LocostUSA.com

First of all I have to say thank you to everyone here. It wasnt until I found this forum that I was able to start putting together all of my loose thoughts about my very own car and start focusing on a plan of action. Without you guys and the resources found here on the locostusa.com forum I would still be doodling on grid paper. I still doodle on grid paper, at least now its with a purpos.

About a year ago a friend of mine and I started researching Hydrogen and Electric technology and decided we wanted to build a car bassed on it. So I started reading chassi books and tried to make heads or tails out of what I was reading and skipped to frame building. After taking in those chapters I redesigned my sketches and built a model, which failed horribly. Got another book that was a bit more simple and direct and started looking at my dimensions and decided to change a few things. Refferenced the length, width, height and wheelbase of a few other of my favorate sports cars and decided I was very close to where I wanted to be as I started to read and learn this forum.

Now I have my tire/wheel specs and am looking for a pair of spindles with the right price so that I can start measuring them and get to work on my suspension geometry. So far the below pics are what I have for the Chassis. I am thinking of a cage to tie the front and rear together more for added rigidtiy, maybe even just a straight bar from front to rear with bracing.

For now though, heres my first attempt at a car, I call the High Gear.

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Jon Gandy
-My Automotive Journalism site. Be nice, I've just started my career, and the site: http://www.up-shift.net
-Jon's "High Gear" Middy project: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7423

Looked at the NASA rules and decided to put in a few Cage nodules.

_________________
Jon Gandy
-My Automotive Journalism site. Be nice, I've just started my career, and the site: http://www.up-shift.net
-Jon's "High Gear" Middy project: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7423

So I realised that my design was just too large. Huge really. I had 14' overall and 120" of wheelbase which I decided to chop. I built a wire model with simple coat hangers and saulder to get an idea of dimentions and was able to remove a 1' of wheelbase however I really would like to remove another foot and a half or so.

I finally got the front suspension from my RX7 removed and disassembled yesterday (about 2 hours with travel time to and from the car and shops) and will go about trying to measure everything I need today.

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Jon Gandy
-My Automotive Journalism site. Be nice, I've just started my career, and the site: http://www.up-shift.net
-Jon's "High Gear" Middy project: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7423

I like modeling first too. Thats a good idea to use coat hangers and solder. Here is my 1:24 scale model based on actual measurements of the model components with a dial micrometer. I also built a stick frame with hot glue:

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
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LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

Are those images just fleshing your idea out, or your actual frame design? If the latter, it looks like it'll fold in half at the passenger compartment. The front and rear look nicely triangulated, but there's nothing but 4 longitudinal members going front-to-back where the passengers would be. Just a first impression.

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Andrew

Exploring every single option, permutation, and possibility, to figure out what flavour of awesome I want.

Well I did do some remodeling of those members, I dont know if it would strengthen much however I am trying to get some wheelbase removed from the design. I will post up all the new pics under my other thread here to consolodate and keep the advice in one spot as well.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7423

_________________
Jon Gandy
-My Automotive Journalism site. Be nice, I've just started my career, and the site: http://www.up-shift.net
-Jon's "High Gear" Middy project: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7423