Need For Speed:SL-C10 a Noconesgarage build.

About 10 months ago a friend of mine (Joe) sent me the link to a Race Car Replicas “SLC” chassis for sale.  This chassis was not an abandoned incomplete kit, but was one of the screen used chassis prepared for the Need For Speed movie.   The previous owner of the chassis was a YouTuber tangentially associated with Tavarish, and had purchased the car from what I understand to be the same Florida warehouse that provided Tavarish and B is for Build with their SLC chassis.  He originally was going to do some build on his channel with it but decided not to and put it up for sale.  He was told it was a Mclaren P1 from the movie, but based on some pictures I think it was more likely one of the Koenigseggs.  

My friend sent me the link I believe assuming I would buy it, but I was a big kid and passed on the purchase.  I did however send him links to a few Mid Engined conversions to 1960-1970s cars, and told him I would be of assistance in putting the car together.  Apparently that planted the bug and a few days later he informed me a deal had been struck for the chassis.  

He got the chassis and then it languished.  He couldn’t quite decide what to put on it.  He would send me cars that he thought were cool and we would discuss the merits of putting it on the chassis.  He thought about Boxsters, 911s, Audi TTs and what he really wanted a GT40.  The challenge with everything was that the SLC chassis is modern Hypercar sized.  It’s almost 76” wide and has a 107” wheelbase.  So any of the “normal sized” car options and even a GT40 were going to result in a massive amount of LMP360 like body transmogrify which honestly would be really hard to make look good for something that is going to get street use.  Moving wheel wells on cars with curves does not always look right and for most of these cars we would be looking at 10-14” of wheelbase to hide.

But a week ago Joe sent me a winner.  A 1967-1972 Chevrolet C10 truck.  It’s bigger then the chassis, slab sided to make wheelbase adjustments easy, and if my guestimation from Interent pictures of NFS movie cars was correct the dash to front wheel spacing would be about right.  I figured because trucks are simple structurally it shouldn’t be to hard to adapt it to the chassis so I was excited for the easier fabrication compared to some of the other more extreme ideas.

I did what I do and to help guide the final decision I made a real quick sketch followed by a few quick renderings.  Again big thanks to the internet for making a 1970 c10 on SketchUp.  I didn’t bother with ensuring that the wheels where exactly right (they poke through the front fenders a little) but I just wanted to get the idea across.  Obvioulsy we will have to adjust the fender openings as well because..  This wouldn't be able to drive.  I figured we would need to cut about 3-4” off the bottom of the body and wanted to make sure it looked okay with a full height greenhouse. 

We thought it looked pretty good and Joe found a titled “rough” C10.  It needed doors and a hood but at least was titled.

This weekend Joe dropped off what has to be the roughest vehicle I’ve ever had in my driveway.  He found a local guy that does a lot of stuff with C10s and acquired all the missing body parts.  This truck is terrible and could never be returned to a normal C10.   …     But it’s good that we aren’t building a normal C10.

On Sunday the project begins.  Joe brought over the SLC chassis and we proceed to play the weirdest game of shuffling cars around. I think at one time we had the same trailer hooked up to 3 different tow vehicles just because we had to shuffle so many trailers and cars around.   Singleslammer was here picking up the Samurai so he and Josh helped strip the body down.   We quickly mocked up a fender and did some measurements just to double check and it really looked like it was going to work.  So it was time to get real Sawzally.  Out came the  tools of destruction and in 5 hours we had everything we wanted off the C10 and it’s chassis was sent back to where it came never to be spoken off again.  

Unable to resist Joe and I put the cab on the chassis, mocked up the fenders and hood, and cut down 1 bedside and stood back.  

This thing is going to be so cool.  The seats need to come back about 4" and up about 3".  The alumium behind the seats covers a bladder type fuel cell.  Both Tavarish and B is for Build had leaks when they tried to fill theirs so I'm assuming it's toast.  Our plan is to remove it, move the seats back and just mount a 15 gallon cell somewhere under the bed.  

Plans for the truck is currently some kind of LS engine (need) with a Porsche transmission out of a 996 (have that) using a kennedy adapter.  The chassis was setup for that combo when NFS had it, and that coupled with the fact that it’s a Mid Engined Chevy truck has made it basically required that a LS be used.  

So yeah that’s another pretty cool project going on in my garage for now.  I’ll keep everyone updated as the project progresses.  I’m going to do the fab work to mount the body and get it ready for finishing.  I’m not sure exactly how quickly it will be done, but for now it is taking up space in the garage so I will likely move fairly quickly on it over the next month or so.  Oh and for sure I’m going to sneak a tow hitch on the back so I can tow the LMP360 with it sometime.  

I’ll post some stuff about the SLC chassis when I get a chance to dig into it a little more.  It has some amazing brakes on it with 2 rear calipers and a hydro handbrake.  #drifttruck.  

What about using the original C10 fuel tank in its original location?  Or, do have have to have a cell for some future rules adherance?

