More work done over the past 3-4 days documented with a single, crappy cell phone pic:
Triangulation of the chassis has been done, floor area reinforced (more still to be added), rear bumper added, fender support fabbed, roll structure re-enforced, rear tow point added (not visible), the 6-point harness I found for $30 (so, no, it's not FIA rated, but what a find still!) has been installed, and nose cone skeleton constructed (also not visible). I am running out of things to weld on to the frame and am feeling like it might be time to actually paint it soon, which is pretty exciting. I want to have my pneumatic tires and new 24" wheels in hand and mounted up before I commit to that.
In other news, chassis #2 is starting to take shape. Bill decided it's likely just a little too much work to get the flyer into the shape he'd feel comfortable tackling the course at full speed. He'd rather have a robust chassis with ackerman steering and (most importantly) functional brakes. After much perusing of the internet, it appears the most common wheel size is 20", and we may be inclined to pursue using that size. Based on how the 24" wheels do with my car after adding in some weight, we may change his design brief to accommodate the smaller wheel size. Or not. The good news is, we have started the frame build with the ability to compensate for that (to a point).
Bill looking like a kid on Christmas morning:
Making vroom, VROOM noises a couple hours later:
It's amazing what having constructed the first chassis has done for my ability to construct the second. It appears to be WAY more square than my first one. There are a couple of design features I've come up with to make things a little easier for construction and tuning down the road, and which we are starting to add into the base build. It will be fun seeing how they pan out in the newest chassis.
Chris