I'm bored and frustrated. I teach engineering in the British 'Further Education' sector, i.e. I'm allegedly not smart enough to teach undergraduates and anybody with a modicum of intelligence gets grabbed by the local schools to be taken on the path to university, leaving us with a curious mix of students who don't quite understand the point of education. Teaching does have it's side bonuses. I have a fully equipped workshop with some very expensive CNC machines in it and a CAD suite with Solidworks. Inspired by the wonderful DP1, I'm going to do something similar, only in a British style.
I have a few friends who race in the RGB series, run by the 750 Motor Club. The class seems to be a mix of classic (i.e. bolted together out of bits of 1970's vintage tat) kit cars, all using Japanese motorcycle engines. The cars have to be able to pass an MoT, although there is no requirement to actually have one. This does give a designer a great degree of freedom to work within the regulations, so I have a very basic plan:
stupid enlightened racer can put it together in a garage and have fun with. I'm not planning to do any manufacture myself, it's more therapy to stop me taking the students around the back of the workshop and committing physical violence with a 25.4mm diameter bar of tool steel.
I have a few friends who race in the RGB series, run by the 750 Motor Club. The class seems to be a mix of classic (i.e. bolted together out of bits of 1970's vintage tat) kit cars, all using Japanese motorcycle engines. The cars have to be able to pass an MoT, although there is no requirement to actually have one. This does give a designer a great degree of freedom to work within the regulations, so I have a very basic plan:
- mid-engined racer with rear-wheel drive
- spaceframe chassis
- front or side mounted radiator(s)
- someone else's bodywork - the one thing I don't have the facilities to make is bodywork, so I'm thinking of begging/borrowing someone else's to drape over the chassis
- my design of suspension - before being dragged kicking and screaming into the halls of 'academia', I worked as a ride and handling engineer, so I should be able to make a decent fist of it...
- decently engineered front and side impact protection that hangs off the chassis, so that
whenif the driver makes a small error he shouldn't have to replace the chassis or get busy with a MiG welder in the paddock
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