Discussion
I've bought the Haynes roadster book and am planning on starting the project later this year. My long term aim is to design and build my own car, so I think the Haynes book is a good way to get some basic practical skills developed.
However, designing my own car from scatch will be a much bigger job. There's lots to learn before I even start, so my question is, where do I start? Are there any good books to get me started on things like chassis design? Are there any correspondance enginnering courses that I could do?
Any info greatfully received.
However, designing my own car from scatch will be a much bigger job. There's lots to learn before I even start, so my question is, where do I start? Are there any good books to get me started on things like chassis design? Are there any correspondance enginnering courses that I could do?
Any info greatfully received.
Try:
'Race & Rally Car Source Book' by Allan Staniforth
'Racing & Sports Car Chassis Design' by Costin & Phipps (out of date, but still a very useful primer)
'Designing & Building Special Cars' by Andre Jute (not technically brilliant, but a useful overview, maybe)
'Racing Car Design & Development' by Len Terry (obviously biased toward racing cars, but still useful
...and the Carroll Smith series.
'Race & Rally Car Source Book' by Allan Staniforth
'Racing & Sports Car Chassis Design' by Costin & Phipps (out of date, but still a very useful primer)
'Designing & Building Special Cars' by Andre Jute (not technically brilliant, but a useful overview, maybe)
'Racing Car Design & Development' by Len Terry (obviously biased toward racing cars, but still useful
...and the Carroll Smith series.
You should join the
www.locostbuilders.co.uk
forum as well, lots of people doing their own thing, and one of the members, kb55 IIRC has publisehed a book which would be worth you having a look at
www.locostbuilders.co.uk
forum as well, lots of people doing their own thing, and one of the members, kb55 IIRC has publisehed a book which would be worth you having a look at
Joe T said:
Do a welding course, or buy some books on it. It will save a lot of time and money if you do decide to build your own chassis.
The first part of the Haynes roadster is to make the chassis, so welding will be my first thing to learn. I did some welding on a general car maintenance course many years ago and that went OK, so hopefully a bit of a refresher and I'll be up to speed.Sam_68 said:
Try:
'Race & Rally Car Source Book' by Allan Staniforth
'Racing & Sports Car Chassis Design' by Costin & Phipps (out of date, but still a very useful primer)
'Designing & Building Special Cars' by Andre Jute (not technically brilliant, but a useful overview, maybe)
'Racing Car Design & Development' by Len Terry (obviously biased toward racing cars, but still useful
...and the Carroll Smith series.
Thanks Sam, very helpful.'Race & Rally Car Source Book' by Allan Staniforth
'Racing & Sports Car Chassis Design' by Costin & Phipps (out of date, but still a very useful primer)
'Designing & Building Special Cars' by Andre Jute (not technically brilliant, but a useful overview, maybe)
'Racing Car Design & Development' by Len Terry (obviously biased toward racing cars, but still useful
...and the Carroll Smith series.
Beautiful Elan by the way.
singlecoil said:
You should join the
www.locostbuilders.co.uk
forum as well, lots of people doing their own thing, and one of the members, kb55 IIRC has publisehed a book which would be worth you having a look at
I'm familiar with that site though I haven't looked at in detail yet. It'll probably be used a lot once I really get going.www.locostbuilders.co.uk
forum as well, lots of people doing their own thing, and one of the members, kb55 IIRC has publisehed a book which would be worth you having a look at
Sam_68 said:
Try:
'Race & Rally Car Source Book' by Allan Staniforth
'Racing & Sports Car Chassis Design' by Costin & Phipps (out of date, but still a very useful primer)
'Designing & Building Special Cars' by Andre Jute (not technically brilliant, but a useful overview, maybe)
'Racing Car Design & Development' by Len Terry (obviously biased toward racing cars, but still useful
...and the Carroll Smith series.
By the time you've got through all these, you'll feel like your head is exploding with so much info you'll need to design several cars 'Race & Rally Car Source Book' by Allan Staniforth
'Racing & Sports Car Chassis Design' by Costin & Phipps (out of date, but still a very useful primer)
'Designing & Building Special Cars' by Andre Jute (not technically brilliant, but a useful overview, maybe)
'Racing Car Design & Development' by Len Terry (obviously biased toward racing cars, but still useful
...and the Carroll Smith series.
The Race & Rally Car Source Book (mentioned above) is an excellent hands-on start. Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Milliken and Milliken will teach you everything you need to know about vehicle dynamics if you're of a more scientific disposition, but it's university level maths and physcis more or less, so depends on your background.
A welding course - possibly an informal one with a mate who knows his stuff - is a must.
