Time to get on with some stuff on the Lola. Here are a couple of pictures of the cockpit area of the Lola. I've got to design a dash area for instruments as well as a switch panel for the car.
A couple of points:
- The fiberglass for the cockpit doesn't line up with the chassis itself, that is, you can't drop a straight line from the glass to the chassis cross member there. The glass is about 2" closer to the driver than the aluminum cross member that the steering bushing is bolted into.
- Definitely some sort of relief will need to be done on the driver's door because there isn't enough room for your hand to move comfortably on the wheel at the position the wheel need to be in to drive the car.
I've had lots of ideas on how to design the cockpit. One is to cut the glass back to the chassis member there and put in a flat panel for gauges and what not. Then, design a switch panel that will angle toward the driver a bit that is mounted to the flat panel.
I could also see dropping a flat panel off the glass and tieing it back to the chassis cross member down below.
Of these two I think I would go with my first choice but I'd love to hear suggestions from you guys as well.