Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

I wish I had your customer's money. I'd be driving my Kirkham by now.

I think it's neat that someone has the drive to create a one-off like this, and found the right manufacturer to pull it off. Too bad most who see it won't appreciate the engineering and effort required to make it all work.

-Dean

Dean,

I can say that I feel we are truly fortunate to have a customer who really let us go to create what we wanted. He is really saying that "I know you will come up with a cool car and here is the money to do it." It really put an enormous amount of pressure on us. I doubt many people will actually see the car once it is done. It will go and keep his other cars company. That may be sad on the one hand. On the other hand, he is really into engineering and such. He knows how much work this has been. If he is happy, then I will be happy and nothing else really matters.

David

[Hoofa]

David,

What do you guys use for software? Solidworks?

[David Kirkham]

Cosmos
Solidworks
Surfcam
Rhino
OMAX
Camworks

[David Kirkham]

Speaking of CAD software, we have been really impressed with Solidworks. I must caution readers, however, Solidworks is a resource hog and you must have an extremely high performance computer to drive it effectively--especially when you get large assemblies. We use twin dual-core Opterons made by AMD. Without such computing power, you will spend most of your day waiting for the parts to render.

Also, the 2008 software version of Solidworks is not debugged very well and it sucks for stability. So, you need to SAVE OFTEN because it crashes often!

Back to the being impressed part. We have really been impressed with the part fitment. Obviously, we have made many, many parts and they ALL LINE UP! All the holes, all the edges, all the corners. Frankly, I have been very, very surprised that what we drew on the computer is really what we got out of the machine--even after long strings of parts are bolted together.

David

[mr bruce]

Did you machine the flat plate from billit. And how did you machine the square holes in the down tubes? I'd love to see the tooling for that process.

[Jamo]

A shame to cover it with a body.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Jamo

A shame to cover it with a body.

Have to keep the bugs off somehow!

David

[David Kirkham]

Here is an over all shot as the part relates to the rest of the car.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a picture of Sandwich's car that I just stumbled across. I couldn't resist posting some of my other "art" work from his wedding day.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a rearward shot of the part. You can see the down tubes here.

[David Kirkham]

[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]

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]

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]

Here is a pic of the rear lower control arm.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a pic of the front upright with the steering arm attached. Notice the upper AND lower rod ends are both held in double shear.

[David Kirkham]

This is a pic of the front lower control arm. Notice the push rod mounting location is as far outboard as possible. That is to reduce the bending moment on the front lower control arm as much as possible. You can see we milled the brake line holders directly into these control arms as well.