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Author: Subject: Smaller chassis proportions/handling
edde

posted on 5/6/07 at 10:08 PM Reply With Quote
Smaller chassis proportions/handling

This might sound stupid howver i'm intregued

Could the locost chassic be downsized as long as you kept to the same relitive sizes ie a 50% narrower car being 50% shorter and having 50% shorter wishbones and 50% smaller tyres and 505 lower spring rates etc? and kep the same handling.

I keep thinking about a lower engine sized locost say 400cc bike engine or less single seat with small wheels off a Mini maybe and using the same elitive sizes wishbones etc as the locost to keep the hndling?

Sort of a overgrown Go cart (with suspension and bigger whees ass there not road legal) or Formula ford type race car.

I know I've left a lot of info out ie the chassic would need to be complete re design etc but I'm more intertested in the handling as the chassic etc can be designed I know nothing much about handling or how to make it handle well though. (anyone any recomndations?)

Many thanks for any help

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Mal

posted on 5/6/07 at 10:19 PM Reply With Quote
Small but perfectly proportioned

The Raw striker goes some way towards
doing what you are talking about, in being smaller than most Seven variants.

Mal

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JoelP

posted on 5/6/07 at 10:20 PM Reply With Quote
you can shrink the locost chassis loads and still get a litre bike engine in - i have an empty engine bay, as the engine is in the passenger footwell.

Handling wise, read a few books or threads on wishbone angles, and make everything adjustable. You cant go far wrong then.

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edde

posted on 5/6/07 at 10:27 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Handling wise, read a few books or threads on wishbone angles, and make everything adjustable. You cant go far wrong then.

Thanks for the quick reply.
Any recomendations or ideal to start with obviously bind a frame from nothing means i could build it fully adjutable but some part would be best made fixed in place.

And yep I'm thinking that idea of engine next to driver maybe like a go cart.

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JoelP

posted on 5/6/07 at 10:44 PM Reply With Quote
i took the halfway approach, space for a passenger to sit uncomfortably, but still tight and compact.

Pick a desired wheel base and track, put yourself, an engine and a drivetrain inside it. Space your wishbone pickups out. Work out where tubes can go to link the relevant points, then triangulate.

Your wishbone points depend on several things. Lower bones tend to be level at ride height, hence you want to know your wheel and tyre choice and ride height, thus work out how far above the baseline your lower inner point is. Mine is 3" above the bottom of the chassis, as i want 3" front rideheight and a 13" wheel with tyre is roughly 10" to the centre, 6" from ground to bottom ball/rose joint. Standard locost front end is roughly 16" between lower inner pivots, 24" between upper ones, and 7 or 8 above. This means with sierra or cortina front hubs your upper bone slopes up to the wheel. If you cant be bothered reading detailed books on the subject, just pick similar dimensions.

[Edited on 5/6/07 by JoelP]

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andylancaster3000

posted on 6/6/07 at 08:21 AM Reply With Quote
Take a look at some clubman style cars like Mallocks or even smaller; 750 formula cars. They have a 'passenger space' but not really deisgned for human fitment! The engines tend to be beside the drivers feet and legs. If you do something similar you could cut the size down signifiantly. With a bike engine something the size and weight of a 750f will be a really quite rapid ride!

HTH,
Andy

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Memphis Twin

posted on 6/6/07 at 09:43 AM Reply With Quote
I stuck a full race GSXR1100WP motor in my Mallock Mk14. It already had short wheelbase at 80", but I could've cut a nother 10" off that! As it was it was blindingly fast, extremely "chuckable" and weighed about 320kg wet.

I've often thought about building a purpose-designed bike engined Clubmans hillclimb/sprint car with a wheelbase of 72" (which I believe is the minimum allowed under MSA rules). It would be something akin to an overblown kart.

I've also often thought that most bike engined "7" style cars are far larger than they need to be, designed as they were for large, heavy car engines. It would be nice to see a new design, where form follows function.

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