Cymtriks, I hope you build that car you designed. http://forum.locostbuilders.co.uk/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=6352" target="_blank">http://forum.locostbuilders.co.uk/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=6352 That is a very cool looking design. I think it has real potential. Can you keep the engine low enough to keep the rear decklid low like that? What's the distance from axle to front of engine? Dominic has 22" with his 20V Toyota and I have closer to 26" with the older 4AGE and stock manifold.

Graber

[Edited on 8/25/03 by sgraber]

Anyone who's followed Cymtriks' contributions know that he's done some outstanding things with chassis design, so of course I'm interested in his plans for his own car. It reminded me of an old GP car, and after some googling I came up with this picture of the 1934 Auto Union (Mr. Nuvolari at the helm). An updated car along these lines would be VERY interesting and unusual:
Rescued attachment Nuvolari.jpg

Taking the liberty of reposting the body sketch:
Rescued attachment middypic.gif

And the chassis outline from another thread (see http://forum.locostbuilders.co.uk/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=6927&page=2 for original post):

[Edited on 25/8/03 by pbura]
Rescued attachment middychassis.gif

Thanks for the positive comments!

I hope I build it too! My plans have suffered some set backs recently due to my every day car showing signs of old age and gobbling up funds.

My earlier chassis designs were all front engined ones with the best being the double Y brace version shown in the pictures section. More than double book stiffness, engine bay bracing that can be made to go round engine parts (a common problem with the simple "book" diagonal) and slightly lighter.

I am thinking that by the time I finally finish this thing the front engined rear drive options will have started to seriously dry up so I've taken a look at how the lowcost/seven concept of minimalism might apply to a transverse engined middy car.

I agree that getting a low engine bay line will be an issue but having measured the road to engine top distance on a couple of cars I think it is just possible to get it to look like my picture. The picture was drawn to scale so it should be representative.

I would like to build a full width bodywork car some day but the design posted has the advantages of requiring smaller moulds that will actually fit in my garage with room to work around them.