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Author: Subject: The single seater is dead then...anyone got plans?
dan8400

posted on 1/4/14 at 07:51 PM Reply With Quote
I really want to build my own. Not sure making a formula car road legal would be easy?

It was seeing the Eco boost FF1 that got me interested in a single again.

Might just have a bash and see how I go.

How hard can it be?! ; )

Thanks
Dan

[Edited on 1/4/14 by dan8400]





Hey - That's Journey!!!

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coyoteboy

posted on 1/4/14 at 08:23 PM Reply With Quote
Biggest challenges will be the simple things like light positions, mirrors etc.






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Doctor Derek Doctors

posted on 2/4/14 at 09:50 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dan8400
I really want to build my own. Not sure making a formula car road legal would be easy?

It was seeing the Eco boost FF1 that got me interested in a single again.

Might just have a bash and see how I go.

How hard can it be?! ; )

Thanks
Dan

[Edited on 1/4/14 by dan8400]


It would be a huge amount easier than building a car from scratch AND then making that road legal. It's only adding bits in the correct position, the actual car is already done. It would also have the advantage of already having well sorted chassis suspension and running gear probably done by a company like Reynard/Lola etc and readily available parts. I'm always quite surprised that more people don't do it.





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Sam_68

posted on 2/4/14 at 06:45 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Doctor Derek DoctorsIt would also have the advantage of already having well sorted chassis suspension and running gear probably done by a company like Reynard/Lola etc and readily available parts.


Well sorted to work with 40mm ground clearance and rock-hard suspension on smooth tracks, components (Rose joints, particularly) that are lifed in hundreds of miles, and tyres with different characteristics, perhaps!

From my experience (admittedly limited, but 100% more than most people can claim), I would say that:

a) Genuine race cars (a converted Mallock in my case) are pretty horrible, nerve-wracking devices to drive on the public road. It's not just the suspension; it's the rigid-mounted engines, noisy, clonky, straight-cut and dog-engagement gearboxes, and often very restricted turning circles, amongst other issues.

b) Converting a modern race car pushrod suspension to work sensibly on the road is not quite as straightforward as you might expect. Basically, to get the range of wheel movement you need for the road to work with the limited damper stroke available in a typical, very tightly-packaged race car arrangement, you need to alter the rocker leverage ratios unfavourably. And that's before you start relocating the accurately-jigged suspension pickups (which the chassis has been very carefully triangulated around, of course!) and steering rack height to give sufficient ground clearance not to scrape on every dropped kerb and manhole cover without completely f***ing up the intended geometry. It's very easy to turn a well-sorted package into a completely unsorted one.

quote:
Originally posted by Doctor Derek Doctors
I'm always quite surprised that more people don't do it.


I'm not.

We all like to talk about 'race cars for the road', but the reality isn't quite as glamorous as the daydream, I fear!

Admittedly, the Haynes Single Seater would have probably ended up being as half-arsed and compromised a design as the original Locost, but on paper, at least, it did offer the opportunity to design-out many of the issues that make a genuine race car so unfriendly and impractical. The '60's style helps, of course, since at least the originals were designed to work with sensible ground clearances, much softer spring rates and less constricted ergonomics than modern racers use.

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