Work work work

Got some work done over the last few weeks. Took the engine out of the R1. There really is nothing quite as therapeutic as taking something apart that you don't have to put back together.

Sitting in it's new home.



So my original plan was to just use the standard plans (which are designed for a solid axle) and adapt it for the independent rear suspension of the Miata, but after much staring and thinking, I decided that the best thing would be to take apart everything I had from the bulkhead back and start from a clean sheet design. Off to Solidworks I went, and I ended up with something that I think will work.
Tore everything apart, and the beginnings of the new design. By the way, as you can see in the pictures, I picked up my differential a couple weeks ago. Some guy on Craigslist was parting out a 1994 Ford Thunderbird V6, so I picked up the 7.5" 3.27 differential, half shafts, and the driveshaft just for good measure.

If you squint and use your imagination, it's sort of starting to look like a car. Squint hard.

Spending Money

Picked up my other donor yesterday. It's a 2002 Yamaha R1 that was wrecked in the front shortly after the original owner bought it. It sat around for awhile, and then someone tried to put it back together as a trackbike, so it's got new forks, a new radiator, new clip ons, and other misc stuff. It also came with 2 spare wheels, a rear axle, and an extra undertail. The bike is supposed to have 1200 original miles, but since the gauges are missing, I'm just going to have to take the guy's word for it. It's mostly complete, but it's missing a steering stem and a fuel pump, so it doesn't run, and even if it did, it's probably not prudent to ride it. All the better.

The plan is to use the engine, wiring harness, ECU, ignition, etc from the bike and sell off everything else. My garage is starting to look like a junkyard.

Update

Quick update, just been working on the frame, adding bars. I've almost got a complete basic chassis to work with. After I buy a differential and engine, I can start designing the engine mounts and diff mount and rear suspension. Not much more to say here. It doesn't look like a lot of work has been done since the last pictures of the frame, but believe me, there has.

Reciprocating Saw Fun

Because it was so freakin hot outside, I didn't get a whole lot done on the frame this week...definitely not enough to take progress pictures of. I spent a good part of the week sitting indoors and starting on the suspension design, reading up on steering rack ratios, bump steer, and master cylinder sizing, and trying to find a wrecked R1 for sale in Houston.

I did cut the Miata into pieces to transfer to the scrap yard. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but it was so hot outside that these are the only two pictures I felt like taking. I also cut the front end (ahead of the windshield) off, but when I was done, all I wanted to do was go inside, drink a gallon of cold water, and experience the greatest invention of all time, air conditioning*.

*Sidenote: I really don't think air conditioning is the greatest invention of all time (GIOAT, for simplicity's sake), but it certainly feels that way after 4 hours in the hell that is Houston summer. I've never really thought about it, but if I had to choose a GIOAT, I would probably be a predictable loser car nerd and choose the automobile. But what liberated everyday people to travel more than the automobile? If you answered my hypothetical question with powered flight, I might call you a jerk and then agree with you.

The Beginning

As the description above says, I am attemping to build a reasonable facsimile of a Lotus 7 from scratch. I hesitate to call it a replica, since there will be a lot of departures from the original car. To point out the obvious (maybe), the general concept is called Locost because its based on a Lotus, and most people complete the car for very cheap, especially compared to a real Lotus 7 replica, the Caterham 7. To learn more about the concept, check out http://www.locostusa.com/, http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/, the Yahoo Locost Group, Ron Champion's legendary book Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 and Race It! (no longer in print, but a great read if you can get your hands on one), and Keith Tanner's great book How to Build a Cheap Sports Car.

The plan is to build the frame from scratch, use a 1990 Mazda Miata as a donor for parts such as the hubs, uprights, steering rack, steering column, brakes, etc. etc, and power the car with a Yamaha R1 engine.

From here on out, I'll try to update the blog at milestones, but I will have to update you what's happened in the past month and a half. Click on the pictures to view full size.

5/30/09

I bought my donor car, which I wasn't actively looking for. I just saw the car for sale on Craigslist the previous week and thought that it would be a perfect donor. I hadn't quite planned on starting on the project just yet, so I didn't inquire right away. But then I thought about it for a couple days and said to hell with it and bought it for $500. It was too good of a deal to pass up. This should be a lesson to everyone about how Craigslist is the devil. You end up with crap you didn't plan on buying. Crap that makes your fiance shake her head. And wonder what the hell she's gotten herself into.

Towing it home:

The ignition switch was broken and battery was dead, and the driver's seat was just sitting in its spot, so it was easier to just tow it home. Here it is at its new home. And also its deathbed.

Notice the driver's seat held in by gravity, the passenger seat held in with one bolt. and the entire contents of the driver's door (window, door card, power window motor) sitting in the passenger seat.

Not in bad shape, just not in particularly good shape. Pretty much every panel has dents in it, it had been lightly wrecked in the front, and left sitting in a parking lot for 6 months or so with no windows and a ripped top. So all that considered, it's in damn good condition.

5/31/09

Didn't waste any time, and ripped out the interior:

Not a bad haul for a $500 car.

6/13/09

Bought the steel, built a build table last week and cut and laid out the bottom rails this week:

7/7/09

Got the the basic top rails and rear bulkhead tacked together:

7/12/09

I'm getting tired of seeing the ugly Miata in my driveway (and I suspect my neighbors are too), so I took the weekend to completely strip the car in order to cut it into pieces to haul to the scrap yard. I can report that it was freakin hot in Houston over the weekend. Not fit for man or beast out there. Not sure what that makes me, but whatever.

Before we (we meaning me and one of my good friends who inexplicably keeps helping me with this project despite the fact that a) it feels like 109 degrees outside, b) he has his own project CB750 he should be working on, and c) did I mention its 109 degrees outside??) tore the car apart, my buddy jerry rigged the car to run, just to prove that I bought a perfectly running car for $500. Then we drove it around the block with no interior and no muffler giggling like idiots.

Boring video of it running:

Onto the carnage:

Open wiiiiide...

After much cursing, PB Blaster, breaker bars, skinned knuckles, and whatnot...

And that's where I stand today. I'm looking forward to breaking out the reciprocating saw this weekend to cut the car into pieces.