Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[Dinobyte]

How about building the GR1.

2005 Ford Shelby GR1 Concept with Aluminum Body

[David Kirkham]

Hoofa,

Looks like you have your own Skunkworks project going on!!! What are your plans?

David

[Guinness]

Don,
I saw an original front and back half of an E-type Jag and the alumimum front end that I posted. I don't know what the long term plans are (one off or production). A lightweight E-type replica would be very cool indeed!

David,
Any further info? Thanks for another awesome open house, I had a great time! Please pass my thanks on to all Kirkham family & employees.

Jeff

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Guiness

Don,
I saw an original front and back half of an E-type Jag and the alumimum front end that I posted. I don't know what the long term plans are (one off or production). A lightweight E-type replica would be very cool indeed!

David,
Any further info? Thanks for another awesome open house, I had a great time! Please pass my thanks on to all Kirkham family & employees.

Jeff

Jeff,

Thank you very much for coming out! I really love to see our old customers and talk to them. As you can see, this year I left all sales to Joe so I could spend time with our old customers. You guys are the greatest. I was looking over our list of customers the other day and you would simply not believe who all has bought a car from us. It is an amazing list of amazing people.

The above picture of a bonnet is of a Series 1 Jag E-Type. They are now for sale. We thought about doing a Lightweight Jag, but there are only so many new ideas we can pursue at once. The Skunkworks is literally FULL of new projects...some of them I hope will cause a paradigm shift in the world. Some people know as I have taken them into the secret rooms.

I will post more pics of the Killer Billet Chassis tomorrow when I get back to work.

David

[David Kirkham]

What'saCobra,

Thank you very much for your kind words. My thanks goes to our customer who literally gave us a free had to come up with anything we wanted. He just trusted us to come up with something really cool. I must admit, it has kept me awake nights trying to make him happy. The scrap bin is litered with false starts and frustration. Everytime a customer would come by here with a new Supercar they were driving, we would beg them to let us put it on our lift. We then looked and looked at what Porsche, Ferrari, and others had done and then we tried to incorporate it all into this car as best as we could.

You are certainly right, a stiffer chassis allows for softer springs and shocks. I think this baby will really ride sweet. Let's say, I have extremely high hopes.

As for the Penske's...well, this particular set was over $5,000! Like I said, we were given a free hand with absolutely no rules or guidelines. Penske's it had to be. Interestingly, being given a free hand sounds like a dream come true...but it does come with it's own problems. He wanted our BEST work possible...so, that means it had better be our best! It made me pace the floor late at night on many, many occasions.

Given the constraints of the original body geometry, I really don't think we could have come up with a design any stiffer and kept the weight the same (actually, the car should be slightly lighter.) There simply isn't enough room in one of our cars to put any more geometry in there! The lack of a roof seriously impacts the stiffness as well.

Yes, Ford would have spent millions and millions and millions to do this and probably never could have made it. But remember, they didn't have access to Solidworks, Surfcam, and Cosmos along with a room full of 4-5 axis CNC machines in the 60's. Today, we only see so far because we stand on the shoulders of giants. There is no doubt Ford's racing program of the 60's was certainly a giant and we see further because of it.

Your Lola T 212 was a mid-engined car with the engine behind the driver. That completely changes the game and allows the ability to dramatically increase the stiffness of the chassis. The Lola body and chassis have geometry available to them we simply don't have.

As many who are reading may not know, the stiffness of aluminum is only 1/3 the stiffness of steel, so we were starting at an extreme disadvantage with our building material. Originally, we were only shooting for a 50% increase in stiffness as we were making the chassis out of aluminum. Frankly, I am amazed we were able to get the stiffness so high--but that is what staying up late at night does...along with the extradonary talents of my brother's mechanical engineering skills. He has the best mechanical engineering mind of ANYONE I have ever met.

Also, keep in mind, we were not going for the "ultimate" stiffness. We were going for the ulitmate car. The car was conceived from the beginning automotive art, or sculpture. At times I even dreamed I was Michaelango "freeing" the chassis from the aluminum.

I welcome a 100 or even a 1000 engineers to come up with something better! When they do (and someone will!) I will be the first to be there and see what they have done so we can incorporate the advances into our own future products.

Thanks again for the kind words!

David

[ffindling]

How about a hydroformed aluminum cobra body with a fully unitized
chassis structure.

....Fred

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by ffindling

How about a hydroformed aluminum cobra body with a fully unitized
chassis structure.

....Fred

I have thought about that. Hydroforming would be difficult, but there are other methods. See "Skunkworks" comments above...

David

[David Kirkham]

Dinobyte,

That is a seriously beautiful car. I would love to make one some day.

David

[Hoofa]

Hi David,


I'm planning on making the body from carbon fiber, I have an idea on a new process to add a little strength, (still playing but it looks as thought it will work) After searching for an off the shelf chassis, nothing is really tickling my fancy, exept yours. So I'm thinking about making my own. I just ordered some books on how to design a chassis. My latest thought is to make something like yours with either steel or aluminum ends connected by some super strong carbon tubes, they are awesome(I built a trade show booth for the company that makes them)
I'm glad I don't have the cash to pay someone to do this for me. It is too much fun. From what I've seen I don't have to tell you that. Congratulations on the new CNC, I've got an old 4'x8', I'm thinking about upgrading to something with a tool changer.

Keep Having Fun!
Chris

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Hoofa

Hi David,


I'm planning on making the body from carbon fiber, I have an idea on a new process to add a little strength, (still playing but it looks as thought it will work) After searching for an off the shelf chassis, nothing is really tickling my fancy, exept yours. So I'm thinking about making my own. I just ordered some books on how to design a chassis. My latest thought is to make something like yours with either steel or aluminum ends connected by some super strong carbon tubes, they are awesome(I built a trade show booth for the company that makes them)
I'm glad I don't have the cash to pay someone to do this for me. It is too much fun. From what I've seen I don't have to tell you that. Congratulations on the new CNC, I've got an old 4'x8', I'm thinking about upgrading to something with a tool changer.

Keep Having Fun!
Chris

Chassis engineering is extremely complicated. I imagine we have over 2000 hours in the chassis engineering alone. That does not count Thomas' formidable knowledge base he has built up over decades. People refer to him as "Memorex" with good reason.

But, by no means let me discourage you. Reach for the stars and you just might be surprised what you achieve.

If I would have listened to the naysayers, I would have never started this company! Remember, Fear is the thief of dreams.

David

[KM480]

Dave,

You mentioned a couple times how the lack of a roof hinders the quest for ultimate chassis dynamics... what about tucking the billet chassis under a Daytona body or incorporate the LeMans top into the deal to attain that supercar chassis?