Man - this is cool ----. Starting to make me think of doing something like this with one of the wrecked parts cars I have. WIN!

tube type
 

I've been asked about the choice between mild steel and chromoly. Here's the deal, if the O.D. and thickness of a chromoly and mild steel tube are the same, then the weight is too.

The best use of chromoly would be to use a very thin chromoly tube. The frame would be wildly stiff and light. however, thin chromoly welds need to be heat treated, which means that the entire frame would need heat treatment to prevent brittle welds.

Thicker chromoly tubes can be welded without heat treating--as seen in all the off-road race trucks, but the cost vs. weight and stiffness ratio are hard to justify. The picture shows mule 1 & 2. Mule 2 has stock suspension on it, so it looks like it could handle rally car duty. :)

What we have with DOM seamless 1.5" tubing is something that's very light, very stiff, easy to work with and easy to fix. And half the price.

I suppose we could offer a chromoly option, but IMO it's not really needed.

Sorry Curly. The sad truth is that my spine surgery on Wednesday is really pushing things back. I am FULLY committed to having a grand opening party--complete with finished vehicles--this July, and having complete information prior to that date.

However, not one bodywork mold has been opened.

Love the car, the concept and the attention to detail. Look forward to seeing this progress.

Best of luck with your disc and back surgery, I ruptured two discs with the material pressing on to my spinal column racing Motocross and know the pain (unbelievable!). The good news (for me at least) was after surgery and a month or two I was back out racing Mx and 3 years later have the odd twinge and have to be a bit carefull but am pretty much 100%.

I say all this because, I know for me at least, I had serious concerns at the time of that being with me for the rest of my life (a truly unbearable thought) and fortunately it wasn't.

Best of luck.

Good luck Cord! My dad got a spinal fusion a few years back and it gave him back the full use of his left arm and made his back pain much more manageable, he's even been able to go back to shooting a full power .357 magnum at the range without it causing pain the next day.

Thanks guys. I'm looking forward to rehab and getting back to life.

Super nice project! Good luck with the surgery and hope you have a quick and painless recovery!

With me on the DL, my dad stepped in and switched out the suspension on the second mule. It went from rally car raised to KYB Spec Miata. It even looks okay with the stock width wheels. The rear lower a-arm is nice and flat.

FYI, we had several meetings about the final design of the body build this today. We should start building the molds very, very soon.

Given all the drugs I'll be on Wednesday, don't be surprised if I can't help myself and post a final rendering or two when I get back home on Thursday.

Curve ball
 

Guys, I have a little curveball to throw at you. And let me be frank--you wouldn't be hearing this unless I was hopped up on pain medicine and had a couple of vodka cranberries in me. In addition to the Catfish, EVERY car is coming with a tool that I've been working on for a number of years with some engineer friends of mine. It's called the Twist Logic Box. What is it, you say? A very, very powerful data acquisition unit that's has a smaller footprint than your favorite credit card. Features include:

--five axis gyrometer
--lean angle sensor
--PHD derived algorighms to tie these two items together and give you data that other acquisition programs can't,
--CAN bus
--remote control of certain video cameras, including data/video integration
--inputs for linear potentiometers, throttle position sensors, and several other data inputs.
--MEMORY. 32Gigabytes worth for starters.
--USB compatibility
--A relational database and graphical input system that is now used on the International Space Station. Yes, really.

This is the real deal, and I haven't even told you the BIG, MAIN parts of the product. Those of you not wetting your pants at this point just don't get it.

No pictures of the car yet, but I hope this will suffice. :)

O my! Do want!

Can I just buy the data acquisition tool?
kthnx.

Buy data acquisition separately? YES! Honestly, I fully expect this to change the way many of you interface with your cars. I'm not one prone to hyperbole, even drunk, but this product is ground-breaking. It will debut in the motorcycle market, but will quickly port over to the auto side. Did I mention that it can adjust your speedometer output to allow for gearing or wheel diameter changes?

Guys--you're one of the first to hear about this.

Verrrryyyy inneresting.......good luck with your recovery! Unbelievable build- kudos, sir!

Twist Logic Data Acquisiion
 

Hi guys,

Just so you know I'm not blowing smoke, here are a couple of pictures of the data acquisition device I'm building.

The first market is for motorcycles, as it will be able to account for the notoriously bad speedometer error in motorcycles, which is compounded by gearing and tire diameter changes.

Another cool, cool benefit is the addition of an extremely accurate lean angle sensor. It uses a system of algorithms to check the lean angle against the g-forces to get the correct angle of the bike. In layman's terms, turning left and uphill at Laguna Seca's turn six won't throw off the values. Sounds simple, but it's EXTREMELY complex. So complex that we won't be patenting this stuff, as most people won't even know how to tackle the math required in the first place.

Applications for cars include lean angle and yaw rate, weight balance shift, and other stuff that you'll probably never even consider.

Looks like cool stuff. I imagine its expensive to patent stuff, but I'd be worried that somebody would steal the idea.

Looks very cool, but I agree that it's very stupid and cocky not to patent it because you think you're math skills are superior to the world. There are some companies such as aem or motec that either has or could easily acquire personnel to replicate, patent, and distribute whatever you are building, and put a trusted name behind it.

Its about 1k to do a patent (just patent) by a person that knows their job... Sure you can do it your self cheaper but do you know what you're doing? And that is just the patent.. you need to design it and all that and have everything designed and documented properly your self to give to the person.

The harder part is getting people to make it right for the right amount of cash so its not too expensive yet you can still make a buck on it and at last and thats probably worst... advertising it.

Screwball
 

Cool black box, but those are made already. You have to know the guy who makes it to know it exists but it is about to change the world. Does everything you listed and also dynamically retards the timing of your engine to protect it form detonation or knock.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333241329

Here's the guts. The guy doesn't care about showing it because it's so complex you wouldn't be able to figure it out anyway.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333241329

Close up of the custom microprocessor daughterboard. They are made to look like capacitors to fool you.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333241329

Box next to OEM case and emanage for size reference. It's wireless 4G-LTE CANBUS.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333241329

Still, nice tube frame.

Balls broken?