Messing About With A Welder

[Medium Dave]

Hey all, I am bored at work today, so I figured I will show you all what I have been up to. Its a locost (lotus 7 replica) with an sr20de (one day it will be +T) with the silvia rear end welded up to it. Next will be front suspension and steering, then I get the engineer to take a look and make sure it wont fall apart at 100kph

[Beer Baron]

nice. cool idea converting the rear end from wishbones to in-board shocks. nice dog too.

[jenkies]

awesome!! looks like a fun little project!! ill keep checkin in and you keep us updated like the rear suspension work!

[ISL33P]

very nice work.

only thing i would consider is more disagonal braces in the chassis itself

[VB-]

haha nice doggy.

you dont set your sights very high though do you? 100km/h? how bout making sure it doesnt fall apart at 200km/h? very nice work though

[Craved]

im curious about the use of the RHS - how does tyhis material go in the view of engineering? i whould have thought that a seamless material would be required.

Look great and im sure you have checked that out, im just curious for more info if you can pass it along.

[W0rp3D]

looks like it will be a fun track car, good thing you and your dog are skinny though, not much seating room in there.

[Skyenate]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww cute puppy !!

The project looks good too

[Medium Dave]

Thanks guy's, there will be some more bracing in the front once I have figure out the front suspension - the book I am using is the haynes roadster, which uses ford sierra parts, so I have opted for nissan - like a sane person. The engineers dont generally have a problem with rhs, the clubman chassis usually pass torsion tests easily (forget that you are the crumple zone for a minute tho) there would be somewhere in the region of 200+ hours work so far (Im a bit of a noob) so I am glad its relitivly easy to work with

Oh, and that close to the ground 100kph should feel like warp speed - I'll be needing some of Clarksons special brave pills (and hopefully scaring the crap out of passengers)

[boostin31]

you might have to look at bracing that dog aswell, dont want it faling off at 100 ks

[bloodzkull]

that's awesome. me and my old man have been toying with the idea of making a lo cost. our plan was to use a ca18 turbo though.

only problem is i have wide shoulders and barely fit in one by myself

[rb26s13]

if done properly can these things be road registered?

[GTS4WD]

How did you weld the dog to it?

[marlon]

thats going to fly! nice work

[VB-]

if done properly can these things be road registered?

yes. i've seen a few of these things driving around on the road, although they arent very common, you can get them registered. theres a company down here that builds them with LS1's up front. they want like $120k for one though....

FFS i cant remember what company it is though, someone jog my memory for me

[Duncan]

elfin. holden (or hsv?) bought them

[Medium Dave]

Thanks for the comments guys

Its elfin who build the V8 ones, which is owned by Walkinshaw now I think.

I am hoping to register the car, its a lot of extra mucking around, but will be worth it. You need to fill out the appropriate paperwork for transport (Individually Constructor Vehicle), and get an engineer to check it out at various points during the build.

Stephen, you can get plans for an extra wide chassis, the McSorley 442 plans are popular in america (4" wider, 4" longer and 2" taller) you can always just make them bigger to suit yourself, but you wont be able to register it with a CA18 engine, they need to be reasonably recent to satisfy ADR's, and which years depend on which state you are in, but the earliest is 97, is why I am using an sr20. Also you might want to consider what category of racing you want to compete in (which you will ), with the 1.8 turbo, you will be in with 3l 6's and the like - which is why the 4age is popular, puts you down with the 1.6l categories - they are cheap, and there is a lot of knowledge about them www.ozclubbies.com is a good place to start.

That and the other advice I can offer is dont underestimate how immense the project is, it will consume nearly all of your spare time (make sure the significant other is ok with the project) and you will loose motivation at different points, so catching up with other builders is handy

[tom_v]

Looks great, i wish i could do this kinda stuff

[djr81]

Hey all, I am bored at work today, so I figured I will show you all what I have been up to. Its a locost (lotus 7 replica) with an sr20de (one day it will be +T) with the silvia rear end welded up to it. Next will be front suspension and steering, then I get the engineer to take a look and make sure it wont fall apart at 100kph

Well this may appear to be a random question, but is perhaps relevant:

What is the mechanical ratio for the suspension, ie how many millimetres or wheel articulation equals how many millimetres of spring travel?

It is easy to test get a fat bastard (or dog) to sit on the diff. Measure the change in ride height & the change in spring height. Divide one by the other. If you get alot of wheel movement for a small amount of spring travel the car can be a bastard of a thing to set up.

[Medium Dave]

Hey Tom - I didnt know I could do it either untill I tried! Seriously, I had never used a welder before. I practiced all saturday morning and started building in the afternoon. (I did an adult ed course tho, so it wasnt completely blind)

and in regards to suspension travel, my calculations are 2.5:1 wheel to shock, and from memory, I measured that to be pretty close... Sounds like I will be having some fun then (always stay positive) at least the shocks are double adjustable (twice as much for me to stuff up) - Why I chose to do it this way is because the shocks were dirt cheap - around $60 a piece from america, or the propper ones run around $1200'ish per set - works on my beer & pizza budget

They work quite nicely when I jump up and down on them, as far as I can figure out they are rising rate (I am happy to be shown otherwise, the whole project is a learning experience for me) they are quite compliant to start with, but as hard as I jump on it, I cant get to more than about half way of travel on the shock. I have never been in a clubman, and I have no idea how his will actually handle, so I am as curious as hell to find out - hopefully one day soon I will be able to let you all know, and with any luck it will be good news