Orginal Drawings for GT40

[jerry mullins]

I am in the early stages of scratch building a MK-1 GT40 totally out of carbon-composite. It would be helpful to have engineering drawings of the original car. Does anyone know of any full or partial drawings of the origianl tub and suspension that can be aquired ?

[Keith Hardy]

Ho ho ho....Merry Christmas! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[Brian Kissel]

Now thats not asking for much is it!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]
Merry Christmas !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Regards Brian

[allanfeldman]

Apart from the plans being copyright protected. The only publicize plans I know of are held by Holman & Moody and they would be for the MKII (and I am thiinking would they let you have access to them?). If you could lay your hands on original plans; why has not anyone before you got them??. There is the Ford GT40 handbook but that has Technical illustrations. Of course the Replica Manufacturers would have plans modified to their cars and copyright protected. Your best bet would be to find a racing or displayed real GT40 and see if the owners would let you measure up what you need. Or you might strike lucky if you contact Ford's Heritage division {provided that your car was a one off and there was no commercial venture attached to it)
Regards Allan

[jerry mullins]

The responses so far are what I anticipated, however IMHO, it seems that with copies of bodies floating around and most replicas being space frames, I would think that original drawings may not be that big of deal to most. I was also not certain of the copyright status since no one can tell me with certainty. In fact, I have had two unrelated people in this business state that they have copies of original drawings. From their smile, I knew it unwise to ask how much for a copy. The drawings are not essential to my plan but mainly to see how close the original suspension geometry is to the computer generated units on my design since I am attempting to replicate the original. Thanks for the input so far. Being a newbie sure makes me feel like I just moved in to the block ! Look forward to many future discussions.

[Ron Earp]

There are original drawings around and, to my knowledge, at least two sets that are in electronic format, some type of CAD system, that can be loaded into machines to cut the parts. Getting them seems to be an entirely different matter and depends on who you know etc. Obviously the folks that made the sets don't intend to give them away.

[jerry mullins]

Ron: I appreciate your input. I know drawings exits outside of the original design groups but as you say, I doubt the holders would be willing to share, even at a price. Maybe there are agreements between authorized parties and non authorized parties that are being honored. I guess I was as curious as I was serious to see if anyone would surface with this info. Regards, Jerry