We charge $10 per cubic inch for 'prints' on our older ABS RP and that's cheap. I've printed sections of cylinder heads that cost more than the actual aluminum cylinder head.

 

Don't worry--the mold is the spendy part. When it's amortized over several cars then the price goes down.

The next step after we get the bodywork set up is to go thrash it at a track day at Willow Springs or Fontucky (California Speedway). The car needs to be fully sorted prior to release.

I'll be posting more videos when that happens, and may possibly tell this forum about the test so anyone can come up and check out the car, and maybe have a little fun in their own cars as well.

 

I guess we just divided by zero?


Just kidding. I do this stuff (CAD/ Rapid Prototyping)for a living. Which machine are you building on? It looks to be FDM based...

Keep up the good work on the project - it seems to be going well.

 

What do you guys charge for Dimension/ABS printing with the cheap breakaway support? PM if you want.

I remember a few months ago there was this guy who made quality carbon fiber panels for his entire car, in his driveway. Just posted pictures and let them do the talking. That was nice. What happened to that guy? He could probably help Cordy out.

Keep up the good work cordy. Get her done.

 

Schweet! My mold-maker is fairly secretive. He does military work and the default answer to telling people about his business is "no". Personally, I keep wanting to just buy a Makerbot and be done with it, as most of my stuff doesn't require tight tolerances.

 

Lol. We have contracts with the Army/ government/ Jesus/ FSM, too. The machine is not secret, it's the files. The files are protected with a NDA. Either way, it's his deal - he can be as cloak-and-dagger as he'd like, I guess.

I can do random parts if you don't want to buy a machine. I've got some older machines that are extremely cheap for me to run, and I've got some huge ones that are pretty expensive. I just built a track bike (fixie) frame out of Ultem that was built in 1 print. It's huge. But if you're going to use this as a mold plug - standard ABS on one of the old machines would be really cheap.

Just throwing the offer out there to you. I really do like where you're going with this project.

 

Aside from plastic parts, we're playing with steel too. I found the half-size pattern for this seat bracket online somewhere on the forums--sorry for the lack of attribution. It was re-drawn and water jet cut from some scrap steel that was laying around. Hope they work.

BTW, they really were from scrap steel--all rusty and crap. I used some EVAPORUST on them and they were as new in 45 minutes. Biodegradable, no need to wear gloves, re-usable, awesome. I "made" a soak container big enough for the parts by skinning a cardboard box with an industrial trash bag.

 

Nice brackets! There's a market for those if the price is reasonable.

 

Hi cord.

 

Brad!

 

Yep, back in the miata game. Got a 91 to toy with. Will hopefully find out if all my work on the green car paid off tonight.

 

looks like these parts are going to be top notch. very cool. personally I would tend to want to just take things like headlights from another car and avoid all the effort and expense of making the from scratch. I know that is not what you are trying to do here so well done.

Ive been entertaining the idea of doing the 808 kit from factory five kit when it comes out but perhaps this is a better choice. I hope you can choose offer a bare bones kit for the people who just want to track

 

Honestly, I'm still waiting for some final pricing on the bodywork so the final price is not set. Soon.

This is new information--we will have a base kit, with recommended parts that can be added as your wallet or time allows. I'd say within a year we'll have a track only option, but I wouldn't expect it to be cheaper. It will need to stand up to more abuse, will have safety mods, aero mods, etceteras, which doesn't bring the cost down. However, the base model will be the lightest and the cheapest--perfect for autoX or track days, and can be easily turned into race with safety mods.

 

well cant wait to see how this develops. the kit i was looking at was the 818 not the 808 my bad. I really want your completed car to be similar to the cost of the 818. should be doable from what you've said. even if your kit costs more, the donor car could be less then a Subaru WRX.

 

Ah... kit cars. This one looks very awesome. Same idea as the exocet, but not ugly and saves more than 300lbs of weight

 

I've got to be careful how I say this, but while this and the 818 are taking a similar route, this car is more "hand-built" than it is a "kit". The people who are working on it are tops in their field, and I think the full potential of the Miata will be realized. And as Brad said, it won't be ugly.

Wait until you see the race version.

 

Speaking of not ugly, I slapped some etching primer and rattle can black on the seat brackets today. Nice. Now lets hope they fit...

 

right, no disrespect intended. I know you are designing and building this car to the highest possible standards. the factory five stuff is well designed but building a top notch F5 car requires a fair amount of smoothing. not really a fair comparison I guess, other than the fact I'm interested in building something light, cheap and fast for the track.

 

None taken! I want this area of the car market to THRIVE. The more the merrier, as long as they're engineered well. If they are, it can only help the sales of every other manufacturer by making the market segment more legitimate.

Speaking of engineering, I think the first few cars won't be shipped out for customers to build, but instead will be built in-house to make sure that they're done right and we didn't miss anything prior to release, such as anomalies between years or potential areas that can be improved.

The nice thing for customers is that the people who designed the car will also be building it. Once we get our act together, maybe you'll be able to drive your donor to Southern California, take a week vacation, and then drive home in your new Catfish.

 

That rapid prototyping technology is very cool. The great thing about a build (design? manufacture?) thread like this is the ability to highlight all of the little details that can easily get overlooked or under-appreciated once the car is built.