forget the car- there are a lot of pure bred race cars on tubular chassis out there- what's up with that trailer??
i can't decide if that's the coolest thing ever or the most pointless thing ever...
forget the car- there are a lot of pure bred race cars on tubular chassis out there- what's up with that trailer??
i can't decide if that's the coolest thing ever or the most pointless thing ever...
I thought it was pretty cool. If you gotta have an enclosed trailer this size, it makes it easy to get into the car, no silly side doors or pulling & praying required.
novaderrik wrote: forget the car- there are a lot of pure bred race cars on tubular chassis out there- what's up with that trailer??
This type of trailer is pretty common in Europe for race cars. I started seeing them show up in the late 80's before I moved here.
GameboyRMH wrote: This car does indeed have a watts link setup, the rocker is on the back of the diff. It's better to put the rocker on the chassis and the bar ends on the axle to keep the roll center from moving with suspension movement though. The two lateral rods ahead of the rear axle seem to be toe control rods.
Yup. Basic Watts link on the rear of the axle with a bellcrank and two horizontal arms. Two tension rods on the underside to strengthen the sheet metal axle. Two more tension rods from the wheel ends to the front of the pumpkin, again for supports. I don't you can change tow or camber with them as the outboard mounts are welded directly too the axle housing. Still probably lighter than an OEM axle housing with massive thick tubes for the axle shafts to run in. Rear sta-bar with the arms going rearwards to the end links which are adjustable by sliding them for aft and four trailing links. Looks like pretty standard four link rear suspension to me.
Very cool stuff indeed. If you told me this was a $300k USD car I wouldn't doubt it. Lots of really cool fab work involved.
The rods ahead of the axle appear to me to be axle braces, can't use them on the backend because of the Watts. I think. They are common on turbo Buicks to beef up the rearend.
Either way, did you SEE that rear? It's fabricated from sheet!
So, I may be wrong on those rods not being adjustable, but I'm not totally sure how. From the specs: Tractive 5-speed gearbox, Motor Designs differential, fully adjustable & light weight beam axle with GRP4 Fabrications modified wheel bearings, gear actuation via KAPS hydraulic paddle shift controlled by TDP MoTeC M1 rally package, integrated closed-loop paddle shift system, optional stick shift with flat shift available to driver
Are we ever going to get a link that tells us? Or am I the only one standing here scratching my head?
In reply to Trackmouse:
Gameboy linked it on the previous page.
The Escort 4-link solid axle conversion of an E30 M3-clone isn't the mind bending bit.
The engine is mind bending. And if it's supposed to be more powerful than a Millington Diamond...!
That's awesome. I love that there wasn't an air of "my car is German, so be the engine!"
Knurled wrote: The *engine* is mind bending.
It's cool, but I'm not sure what's "mind bending" about it. It's not like they developed an all new block and head casting just for this car, rather just used an improved aftermarket block and head to custom build a competitive race engine...This is done all the time in America with V8's, among others.
Driven5 wrote:Knurled wrote: The *engine* is mind bending.It's cool, but I'm not sure what's "mind bending" about it. It's not like they developed an all new block and head casting just for this car, rather just used an improved aftermarket block and head to custom build a competitive race engine...This is done all the time in America with V8's, among others.
Except its supposedly getting well over 400hp out of an 3L aftermarket clubmans engine you could buy and it'll last thousands of hard hard miles. Other than that it's exactly the same.
novaderrik wrote: forget the car- there are a lot of pure bred race cars on tubular chassis out there- what's up with that trailer??
I see this quite regularly on snowmobile trailers. Tilt-up fiberglass lid that basically mounts to a standard trailer. I assume cheaper than an enclosed and more aerodynamic to tow.
kb58 wrote:GameboyRMH wrote: The only inherent advantage of round exhaust is better heat retention, but the difference in power from that is tiny.And weight; for the same diameter, round is 22% lighter
Only true if we were talking about the same cross sectional diameter. Say 3" round vs 3" square. Then we also have to take into account the square section having 27% more square area through the cross section. None of this matters because if you look close its actually oval or oblong tubing.
Adrian_Thompson wrote: Except its supposedly getting well over 400hp out of an 3L aftermarket clubmans engine you could buy and it'll last thousands of hard hard miles. Other than that it's exactly the same.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't intend for that to be critical or dismissive in any way about the accomplishment of the engine and its builder. But apparently it's also possible to get a bored out (3L) factory block and ported factory head redblock engine to over 300hp in rally/race trim. So while being able to get that much more out of even an aftermarket block/head engine is certainly still very impressive, I just don't see it as much more so than the rest of that car...Or many other race engines/cars for that matter. It's just that things more like this fabricated engine are what actually fall into the "mind bending" category for me personally.
In reply to Driven5:
Usually, those hardcore Volvo engines are for classes in Scandinavian countries that specify Volvo block, or Volvo block and head. (And "porting" is somewhat vague, I've seen "ported" Volvo heads. They start with a Volvo head, mill most of it away, and build up new chambers and ports with a TIG. Very very time consuming and expensive! But it's a "stock head")
The part that gets me is not that it exists, but that it was what was chosen for the car...
novaderrik wrote: forget the car- there are a lot of pure bred race cars on tubular chassis out there- what's up with that trailer??
Dude you've seen those before. It's an overgrown sled trailer. Should be all over in your neck of the woods.
Buy a drop-in swimming pool shell, flip it upside down, paint and bolt to a trailer and presto.
You'll need to log in to post.