I have the fuel cells behind the seats in the Outlaw Bug, but I had to use "slim" seats, basically fiberglass shells.  But a C10 always had the tank in the cab...

In reply to Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) :

That was considered and may be reconsidered after the current cell is pulled but there are a few issues.  

The tank that came with the truck was shot.  Like rusted in half.   And the other is the cab fits really good but the rear wall of the chassis is inside the cab wall.   

See these bolt bosses, those are where the fuel tank bolts.   The firewall would push it about 3" forward which may be okay but seems like it will still protrude into where we want seats to live.  

This is ridiculously cool.

This is gonna be so badass. The fuel tank issue will be interesting, because while I would argue the rear tank would be more "Copacetic" with the truck design, those old tanks had NO evap or safety controls at all.

Do you have any more details on the SLC chassis?

Okay I put the garage door up and took a few daytime pictures.

So in this picture you can see the whole thing is on mover dolly's.  The aluminum below the door with the 2x4 block sitting on it is flush with the bottom of the chassis.  It sits with about 3" of ground clearance but that is adjsutable with the suspension somewhat.  You can see on the cab trim that the bottom of the chassis is about 1-2" bellow the bottom trim.  That results in cutting about 4-5" off the bottom of the truck all the way around.  I think the doors will just work with basically no sill below them, the bottom of the door will just match the bottom of the chassis.  

We didn't modify the bedside to remove the inner fender yet so the bed is about 3" high and 3" outboard of where it needs to be.  The plan with the bed is to leave the length behind the wheel and just shorten the front.  I plan to reatach the front 8" of the bed after cutting more off the front of the bedside.  This way the stake pocket will be retained for silly Mid engined truck shenanigans.  The vision is that the bed have a floor at least behind the engine so there is a useable bed.  The bed actually will be 6.5' long.   I am waiting to cut the bed to fit until after the cab is actually mounted and level and won't move.  

A 15 or 20 gallon fuel cell will be mounted in a tube frame cage that will extend to support the tailgate and rear bumper with exhaust outboard behind the tires all below the bed floor.  This keeps the explody bits entirely out of the passenger compartment. 

The cab will be cleaned up and a flange added that will sit ontop of the chassis.  The bedsides will attach to the original bed front that will be modified to clear the chassis and engine if required.  We don't know yet how far the LS will protrude forward but obviously not further then the aluminum chassis.  If the cab had to be notched to clear it it would be no big deal.  

Under the..  Hood?  There is a lot of room.  the chassis is about 12-15" bellow the hood.  We aren't exactly sure how this space will be used yet.  It may wind up as a "Frunk" or GT40 style ducting will be added to vent the radiator out the top.   A sheet aluminum piece will fill in the gap between the cab and the flat top of the chassis.

I realize this is the same basic picture 3 times but it shows how well the cab fits around the chassis.  The main cross tube on the chassis is just bellow and right in front of the Dash from the cab. 

You can sit in the car as is and see over the hood (Just barely).  The chassis is compromised from SLC in seating position.  I don't know if this is how they all are by design or if it's a thing with the movie cars.  The pedals are a solid 6" to the right of the seat, and the depth from the front of the fuel cell to the chassis cross bar is very narrow.  Even with the fiberglass shell seats the car had it was still hard for a 6' tall human to swing their legs across between the vertical chassis member and the seat.   Moving the seat back will make egress much more comfortable and up will make visibility better, we will also move it as close as possible to the center.   As a bonus we will be able to move the pedal box back 4-6" which should let us move it to the left to make the offset much less.  

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

I plan to do some details on it the next time I have all the body pulled off of it.  I really want to get it and the naked LMP360 outside side by side.  I will weigh it and get some measurements of the geometry.  I'm interested to see how the suspension will react to 800lbs of truck sheet metal hanging off of it.  

I will say any of my impressions of the chassis may not reflect what you would get with a SLC/RCR chassis for a Kit or Replica.  This is one of 15 chassis produced in short order for use with the movie.  They may or may not reflect dimenisons and production quality of their other vehicles.  These where built for use for a short time and then discarded so I'm not faulting RCR for anything wierd I find.

Looking at it I will say it's very..  Production focused.   Fabrication on it appears to be absolutely top notch but some of the design decisions are clearly motivated by easy to produce vs absolute best solution.  And that's fine.  Many of the nodes exist in the middle of tubes, the flat sheet is all .2-.25 thick and many of the sides and stuff are just tube sections stacked and seam welded.  Which again is all absolutely okay.  It makes it very flexible and robust for what it is designed for, which is to be a scale able base that holds pretty well designed suspension to make replicas of cars of various dimensions.  The suspension is all machined billet aluminum and it uses insanely nice brakes and all the hardware is AN stuff.  

That is all kinds of crazy cool. So looking forward to the results! 

I understand that vertical bar getting in the way.  Every time I approach mine to get in, if i haven't been in it recently, I have to remember to stick my right leg in first under the wheel before sitting.   Removable wheels help a bunch.

