To allow for an engine larger than an inline four to fit in the Locost, I have been working on expanding the engine compartment and increasing structural integrity to compensate for the added weight of what will most likely be an iron block V8 apposed to an aluminum block I4.
Wow, its been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. Not many triumphs or disasters going on worth mentioning, I guess.
Now, I do have a triumph, but not exactly in the computer sense.
I am embarking on a ludicrous project to create a Locost 7, a homebuilt version of the very-awesome Lotus 7. I purchased a nice book by Keith Tanner (who works at the same shop that made a book I also own on Miata tuning) on how to turn a bunch of parts from an old Miata (NA in his case) into a Locost 7.
A Miata seems like a fairly sensible place to start for a superlight sports car like this. I mean, it already starts out pretty light, the suspension in the Miata is top notch, as well as the steering, and as Tanner points out, the engine and gearbox. However, I want to have a Locost that is a bit different from all of the others. So, instead of an I4 from a Miata, I am erring on the side of ludicrous and putting a 286cui small-block Ford V8 in it. Yes, yes, I know that the V8 will produce 9000 times more power than a car of this weight would need and all of the extra weight from the big iron block will throw off the handling and blah blah blah… Yeah, it will be different, it will be tough to work out, but that is part of the challenge, right? (Also, this way I can change the ’7′ in ‘Locost 7′ to an ’8′ without seeming stupid).
The first and foremost problem is the chassis and how to modify it to accomidate an engine that is so much larger than the standard I4. Luckily with the power of CAD and consulting some designs other people have made, I am in the process of bullshitting sciencing together a new frame design.
Here we have the first revision of my frame. I have started to enlarge the engine bay, but as you can see from the unconnected components, I have not finished. Also, the white square on the right is a rough analogue of a 286/302cui V8 and the square on the right is the I4.
I will try and remember to post updates here whenever something happens. Because of how tight money is right now for me, these updates could be few and far in between.
Muvizu is an interesting piece of 3D animation software that uses the Unreal Engine 3 – which has almost exclusively been used on video games up until now.
Muvizu takes the normally complex and arduous task of 3D animation and dumbs it down so that anyone with 20 minutes of free time can fully utilize what the program has to offer.
Using some story writings and brain-thoughts, some keying and some sound effects, I have created a case of minor, severe-brain injury.
