Hey all,
The Journal entry system isn't working out for me, so I thought I'd start a thread about my build here, in the forums section.

After about a month of pencil-and-stencil work, my build got a big kick in the butt with some free metal! If I bribe people with beer to get free parts, do I have to declare the price of the beer in my build budget? ;-)

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"I never lose. I either win or learn.”
-Nelson Mandela

Here are some pics of the inspiration car..

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"I never lose. I either win or learn.”
-Nelson Mandela

That's a pretty impressive inspiration car Andrew.

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"The French follow no one, and no one follows the French"

Cool, eh?! It's gonna be a challenge to bring it in under weight.

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"I never lose. I either win or learn.”
-Nelson Mandela

All of those compound curves will be fun!

Yeah, I think the nose and tail sections will have to be carved out of foam and fibreglassed and painted.

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"I never lose. I either win or learn.”
-Nelson Mandela

Just curious, why is this in the custom karts section rather than CK?

It's not technically a Stevenson CK. The front suspension, the wheelbase, a rear suspension, all non-traditional. I figured I better put it here 'cause some people get a little prickly about technical advancements.

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"I never lose. I either win or learn.”
-Nelson Mandela

I'd say until you start sticking bits together in a way that's completely out of character you should be in the cyclekart tech section. After-all, one of the principles of these builds is to adjust the "specs" to suit your inspiration car. When I started my build it was just before the "custom" section was created and some of the things I was planning were outside the "formula". What I've found since is the more you try to outsmart Stevenson the more you'll realize why the recommended dimensions and parts list exists.

IMHO we do ourselves a disservice if we splinter an already small group into sub-groups defined by wonky details. I think the moderator should put your build thread into the cyclekart tech section until you install the VW wheels and Porsche engine

John


P.S.

Isn't that the car that crashed into the grandstands and drove Mercedes out of F1 for 80 years or something like that?

That's an awfully nice load of free material you have there!!!!

I see in the second photo you have a great workbench for your helper too

Let me know if you need any racing kart parts for your build, I have literally tons of used parts that need to be re-purposed into cyclekarts.

Cheers,

John

NO. the W154 is a 1930s Grand Prix car. There was no F1 world championship until the late 1950s.

The wreck that drove Mercedes from racing was at the 1955 Lemans, Pierre Leveque's 300SL sports car clipped the back of an Austin healey that was slowing for the pits (which was just an open lane on the right hand side of the front straight in those days, like a breakdown lane on thehjighway - mechs working on cars, and racers bombing by at 130-150+ mere feet away) the Merc went went airborne, smashed into teh ground, over the fnece which separated the crowd from the front straight, and slung parts and burning fuel into teh crowd, killing 80+ people. go to Youtube, search on "1955 Lemans crash", there's lots of video...its really tragic.

after that mercededs retired from ALL racing until about the 1980s when it came back to sports prototypes.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-19 07:12 AM by robbovius.

I guess Skye will have to decide where this thread belongs.

I just picked up a PILE of aluminum bits today at scrapyard prices too. I think I have a shot at 200lbs empty weight for this thing.

Haha, my little helper isn't much on building yet, but he looooves to use the tape measure!

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"I never lose. I either win or learn.”
-Nelson Mandela

In my opinion, the original "spec" called for cars inspired by the RACING cars of the 20s thru 40's with the rough dimensions.
If this is an accepted format then your car certainly fits. I reckon you will wind up roughly the suggested dimensions, suspension may be something you play with, as do most.
It is not a slightly smaller cycle car, as some are proposing, it is not something created with a vague suggestion of some kind of car, it is not a two seater with a bigger, or indeed smaller motor with multiple gears. In my book (being one of the "prickly" ones) it's a CK.

Rhys, I agree with you on all lpoints.
If you want a "touch stone" take a look at thevariations within the Gittreville carts which covers quite a bit of territory. They are all considered to be cycle carts. Strict adherence to the original Stevenson formula should not be the litmus test for a cycle cart. Cost, power and using prewar period race cars as an inspiration are major factors.
.

Well, in that case, I guess the Vulture will be a proper CK. I do plan on making it Gittreville "compliant". Following the Grand Prix "Thoroughbread" class in the build guidelines.

Alright Skye, move it over!

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"I never lose. I either win or learn.”
-Nelson Mandela