If the pedals stay offset towards the right, don't panic, it becomes easy to adapt to rapidly.

As we talked about in Gainesville, those old angled shock/spring suspensions without pushrods and bellcranks sometimes require high spring rates to hold up steel bodies and such.   (you saw what I'm talking about)  I don't want to expand your great project, but with 15" of space under the hood, maybe now is the time to convert the front to a pushrod suspension.

You could always do radiators in the back like GoGators.  The current set up doesn't look like it was designed for long running periods.  Rear also keeps the heat out of the cab.  Just a thought.  I guessed you meant to move them forward a bit to give room for that GT40 type duct...

I feel as if, that SOME kind of frunk would be best, since you'll have such little internal space between the pedal placement and the fuel tank. It'll be wide and flat, but you could stash luggage if you had about a foot of clearance! Hell, even groceries!

That being said, using it as the fuel tank could also make fabricating that very easy. Hard call.

Fuel up front to counterbalance against the weight of the engine & trans etc out back might be a nice way to go.  

Maybe make the bed floor easy to lift out for maintenance and such, like quarter turn fasteners and a rail setup to support it?

Nocone's garage is one of the places that comes up on this forum where I would like to spend a summer helping just to hone my skills and learn from people who have way more ability than I do.  Like an internship but for middle aged people and there's no paying job at the end.  

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

Nocone's garage is one of the places that comes up on this forum where I would like to spend a summer helping just to hone my skills and learn from people who have way more ability than I do.  Like an internship but for middle aged people and there's no paying job at the end.  

I would not be opposed.  Unfortunately I just don't work in the garage consistently enough to make it make sense, but a work weekend maybe could be a thing. I love helping other people learn how to do crazy stuff.  Taken individually nothing I do is hard, but combined it is the result of many years of learning and practicing on simpler projects.  I enjoy seing people learn and grow.

As to the weight issue, I'm interested to see how it works out.   A mustang fuel cell like what GRM put in the project vintage racer would easily fit above the footwell, and is a consideration.  The front of the chassis is, very much heavier then the rear.  The cab and hood are likely to be substantially heavier then the bed.  I need to get out the scales to see what it weighs and what the weight balance is.  Even without the ~600lb LS/Transaxle it will still tell me something.  At the same time this is not an "ultimate performance" machine.  Yes it will be hugely capable based on the chassis, and likely power to weight, but it's not really being built as a track car or even autox car.  It's just for driving, so ultimate weight bias won't be as important provided it drives nice.

OBTW, if going street legal, a stock C10 wiring harness will go a long way towards sanity.  i know in my build it was easy to just use a stock harness for all the lights, wipers, yadda, yadda.  Then I built a separate harness for the engine, chassis, etc.   Connected the two with a umbilical cord sort of harness.  That way I could run the engine, basically drive the chassis without the body.  Just a thought.

We are always puzzling over where to put ECUs in vehicles that originally didn't have them.  In your case behind the seats after that fuel cell goes away may be the easy.

Also, be real careful not screw up the VIN number plates, etc.  Makes titling a lot easier.

I love the things you do. 

I love it.  I hate that your hat-truck will be more awesome than mine.  Finish it now so we might bask in its glory.

YES.

nocones said:

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

Nocone's garage is one of the places that comes up on this forum where I would like to spend a summer helping just to hone my skills and learn from people who have way more ability than I do.  Like an internship but for middle aged people and there's no paying job at the end.  

I would not be opposed.  Unfortunately I just don't work in the garage consistently enough to make it make sense, but a work weekend maybe could be a thing. I love helping other people learn how to do crazy stuff.  Taken individually nothing I do is hard, but combined it is the result of many years of learning and practicing on simpler projects.  I enjoy seing people learn and grow.

If I didn't live 10 hours away...

Well...this made my day!

We get to live through Dan for another Nocones Garage Build!

I am really hoping the intake solution for the LS ends up being a cone filter sitting exposed between the seats for maximum sucking noise. It would be terrible but cool.

This is going to be a really nice hat.

Impressive, amazing, fantastic, exciting....

And I'm happy that I successfully resoldered the circuit board for the wipers in my GMT400 today.

This is a pretty awesome project like many here I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Plus cool to see the c10 body getting saved aswell. There are mid engine truck builds out there ofcourse but they are usually of the drag racing style set up.

My very amateur understanding of aero is that most cars would benefit from more length behind the suspension for a really good rear diffuser. I don't think that will be a problem.

Outstanding!

It seems to me that grm has become the defacto home of lunatic fringe builds. We have this, the 360, mkes Ferrari, a gasser wartburg, a mid engine prelude.....

I freaking love this place. 

And, definitely look at the weight you've added with the body. Its ludicrous how much my duster shell weiged before i chopped it enough to fit the nascar chassis. Id assume the gm truck to be similar, amd with the all aluminum underpinnings worry about overworking the chassis. 

These showed up online of a what if rendering of a mclaren p1.