I understand it wont be cheap..

its something I may not be able to afford.

the amount I'd be willing to pay would depend on my financial status at the time.

 

I personally would not care for a full interior, but one that covered just enough to not be an eyesore. I would be willing to guess that everyone that buys these will have a different take on suspension and wheels, so they should be on their own for that.

 

Hows the door situation going to be?

 

Doors were ruled out early. Anyone who has used a Cobra door knows that it's pretty much useless. We thought we'd be tricky and make a mini step-over door, but in the end it's just as easy to sit on the side body and slide your legs over to get in, and simply step over when getting out.

The steering wheel is removable so there ends up being a lot of unrestricted room for ingress/egress. The big benefit is that side protection on the car will be excellent.

 

How about a CLK-GTR doors :P How tall is the current entry point going to be? It almost looks like it will be higher than the engine. That's nearly same height as the current stock miata door.

 

Doors are do-able, even scissor doors. Bottom line is that this car needs to be finished and offered in some sort of "base" format. THEN we can start to tinker with the design.

This car has been all about choices. When the addition of doors means added weight, complexity, cost and reduced rigidity, the choice is not hard to make. And the door decision wasn't made until after ingress/egress was tried by several people.

 

Obviously.

 

even the SLC has doors, and it uses miata handles!

 

Fran has done a SMOKIN' job with the SLC. And I know that's he's not done with his supercar dreams. I actually got him a spot at SEMA to show his SLC a couple of years ago in the Sebring Tuning booth.

I also pretzeled myself getting into his car. It wasn't easy, but with a little practice you wouldn't notice it after a while. BUT it's not a damn CIVIC! A certain small amount of commitment is required with some cars. It's what separates you from the soccer moms driving around in their minivans.

 

I thought you answered that question back on page 3.


Isn't that still your target?

 

keep up its $1m now..

I think he wants it to be affordable but doesnt really want to even hint at a price bracket as hes not sure of what itll be.

set a target and you start making compromises.


btw cordy any updates on the datalogging unit? If I cant buy the car I atleast want the datalogger.

 

I still don't have all the prices solved, so I can't set that base price yet. However, I can say with great confidence that the base will be under $20k.

As for the data acquisition unit, it's coming along swimmingly. We're in Beta testing now, and have sewn up most of the code work which is the agonizingly slow stuff. Software setup is MUCH quicker, and more fun too. We also upgraded to a new chip that is crazy fast. We'll be able to pull g-force, pitch and yaw, linear potentiometer data from the suspension at 1000 readings per second, plus TPS, plus CAN, plus a whole bunch of other stuff I can't divulge yet. And it will cost less than a set of tires. MUCH less.

 

I still don't have any pictures of the new bodywork, dammit. Dave Green and I are waiting for the cnc machine to finish up the side panels.

They are quite complex. Each panel is made with a two part mold, as the shape of the body would otherwise get trapped inside the mold when it cured. A separate removable headlight bucket and taillight bucket have been made, meaning that each side panel takes a minimum of four separate molds to manufacture.

Until we've got real pictures, I thought I'd let you know that Dave has made MX5 Super20 flares out of urethane. He went the extra mile to make urethane, which can be painted or installed raw so they look like the show car. Cool.

 

that looks pretty good.

 

I like the flares, but something about the way that car sits, it looks like a monster truck.

 

Easy to cure, either by going "hellafrush" or by color-matching the flares. Mazda could have dropped this car a bit more, but it looks like they might be offering the "GT" package MX-5, so the stance would be stock-ish. My guess...

 

The big, huge side panels molds are finally done. They're literally the length of the car, so a heavy 2" x 6" frame with caster wheels was needed just to move them around. They're being treated now, and should spit out some sample bodywork next week.

Included are the headlight buckets bucks. These were done with a rapid prototype machine. Rapid, as in it took about three days to grow each headlight bucket in the machines. The two studs sticking out of the plug locate it in the body mold.

 

Give your composites guy a high five for me. That looks great...

 

Those parts are not actually composite, but plastic. They were "grown" in very high-tech rapid prototype machines. However, because of the size "rapid" meant that each part took over 24 hours to complete, prior to hand finishing.

For reference, the headlight buckets probably cost more than a good (and complete) turbo setup.

The main molds are getting squared up and will have fiberglass laid in them this week. I can't wait to get them on the mule, and obviously get some pictures up on the forum.

 

Well, I'm out

So much win in this thread... Please let us know when the road-tour starts. I missed this if/when you were in town for MRLS. Been dying to get a look at this!