Building a car from scratch- how would YOU do it?

[Duffman]

Originally Posted by rykoala

Or maybe I just didn't give clear enough detail. He never said he was going super fast, but didn't mention his speed. There were no speed limits then and so no speed can be assumed. Also he specifically said 27mpg.

So really, if a corvette can get 35mpg on the highay, why is this so outlandish?

First off Pontiac never made a 473 CID engine and nothing GM was putting in cars in 1949 was that big either. Now the truth comes out it was only 27, I could believe that, my frame of reference is a good 55 chevy with the 6cyl, 3 spd manual with OD could get 25. The jump from 25 to 30 was too big for me. Not to be disresptectful but the 50s and 60s were a long time ago and sometimes old people have a hard time remebering things.

References:
Pontiac V8 engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pontiac Straight-8 engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pontiac Straight-6 engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[rykoala]

I too did not imagine the engine being that large, but I should not have generalized. My Grandfathers memory is as good now as it was then, but that's not saying it was ever that good

[ConnClark]

I still think a single wheeled vehicle would be cool!
I like the riot wheel concept.



The RIOT Wheel - Single-Wheeled Vehicle

Also the next generation riot wheel is going to be a hybrid.

RIOT Wheel

[justpassntime]

If I were to build something from scratch I would go a light weight front wheel drive. The reason for this is most front wheel drives the whole power train and suspension unbolt from the rest of the chassis. This leaves you with the rear frame work, be it a reverse trike or a regular four wheel vehicle. The suspension and steering would be the part I would be worried about most in any vehicle construction project. Adding to something already time tested would be the way to go plus if you needed parts you could go to the local parts store.

[ttoyoda]

i_am_socket,
I stand corrected. Somehow I had blocked THAT vehicle from my memory.

[cfg83]

Hello -

Here's some more examples that seem complementary to this thread :

Kawasaki Factory Auto Racing - The Kneeslider

Though Kawasaki had both a 3 cylinder 650cc engine and a 4 cylinder 800cc engine at the time, they wanted to use the 440cc racing engine. The transmission they had available was from an early motorcycle so Harvey came up with a way of adapting it to the engine and also figured out a gear ratio to take into account the 13 inch wheels with Firestone tires being used on the car. It was quite a guessing game since the bike contributing the transmission had taller wheels plus a four stroke engine with power starting down low while the car was a two stroke, power beginning up around 8000rpm.

I think the picture above gives you some good ideas.

Motorcycle engine powered cars, Motorcycle powered cars

Current motorcycle engines are pretty sophisticated. You don't have to look at MotoGP engines to see it either, just visit any motorcycle dealer and look at the street bikes ready to follow you home. Many 600cc sportbikes produce over 100hp and 1000cc liter bikes develop over 150hp. The Suzuki Hayabusa comes in around 175hp and thanks to a well developed aftermarket, the big 'Busa can be turbocharged, given the big bore treatment and, of course, fitted with nitrous, for unbelievable horsepower gains. At a recent horsepower shootout, one well massaged Hayabusa cranked out over 700hp!

CarloSW2

[ttoyoda]

A beautiful machine, but those two exposed chains make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

[yhprum]

Tryane II
How about this?

[spyghost]

try watching the series "a car is born" from discovery. mark evans, the host used a chevy 5.7 on his custom built chassis. the rest of the parts (steering, lca's, calipers, upholstery etc) came from a salvaged ford sedan. the new ones were of course, brake pads, coil overs, and some finishings/trims).

it looked good actually. though he made a car from scratch, it was patterned after an 18xx cobra model. his came with a custom fiberglass body.

[johnpr]

i love mark evans shows, i have a car is born, a 4x4 is born, a race car is born and an mg is born. very informative shows!!