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PostPosted: January 28, 2020, 3:37 pm 
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Location: Mahomet, Il
Given that the MG has been "done" for a few years it seemed like time to start another project.

I’ve been watching the 20XX challenge coverage from afar for a number of years.  It has always looked like fun and the low budget approach has always appealed to me. 

I’ve “Started” several builds over the years and never managed to get to the event.   The MG (Before I changed to Miata uprights and the 13B and cost ballooned to $7k), a 1991 turbo Miata I bought for $436 (It’s Towing/impound bill), a $150 Geo Metro (Still  have the Engine/trans for some future silliness).  Now that the MG is “done”, the kids are a little older and I’m not planning on moving any time soon it’s time to try again. 

My goals for the build are pretty simple.  Build something dumber than the MG is.   Also I want it to have a roof.  And with the new “tube frame” rules in the challenge my particular brand of creativity is encouraged. 

A few months back I was surfing the instaface and saw this image. 

Image

Credit to Vanuf Art Design.

I was enthralled.   I loved the juxtaposition of the classic 60s lines with the current bulbous insanity that is LMP cars.  It tugged at the same part of my lizard brain that thought I needed to mash together a 1978 MG midget and a DTM car.

I Google Image searched endlessly and was able to determine that this was in fact just a photoshop celebration of what could be.  In fact it appears it’s creators did not even bless the internet with a rear view and the side view I located is incomplete. 

I could not tolerate this I must make such a beast reality.   As an added bonus it will make a better track car then the MG.  It has a Roof and can be built with a full W2W cage from the beginning. 

So a plan was hatched.  I started searching craigslist for VW’s and started to do some preliminary design work.  That’s when the first hurdle was encountered.  It’s Too big!  The rendering looks the business but using a standard Bug windshield to keep the aesthetic close the finished vehicle would approach 7.5’ wide.  That’s too wide for my trailer, and just too wide overall.   I also started looking at weights and building with a  Bug as a base even using just the external sheetmetal the finished car would likely be 2400+ lbs.   Cost was also looking challenging as Bugs in my area tend to be $1k and the drivetrain would not be cheap.   At this point I became discouraged and pushed it all to the back of my mind. 

A few weeks later at work some coworkers were giving me a hard time about how many cars I own and one of them asked if I still had that old car hanging from my ceiling.  I said yeah I still had the old Subaru.  Someone unfamiliar with the 360 asked me what it was and I described it to them in my usual way..  Oh a Subaru 360 is a Japanese microcar that looks just like a ¾ scale VW Bug…  and that’s when it hit me.  The answer has been hanging in my garage for 10 years. 
Image

Scaling the concept around a Subaru 360 works.  The shell is really close in width to a actual LMP car center section.  Weight can be very small as the 360 body with it’s sardine can sheetmetal is only 200lbs total.  Plus it will have suicide doors.

And the best part is I will actually be able to build it from 1 manufacture.  Desired power level will be ~200 WHP which is well within the limits of affordable Subaru engines.  A 2WD converted Subaru trans is fully capable of the power requirements. 

I was back on the hunt for parts and the GRM forum delivered a winner.  Forum member TheJed had listed a $300 Subaru Brighton for sale that came with a spare transmission and tons of spare parts. 

Physical Progress will be slow for the next month or so as I get the garage straightened up and ready for the build to begin. I expect to start the proper build in the next 2 weeks. Next post will be about the digital design of the car.
I also got a great deal for a 2002 WRX for $1100. I may end up using it as a donor but still am deciding. For now the plan is to move forward with the Brighton donor.

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PostPosted: January 28, 2020, 4:19 pm 
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I’m looking forward to your project! I have reread your Midget build several times looking at your engineering and skills.


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PostPosted: January 28, 2020, 4:35 pm 
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Have you seen this? Another thing I’ve reread several times! Lol

http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/09/im- ... going-mgb/


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PostPosted: January 29, 2020, 7:37 am 
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Loved the look of the Beetle! And the Subaru is just as iconic, will anxiously await your progression!

Thom

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PostPosted: January 29, 2020, 11:50 am 
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Joined: October 10, 2010, 10:26 am
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Location: Guadalupe, CA
This is going to be fun! :D

I really have nothing to add except to say it's nice to see you starting a new project (particularly a fun microcar oddball)...

Count me in as a fan who will be watching to see where this muse takes you :cheers:

**...the kids are a little older and I’m not planning on moving any time soon... ...having moved just six months ago- it's knocked me onto my heals with all of my big build plans.. I'm all for never moving again- ever :)


Love your vision... it's now time for you to go out there and start stuffing 10lbs into a 5lb sack :wink:

--ccrunner

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"ccrunner's 1960 MGA coupe Restomod" found on MGExp.com


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PostPosted: January 30, 2020, 5:34 pm 
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Ok so I've not been able to do much physical work but I wk run you through the design work that has occurred. I will focus on the body and aesthetic design then in a later post discuss the chassis design.

The design went through 3 general revisions.
V1 is the basic proof of concept. I took inspiration form the beetle and also the Toyota TS04 and Porsche 919.

