Hi all,

I'm a new member not just to this forum but to the car building business. I have absolutely no clue when it comes to building a car. My only weapon is my passion to the subject. I was wondering where you guys first started, how did you build your first cars, what resources did you use. My plan is to build a rear/mid engined car with a big V8 so if anyone of has a good chassis design that I could use, that would be great. Mind you I know nothing of welding techniques but I could learn fast. I'm an absolute noob that begs for your help.

welcome to the forum mate. I've not actually got any suggestions for the above, but if you have heaps of passion and the help of this forum them i'm sure you'll be reet. Not that i have anything against v8's but any particular reason? Soundtrack?

Welcome to the mad house. I can't comment on your questions as I built a kit which involved no design apart from asthetics and involved no welding.

I dare say someone will be along with experience of building their own design to assist.

Any reason why you're not considering building a kit rather than from scratch?

Any way god luck with whatever to attempt.

Cheers
Nigel

Welcome. I would be tempted to go and visit a few manufactures. I had loads of ideas about what I wanted when I started and only by talking to people and looking at other self builds did I get an idea of what I really wanted. Budget and time will also play a big part. If you dont have the knowledge and time to build your own chassis look at what is on the market ready built chassis. In lots of cases they will work out to be a better start to your project and will cut down your build time a great deal.

Wow never expected so much replies in such short time. Thanks guys.

eznfrank:

Why not? I'm a real speed addict and putting a V8 in a small car I think would give me the thrill I want. Also I'm currently in the middle-east, American V8's are dominant here and I can get my hands on one for a really good price.

Nigel:

Thanks mate. The real problem with kits is that we have none where I live and it would cost lots of money to get them shipped here. We have metal, tools and big engines so why not build my own.

zetec:

If only I could. There are no car manufacturers here. My only resource is the internet.


I am just looking for a simple chassis guideline, a drawing with measurements for rear engined car. As I said, I am really passionate about the project I would build the chassis a 100times to just get it right. but I must start with something that actually works. My budget is around 2000 pounds but I can pay more as I go on with the project. Car parts are cheap here so no worries. Thanks again guys.

Put your location in your profile and anyone near you will be able to see it, there may be a helping hand within shouting distance. Even a country may be of some help.

Why not go Haynes roadster with a V8 for starters, most of the hard stuff re design is done for you, then go scratch built as your second car. By then your welding and more importantly problem solving skills will be better honed.
We all have dreams but sometimes have to take the long route to achieve them, otherwise thats all they will ever be, dreams.

Welcome by the way.
Cheers,
Bob

I thought about a rear engine scratch desing and build as my first proper build project. Even through I (probably) have the engineering brain and training to do the design I eventually thought it wise to build to proven design first so I opted for the haynes roadster.

As stated above this has honed my welding skills and given me a real appreciation of all the elements involved. I now understand the limitation of my skill and available tools so know what I coudl tackle in the future.

Hence my advice would be, build to a known design like the haynes first, shove a v8 in it if thats your thing. Then move on and work on your own design on the background, learn a CAD package to realise your design before comitting to metal, Could save an awful lot of frustration!

Hi and welcome - I've nothing against V8's as my avatar will show, however you realyshould try out a BEC & CEC Locost before finalising your plans - you might find that either will suit your desire for shocking performance at a lot less cost than a V8 heavyweight.

Never lose sight of the fact that excess weight in a car is a big downer when it comes to overall performance - i.e. acceleration and handling and V8s with the sort of power that will outperform a Hyabusa powered Locost weigh and cost plenty.

Also - going for a proven design saves years of design, fettling and testing time to get a car with equal performance.

Have a look at this great thread to get some idea of what's involved in a one off.

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=43112&page=&contribmessage=none

This is exactly my plan. To start with something designed and pretested and then move on to my own. My problem is finding the plans an drawings for that. where can I find the drawings for a Haynes chassis? and would it be able to hold a big V8 in the back ? (my best would be a wide coupe chassis similar to Ultima GTR's)

Thanks mikeb, splitrivet, Peteff and all of you guys.

Thanks Ivan, didn't see your post there.
I completely agree with you. I myself am more of a compressed air than a naturally aspirated engine guy. I love smaller engines, but where I live, a V8 is probably much cheaper and easier to get than a bike engine or a turbo-charged one. I am currently looking for a proven design if you have any candidates please share.

This is the Haynes book "Build Your Own Sports Car: On a budget"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Own-Sports-Car/dp/1844253910/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227537737&sr=1-1

Which is the 3rd version of the original Locost book.
It's obviously a front engine, rear wheel drive car.

I started out on this hobby as a complete newb (many would say still am!) and it took me 4 years to build from scratch with plenty of help from people here.

To do a mid-engine car and bodywork would take many, many times longer IMO.

