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chassis and suspension design
luca - 28/3/05 at 03:02 PM

Hello,
I have seen a lot of great kit car projects on this website and I would like to ask for some advice.

I want to build a chassis and suspension for a rear mounted engine (Lancia Delta turbo). I have never built a kit car before and I was wondering if anyone has (or could point me in the direction of ) a basic plan which I could use as a starting point.

Thanks a lot

Luca

kb58 - 28/3/05 at 03:24 PM

Boy there's a loaded question. Almost all the cars being built here are not kits; many of us started with the "book" by Ron Champion, "Build this sports car for 250BP" Many others of us are doing our own one-off, custom designs.

Start with the books below, it's how we all started, by doing lots and lots of reading.

http://www.kimini.com/Reference/index.html


[Edited on 3/30/05 by kb58]

cymtriks - 28/3/05 at 06:57 PM

Do you mean rear engined as in a 911 or original VW beetle or do you mean mid engined as in an Elise/MR2/MGF ?

Take a look in my photos section. I posted a design for a mid engined chassis in there a while ago. It is very simple and has a high stiffness for its weight. It was designed with a full body work in mind as opposed to the minimalist bodywork of a "Seven" type of car.

Tell us some more about your ideas!

luca - 30/3/05 at 07:53 PM

Thanks for the reply,

I meant a mid-engine because the engine that I would like to use comes from a FWD unit (Lancia Thema Turbo 16 V).
I already read the books “Race and Rally car source book” and “Competition car suspension” but I do not have a clear idea about chassis and suspension design.
I also read the Ron Champion’s book and I wonder if it possible to get a general plan (with all the various dimensions) for a mid-engine car. I did some search on the internet but I couldn’t find a complete plan.
I like the design of your chassis, how did you develop this kind of design?

kb58 - 30/3/05 at 08:25 PM

quote:
Originally posted by luca

I like the design of your chassis, how did you develop this kind of design?


Do you mean me or cymtriks? If me, it was the product of reading all the books I posted, and making it all fit within a Mini body. A surprising amount of the car "designed itself," in that there was really only one way to do much of it as far as component placement goes. Doing it over again I'd do some FEA on the chassis first. As it is, I have no idea what the stiffness figures are of my chassis.

[Edited on 3/30/05 by kb58]

Alez - 1/4/05 at 12:27 PM

quote:
Originally posted by cymtriks
Do you mean rear engined as in a 911 or original VW beetle or do you mean mid engined as in an Elise/MR2/MGF ?

Take a look in my photos section. I posted a design for a mid engined chassis in there a while ago. It is very simple and has a high stiffness for its weight. It was designed with a full body work in mind as opposed to the minimalist bodywork of a "Seven" type of car.

Tell us some more about your ideas!


> I posted a design for a mid engined chassis in there a while ago.

I missed that thread, would it be easy for you to find it? Or do you remember the thread title or something so I can search myself? I'd like to have a look at any comments.

Cheers,

Alex

Chris Green - 6/4/05 at 12:52 PM

Have a look at the Slyva website here...

http://www.sylva.co.uk/index.shtml

The R1OT, and the mojo are both mid engined.

I am going to model up a similar chassis in 3D at some point. I don't want to base mine on a CVH though, and an R1 engine is out of my budget.

Hope this helps,

Chris.

cymtriks - 7/4/05 at 07:49 PM

try looking here

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=6997

This is my early design for a Seven type of mid engined car.

There is also a picture of a chassis for a full bodywork mid engined car in the photos section.

In case anyone is wondering this is the story.

I started out by thinking along the lines of a Locost but ended up thinking along the lines of a midengined car as this was something that I'd often thought of doing and also because suitable donors for front engined cars are becoming rarer.

So having done the analysis of the Locost chassis, as posted on this forum, I started looking at mid engined designs.

I looked at a spaceframe and a ladder frame based around a longitudinal engine, possibly Audi gearbox / Alfa V6 and also a chassis based on a transverse engine, possibly Honda R (as posted in the photos section) but everyone I asked about bodywork told me that this would be the most difficult part of the project.

In the end I had to face reality on this one. I only have the space to make the most basic panels. Also I now have a family to look after!

Hence the bodywork and chassis on that link.

feder - 12/4/05 at 02:58 PM

Ciao Luca !
Spero di aver intuito correttamente le tue origini: sei italiano? Anche io sto lavorando a un progetto simile al tuo, con un motore poco differente : saab 2000 turbo 16v, contattami pure via e-mail: m.capra@tin.it

Hi Luca!
I hope that you are Italian like me! I'm working on a mid-engine car project with a similar engine : saab 2000 turbo 16v.
Please contact me by e-mail: m.capra@tin.it

Marco