Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[csx700?]

double entry

[csx700?]

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[csx700?]

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[BossCER]

Hey David, how about an update on the billet car. And let's not forget about the coupe. Pics would be great too

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by BossCER

Hey David, how about an update on the billet car. And let's not forget about the coupe. Pics would be great too

Gents,

We have been quietly working away. Maybe we will test drive in 2 weeks or so. We are just now finishing up the belly pan and pedal box. The pedal box is really quite different. I'll find some pics and post them.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by olddog

Dang it! I completely missed this party.

Dave,

I know aluminum is your expertise and you have the equipment to do this work. Just out of curiosity (cause I don't have a clue to the anwer) how would a carbon fiber chassis compare on wieght and rigidity?

Without a doubt this is the most beautiful chassis ever built. And "ever" goes both forward and backward in time!

olddog,

Thank you for your kind words!

A carbon fiber chassis would be stiffer and lighter...if done right. But, for the common mortals without access to vacuum bagging and autoclaves, it would turn out to be a nightmare. The front engine lay out of a Cobra type car makes a carbon fiber chassis quite challenging. Not that it can't be done, but it just adds a very high level of complexity to the project. I think Rutan only saved 10% of the weight when they made a composite airplane. When you have to pick that weight up into the air, it becomes critical.

As for the ultimate chassis, that was not really the main focus of this project. The main focus was to make the car as cool as we possibly could and really venture into the wild unknown to make a really unique car for the customer.

I must admit that I am really starting to like the chassis. The more I look at it the more I like it--usually it is the other way around with most projects.

David

[David Kirkham]

D-Cel,

No, we will deliver the car long before SEMA. The customer will be driving with lots of smiles in November.

David

[David Kirkham]

CSX700?

As much work as the aluminum was, I don't think I would want to try titanium!

David

[SP01715]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

olddog,


A carbon fiber chassis would be stiffer and lighter...if done right. But, for the common mortals without access to vacuum bagging and autoclaves, it would turn out to be a nightmare.

You need to hook up with one of the high end performance boat builders. They have been using vacuum bagged post cured epoxy resins with both carbon fiber and kevlar for years. Very nice car btw...

[David Kirkham]

Our customer knows a few things about high-end performance boats! We decided on billet aluminum as it has never been done before and it is quite beautiful.

David

[Power Surge]

David, I want a GT-90 replica.

[SP01715]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

Our customer knows a few things about high-end performance boats! We decided on billet aluminum as it has never been done before and it is quite beautiful.

David

It sure is beautiful, I am sure he will love it.

[David Kirkham]

SP01715,

Thank you for your kind words!

We have put thousands of hours into the chassis--research, design, engineering, FEA, programming, proofing, checking, fitting, and tweaking. I told our customer I wanted to make him a "no excuse" car. So, I set the bar pretty high for myself.

"No excuse" means you don't need to explain anything to anyone if they ask you a question. "Oh, well we couldn't do this or that, or whatever, because of this or that or whatever." I didn't want any of that with this car. I just wanted to make a really cool car. Judging by the drool marks left on the car by customers who have seen it, I hope we have achieved our goal. (It is very, very hard for an artist to appreciate his own work so I DO appreciate the comments.) I would even appreciate negative comments so we could make the car even better.

David

[Maricopa]

The only thing negative is that I can't afford it.

[David Kirkham]

More pictures.

Sorry I haven't posted pictures in a long time. We have just been really busy around here--as usual. The pictures I am going to post will be somewhat out of order--sorry!

Here we are fitting the seat into the car. When you sit in one of these cars, the forward apex of the rear wheel is actually in FRONT of the head of the driver. The wheel base of 90 inches is extremely short. We didn't have much room to work with and so the seat area became a very difficult part of the car to design and engineer.

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the front suspension box for the car. This is a really nice shot of the push rod activated horizontally opposed shocks. You can see the transmission tunnel parts laying on top of the frame rails getting ready to be put into the car.

[David Kirkham]

This is a shot from the right, rear wheel looking forward. You can see the enormous billet aluminum piece we had to use to "turn the corner." The 90 inch wheel base prevented us from using a rear bulkhead to carry the suspension loads forward. This was the best work-around we could come up with. This part was extremely difficult to make. Because of its size, we had to make it with a true 4 axis program. The block started out around 60 pounds (I don't remember exactly now) and ended up around 3 pounds when we were done.

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see we have started to put together the driver's foot box. We are also checking wheel clearances on the front tires.

[David Kirkham]

The tunnel is installed, the door hinge support is on. You can also see the rear structure above the rear bulkhead that looks like the letter "W." That supports the body, roll bar, and passenger shoulder harnesses.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the rear of the car with the down tubes that support the rear structure of the body. You can also see the floor of the trunk panel has been installed.