I am really confused with the track widths of various axels and chassis combinations. It seems inevitable that I will end up with a sierra or other doner that is wider track than the escort. I would probably look at a wider than book chassis and have looked through the McSorely plans and the Tiger book as well as the bible for inspiration.

I am really not clear as to the resulting front track on these set ups, the book and Avon front track looks pretty much the same despite the different rear set ups and the McSorely will be 4" wider at the front as the chassis is 4" wider at this point.

I am aiming to build a Lotus 7 look alike for road use and looking for Lotus 7 series 3 type performance so was thinking of something like the Avon set up with a slightly wider cockpit.

Any help appreciated

Caber

Hi I'm useing a sierra for my donner and have extended the drive shafts at the rear by 160mm because I wanted plenty room in the cockpit an tunnel , this'll be too wide for your plans I think , it's a propotional thing isn't it? if you get the right proportion of width to length an hight you'll be half way there
Mike

I used a ford tbrid axle - and a plus 4 inche width chassis - 59 inch track with around an inch on each side of the chassis to the tire edge.
Dale

overall width with my volvo axle is 65.5 inches , the arches do overhang by an inch or so , just right for some 7x16 !!

Right, I am worried about front track compared to rear track. There is about a 1" difference on the original Lotus 7 with the back wider I am concerned about a potential 4" difference between front and back. Is this a problem, if so can you get away with longer front wishbones? At what point do you need to consider an alternative steering rack? I know most the time you are chopping them short if sierra or Cortina or extending them if Escort type.

Help!! I am too confused!

Caber

I think that depends- if you keep your pickups in the same spot your rack does not need to change. When I decided to shorten my car and make the pickups wider apart to shorten the arms, I started with the spare mgb rack I had and figured out the plane the pickups had to go in- I did manage to find a place where setting up the rack will give me next to zero bump steer but I end up with a lower roll center. everything is a compramise.
Dale