Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see we slotted the steering rack mounts. This is so we can do the fine adjustments on the placement of the steering rack. You move the steering rack to tune out the dreaded bump-steer.

[David Kirkham]

And here is a shot of the roll bar being fitted to the car.

[David Kirkham]

Here are some little parts we machined out. The adjuster screws are made from 17-4 PH.

[mr bruce]

just foolin' with you Dave

[David Kirkham]

Sorry, I'm slow today!

David

[David Kirkham]

Lew,

I can't wait to make them!

David

[David Kirkham]

I will take a break from posting pictures right now (have to get some cars out) but I will comment on why we did what we did.

As many of you know, "Billet" has been the buzz word for a long time in the Hot Rod world. As I was talking to my customer back and forth, he literally asked me what I wanted to do. That is a very startling question. I have been in business now for around 14 years and have NEVER had a customer ask me that.

I suggested a billet aluminum block and (me and my big mouth) one thing led to another and the next thing I knew we were talking about titanium chassis, carbon fiber tubs, and all sorts of wild things. Well titanium is very hard to work, impossible to buy, and it really isn't that stiff when you are done. So we talked about carbon. He owns one of the best carbon fiber shops in the world. We talked about that and we decided for a street car, the engineering would be a bigger project than we wanted to tackle. Somehow I guess we were talking about the billet block and so I mentioned, "Hey, what about a billet aluminum chassis?" A billet aluminum chassis just sounded too cool to not try.

David

[Madmiles442]

Wow, amazing photos. What a dream project.
In answer to the original question, what would I want to build with $1M, I agree with several others who would love to have a replica '57-'58 250 Testarossa.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Madmiles442

Wow, amazing photos. What a dream project.
In answer to the original question, what would I want to build with $1M, I agree with several others who would love to have a replica '57-'58 250 Testarossa.

Thanks for the kind words. I too agree the Testarossa is a most beautiful car.

David

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the front of the car. You can see the jack hooks bolt to this structure here. We made the structure strong enough to pick up the car if you need to--just like an original car.

[David Kirkham]

This is kind of a head on view of the car. Sorry the pic is a little dark.

[kurtmart]

Man o man, that think looks like it's the bad guy in the next Terminator movie.

[cobra]

What a great construction and car, many compliments from Switzerland.
The only thing that you need is:

Updated Magnesium Halibrand thread

a new set of Halibrand Magnesium wheels

[David Kirkham]

This is a side shot of the front support structure. These brackets are extremely complicated as you can see with all sorts of funny angles on them.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by kurtmart

Man o man, that think looks like it's the bad guy in the next Terminator movie.

That's what the guys in the Ferraris who pull up next to him are going to think.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by cobra

What a great construction and car, many compliments from Switzerland.
The only thing that you need is:

Updated Magnesium Halibrand thread

a new set of Halibrand Magnesium wheels

Thanks for the kind words.

We are currently thinking about making billet centers with bolt on shells for the wheels. The shells (some people call them hats) are VERY light. We can make th centers extremely light with CNC machining as well. We don't have to worry about the porosity problem that castings have--that's why they cast them so thick (to reduce the chance of a rim failure from a material defect).

I think those will be lighter than mag. Ultimately, I would love to have forged mag rims like they use on F1. But then again, I am not sure how pot hole friendly F1 rims are. I hear they are made so thin they only air pressure for a few laps. They don't care because they change the tires anyway. Frankly, I don't know if that is true, (it is stuck in the dark recesses of my memory) but it certainly sounds plausible considering some of the other things they do--like use wheel nuts ONCE and then throw them away!

(I know the guy who makes them and he is quite happy they throw them away!)

David

[David Kirkham]

Another angle. This helps to show you all the funny angles that are involved with making this part. Probably the part that gave us the most headaches in the car.

[David Kirkham]

This funny little bracket is what holds on the radiator support tubes (no, Mr. Bruce, those tubes are not billet either )

This bracket also holds on the oil cooler and is the base for the tubing structure that holds on the body in front of the hood.

[David Kirkham]

This curved out area holds the tube that supports the front of the nose. (The bottom of the radiator opening and the top of the oil cooler opening). Now you can start to see all the funny angles in the part. The reason the jack hook is not flush with the bracket is because there are spacers (like original) that go between the frame and the jack hooks. The spacers are longer on the bottom. They are not shown in this picture.

[David Kirkham]

Another funny angle.