[K-fab]

The short course car got put on hold back in August - CORR left, WSORR came in, I'm worried about having a sanctioning body, so on and so forth. *
*
I also have a 10 car in the process out in Phoenix that's about 70% done. *
*
What in the world am I thinking??? *
*
Well, I think I'm back on track... (not the track, per-say) *
*
And, I'm gearing up to possibly get into the buggy market... *
*
Right now I'm still in the planning stages - so things will more than likely change a lot - but here's the basic plan:

The Goal: *Start manufacturing Off Road Vehicles

I'm going to build three cars (probably in this order): *
Short Course Car *
Sand Car *
Desert Race Car *
*
All three cars will share the same chassis - each with tweaks for the designed use. *I've been designing this thing for a very long time, and I have a couple people with huge amounts of knowledge helping me out a bit. *
*
All three will have the following equipment (a bit redundant - as I listed most of this on the first page of this thread) *
Howe steering rack (power assist on the short course and maybe the desert car)
More than likely Wilwood rotors and calipers. *
930 CVs *
Fuel Safe fuel cell *
Team Tech harnesses *
K-fab hubs *
K-fab spindles. *Hollow 1.75" front axles on billet uprights
Quick release steering wheel *
Braking bias LEVER, not knob *
CNC or Wilwood pedals and master cylinders *
C&R Radiator *
*
Powered by??? *Honda VTEC or maybe a Toyota for the two race cars. *Sand Car? *Not sure yet *
All will be a CVT setup w/o a diff. *I have a couple options - RPM and something else, maybe... (I'll know more soon enough) *
*
Still not sure about wheels - ATX Series for the desert car - provided they come out with the Wide 5 pattern. *I was told by a rep, while in Baja, that they were working on 15 x 6's. *
Probably Centerline 15 x 5 up front, 15 x 7 in the back on the Short Course car and Douglas (maybe 12"?) for the sand car. *
*
Sand & Short Course Car - 300M axles, Desert Car - still in planning. *
Sand & Short Course Car - Fox or King Coil Overs, Desert Car - still in planning. *
Sand Car - Beard or Mastercraft seat, Short Course Car & Desert Car - Sparco seat. *
*
Brake setup: *
Sand Car - two piston calipers up front, solid rotors. *Single rear four piston caliper in back, solid inboard rotor *
Short Course Car - four piston calipers all the way around on vented rotors, rear are inboard *
Desert Car - four piston calipers all the way around on solid rotors, rear are inboard *
*
I'm shooting for travel in the 20" - 22" range on all four corners of all three cars. *
Up front they will all have dual A-arms. * *
Out back the Sand Car and Short Course Car will have dual A-arms. *I'll probably use non-plunging CV's as I will have almost no axle plunge. *
Desert Car will have trailing arms and standard CV's. *
*
Wheel base will be around 95 inches - maybe a tad longer (Desert car - 100") *
width - 80" - 84" range, depending on wheels *
*
I'd love to have the sand car come in at 1,000 lbs. Probably closer to 1200, though
Short Course car sucks - rules state 1580 w/driver. *Pig City!
Desert Car - 1500 or so. *Building it to SCORE specs.

More info: *
My front spindles will have bolt in axles. (pix on first page of this thread) I'm planning on making the uprights out of 7075. *I love the CNC machine! *- and this project is forcing me to move to the next level of 3-D machining... *I need to go back and take a couple refresher classes on my CAD/CAM software. *(Bobcad) *
*
I already have a 1.75" od hollow axle designed for the desert car - uses tapered roller bearings in a fairly narrow hub - very stout.
*
Rear hubs - I have to find 108mm i.d. tapered roller bearings - but I need the OD to be as absolutely small as possible. *I could probably get away with a dual row angular contact bearing setup on each end of the hub - but tapered rollers really are the way to go on something like an axle... *
*
The outer hubs will be mid-board CV's. *No stub axles. *I did a similar setup on the Moskito's original rear hubs. *Since I was using Type IV CV's I was able to source a 100mm i.d. bearing fairly easily. *Makes a nice tidy unit that's narrow, light and has few pieces to go bad. *The new ones will not be five link setup, though. *Two suspension mounting points - upper and lower heims, along with a third link that sets/controls toe. *See pix on first page of this thread for an idea of what I'm talking about.
*
On the desert car - shocks & axles: *I want to see how the new stuff works on the car out in Phoenix first. *If the items end up working well, I'll incorporate them. *If not? *- tried and true Fox or King and regular plunging u-joints and axles.
-----------------------------------------

I spent most of the past couple months chasing tools, machine stuff and building a chop saw station, build/jig table and getting set up. *I still need to put the coping grinder on a stand with wheels and I still need to build one more mobile work station to hold an abrasive cut off saw, grinder, belt and disc sander, 3-in-1 shear/brake/bender.

I've spent the past week doing CAD work and designing/drawing the car. *I almost have the front spindles done on the computer.

Unfortunately, I'll not get to do squat for the rest of the week. *Gotta go on vacation with the family. *It will be a good break before I get neck deep into this project.

It's probably going to start out a bit slow - I'm still getting the shop set up, still have to get my occupancy permits, waiting on a couple more things and I have to start getting my parts ordered. *Once it comes together, I should be able to run with it pretty well.

The first cars will, obviously, take the most time to build. *I'll be building jigs for them, for the suspension components and such too.

I'll keep adding to this thread as I move along.