For design work I used Trimble SketchUp. I use SketchUp Make 2017 as I like that it is a local program on your machine. Eventually it is going to the cloud and that makes me sad but for now you can still download 2017.
I'm by no means a power user of SketchUp. I download models from the library and thankfully someone made a pretty good 360.

I cut the model apart very similar to how I will in reality. I sectioned off the fenders and trunk and was able to move those skins around to cover the wheels. Obviously it's a bit polygonny and isn't finished but it gives a reasonable approximation of what trying to match the look with a Subaru 360 would do. Width is +2.5" for the stock 96 Subaru brighton track width. Wheel size is 22*10".
Image

Image

Image

V1 has some design issues but it showed that the car has potential if the fenders are pulled forward and out and the rear is extended. The side and front view is great but the rear is where most work is needed. That's where V2 came in.

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PostPosted: January 30, 2020, 6:08 pm 
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V2.0 concept was a general refinement and addition of aero.
Image

Image

Aero is more like LMP Themed at this point. None of it is really based on anything just the banana theory of downforce (if it's shaped like a banana it will make downforce) I was pretty happy with the improvement in the back looks. I mean it's not perfect but it is substantially better then v1.0. I also threw some color on it just to see. This one will for sure get painted (unlike the MG which may never). Likely in some kind of Subaru themed Livery. Probably Subaru Stars but in period correct colors. Kinda this blue but with maybe offwhite for the stars. The idea is to imagine that 1960's Subaru decided domination at LeMans was the way to expand.

I also downloaded an EJ20R from sketchup. I was excited to see that it *mostly* fits within the body. The trans will definitely stick out however the model has the trans about 4" longer then reality and that's before 2WD conversion so it may not be as much as this image. Although it looks all buisiness with a trans sticking out the back of the boot.

As a little fun I decided to do a few images with the unmodified 360. I will actually be able to replicate this picture when I am finished as I know where a basically stock 360 is.
Image

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PostPosted: January 30, 2020, 10:07 pm 
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I like the latter design. But as I look at the rear I keep thinking " what would a more integrated wing like the Porsche 959 or the Ford Cosworth RS look like on the rear design?"
Attachment:
porsche 959.jpg

Attachment:
1996 Ford Escort RS Cosworth.jpg


Have the wing merge with the rear fenders

Thom


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PostPosted: January 31, 2020, 9:39 am 
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Location: Delaware
That v2 drawing looks great especially with the big wing and trans sticking out the back. The plated tail section on the trans once it's converted will look the part as well. My vote is for the older Rothmans livery over the world rally blue.


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PostPosted: January 31, 2020, 4:10 pm 
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Will be watching this verry verrry closely. If it helps with your thought process, Hot Wheels actually made a toy of the beetle render. Is called the Kafer Racer. I have one, it's gorgeous.

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PostPosted: February 1, 2020, 10:26 pm 
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This looks very cool. That professional rendering looks awesome. I would have never thought you could make a bug look cool.

The Escort wings are pretty cool.

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PostPosted: March 12, 2020, 1:17 pm 
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Looking forward to this!!!


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PostPosted: July 27, 2020, 5:02 pm 
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Progress has come at last. Covid threw things into mess and it took me a bit to get motivated back to work but here I am now.

I've done some more design work on the car and I've stripped out what I needed on the GC8.
Image
I found a few suprises with the drivetrain. 1 there is no way to attach rear hubs to front diff without custom Shafts. 2 the Donor u selected has drum rear brakes. Since this is a GRM challenge car $$ is important so custom Shafts are out. I explored welding the CV joint cup together but Drum brakes and potential reliability pushed me away from that. So I decided I'm going to use the full GC8 front as the rear and sourced some WRX uprights and brakes for the front.
Image

With the car stripped I was able to empty the garage to start the build.
Image

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PostPosted: July 27, 2020, 5:20 pm 
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The first step to any build is the build table. I drew it up quick in Skecthup. This is the underside. It's notched where the wheels go and will have removable panels for the wheels to set on. It's constructed of 2x6, 2x4, and 4x4s.
Image

Last night I got the frame done. Leveling is accomplished with some carriage bolts into some scrap plates screwed to the bottoms of the legs. The area with 4 legs is the back for the engine weight. The 2 feet under the transmission will be removable if I ever have a need to remove it.

Image

Next step is sheeting. It will just be 3/4" MDF which is what I used for the MG. Actually part of it will be re-using some of the MG top.

Over on the GRM forum thread https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/2000-challenge/nocones-2020-challenge-build-thread/160484/page6/ there is a bit more detail and it's where most of the picture hosting will be. We had a discussion about the seating position for the car. I'm fairly committed to replicating a LMP1 type car and this cutaway of the Audi R18 shows some of the packaging inspiration.
Image
Here you can see the rough layout of the LMP360 cutaway to see the similarity.
Image

Forward visibility was questioned and it will be a challenge, however since The digital realm exists I generated a drivers eye view out of the car to see how bad it would be.
Image
It's a bit more obstructed then the MG is but not radically so. You have to keep your eyes up down track but it's manageable. One I get the body up on the build table I will start mocking up seating positions to see if I want to move towards a more "upright" style seating position.

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PostPosted: July 27, 2020, 10:07 pm 
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Oh heck yeah!


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