kaBOOM's, uh, project?

kaBOOMn

kaBOOMn

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2006
Messages
849
Location
Adelaide, South Australia
I cut and pasted a few posts off my thread on another forum, I really don't want to re-write all of this....

Intro

Welcome to kaBOOM's car building thread! For those who don't know, I'm building a car. A whole car. From Scratch. Production car quallity. From Scratch. All from scratch....geddit?

For those who don't know I've spent the last 4 years (and still do) working at a place that builds/rebuilds kit cars so this is nothing really new to me. What is new, is the concept of making a car with doors, a roof, a body shell and interior that doesn't look like it was made by a engineer all the while designing it in such a way that it can be built at a pace (and price) rather faster than we normally build cars at work.

Another very important point is it is all ADR complient. Again we have to do this at work so it isn't really a problem. However it does make things interesting, and has a considerable impact on the design decisions I have to make. Which is why you will get a little upset that the cars going to more towards the side of style over substance.

As part of con of the decade, I'm convincing the uni I'm doing my Industrial Design/Mechanical Engineering degree at to make it as my final year project (for the design half) So it has to be finished on October-ish 2009. I have to orginise a group of people, other designers in my class and the like....

This thread is really just a crappy blog, with my rants and the like. I'll post the odd picture if your nice too......

Current Specs list (this will change/get info added to it)

Body Type: Two seat, two door sports car
Chassis: Tubular Spaceframe
Track: 1400mm
Wheelbase: 2265mm
Projected Weight: 750kg <-- like hell that will happen!

Engine: Subaru EJ20 Turbo Flat 4, Midship mounted.
Gearbox: Subaru FWD only 5 speed, Hybrid SAAB/Subaru CV joints (Half shafts)

Front Suspension: Unequal lengh double wishbones, adjustable coilover shock absorber, TE Cortina Front Hub
Front Brakes: VL Turbo calipers, SAAB 9000 front discs.
Steering Rack: TE Cortina
Rear Suspension: Unequal lengh double wishbones, adjustable coilover shock absorber, SAAB 900i Front Hub
Rear Brakes: Audi 90 Rear calipers, SAAB 9000 rear discs.
Wheels: 15x5.5 on 205/50 serries tyres

I've been working at this for quite a while, doing a lot of mundane stuff like instrument clusters, seating position...etc etc......
 
....a much later post....

/cue ominous music....

In 2006 a bogan in Salisbury decided he wanted to build his own car. A car that was easy to make, and could be reproduced very cheaply....well much much cheaper (and easier) than the other stuff we make at work. Now after having made half a million two dimensional fames, I have got to the stage where I can enter.......the third dimension

/ominous music reaches cresendo....and then fades....

O.K sorry for sounding like more of a tosser than usual (see it is possible!) but I have something a little more interesting to show you....

image050.jpg


Front three quarter section, note I haven't done the cross braces etc, thats normally done just before powdercoating the chassis.

image051.jpg


Front lower subframe. Just tacked together. Note the old U12 Steering colum in the background. The whole front end was (wierdly) designed around having a 15" spare wheel with a 50 serries tyre on it. Yep a full size spare.

image052.jpg


Steering rack closeup. Yeah its a Ford Cortina rack. You can see the lower wishbone pickups, the distance between where the rack sits (both vertical and horizontal) and the lower wishbone mounts (and the actual geometry of the stubaxel) is highly critical. The main influence of getting this wrong would be excess bump steer and wierd steering feel. A good example is the VB to VK Commodores. Due to the design of the local 6 cylinder engine the steering rack sat in the wrong spot....they changed this in the VL which (not quite supprisingly) transformed the feel of the car....still was a boat but it went vaugly in the direction you pointed it instead of where it wanted to go.

image053.jpg


Lower A pillar section and the right door. The door took me 9 months to make, they are really the hardest part of a car to design. The door is complete with central locking and 'leccy windows. The door is without its skin (duh).

image054.jpg


Front lower cavity where the 32 litre fuel tank sits.

image055.jpg


Another shot of the fuel tank cavity.

image056.jpg


Another three quarter shot. Note the thickness of the trans tunnel (which ironically has no gearbox or driveshaft in it). In the background you can see a customers clubman (left) and my (part owned) Alfa Romeo race car.

