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MSVA tester sphere of doom and exoskeleton frames
smart51 - 29/7/10 at 09:44 AM

I’m building an exoskeleton car with ½” tube and I’m planning to have as little bodywork as possible. The gaps in the frame a mostly triangles with sides of about 200mm but the centre line of the car from the nose to the central steering wheel will have 180mm square holes – big enough for the MSVA sphere of doom to get through.

Just below the surface of the car will be the fillers for the coolant and brake fluid plus a little further in are the top wishbone and damper mounts plus the top of the radiator. Is the MSVA inspector going to be troubled by what the sphere can contact inside the “nose cone” of the car like this? Do I need to cover it up?

scootz - 29/7/10 at 09:56 AM

Was going to post something similar... will be watching with interest!

Howlor - 29/7/10 at 09:58 AM

Is it possible to put a front bumper bar on so this becomes the critical area and eliminates items further back?

As per MNR and others supply.

Steve

MikeR - 29/7/10 at 10:26 AM

would it be difficult to glue (using hot glue so they can be easilyish removed) some thin plastic triangles?

(that would probably look better than gluing some ribs or spars over the gap so the sphere can't get through).

Howlor - 29/7/10 at 10:32 AM

Along the same lines, have it vinyl wrapped. It would be like a balsa and tissue model aeroplane!

Steve

smart51 - 29/7/10 at 10:33 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Howlor
Is it possible to put a front bumper bar on so this becomes the critical area and eliminates items further back?

As per MNR and others supply.

Steve


The sharp nasties will already be within the shell of the vehicle but will be touchable if you poke your hands in through the holes. My question is how far will the MSVA man poke the sphere into the holes?

I plan to see if I can make a "tonneau" cover for the nose but would rather do this at leisure after MSVA if at all.

interestedparty - 29/7/10 at 10:44 AM

what does an msva retest cost, might be cheaper to see what it fails on exactly and then do anything like that if you need to?

splitrivet - 29/7/10 at 12:41 PM

Is this a new project smart is the cabin scooter finished if so why no pics ?
Cheers,
Bob

smart51 - 29/7/10 at 01:10 PM

quote:
Originally posted by splitrivet
Is this a new project smart is the cabin scooter finished if so why no pics ?


Think of if as Cabin Scooter Plan B. The original had dodgy steering, was a bit unstable and has 1 or 2 small design flaws that would have been tricky to correct. Add to that the bodywork not coming out entirely as planned I decided it was best to stop and rethink.

Plan B has no bodywork, has proper steering and a wider track. It is a single seater with stiffer anti-roll and the overall design is about 100kg lighter. This means I can use the springs and dampers I bought for the front of the cabin scooter and they'll now be stiff enough to keep it all upright. 100kg lighter is also about 30% lighter so the new version will go faster, stop faster, turn faster and use fuel, erm, slower - which was the point really. The official figure for the donor scooter is 82MPG (warm urban cycle) and I'm hoping to get quite close to that figure.