I have been reading with great interest about the Midlana (built by Kurt Bilinski of Kimini fame).
Obviously he can not tailor his design to suit all world wide rules and regs, and that the home builder will have to tailor it to suit their own requirements.
But can anyone who has gone through an IVA (or even an SVA) offer any comments on the current car to see if there is anything glaringly obvious that will cause problems with IVA?

Links below...

http://www.midlana.com/Diaries/Current/

and

http://www.midlana.com/forum/

I love the look of the car so far and as soon as the book is ready I will be buying a copy. But when a car has not been designed for UK IVA then there may be issues that have to be addressed very early on in a build.

Comments please.

I can't see that there would be any particular issues, any more than with any other new design. One thing that crops up with middys is where to put the petrol tank (can't be in passenger, luggage or engine compartments)

One thing though, is the builder a very small person, the most recent photo (I think) I can't see how someone would actually get in it?

Aparantly Kurt is a big chap.
And the roll cage actually crosses the roof diagonally so appears to be loads of room to get in and out.

Fuel tank is between engine and seats, but doesn't appear to be solid bulkheads between, so perhaps some work to add those in for IVA? I think its fitted from below so adding bulkheads shouldn't be much of a problem.

[Edited on 22/9/10 by balidey]

Haven't read all of it or seen all the pics - there's a lot of it! But a likely issue for IVA would be the seat belt mount height above the seat base - can't actually see where he's mounting the belts - fairly easy to modify, but they will want to see decent welding!

I can't believe, after all that effort & what looks quite a nice tidy modern design at the rear, he's bunged what looks like a 7 nosecone on it which just makes the front look old fashioned. Obviously only my personal opinion Kurt!

Yes, there is lots to take in.
Not trying to justify decisions on the nose cone, but he chose it because that way people making this car will be able to easily get hold of an off the shelf body panel without having to make a fairly complex shape.

Good point about the seat belt mountings. If I get time I may read through the IVA manual and see if any other items jump out as needing a look at.

I just scrolled through it and this sentence jumped out at me

"Deep-fried-Butter, and Chocolate-Covered Bacon "

Hi guys, that's my car.

Okay, I'm a skinny 6-ft, and while the car's small, there's lots of leg room.

Fuel tank: It's behind the seats and ahead of the engine compartment. At the moment there's nothing separating it from the engine, but a simple panel can fix that (the tank comes out the bottom of the car.)

Seat belt mounts: Will be per the manufacturer's recommendations. Right now there aren't any, but the shoulder belts will attach to the cross-tubes behind the seats, and the lower belts will be attached to triangular plates on the 1.5" square chassis tubes.

Nose: Hah, practically the entire car was designed around it, there's no bunging going on. The slope of the nose, the taper, everything is dictated by the nose, all to ensure builders don't have to do any composite work - "off the shelf." As far as old-fashioned looking, that was the intent all along. In fact, if the nose wasn't used then it would make the front-end treatment much more difficult. It is what it is, builders are encouraged to do their own thing.

I'm out the door now to tow the car to Los Angeles and have it dyno tuned. Those of you who entered the "guess the horsepower" contest earlier this year will find out if they won a book - tonight!

[Edited on 9/23/10 by kb58]

quote:

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Originally posted by Stott
I just scrolled through it and this sentence jumped out at me

"Deep-fried-Butter, and Chocolate-Covered Bacon "

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Dyno'd the car yesterday, 409 hp at the wheels. Weeeee.