Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey all, I am bored at work today, so I figured I will show you all what I have been up to. Its a locost (lotus 7 replica) with an sr20de (one day it will be +T) with the silvia rear end welded up to it. Next will be front suspension and steering, then I get the engineer to take a look and make sure it wont fall apart at 100kph :D

Rear1.jpg

IMG_0672.jpg

IMG_0648.jpg

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/215277-messing-about-with-a-welder/
Share on other sites

im curious about the use of the RHS - how does tyhis material go in the view of engineering? i whould have thought that a seamless material would be required.

Look great and im sure you have checked that out, im just curious for more info if you can pass it along.

Thanks guy's, there will be some more bracing in the front once I have figure out the front suspension - the book I am using is the haynes roadster, which uses ford sierra parts, so I have opted for nissan - like a sane person. The engineers dont generally have a problem with rhs, the clubman chassis usually pass torsion tests easily (forget that you are the crumple zone for a minute tho) there would be somewhere in the region of 200+ hours work so far (Im a bit of a noob) so I am glad its relitivly easy to work with :D

Oh, and that close to the ground 100kph should feel like warp speed - I'll be needing some of Clarksons special brave pills (and hopefully scaring the crap out of passengers)

if done properly can these things be road registered?

yes. i've seen a few of these things driving around on the road, although they arent very common, you can get them registered. theres a company down here that builds them with LS1's up front. they want like $120k for one though....

FFS i cant remember what company it is though, someone jog my memory for me

Thanks for the comments guys :)

Its elfin who build the V8 ones, which is owned by Walkinshaw now I think.

I am hoping to register the car, its a lot of extra mucking around, but will be worth it. You need to fill out the appropriate paperwork for transport (Individually Constructor Vehicle), and get an engineer to check it out at various points during the build.

Stephen, you can get plans for an extra wide chassis, the McSorley 442 plans are popular in america (4" wider, 4" longer and 2" taller) you can always just make them bigger to suit yourself, but you wont be able to register it with a CA18 engine, they need to be reasonably recent to satisfy ADR's, and which years depend on which state you are in, but the earliest is 97, is why I am using an sr20. Also you might want to consider what category of racing you want to compete in (which you will :) ), with the 1.8 turbo, you will be in with 3l 6's and the like - which is why the 4age is popular, puts you down with the 1.6l categories - they are cheap, and there is a lot of knowledge about them www.ozclubbies.com is a good place to start.

That and the other advice I can offer is dont underestimate how immense the project is, it will consume nearly all of your spare time (make sure the significant other is ok with the project) and you will loose motivation at different points, so catching up with other builders is handy

Hey all, I am bored at work today, so I figured I will show you all what I have been up to. Its a locost (lotus 7 replica) with an sr20de (one day it will be +T) with the silvia rear end welded up to it. Next will be front suspension and steering, then I get the engineer to take a look and make sure it wont fall apart at 100kph :P

Rear1.jpg

Well this may appear to be a random question, but is perhaps relevant:

What is the mechanical ratio for the suspension, ie how many millimetres or wheel articulation equals how many millimetres of spring travel?

It is easy to test get a fat bastard (or dog) to sit on the diff. Measure the change in ride height & the change in spring height. Divide one by the other. If you get alot of wheel movement for a small amount of spring travel the car can be a bastard of a thing to set up.

Hey Tom - I didnt know I could do it either untill I tried! Seriously, I had never used a welder before. I practiced all saturday morning and started building in the afternoon. (I did an adult ed course tho, so it wasnt completely blind)

and in regards to suspension travel, my calculations are 2.5:1 wheel to shock, and from memory, I measured that to be pretty close... Sounds like I will be having some fun then (always stay positive) at least the shocks are double adjustable (twice as much for me to stuff up) - Why I chose to do it this way is because the shocks were dirt cheap - around $60 a piece from america, or the propper ones run around $1200'ish per set - works on my beer & pizza budget

