I've moved the off road device from sketch to plan which is taking considerably longer than I expected. Most of the tube positions in the sketch would be very difficult to build, due to rotations in all three axes. The design below LOOKS very similar but its pretty much a rebuid, plus I've been adding in more components to see how they fit in.

Yup. It's got flames.

I mirrored the off road device design for the first time... looks like TOO much triangulation. Will have to work out how much the bare frame is going to weigh next. It *looks* safe.

I made this part for the left hand coolant channel on a GM SBC that has the heater return right under the left hand water pump flange. I'm using block adapters for an electric water pump so there was no off the shelf solution. Really happy with how this turned out - I think modelling the part and working from that model really helped.

Getting there.. not 100% on it.

I'm becoming happy with the front end - the frame that the wishbones mount on is now all square so that will solve that problem. Still experimenting wildly with the rear of the device.

Lowered the CG and added some more frame triangulation. There's something wrong with the "body" line indicated, will fix it next. There are already some pretty compound angles building up over the chassis, after the sketch is done I'll have to do a pass to simplify this somewhat. Otherwise making the jigs up for the front suspension control arms will require more maths than I'm comfortable with.

Ok revised the design quite a bit... motor will mount to rear subframe, fuel tank, battery and radiator can be housed above.

So I'm pretty keen to build a racecar (probably an R1 powered locost) but before I jump in the deep end I thought I'd take on something smaller to test my fabrication skills. I've started by doing some modelling on computer - this amazing racecar building site gave me the idea and motivation. Already the design in my head has changed from a side-by-side arrangement to having the motor and axle mounted on the rear suspension subframe.

So given I've already changed my mind on this design it's useful to post it up as I'm sure the final revision will have varied from it greatly:

Spent the last few days making this flywheel cover for the V8 porsche project, pretty happy with how it turned out.

Some progress pics after the jump.