Homegrown race car

[Tomi]

Sorry, I do not have the details of the stress testing as I did not, and can not, do it myself. I have just given the numbers to the designer and trust him completely. Tests were made on the rear suspension components only, not for the chassis. To me everything seems overbuild at least when compared to other similar systems.

[morkrieger]

Okay thanks Tomi,

I was hoping for some numbers, just out of (engineering) interest

Keep on doing awesome things!

cheers.

[-Alex-]

Nice project

[Tomi]

OK, as I told you at the begining this will take some time to get finished. But I finally made some progress with the car after a long summer doing nothing VW related. Funny car cage is was installed just in case even if I don't expect to run below 8.5. Also all other tubes were welded as well as seat, seat belt and pedal box tabs. I will get the frame inspected in the following few weeks to be sure it meets the specs.



Everything looked good at this point but then we mounted the body on the frame and set it at the ride height. Front wheel is 20mm away from the fender and that will not be enough travel. I will use 22" tire to have more space and hope it's enough. Rear wheel here is 17" but it was the closest to 26" tall tire we had at hand. Looks like 26" might just clear but I was going to use 27.4" tall tire so I will have to raise rear fender as well if I want to keep this stance. And I really like how it sits so I will just cut and weld until it fits.



The biggest problem now is the angle of suspension arms, they point upwards at the ride height. Also the pushrod will be at such angle it will not work. So I will have to get new mounting tabs to be made again and fix these issues. Engine is 150mm from the ground and I think that's enough clearance. It is also moved approx 90mm towards the front to get better weight distribution.



I will also have to add tabs for 4-links as they also point to wrong direction. But other than these minor setbacks everything is starting to look like this will work OK.



Under the hood everything seems to be fine at least. I will try to keep it original and only modify the shelf to clear the front beam.



That's it for now. I still hope to get the chassis on wheels during this year. It's not too far anyway.

[melvin]

nice work

[Tomi]

A little update again, as the car is getting some work done to. Rear suspension changed a bit, now the geometry is correct. The chassis was also inspected and now meets sfi 25.4 specs. I needed to add a few tubes but otherwise it was fine as it was.



]

The body is now being repaired by a friend of mine. He will also modify the rear fenders to fit as the wheel arch was raised approximately 60mm. Body was not in so good condition as it first looked but soon it will be just perfect.

I have no hurry of getting the car back to my own garage but when that happens I will start to assemble it. The idea is to assemble the car without painting the body or anything and get it driveable, then disasseble it and paint everything.

][/

[leec]

Looks great
I am trying to find info on making my lummus chassis up to sfi spec you mention.
Could you show me a pic of the floor section and what size the tubing is (diameter and wall thickness)

Thanks
Lee

[Tomi]

Here's one picture where the floor is visible.



The lognitudal tubes are 1 1/2 x .065, the X is 1 x .049 and seat support tube is 1 1/4 x .058. But it all depends on where your helmet is located in relation to main hoop. Mine is all forward from main hoop. I suppose it is better to get the rule book to get it right.

[leec]

Thank you for that. 2 more questions if I can?!!
How does the floor change if you sit behind?
Also are the rear tubes where the gearbox sits in a smaller diameter than the 1 1/2 inch longitudal tubes you mention?
Lee

[Tomi]

Floor changes below the drivers seat. There are three variants depending on the helmet position, or actually two if you do not have funny car cage.

I suppose if you have RLR cromo chassic, the back end tubes are 1 1/2". Mine are at least. PM me your email address and I'll send you more info on the floor tubing.

[leec]

My chassis is not near me, but 1 1/2 sounds right. The outer tubes on the floor section are bigger though.

Thank you for your help. Sorry for hijacking your thread. Will pm you my email.
Lee

[Shag55]

Very nice work Tomi

[Tomi]

I finally got the car back from bodywork. Welding is at least 85% done and body is mounted on the chassis. There was a lot to do as the body was quite rotten but thanks to fellow Slug, Mika, everything is now OK. We raised the rear fenders approx 60mm and the fenders were modified to fit. Rear apron is not modified as I don't like to look when it gets raised. Now I need to make some room at the garage and lift the body off so I can start building this again.

[Ragtop]

Very very nice!!

[leec]

Any progress on this?

[Käferhauptquartier]

Fckn awesome ! That look´s very cool !

Regards Ben

[Tomi]

There's been no progress at all due to shotage of time. But I'm sure that will change soon and there will be a lot of progress over the winter as I still haven't lost all my motivation.

[leec]

Hi Tomi,
Glad you still have your motivation. I need I finalise my order for the sfi tubing update but am stick on one tube size required, can you help?

The tube on the floor section that goes from left a pillar to right a pillar, what size should that be?
Lee

[leec]

I finally got all the needed parts for rear suspension and some of them are now tacked into place. I also added some more tubes to the floor and backhalf.



I will add a bracket on top of the rocker as well as I don't want it to twist the tubes.



This transmission is just for mock up and I'm having hard time figuring how to mount upper arm as starter motor and drive shaft is in the way. Easiest fix would be Mendeola, but I would still like to use 091 as I already have it and also plates for it.

The tube I mean is the one on the bottom pic, across the bottom of that picture

[Tomi]

That would be 1 5/8 x 0.083.

[leec]

Thought so, my chassis has a 1 1/2" fitted at moment
Thanks,
Lee

[Tomi]

Time for a little update I suppose. Summer went and I did nothing with this one and also had some difficulties starting working again. I assembled the rear suspension and it seems to work just fine. Then I took it apart and sent some of the parts to be modified. I also begin working on the body and cut the front end off. I was so busy doing all this I didn't take much pictures but here's some.



Then I got a 40's repair panel from Virtanen Restoration Panels and it was just perfect. So the front end is going back together.



I also bought a used engine in pieces, just needs a big turbo and some smaller bits. Now I'm beginning to realize my transmission will need to be changed or gear ratios altered as it is geared for a lot smaller high revving engine. But I'm not worrying that right now, my main target is to get the body done before christmas.

[leec]

Motor parts look nice 
Good to see you are back on it

[BossHogg76]

Looks a lovely project, love seeing the level of detail involved

[desespringalle]

Some news?

[Tomi]

Well, not much. I've been collecting parts like brakes and such and got the body ready to be painted. As soon as get it delivered to paint shop I need to start working on the chassis.

[-Alex-]

Looks better than my project

[kev d]

Like it

[vwhelmot]

Very nice

[desespringalle]

At sure a great source of inspiration !