They work quite nicely when I jump up and down on them, as far as I can figure out they are rising rate (I am happy to be shown otherwise, the whole project is a learning experience for me) they are quite compliant to start with, but as hard as I jump on it, I cant get to more than about half way of travel on the shock. I have never been in a clubman, and I have no idea how his will actually handle, so I am as curious as hell to find out - hopefully one day soon I will be able to let you all know, and with any luck it will be good news :P

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • There is a way, but it's not with the same cars. You need to find the same vintage of car, that we had. Realistically, that was an affordable car with aftermarket parts around. So what people need to find is a car that had a decent base in its day, and can be modified. They're looking for a car year make of 2010 to 2015 really... Aus could have done it if Holden didn't fold as V8 commodores were cheap, and if Ford didn't get expensive thanks to COVID, then you could cheaply play with FG Barras. Realistically, those are just a bit heavier, four door skylines. I'm sure the US and UK have similar cars they could find.
    • Haha I do that.. thats when it chirps..The bit point for me is almost non-existent. Otherwise I stall it. But yes, in terms of performance, the clutch is solid af.
    • Greg speaks wisdom. These dirty old Datsuns are only value when they are cheap. When they are not cheap, there is no value. Sounds contradictory, but it's true. We are now 20 years past the hey day of modifying cheap 90s JDM cars for small amounts of money. This is a different world. If you are rich and can afford not to care about what is effectively wasting money on an old Datto shitter, then I have no reason to argue against it. But if you are wanting to experience what we all experienced back in 2005 (and I bought my car last century!) then there is no way to do it.
    • Short answer: No. Medium answer: No, because you still need to conjure the things out of thin air to bolt them to a NA to make it a NA+T. Long Answer: No - The things you need to conjure - meaning a turbo, intercooling, manifolds, exhaust, intake/manifold/piping, clutch, injectors, fuel pump, AFM (?), ECU + Wiring (woo, N/A loom fun) have to come from somewhere. You could have many scavenged these things from an OEM car that someone had upgraded from and use some of these. This will be cost prohibitive now, especially so in the USA. You'd probably pay the same for newer, upgraded components that are better than old OEM stuff from 25-30 years ago. None of these big ticket items are re-usable for the N/A car. Why not buy new and upgrade while you're there? The only real consideration is turbo and fuel sizing and determining whether you want to stay within the bounds of the OEM engine or get into rebuild territory. These limits ARE lower with a N/A motor and especially N/A gearbox at the starting point. And if you're gonna upgrade those then you may as well consider having them built to begin with. Because everyone here knows you're never far from that next engine rebuild once you start making the power you want... The cars you see on the internet and SAU etc have been built over decades. If you're really clued in... you would sell your US car to somebody for what you paid for it. You would then scour AU JDM pages or SAU and buy a car like Dose's on this forum with your powerful American Dollar. This will save you so much money in the long term. Importing it could be tricky. Or it might not because USA. I have long said the only reason 90's Japanese stuff took off was because a) Japanese people had Japanese cars so that is what they used b) Australians could import these cars to Australia with very minimal changes and use them on the road here c) Neither country had well-priced access to US or EU Sports Cars. I don't believe the JDM scene would have taken off in Australia at all if we had EU priced EU BMW M offerings, or more especially the AUS V8 Scene would never have existed if we had the multitude of US cars like Camaros, Mustangs, Corvettes at the prices you folks do. After all - Do the math. I would say put a V8 in your R34 and that's the smart way forward. It is. I did it. I know this from my own experience. But at that point there's no reason to simply not buy a C5 or C6? It would be simpler and easier and cheaper and bette-
    • Reading all this... hurts lol. I have an ENR34 5MT and I paid an inflated USA price for the car alone, had to do tons of preventative maintenance past that, and so I'm over $30K USD into the car already and haven't even touched power.  I wanted to +t it. Not even trying to make GTR numbers, I'd be happy with 250hp.  Can I get away with paying much less to make that happen?
×
×
  • Create New...