Hi Basry, and Tom - thanks for the reference to my project.
As posted, what you are wanting to do is not easy or cheap, if you can't/don't want to do it yourself. Going to an expert car designer / builder will require a very large check, and that if you can find someone to take on the project, and not rip you off.
If you are determined, the most practicale approach for you might be to buy an exisiting car or kit and make a new body shell for it.
I post below some notes I made on a car building forum (
LocostBuilders) about going the full scratch build route.
Cheers
Fred W B
A friend of mine who is not big on literature research is talking about starting a scratch build mid-engined full body sports/race car project, and in conversation with him I am reminded of things I have learnt during the process of my build so far.
I note below some of my thoughts on how to approach a project like this. I understand that the below is spelt out in much greater detail in various excellent books and websites and is being discussed on other threads, I post it here as a summarized version. If I had followed these recommendations when I started, I would have saved myself considerable time, hassle and expense.
When starting out at least do the following, in this order:
Decide what the car is going to look like, i.e what body shell, if not original. This also determines wheel base dimension and the width over wheels. i.e determine the wheel positions.
If original body, decide on at least the front and rear track, wheel base can be adjusted.
Decide on what tyres you will use, exact width and profile, and procure if you are serious.
Decide on what hubs/uprights/steering rack you will use and procure/make if you are serious
Decide on what rims/offset you will use and procure if you are serious
Decide on what engine and transmission you will use and procure if you are serious.
Position all above parts on garage floor or build table and sort ergonomics – where do you fit?
If you are going to draw up in cad, finalize the position of all above parts in your model only now.
All the above could be an iterative process, but please complete it BEFORE you start the chassis.
Design suspension – if you are not going to do the research to enable you to do this yourself the only options are:
Get someone else to do it for you
Copy an existing car, strictly only valid if using that cars uprights/hubs/wheels/tyres.
Guess
Once you know where the inner suspension points are, you can design the chassis, to accommodate all above. CAD / balsa model / cut and tack on build table are all valid methods, but best results would be obtained by combining them. Please do not start with a Locost chassis and try to modify it to accommodate a RWD drive train.
Cheers
Fred W B
