LocostUSA.com

I just found this site for The Hulme F1:

http://www.supercarsnz.com/gallery.html

What a masterpiece of body work. What impressed me is how similar it is to a mid engine 7 style car. Notice the fenders are not attached to the body. Now if the body was a bit wider to incorporate side pods but kept the separate fenders and had just a windscreen... Sweet!

Has everyone else already seen this car?

Not really my cup of tea... Too many edges and it looks just like an Enzo.

Now this is beauty...
http://www.supercars.net/Pics?viewPic=y ... pID=646304

that jag is a beaut. someone should make a body in glass and sell it to me

Would you pay the $1000's of dollars for it when it's done? Even a production run of full glass bodys will put them into the $1000's for price. That is the reason not many people make full glass shells and the ones that do are expensive.

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Build sold to a new loving home. May start another one when I have more time to devote to it. For now I play with my boat, Datsun 240Z, and GS700 motorcycle.

well considering that I am just about sold on building a La Bala and buying the glass body from him, I guess the answer is yes. I love the seven but it is the shape of a brick.

Yes, that classic is much, much nicer to my eye too. I love the beautiful rounded body's (cars that is) of the 50's. In the 60's they started to get the idea that round was not as efficient as they had believed so the trend towards the "box" with a dropped nose. And the "modern" style is very angular with sharp edges. Of course, the modern cars are going at speeds the older cars would not reach if they were dropped out of an airplane.

I much prefer the looks of the MGA over the MGB and so on.

But since this thread is about making a 7 style car more aero, I thought the Hulme F1 could give some valuable ideas into what works at speed. As does the Donkervoot Race car with side pods. Aero doesn't really seem to matter much below 30mph so it really depends on what speed you intend to drive at how much aero you want. You know both Hulme and Donkervoort spent a lot of money on their aero packages to be able to reach the speeds they wanted. We can benefit just by copying or adapting what the pioneers have done.

One reason I like the 7 style is it is a 50's style body, but one that can be built by anyone since the aluminum wraps around the frame, no panel beating required other than bending around tubes. Unlike just about all the other sweet old style cars that require a lot of time, effort & money to build a body for. Even a one-off using a male mold is expensive and labor intensive.

I think the side pod idea can be designed into the typical 7 car and be easy to build by wrapping the added tube framework with aluminum.

Many ways to make a brick more aerodynamic in fact.

What Jag is everyone talking about? The photo is of an Aston Martin.

There are bricks which would take offense at such statements.

This car isn't going to be a contender for gorgeousness--I admire the heck out of the guys making beautiful bodies (Steve and Dale come to mind) but this 'un is all about cheap, easy and effective. Nose, scuttle, and four fenders in fiberglass, everything else is wrapped flat panels. Because the fenders are significantly bigger and more complex than standard locost fenders (all four need inner liners, and the front fenders need side ducts) and there's more sheet metal in the bigger body, it'll cost more and take longer to make than a standard locost body...but by maybe twice as much, not four times as much. It's going to look like a budget body--even laymen will be able to tell at a glance, that the builder cared more about performance than appearance--but that's part of the charm of Locosts, and Lotus Sevens as well.

But I digress. The techniques on this thread can be used to make as lovely a body as one has time and money to make. I've no surplus of either, but lucky for me--even though that Aston Martin (and the La Bala, and the Lola Mk1 and the C Type Jag, and the Audi R8, and a hundred other cars) is more beautiful--if this body does the job, that'll be enough to give it beauty in my eyes.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

I was never saying that I didnt find that 7 to be an unattractive car, far from it. Its just that for its original time period it is the girl next door amongst the supermodels. That is just an opinion of course, but anyway.

Sadly I am not a morning person and I got the aston mixed up with a 120 jag(?) I think. They are both beautiful

There was a Jag later in that group of pics.

Jack,
What became of the "Slick Brick"?

It's going to provide my X PRIZE car's bodywork, at least for the first try. I made the mule with the traditional Locost body so I could get some baseline fuel consumption info, and document how much of a difference streamlining makes...but I got thrown off about six weeks by the crash (see the Kubota build log). I have the front fenders made and some other bits, but first I have to get it driving again.

My schedule was to surprise everybody with the Slick Brick at Kansas City, but I've been building a new car instead. Grrr.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

Well I guess you are lucky in a way. (a couple of ways really since you escaped mostly unharmed physically) Can you imagine the horror of that crash with all your freshly completed slick brikyness bodywork shattered to bits.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

After having read through this thread and combining some keywords (aluminum honeycomb, pontoons, side impact crumple zone, soda can) I came up with this sketch:
Empty soda or beer cans are sandwiched between two aluminum sheets.
The height of a normal north american or australian soda can is 4.8 inches, so you could fit two layers in a 10" wide pontoon, with an aluminum sheet in between. I suggest bonding the cans to the aluminum using epoxy. The weight of one layer of cans is about 4.1 kg per square meter (assuming empty cans are 15g each and 65mm diameter). European cans might be a little heavier, as they are made of steel and aluminium. Perhaps the space between cans can be filled using PUR foam, but I don't know if that would improve impact resistance a lot.
One positive aspect is that the wife can be actively involved in the project by helping to empty the beer cans.

I think this is in the spirit of the concept of locost.

I hesitated to kick this topic back up, but since Jack has just published the slick front fenders on the latest installment of his Mother Earth blog I think the topic is hot again.

That is an extremely clever idea. Mind if I use it (and the pic) in my MEN blog? I'll credit you for the concept (or leave you in disguise if you prefer).

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles