Did one final mod to the shape of the oil cooler ducts. Increased the curve of the front part of the duct you can see on the right below. That makes them match the shape of the hole in the nose a little better. Headlights got their final assembly:
Hey Alex. Out of curiosity, what would be the theoretical value of your RX7 (the car + materials/parts + working hours) when it's finished? The amount of details you're putting in there is really amazing. Even the air ducts for the oil cooler are made of carbon fibre... It's good to know that such a petrolhead is taking care of RaceRoom's car physics! I hope you keep us updated how this projects is going because it's always a nice surprise when visiting the forum for some news and see new pics in this thread.
Value.. hmm I guess as much as a medium sized house I will definitely keep this thread on going as I do more. It's nice to be able to show everybody that I do work with the real thing, and I'm as happy with a set of sockets as I am bashing a keyboard in excel. One really cool things is that I'm using the same excel spreadsheets, tools and calculators which I developed to tune this car to help build cars in RaceRoom.
Very nice to see the work-in-progress, Alex. I hope we will get some on-board videos when u go racing with it What kind of tuning you do on it (spreadsheets, tools and calculators) ? Would like to hear more about that
Thank you! Of course, many many onboard videos. Currently trying to find a nice tiny camera and microphone I can mount inside my helmet visor next to my eye to get some genuine POV footage. If anyone has any suggestions, please come forth! Regarding the spreadsheet tools I use, I made some kinematic calculators so that I can plot and understand suspension geometry. Things like roll centre height, camber recovery, anti-dive/anti-squat and ackerman are all really important to dial in a car, but not often known by hobby racers. Here are a few screenshots from the plots:
Got a new nitrogen bottle so I can get the airjacks plugged in again. Much easier than jacking and especially useful with the partial flat floor it has which has made most jacking points inaccessible. Dropped it down on the corner weight scales. Ignore how it's very out of balance - springs are just thrown on and the floor is pretty uneven. 1012kg, which is around 250kg lighter than standard and 210kg lighter than a Porsche GT3R Slightly disappointed to not get it under 1000kg - that has to be something to aim for!
~1000kg's and 450hp, surely will be great fun to drive. I think it's very good hp/weight balance,Impressive work!
Awesome! I hope to hear from it soon! I drove an RX-8 for six years, so I really like the rotary concept.
Dear Alex, please use only the door handles from that nice and fast VW. Please don't look at its engine. Please!
Some updates. I took the chance to take a mould of the nose before it goes into service: It's done now, but I didn't take any pictures. Mould is in three parts, that's why you see the big panels on the left and right - these work as the joining faces between the moulds.
Made a fairing up to stop crap from the front tyres collecting around the door hinges. Friday night, a few beers and some CAD (cardboard aided design) Not the prettiest things I've ever made but they work. At some point I'll take a mould off them and remake them as one piece.