Nocones $2020 challenge build thread

The ceiling Subaru has Landed

It's worse then I remembered..  Oy Vey this is going to be big.

But both doors open in a Suicide Fashion.

(I know only one is open but the passenger door always opened..  I had to make the driver's door)

1 hour to lower and move it around, total 13.5

Pretty sure your challenge car would fit in my challenge car's trunk. 
 

This is super duper. Keep it up. 

Yeah It's not the biggest.  I sat in it last night and was reminded again how tiny it is.  But also it's amazing that it was designed for FOUR adult humans.  

My original way back plan for this build was to make it look like a Cozy Coupe because well they look the same.  I like the new direction more. 

In reply to nocones :

This just got real.

I only had an hour last night to mess with the car.  First thing I did was level the build table, then put the engine in position.  You can see the solid lines are the centerline and Axle lines.  I cut a 3/16 deep slot centered on these lines.  Then I slightly bent a tape measure hook to account for the 1/2 blade width.  This way I can measure from these reference lines to anywhere on the table.  The engine is roughly where it will go. I'd like to lower it a little but then the oil pan would stick out so it may just stay at the height it is.  

I the put the shell on stands and removed the old cart from beneath it.  I also removed the doors and hood.  OMG every fastener on this body is junk.  I had to drill out the 8 door mount bolts and snapped off the 3 hood bolts.  I was going to try to remove the fenders (fronts bolt on) but I decided no..  it's just grinder time.  It doesn't do anything for me to not just cut them off but I thought I would try.  

The doors weigh about 2.5 lbs and this whole car has to be the most questionably safe item I've experienced.  It's stamped from a bunch of thin sheet metal and you think oh there is inner structure behind the body to give it "strength", but then you realize.. no..  no there isn't.  

1.5 hours, 15 total.

Needs to be dry sumped....Try that with a challenge budget.

I missed the middle.....4 pages or so. But this is awesome. I can't wait to see the driving product.

Today I managed to cut the car apart.

I'm going to get it on the build table later tonight.  

This thing is going to be LOW.

Remember use an exacto knife to cut the parts from the sprue. Do not twist to remove.

Golly!

This is so awesome!!!

Ton's of developments today on the LMP 360.  I got the body cutdown, and put up on the build table.  I could not resist creating a VERY crude mockup just to see the scale of this thing.  It's got the presence I hoped it would.  My only concern at this point is access.  The door opening is..  not large.  I am.. not small.  It's really hard to judge when the body is just loose and has sharp cutty edges.  You can't get in like you would in a car with a rigid seat, side impact tubes you could sit on, floor panels and body structure you can grab.  I think it will be fine once it's done but it's an area of concern.  

And final development for today.  Episode 1 is live. 

This is my first real build video so it's a bit unpolished.   I'm not sure how many I will do overall but I plan to keep track of the build as it goes.  I've actually pretty much got all the film for Episode 2 but now it's time to start editing.  Which for me at least takes quite a bit of time.  

So all that cutting, moving and such took 5 hours.  Total to date is 20 Hrs.    Unfortunately now the real time consuming work begins. Next steps are driver mockup refinement, then Suspension design (There will be a video on this explaining how I do my suspension designs and using a "string computer" on my garage door).  Those will provide me with what I need to locate the critical chassis tubes and then Chassis fabrication will start. 

In reply to nocones :

Presuming you'll be using a lexan windshield, and also that the remnants of the stock body won't be structural, what about having the cabin tilt forward for ingress/egress?

Edit: I just watched the vid, that first song while you're building the legs is berkeleying amazing! Who is it?

Also, the Challenge budget is fixed at $2000 now. 

Good job on the video though. It would seriously take me longer to to edit it that I'd actually spend working on the car. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

I think I'm going to have the front of the roof hinged (toward the front) so I can flip it forward if it proves difficult to enter/exit through the window. 

