Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[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.

[David Kirkham]

One of the secrets of the stiffness of the chassis (300% stiffer than an original chassis) is the stressed tunnel. From this shot you can also see we integrated the ebrake handle mounting directly into the tunnel. This saves weight and makes a stiffer part.

[David Kirkham]

The tunnel is 1/2 inch thick aluminum. From this angle you can see we milled away everything we could to lighten up the chassis.