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classic lotus design needed
whpracer - 10/3/05 at 06:09 PM

A friend of mine is thinking of building a classic kind of formula car , just like the Tiger E.R.A. are there any drawings and measurements of this kind of car on the internet ?
this is the kind of racecar he's going to build. Rescued attachment english-racing-automobiles-era-drawing.jpg
Rescued attachment english-racing-automobiles-era-drawing.jpg


kb58 - 10/3/05 at 06:34 PM

The problem with getting plans for something like this is, unless you use *exactly* the uprights they used, the wheel geometry will be wrong. Sure you can redesign it, but now the in-board pick-up points probably move, which means moving tubes. Once that starts all sorts of seemingly unrelated things come into the picture.

Yes, for reference, the original drawings would be helpful, just don't assume they can be copied as-is unless all components are exactly the same as the original.


ceebmoj - 10/3/05 at 07:38 PM

hi,

also you might what to see if you can find some one who sels old single seater as you can pick one up - gear box and engin for not a lot then all you need to do. is fabricate a frame to take the plave of the gear box if you are going bike powered.

blake


britishtrident - 10/3/05 at 08:15 PM

There are a some early Lotus racer original drawings kicking around on the web --- you find pictures of some early 60s Lotus F1 parts at ths url http://www.leechapmanracing.com/

More generally many F1 F2, FJ and even some Indy cars of the early 60s used Herald uprights. The 18 in particular had a chassis and front suspension that had a lot in common with the Eleven and Seven S1 and S2 and S£. Lotus stoped using Herald parts in F1 & F2 from the 24 onwards when they switched to rocker arm suspension with special cast uprights but the front geometry was essentially the same as the Herald based suspension. Brabham used the Herald front end parts (with great sucess) for much longer.
Lotus again used Herald parts on the original Formula Ford car the 51 (and the later rebodied 61) which was really just a reworking and dumbing down of the the early 60s F2/FJ cars .

Rear suspension wise all that is needed is to copy any Formula Ford built up to around 1980.