Current status April 2014 ..
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Firstly I think it's always polite to mention that this will become a commercialy manufactured product and hopefully at a very sensible pricepoint.
After a few false starts over the last few years due to other committments which had to take priority, it's quite a nice feeling to finally make a start full time on some car product!
The first couple of pre-production cars hopefully have most of the bugs ironed out through building and development work on some prototypes over the last few years besides a lifetime of working on and building cars.
While it intrinsically looks like and hopefully retains the character of a Lotus/Locost 7, the design is considerably bigger and offers a massive 53" cabin width at the torso. A Caterham 7 is 36" ~ 39" in comparison! Wheelbase will be closer to 97" compared to around 90" for a 7'ish and track width is considerably wider utilising around 62".
Simply put, I wanted for myself and want to offer others a 7'ish car that 2 larger people can sit in with comfort and with their arms inside the bodyline at all times. My friend is 6'5" and takes up 2/3rds of the Fraser's cabin and only a small child can ride with him!
There's also a point of road presense amongst some of the larger vehicles found on American roads, driving a 7'ish car can be quite an intimidating experience. Storage space will be improved and room for cup holders! The larger size has also allowed me to position the fuel tanks in front of the rear axle line for improved safety and, along with massively increased trailing arms at over 30", prospective ride and handling chances are improved.
It's not just bigger for the sake of it, there's a philosophy for it to be a base for 6 cylinder and V8 engines designed to take the weight and torque larger engines offer, so for this the design is aimed to achieve over 8000lbs per degree as the minimum target for torsion resistance and hopefully get more towards 10,000lbs per degree. That does not prevent one from using a 4 cylinder by any means but bear in mind this chassis will neccessarily be a little heavier than a typical narrow and short 7'ish chassis. Certainly makes a sensible touring chassis option for a 4 though.
It will only be a little larger and a little heavier car compared to a typical 7'ish unit but in reality and relative to standard cars, it is still very small and very light!
So yesterday some steel arrived and today I managed to make a bit of a start on the sides, here it is obvious how my slat build table works. the plate under the tubes is a jig for the sides....
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So I will try and keep updates weekly and as this is a semi-full time operation, thnings should happen quickly!
I'll get some 3D images up in the next few days ...