So yeah. Progress....
 
So there is a lot more photos to go up etc etc....Its moving along slowly and the like.

Oh and there are no CAD renders of the final body shell. Yes the general shape and proportions has already been decided, thats it. If you want something of a similar size, think a MG-TF....

I'll put in a hour and upload some development pics, and a few digital cam pics of one of my notebooks (I don't belive in storing some data on computers)
 
Last edited:
Pfft, round > square tubing! :p
 
O.K, more pics....

Technical package development for the instrument cluster. Sorry aftermarket gauges are cheap and nasty no matter what they are. The gauge faces you can see are temp ones till I finish mine....

image057.jpg


Bonus points to anybody who can pick where the faces and servo motors came from.....well not bonus points, more like you-need-to-go-out-points....

A montage of a few of my many workbooks on this....

notebook.jpg


Also my Dog died last week.....one of these evil critters is mine in two weeks time. So the car will have to be puppy/dog friendly...haha....

image058.jpg
 
Viper007Bond said:
Pfft, round > square tubing! :p
Click to expand...

Ever built a car sunshine? :p There is a reason most of us use square tube....the car is not ment to be a supercar....haha....it has a roof, A/C and leccy windows! :D

Its not going to be anywhere as fast as some of our clubmans, granted, still it does share quite a few bits like the front suspension and the like.

More pics...

image059.jpg


Front subframe, designed to fit a spare wheel between the front suspension arms. A full size spare. The frame is built on a built table, welded as not to warp and then taken off and checked.

Image060.jpg


Its only a temp steering wheel....move along....from one of the frontcuts we had laying around....(doner for a customers clubman/lotus 7 replica)

Image061.jpg


The, uh, lightweight office....haha

Image062.jpg


Gearbox and shifter.....the shifter mech is a work of art....
 
jensked said:
That's MIGHTY impressive!

Do you have a body design yet?
Click to expand...

Well I'm going to Europe (Italy) next year for a design show as part of Uni. So idea's etc etc

The design guys (its a bit of a group effort) and I are still trying to work out a Australian design language....As far as names go, none yet. It has to go under the Sirius brandname we use at work (since I borrowed some space at work to build it around customers cars!), and it has the temporary name -- F**kn Mongrelli.....think a Australian saying "Mongrel" with a bit of Italiana thrown in! haha (God I hope that doesn't stick!)
 
Wow, impressive! :p Mid mounted EJ20 sounds very awesome indeed. When you finish it, I definitely want to drive it/one of them :devil:

Oh, those dials, Subaru Liberty/Legacy. I'd know that manly font anywhere!
 
That's quite interesting, but could you give us a general idea of what it's supposed to be when finished? Just a raw sketch or so?
 
he said it is going to look sort of like an MG TF

kaBOOMn said:
Oh and there are no CAD renders of the final body shell. Yes the general shape and proportions has already been decided, thats it. If you want something of a similar size, think a MG-TF....
Click to expand...

So...

mg_rover_mg_tf_07_02_05.jpg



you sir are my hero. anyone that has that nuts to go out and build their own car gets a special place in the pantheon on carguys
 
That's nice and all but... you do know your steering wheel is on the wrong side right? :p
 
Oh man I always though the Subie Turbo Boxter motor would be great in a mid-engined car.

By using that engine design and sticking to 2wd only you can get a great weight distribution combined with a low center of gravity and low total weight.
 
^ I lol'd hard.

And great project. I can't begin to imagine how confusing some bits must all be. Mucho Kudoso.
 
The dials, are they TR/TS Magna?
 
If you can keep the car light, then a powerful engine isnt needed. IF the car is on the heavy side, we all know how cheap smallblock chevys are! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top