I would start with a Seven and move on to mid-engine from there later.

Hope that helps,
James

quote:

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Originally posted by n54
Thanks Ivan, didn't see your post there.
I completely agree with you. I myself am more of a compressed air than a naturally aspirated engine guy. I love smaller engines, but where I live, a V8 is probably much cheaper and easier to get than a bike engine or a turbo-charged one. I am currently looking for a proven design if you have any candidates please share.

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James, thanks for the book link. 4 years is a long time, I'm thinking of a much shorter time but whatever it takes as long as I get it done.

John, many car parts are available here and I'll certainly look into them once I get to that stage. Right now I am just looking to build a rear/mid engine chassis that is capable of holding a V8. Once I've done that, I'll get whatever's available here. As this is my first build my only concern is to get the car running.

Just to add my 2 cents, I have built and worked on many production and pure race cars (Datsun, Ford, McLaren F500, and Can Am). I have been 5 years off and on building a Locost with a Toyota 4AGE. Big American V8's break a lot of parts (427 Corvette 4 engines 40,000 miles). Have a look at the original Locost or Haynes roadster, I am sure there are a few wrecked V8 Land Rovers in Rhiad, good engine and light, go very well in a Locost. Your other problem is distance from UK parts as is mine, give it some thought, when it takes 3 months to get a needed part, slows thing down.

As I said before, I'm a complete noob. I think I can manage to find a Land Rover's V8 here and will look into it more. As you said distance is the biggest problem and for that reason I'm looking to fabricate my own specs. My ultimate dream is to build something similar to the Ultima GTR (different styling though). Thanks.

Hi n54,

You'll find more relevent information on joining a V8 and trans together over on www.gt40s.com there are people doing scratch built GT40's but no one anywhere is going to give you plans for a chassis.

There's thing like this http://www.kitcarplans.com you can look at but most of this sort of thing appear to br crap in reality. Try contacting Kaspa on this forum or GT40's he may be able to sell you what something interesting and his thing looks well designed to me.

Other than that use Amazon to buy every book you can on the subject and read them all repeatedly.

[Edited on 25/11/08 by Doug68]

quote:

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Originally posted by n54


John, many car parts are available here and I'll certainly look into them once I get to that stage. Right now I am just looking to build a rear/mid engine chassis that is capable of holding a V8. Once I've done that, I'll get whatever's available here.

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Doug, thanks for the sites I'm currently browsing them.

John, perhaps you're right. I better stick to a safe plan than to an imaginary one. But I always thought that I could find some CAD drawings that I could use for my dream design. The problem is that I want to get my hands dirty and then do my share of research. Well, better safe than sorry.

Cheers mates.

Hi n54 welcome to the madhouse.

You should be able to pick up a renault UN1 gearbox they were produced under licence I think by Jeep in the Eagle? Very strong and very adaptable and dead easy to rebuild and swap ratios. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

My inspiration was the Radical SR8 and there are plenty of pictures of the chassis on Google images if you search.

As it turned out it was easier for me to use a Sylva Riot chassis as everything fitted - but - with that sort of power I found that everything else, brakes, suspension, uprights were unable to cope with the torque and needed beefed up.

In retrospect a scratch build would be easier.

With respect to weight, power and performance I managed fairly easily to better my inspiration and your access to powerfull engines should be better than here.

It has been fantastic fun for me and I never regretted it for a second even when my budget was blown out of the water which, by the way, was quite a bit more than 2k.

Cheers

David

John Have sent you a Pm
cheers Kaspa

I made the mistake of getting my hands dirty (well rather posh epoxy in my case) before the design work was half complete. Whilst you can design on the hoof it is not the easiest way.

If you must get building why not take out your frustrations on a big build table - nice welding lessons there.

Then you can make or buy a seat and a steering wheel and make brrm brrm noises whilst planning.

If you want v8 midi then unless you can afford a porsche gearbox and can invert it I think the best roadcar transmission for a midi is the Audi. What is better is that they make a v8.

If you like the ultima keep an eye out for a prosports chassis. often quite cheap if a bit old and bent.

have fun

n54, I sense a great deal of enthusiasm in your writing, which is a good thing, but also puts you at great peril. Right now it's very easy to go nuts and jump into building but please refrain from doing so. Any project that's only half thought-through will lead to disappointment and possibly never be finished.

I'd spend money buying all the books you can on sports car and suspension design because your budget doesn't allow buying a finished mid-engine car - you're going to have to build it from scratch

I have a book about mid-engine car design and construction, plus a big list of other books to seriously consider reading before you start, http://www.kimini.com/Reference/index.html

Your situation reminds me of a teenager who's walking through the red-light district for the first time. Don't run into the first bordello you see or bad things can happen! Take your time and think through the entire undertaking... the car project I mean.

[Edited on 12/3/08 by kb58]