YOUR OPINION ON THIS LEMANS KITCAR PROJECT

[nelibg]

Hi,
Guys,
I’m new for here, I ‘live in Bulgaria, I ‘m developing my project that Bentley Speed 8 EXP Replica. www.idcow.com/aa2050.html

Do you remember the “Laser 917”—copy of Porsche 917 before over 30 years?
It’s time to born a new “Lemans style” kitcar in the market.

But at this moment I just made a metal body, which you can find here www.priceofhistoys.com/2006/07/02/continued-work-on-the-exp-speed-8/
And actually I didn’t satisfy at that project, so I decide to do it again from scratch, but this time with CAD design machines and with a professional team. And the body work will be near 1:1 to the original EXP.

The car will be done with fiberglass body, and it’ll be road legal with little higher clearance to the ground that you see at the original Bentley Speed 8.
But as I want put it in to a series kit car body, I must choice WHICH CHASSIS it will fit to!

So I need your help, PLEASE HELP ME this questionnaire.

Variant 1: to fit the original Beetle chassis, change the rear VW engine to mid-engine. 2 seats(although the original is with one seat) . wheels are 15”(as the original are 17”
Plus: Low cost, the final car will near 15000$.
Minus: may be a little ugly. And the body size will different as the original. With not enough power.

Variant 2: customized chassis, with any powerful engine and accordingly box. 1 seat. In a word, 1:1 with the original including the dimension.
Minus: high Cost. I haven’t calculate it:[

So that are 2 different variant, which way do you think it will be a good selling product and will be good for the market????

THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[steve_d]

You can forget the cheap VW option as anyone who would like that style of car will want it as true to the original as possible.

You should look at an Ultima chassis to get the general idea then make your own.

To come as close to the original but still work as a road car try a three seat arrangement with the outside seats set well back.

Best of luck

Steve

[eliot]

nelibg said:

Variant 1: to fit the original Beetle chassis,

No! Run away, Dont even consider it for one more second.

[nelibg]

Thanks for your ideas

AS the dimension of this Bentley Speed 8 is very special than other Lemans style automobile on the market ( Ultima ,Evans...) , earlier I had tried to design a body fit to Ultima chassis, but not so suitable.

The biggest challenge is the wheelbase, because I can’t find any ready chassis or to cut the chassis to lengthen it(ex the beetle). Totally must design a new chassis with a mid-engine and long wheelbase.

dimension of bentley EXP 2003
Length: 4640mm
Width: 1950mm
Wheelbase: 2740mm

Edited by nelibg on Saturday 22 July 11:16

Edited by nelibg on Saturday 22 July 13:45

[LotusNova]

Nelibg,

The 917 has always been my favourite car (ie. the sexiest thing on four wheels IMHO), so I wish you the very best of luck with your project.

I agree with the others though, I think using the VDub Bettle chassis would be a big no-no. You'd probably be lucky to get more than €5000 for such, no matter how good it is. Too much unflattering history to fight there.

That's a long wheelbase, but what's the front & rear track? You may be able to stretch an existing chassis with a good reputation, such as Lotus (you're more likely to sell at a good price with a name like that underneath).

Since I don't have the odd million lying around, my next favourite shape is the Nova. It's an old Beetle-based kit I'm converting to run on a Lotus Europa chassis. Had to stretch the chassis spine 10cm and outset the wheels slightly. Not perfect, but handles ok. You might find something similar you can modify and still end up with a relatively low cost.

Best regards,
Jon.

Edited by LotusNova on Saturday 22 July 17:52

[nelibg]

Should i use a monocoque chassis made from fiberglass? (like the GTM chassis )and will it take more expensive?

[steve_d]

nelibg said:

Should i use a monocoque chassis made from fiberglass? (like the GTM chassis )and will it take more expensive?

Will be far more difficult to design and get into production.
The monocoque would be cheaper to produce in quantity but your car is very specialised and for a niche market so will never see the production volume to justify the monocoque development.

Steve

[nelibg]

Thanks guys for your advice.
for the ENGINE, I usually prefer to use ALFA ROMEO BOXER 1.5 Engine from ALfa 33,I think it
is a nice engine and small place take, and it's a well known engine for me.
but is it correctly or a junk for this automobile?


best regards~

[Kiwi XTR2]

Packaging is very important but if it was my choice I would go for one of the Subaru engines.

This may be bias based on what we have lots of on this side of the planet:
- Cheaper
- Better Performance
- Reliability
- 'Upgradeability'