The music is "Bro Time" by Nat Keefe and BeatMower.  Music for YouTube videos is complicated because you can't obviously use music without paying royalties or licensing.  So the way around this is music distributed specifically to be license free or licensed in a way that allows use without royalty (Creative Commons usually requires attributions to credit the author).   YouTube has setup up the audio library that had Thousands of songs that can be used without attribution or with depending on the author.  Most of it is the insuremental stuff you hear over the top of popular YouTube build videos.  Infact during the seach for the music I used I found the songs used by several of the YouTubers I follow.  Some of it is garbage but there is a lot of legitimately great music on there.   That artist has about 20 songs of various genre on the site.  There are tons of other similar sites out there that enable you to search for open license music.

In reply to nocones : 

Following along. As to ingress and egress, how about opening the roof at the top of the door a la GT40?

Carry on.

Small progress last night.  

I pulled the center diff out of the transmission.

I didn't take many pictures as this is well documented on the internet.

The parts of note are that the transmission gets 6" shorter, and looses about 15lbs.

I haven't done the 2WD conversion yet and probably won't for a while but I needed the trans the final size for the next steps.

One really nice thing is that the shift shaft is sealed at the trans case and the diff housing just has a hole in it.  This means the block off plate is just a flat plate with a clearance hole for the shift shaft.  I was worried that would be difficult.

Bacon duct tape makes me giggle. Carry on :D

Interesting discovery last night.  The SketchUp Subaru Motor model is inaccurate.  The axles are actually about 8" forward of where the model indicated.  This puts the engine back a bit further then I expected.  This is ok as the transmission still fits under the bodywork plan and the extra space means I can run the stock radiator in a mid mount position.

It also means the engine bay would with some side mount radiators be able to handle an engine ~29" long, 27" high, and 24" wide...  That gives umm options for the post challenge life. 

On radiators I am thinking of using the stock Subaru radiator with sidepod ducts to behind the seats (between firewall and engine, basically the stock location relative to the engine on the Brighton).  The advantage is $0 radiator solution.  The disadvantage is that's where my fuel tank was going to go.  I may still be able to put the fuel tank behind the seat backs and still get the radiator in.  That's an activity for CAD but I am on the lookout for early 90s Civic radiators as they would fit outside the main chassis in front of the rear suspension in the sideopods.  If anyone has one for Challenge $ let me know.

The mock up pics on the table are awesome!

If you go with the Subaru radiator, is there enough space to put a fuel tank lengthwise on one side of the driver similar to what an MR2 has running up the middle?  Or what about a wedge shaped tank taking up the space immediately in front of the seat, under the driver's legs?

Look at the way a Swift DB6 is packaged with the fuel and the radiator between the driver and the engine. The rad. air has surprisingly little space to flow, but they work well.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

That's basically exactly the layout I was envisioning.  Good to see that there is history of a similar design working.

The fuel tank for the challenge will probably just be a little 1-2 gallon fabricated thing that just holds the fuel pump and enough fuel for some idling and autox.  

Post Challenge the goal is to get the car into TT/ST3 for NASA which will require a full fuel cell.  I'm either going to do a custom cell behind the seats $1K+, use this https://www.summitracing.com/parts/abt-fc150 off the shelf Formula car type behind the seats $800, or find space for this https://www.summitracing.com/parts/abt-sa108 somewhere in the car for $600.   I just need to make a couple of cardboard boxes the sizes of off the shelf cells and see what I can do.  

In reply to nocones :

Get creative. Buell Motorcycles had fuel in the frame, and oil in the swing arm. Made for a very low CG, and what appears to be the fuel tank is actually the airbox. All this to say- there's a way, you just gotta find it.

Episode 2 is now live!  This ones a little longer, but there was a lot of work covered.  

The videos are rad. Wish I had the patience. Subbed and eagerly awaiting the next episode. 

In non LMP360 news I got the fuel pump fixed on the Willy's.  The in tank plug came undone somehow..  I used zip ties to make sure it doesn't happen again.  Then I crimped the hose when I put the tank back so I had to pull it again.   What a frustrating 3 hours.  But it runs great again for the first time in 2 years.