongs there. I considered doing the same thing on my build but haven't come across any 40mm carbs for cheap to make me want to try it.

keep up the good work

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Gavin

My build: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16005

You're doing a lot of great stuff. In looking things over, I'm wondering if those engine mounts are going to serve you well in the long run. Having the pieces at right angles will place a lot of stress on that welded joint. Perhaps, you could make a 2-piece mount to go around that diagonal? Or, maybe there's a way to include the diagonal and make it part of the mount, sort of a 2-fer?

Just an idea, anyway.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

I like that front LCA ball joint angle solution!
What if. ...
You welded 2 pieces of angle between the individual arms and the BJ mounting tube on the inside of the triangle?
Seems like you would be able to bolt the rod for the shocks to the pieces of angle and tuck the rod end inside of the well.
You'd have to set it back far enough from the join to get a bolt in. ... That might be too much of a span.

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

BJ mounting tube on the inside of the triangle - oldejack

thats what she said.. im going to assume youre talking about older pics of fooling with inboard rods. yeaah.. the rod REALLY wanted to go right where the frame section was. ahwell, progressive knuckles are a lot of math. ive got a lot on my plate already, and besides, it got pretty crowded in there real quick. aero and additional weight were considerations also. it wasnt worth the effort and gains were primarily in level of complicatedness. thanks for the praise, lca joint was a cool one. neutralizes the rod end, ads a neat line from the front, and fairly simple.


make it part of the mount, sort of a 2-fer - lonnie-s

thats what she.. nvm yeah. i think i know what you mean. like put a motor mount on top of the vertical pipe and have it rest on top? i guess? maybe draw a picture. anyway, its cool. i have a plan for that specific area. more on that later. the joint youre worried about (a fish mouth joint on 3/16" wall 1 3/4" pipe) is the same that is expected to "protect" me in a 160 mile an hour roll over. cracks may develop after time but the motor makes about 155hp factory new soooo not really a major concern. if it becomes a problem i can pull them and add gussests. tmr customs sells ones with skulls, spiderwebs, middle fingers. laser cut and reasonably priced! haha. shameless. they helped us out on a bunch of serious offroad builds but this is locost territory, back to the story!

it looks like it belongs there - Mnot

thanks man. really great to hear cause i put a lot of effort to make it look that way.

Mmmm.... Dual side-drafts.... Nice!!!

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom

Nice work on the intake. I used an efi only engine in my car that I converted to carbeurated as well, although it's a V-6, so I used a Holley 4 barrel. Did you have a non computer controlled ignition available? That was an issue for mine. My brother ended up welding the top half of an old 6 cylinder duraspark distributor to the bottom of the 3.0 distributor. As far as hockey pucks for engine mounts being too stiff, not to worry. I made a belhousing adapter plate that bolts solidly to the frame at the front of the tunnel, and my car is plenty smooth. I agree that new/production cars are way to soft and disconnected from the road, these cars aren't supposed to be like that. Nice work on the car so far, keep it up.
Kristian

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V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7587
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=18172

Really surprised you used the multi link rear suspension from the 240's. You'll be able to use all the aftermarket suspension arms for the car. You plan on upgrading to z32 rear knuckles? Cast aluminum, lighter and better brakes. Throw some z32 calipers up front too. That car would stop better then anything. Only downside, you will need 16" wheels to clear.

240sx fan if you couldn't tell. I've owned 3 as well and miss every single one.

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30 years old, not sure what I want to be when I grow up…