A degree of plagerism is also a a good start. If you look at all the Seven-type chassis for example, they all share a certain ammount of common DNA, it would be an idea to take a look at other people's designs and try and work out why they've added certain features.
And I can highly recommend getting some extra reading material care of a magazine called Race Tech. It's said to be very good.
A welding course - possibly an informal one with a mate who knows his stuff - is a must.
A degree of plagerism is also a a good start. If you look at all the Seven-type chassis for example, they all share a certain ammount of common DNA, it would be an idea to take a look at other people's designs and try and work out why they've added certain features.
And I can highly recommend getting some extra reading material care of a magazine called Race Tech. It's said to be very good.
Chris71 said:
Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Milliken and Milliken will teach you everything you need to know about vehicle dynamics if you're of a more scientific disposition...
It is certainly the definitive reference text, but it's not cheap and I don't think it gives you the 'holistic' overview that you need. And you'd have to be a brave man to start it at page one and read though to page 700-odd in one hit!The hardest thing to get a grip on with suspension design is how everything inter-relates with everything else and while M&M covers just about every element you could wish to know about, it does so in a very disjointed fashion and makes no real attempt to show how to fit the pieces together to make a workable design.
Staniforth's books (the Race & Rally Car Source Book referred to above and his 'Competition Car Suspension') give a better (and more readable!) overview, I think.
Agreed, Staniforth's Race & Rally Car Source Book gives you an overview of what's needed and might identify stuff you hadn't thought of.
His Competition Car Suspension is very accessible and there's a worked example at the rear from (I think) David Gould which, if you can face ploughing through it and making sure you fully understand it, is invaluable not least in making sure you get spring, damper and ARB setups fairly sensible from the outset.
Fred Puhn's How To Make Your Car Handle is useful too. As for chassis design, you're mainly tying major points on the chassis together. There's nothing very technical about making a reasonable one (although christ only knows how so many locost manufacturers all managed to build the same structurally inadequate design with no thought to how spaceframes actually work).
The best way of making sure you end up with something sensible is to look at other (successful!) cars like your end product, and broadly copying them.
For example if you want to build a front engined, RWD car I respectfully suggest something more along the lines of Sylvas or Caterhams as your technical inspiration rather than Locosts.
If you were after something mid-engined, what Radical are doing is rather better proven than what MK, Spire, Dominator, Westfield etc put into the market.
Try as far as possible to mimic race cars rather than the cheaper end of the kit market and you won't go far wrong.
Lastly have you thought about bodywork? That is the single biggest part of building a one-off and I'm sure we've all seen some hideous designs that have gestated more due to speed of manufacture of the buck than any aesthetic considerations.
Be aware before you start that the time and effort needed to get the bodywork buck made, let alone moulds and panels from it, is pretty daunting...
His Competition Car Suspension is very accessible and there's a worked example at the rear from (I think) David Gould which, if you can face ploughing through it and making sure you fully understand it, is invaluable not least in making sure you get spring, damper and ARB setups fairly sensible from the outset.
Fred Puhn's How To Make Your Car Handle is useful too. As for chassis design, you're mainly tying major points on the chassis together. There's nothing very technical about making a reasonable one (although christ only knows how so many locost manufacturers all managed to build the same structurally inadequate design with no thought to how spaceframes actually work).
The best way of making sure you end up with something sensible is to look at other (successful!) cars like your end product, and broadly copying them.
For example if you want to build a front engined, RWD car I respectfully suggest something more along the lines of Sylvas or Caterhams as your technical inspiration rather than Locosts.
If you were after something mid-engined, what Radical are doing is rather better proven than what MK, Spire, Dominator, Westfield etc put into the market.
Try as far as possible to mimic race cars rather than the cheaper end of the kit market and you won't go far wrong.
Lastly have you thought about bodywork? That is the single biggest part of building a one-off and I'm sure we've all seen some hideous designs that have gestated more due to speed of manufacture of the buck than any aesthetic considerations.
Be aware before you start that the time and effort needed to get the bodywork buck made, let alone moulds and panels from it, is pretty daunting...
FNG said:
Be aware before you start that the time and effort needed to get the bodywork buck made, let alone moulds and panels from it, is pretty daunting...
I think ignorance is best - there is a possibility that you may get disheartened and give up, but if you truly work out how much effort you'll need to put into the body you'll never start it 
Davi said:
FNG said:
Be aware before you start that the time and effort needed to get the bodywork buck made, let alone moulds and panels from it, is pretty daunting...
I think ignorance is best - there is a possibility that you may get disheartened and give up, but if you truly work out how much effort you'll need to put into the body you'll never start it Gassing Station | Kit Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff