Bogeyracing Locost Build Diary

Gear shifter assembled

2009-02-10T01:36:00.000-08:00

The gear shifter is ready and mounted to the car. The feel was a bit different compared to the old one. Compared to the old one it's very sensitive and accurate.

How the shifter linkage attaches to the engine.

Looking forward from the shifter.

The shifter. We will still have to incorporate the "clutch press while downshifting" into the shifter mechanism. This time we will be running with a separate clutch pedal, but we're planning to use it only when driving in the pits or starts.

I ordered dampers and springs from Rally design. This year the starting point will be 450lbs springs at the front and 400lbs springs at the rear. The front will also be stiffened with a anti-roll bar.

The front suspension mounted, started to make the gear shifter

2009-02-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

Lower front suspension coil over mounting point.

Front suspension "assembled".

Gear shifter linkage rocker. The gears are changed this time with rods instead of a tractor push-pull wire. Rocker and gear shifter bearings are commonly available roller skate bearings and the rod-ends are leftover pieces which will do just fine in this application even if they have minimal slop.

The Ford Taunus spindles after a quick cleaning. The lowest spindle has seized it's outer bearing at some point, a quite usual flaw with these spindles.

Making the first series of front a-arms with the new jig

2009-01-19T01:56:00.000-08:00

The first set of front suspension arms is almost ready.
Final adjustments to the jig have been made and both upper a-arms are ready

The lower right a-arm is already mounted
The a-arms are made from cold drawn tubing, so it bends very nicely even with our low cost tools.

The new TIG feels really good.

We also started to make the pedals

Next up is the rear suspension links. As soon as we get the lefthanded 1/2" tap.

Front suspension jig, more testfitting of the radiator and rear caliper mounts

2009-01-15T04:22:00.000-08:00

The radiator seen from inside of the frame. The hoses will have to go in front of the radiator because the hose connections didn't otherwise have enough room. The sides will have to be sealed so air meant to the radiator can't escape from the said

Rear caliper bracket mount.

Measuring the front track width. We are limited to a total width of 1660mm, so using maximum width allowed is important. We are aiming for a couple millimeter under it at maximum camber. The balljoints are from a Ford Transit tie rod. In the picture you can also see the neat aluminium camber adjustment part on the upper a-arm. We got it from ebay.

Front suspension arm jig. The lower a-arm is symmetric, so you can use the same one on the left or right side.

Making of the first front a-arm. The inner tube ends have been welded on and we're waiting for the tubes to cool. After this picture was taken we made a hole on the jig so you could weld both sides of the a-arm without having to rotate it between.

Testfitting the a-arm. We found these tubes from a garbage bin and they have been waiting to be used in some project, this is why they have a couple welds on them.

To the next we'll be making the upper a-arm.

Finishing the second frame, mounting the radiator and a new frame

2008-12-28T23:32:00.000-08:00

1.2 litre -91 Renault clio Radiator. The radiator will be inside the frame. The previous location, inside the nose cone wasn't very good because the radiator is just a little bit too wide. The tube connections on the left side need space, so you need to mount the radiator offset to the left, so our nosecone was pointing a bit to the left instead of being straight. The other benefit is that the radiator is well protected inside the frame.

Fitting the roof tube. We decided to add a diagonal to the roof to protect the driver. Just in case.

Raising the rear of the prop shaft tunnel. We raised it 10cm (4") compared to the previous car. This means we can lower the car to minimum specified ride height (6,5cm or 5.5").

We had made some mistakes when building the frame. Some tubes were wrong compared to the book. We only have work pictures like the one above, nothing of the final connected tubes. I guess while working you don't always have the time to document everything. The "luggage" compartment tubes that we had wrong have also been changed. The series rules are quite specific about that you have to use the book frame to keep every car the same, so no additions or changes to the book tubes can be made.

New frame. Chassis number TT7??FIN (TT standing for my dad's initials). Jari made the frame, and it will quicken the next build quite much. It has a little surface rust because it's been standing outside for quite while.

Making the suspension mounting points

2008-12-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

Now that we had the frame on the table, we decided to attach the suspension mounting points.

Connecting the front suspension mounts to the frame. The right height was measured with a angle square.

When positioning the front suspension brackeets, we put the car straight compared to the jig table, and then positioned the suspension mounts according to the jig table. In both frames we had a couple millimeters misalignment, and even though the second frame is much better than the first one, the "nose square" is a couple millimeters too much forward on the upper left corner. When we position the suspension brackets according to the jig table, the errors of the frame won't affect the accuracy of positioning the suspension brackets.

Etujousitus työn alla. Korkeus mitattiin suorakulmalla.

Etujousitusta tehdessä meillä on laitettu auto suoraan verrattuna jigipöytään ja jousitus on tehty jigipöydän mukaan. Molemmissa rungoissa on ollut muutama milli heittoa, ja vaikka Mikan runko on parempi kuin eka runko, niin esim. keulaneliö on vasemmasta etureunasta muutaman millin liian edessä. Kun jousitus tehdään jigipöydän mukaan ja mitataan keskelle, saadaan jousituspisteet tarkasti paikoilleen vaikka runko olisikin vähän kiero.

We were very surprised to get the suspension mounts perfectly aligned. Last time we used 10mm threaded rod to align the mounts compared to each other, it wasn't very accurate. This time we had a 10mm steel rod. After welding you could easily push the rod through both mounts and it just felt perfect. We chose rod ends originally because we didn't believe we could align the suspension mounts good enough when using urethane bushings. Using rod ends gives a weight penalty of 3%, but at the time we thought it was worth it.

As you probably notice from the above picture, we did the suspension a bit in the wrong order. In the previous car we did the lower front suspension mounts first, and then the upper ones. Doing the upper ones first means that you have to weld the FU tube in way of the rod so we couldn't perfectly align the suspension mounting brackets.

The rear suspension mounts. We decided to raise them a little so that the rear suspension arms would be level when the car is at the right ride height. I had to check this many times because the difference was so big that it felt just wrong. You can see the old mounting points in the picture.

New jig table, started to build the second car

2008-12-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

We've slowly acquired all the parts for our new jig table and now it was finally time to build it.

First stage, the jigtable at the floor waiting for supports on the underside.

Mika measuring.

Legs and supports ready.

Legs up!

Supports for the legs. We found the material in a metal recycling trash bin and it's pretty hard stuff. We could only polish the surface with a drill. The easiest way was to weld holes to it.

The number 1 car on the jig table. From the picture you can see the height of the jig table. It's perfect for welding the frame, but a bit too high when welding the upper tubes for the roll cage.

We went through all the welded joints on the frame, and we found a couple that we had missed. We also plugged all the open tube ends.

2008-11-15T04:09:00.000-08:00

Mika came back from the Sema show in the USA with some presents.

Race Technology DL1 with external Lite3 display. Mika decided to get a data logger for his upcoming car and choose the same logger we had in use this summer with a display so he can see his laptimes while driving. Comparing to the old one, it has a different connector at the back and the serial port is moved to the back. The GPS is also a bit more accurate.

Suspension position sensors. Bought them from ebay and I guess these are originally from pneumatic cylinders. They have a motion range of 50mm and weigh a bit more than whats usually used in motorsport, but for the price you can't complain.

We also bought enough rod ends to last for a while. The price is right for imperial rod ends so we decided to change to them from metric size.

Wilwood rear calipers. A nice lightweight package compared to the Volvo 240 series calipers we're currently using.

The cornerscales are shipped by sea, Mika didn't have the space in his bag for them.

Trailer wall, front hub and front caliper

2008-11-07T01:50:00.000-08:00

A picture of the trailer wall. It's a structure made from polycarbonate. Two color options available, white and transparent. Heat insulation is of same class as double glass.

We'll be using new parts for the front end.
The hub is machined by Tommis billet in Finland, and they make the front end narrower. Making a narrower hub meant that we don't have as much space for the front caliper as we did earlier, so we needed new ones.
The brake calipers are from Hispec. It took three months to deliver them, even when they promised that they would ship them in two days when I called them. Then it took a couple months to sort out why the calipers costed more than listed in their website. When we got it all sorted out, our first racing season was already over, so we had to buy other brake parts. Good looking parts, but I would probably not buy them again because of the difficulties we had.

We got the dampers of the car sold, and new ones will be according to the newer regulations.

Testing the gear indicator, removed the shocks

2008-10-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Testing the gear indicator. The display was very simple to install and all sensors came with it. I wanted to test how long the delay is after each gear change but running the engine at idle didn't give a stable enough signal because the sensor only reads one pulse each revolution. I didn't want to run it at higher revs because I was working alone, I'll have to test it some other time. (Had to come up with a good reason why to stop, it was getting quite cold because I had to keep the garage doors open, the garage had already a bit too much exhaust fumes for my liking and the car ran out of battery).

I got the display from ebay from seller bimbembam and I ordered 3 at the same time. This was the only display that I found for a reasonable price

The mounts of the shocks looked a bit bad. Rebound damping anyone? They had either too much load or then they went bad when we pressed in new steel pieces so we could use smaller bolts according to the rules. Either way, we'll have to come up with something that lasts better in the future.

Locost trailer interior

2008-10-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

The first draft for the interior of the trailer. When at the racesite, the back of the trailer will form a bed, in the middle there will be two sofas and in the front there will be the kitchen and storage space. The white square is the space reserved for the door.

A closeup of the kitchen.

When transporting cars the sofas and table will be in the middle of the kitchen with tools and other stuff. The bed has space above the kitchen cabinets.

Locost trailer FEA, part 2

2008-10-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

I got the second model ready, and the results are starting to look quite good. I used two different tube sizes for the main frame, and one of them was of course the same 25x25 tube used for the locost frame. The front beam is made of stronger tubing because I didn't have the nerve to make it from anything less. I'm a bit disappointed at the added complexity of the frame, and the final model weighed 230kg.

The picture above shows a situation when two locosts are resting on the trailer. The first model looked quite scary when the displacement was over 50mm at worst, now it's less than 1mm.

New front cycle wings

2008-10-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

A couple photos of our new front cycle wings.

Comparison, old and new wing side by side.

The black color doesn't do the new wing justice, but it looks promising. When we got them I was a bit terrified because their diameter is quite much larger than the wheel of the car, but luckily the gap between the wing and tire doesn't look that bad. We'll also probably make a pair of these on our old trailer.

Locost Trailer FEA, the beginning

2008-10-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

I got the trailer frame into a FEA program. As always, I had to try to make it the cheapest/easiest way, and of course it wasn't strong enough...

This is a good start, and now I have something to improve on.

Locost trailer

2008-10-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Were running two locosts next season, so we need something to transport two cars with and a place to sleep and relax during the race events.

Above you can see the first sketch for space inside the trailer. The interior is 7 meters (23 feet) long.

When stationary, the beds will be located above the forward positioned locost and in front of that there will be a living room. At the rear there will be a small workspace and some room for storage.

Se7en days track day at Ahvenisto

2008-08-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

I finally got home from the rainy Ahvenisto Race Track

I was working at Ahvenisto yesterday, and I started to wonder what it's about when there suddenly was over 10 lotus seven type cars driving around. I went closer to have a chat with the guys and I found out that they are a bunch of friends from northern Sweden who have come to Finland every year to drive on our race tracks. The day before they had been at Motopark. They also mentioned that they would have the track reserved for the morning next day and that I would be welcome to drive with them.

Some pictures of the event:

Caterham

Locost

Caterham

Westfield Ford Duratec 2.3

Caterham

Westfield Yamaha R1

Caterham

Westfield? Wankel

A couple Finns...

Waiting to get on track while the owner is just taking pictures of other cars...

Westfield

Westfield, Ford Duratec 2.3, from behind. IRS rear suspension.

Motorcycle engined westfield.

A nice lineup at the pits in Ahvenisto.

Westfield Saab turbo, 330hv.

A picture of Westfields front anti roll bar.

And from a newer westfield. Pushrod actuated anti roll bar, looks pretty same as I have been designing to our cars. The rocker is conveniently installed on the same bolt as the upper a-arm.

Same anti roll bar from another angle. It was very difficult to get a good picture of it.

It was pretty wet on track, and it didn't help that it was my first time driving the car in the wet. Not to mention that it was my third time driving the car. It was surprisingly fun to drive, and I drove more laps that I had driven in total before. The only negative side is that your right armpit gets really wet.

Incar video of all the spins:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipr1kh6oqXo

A Swedes pictures from when I spun in front of the pits. Thanks to Klas Björkmanille for the pictures.

Historic Grand Race 2008, Incar video

2008-08-27T01:12:00.000-07:00

A Youtube clip. The first 10 minutes of the 2nd race.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAUx9rWoLc

Ahvenisto Historic Grand Race 2008

2008-08-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

The Grand Race at Ahvenisto Race Track is our race calendars biggest event. And because I had other race events at the same time as previous locost races, I didn't have the time to attend to any of them. I have driven the locost once before, and it was at this same event one year earlier. I drove approximately 10 laps, drove once in the wall and in the race it seemed like the engine was overheating.

The weather was a bit chilly, but luckily it didn't rain at any time during the weekend.

There were no bigger mishaps. The gear shifter broke once (thanks to Kippo for welding it back together). The leftside rear caliper was loose in the first practise session and the exhaust got loose because I drove off the track. We also discovered why the data logger hasn't worked a couple times, the gps antenna connector is bad.
I drove all sessions on the track to the end, and didn't have to be towed off the track even once. I also got markings in the licence, so I don't have to drive the race licence again next year.

I've got on board video footage of every time I was on track except the first race when I had contact with Kyntäjä. They will be on youtube soon.

Thanks to my dad and my brother who came as pit crew to the race. It wouldn't have been possible without them. My brother took all the pictures except the last one where he is in it.

Practise, I'm just about to pass cars on the warm up lap.

Driving in the pits, coming from qualifying. It was a bit slippy on track because one car leaked coolant on track and they set up yellow flags in "Taru's" corner because a car had driven into the barrier. I came in about 5 minutes too early because I felt like my lap times didn't improve. I was a little disappointed when looking at the laptimes in the pits, I noticed that my best lap was one of the last ones.

First start, Saturday. Everyone else leaves the grid normally except me. The car went into some weird mode and didn't raise revs above idling speeds. This is the first time it happened to me, but Mika told me afterwards that he has had the problem many times before.

The first track marshall already started running towards my car when I got going.

A picture from the second lap. The first corner was fun to drive through.

Looking for an opportunity to pass Kyntäjä. I got past on the uphill after the pits. Kyntäjä slowed down and gave me way just when I expected him to go on the throttle and attack into the corner. It got a bit exciting for me because I was going nose first into his behind. I barely got my car to the right and drove into his right rear wheel with my left front wheel. Luckily nothing major broke and I both of us could continue.
A bit after this the gear shifter broke. I could sense it was going soft so I just got it to sixth gear so I could drive until the end.

Second start. I got my car from the line normally. As soon as I got to the grid I shut the car down and put it into neutral. When the red lights went out I put first gear in and let the clutch out. Major wheelspin and a 0-100km/h time of 6.7 sec according to the data, but atleast I wasn't 15 seconds behind like the last time.

Some pictures of the cars behind so you can also see my car.

Searching for a place to pass Tervola. I got past in "Taru's" corner he made a mistake and braked too late.

Kyntäjä tries past me in the second race. At this point I wasn't trying very hard, I was just keeping up the pace to keep Kyntäjä behind.

My dad explaining to my brother how the corner surrounding the pits should be driven. "He should drive earlier to the outside". One of the bad points of recording your driving on video.

A datalogger overview of the second race. Best calculated laptime of 1:31,97 gives hope for improvement. Top speed 172,934 at the end of the main straight. Maximum lateral acceleration1,45G, when in braking only 1G. So the driver should brake harder...

Problem points. The map color tells me where I loose time on my fastest lap compared to fastest sectors driven. Red is bad and blue color means that I'm fast. Turqoise means that I'm equal to the fastest time.
Room for improvement:
0,2 sec if you have the nerves to drive the main straight with full throttle.
0,3 sec if you have the nerves to brake later at the top of the uphill after the pits,
0,2 sec if you have the nerves to brake later into "Taru's" corner... etc.

Preparing for the Ahvenisto Race. Painting and installing data aqcuisition and camera system

2008-08-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

We had to do a little fine tuning to the car after the previous race. We fixed the gear shifter and straightened the rear end of the car. Luckily I had a rear wing that I broke at Ahvenisto one year earlier, which was good for a repair part to glue on the broken one. Then the car had to be ofcourse painted.

I also finally got the data logger and camera system installed to the car.

As a data logger we have the Race Tehcnology DL1. At this point we only have power connected to it, so it only uses it's internal sensors. The data that it logs is speed and lap time beacon from GPS information and G-forces at different places of the track. I didn't dare to plug the RPM info to it before reading the manual (I was affraid I would break it). It's installed with velcro on the propshaft tunnel to prevent vibrations from the engine to interfer with the G-Force sensors.

As video recording equipment we have a miniDV camera recording picture from a Sony bullet camera. The bullet camera is mounted with tape to the roll bar and the recorder is mounted inside the car. This should be a waterproof solution, so we can also get video when it rains.

After the Kemora Race

2008-07-28T01:09:00.000-07:00

The front wings moved around a bit, enough so they touched the wheels. Even though the glass fibre wings were made much thicker and heavier than the carbon ones, they weren't stiff enough to prevent them from wobbling around. Mika said that they looked a bit nervous when driving, I can imagine...

A picture from behind the car. Here you can see the damage after the accident.

From another angle.

Luckily nothing major happened, and the car won't require much work to get it ready to the next competition. The van diemen that hit our car had it a bit worse. Both front suspension arms broke and the nosecone broke. Judging on the other car, ours could have been so much worse.

Kemora competition 2008

2008-07-15T01:08:00.000-07:00

We arrived just in time for qualifying. I got drove plenty of laps and the lap times started to go to the right direction. I was 12th in grid for Saturdays competition.

It all changed for the race, which was a Comedy with a capital C. I haven't driven more than 3 race weekend's drives with a locost. It feels ridiculous, but I haven't been at a single test day. Being a dad for 3 children simply hasn't left me enough time to. I just wanted to tell because last Saturday went just like my previous races with this car. Usually the car has just stalled in the start grid, but this time it went into a strange mode, the engine just sputtered and I started moving at walking pace. This took a really long time, I shut down the engine and started it again, but it didn't help. The engine just didn't rev higher than idling speed. I started looking behind to see if the guys are starting to lap me when the engine started to work. I started to catch the last cars quite quickly and because of this I was maybe trying a bit too hard, so I spun at the S curve. I recoverd quite quickly and barely lost time, but on the next lap I almost drove off the track because of the dirt that had come on the track because of the spin. Despite all of this I had a great time, and I finished 5th of the locosts and would be 10th in grid for Sunday's race.

On Sunday I was on track the whole warm-up. I had a really good time, the locost is so fun to drive. At the end of the run I was startled, I was the only car on track so I thought I had missed the checkered flag. I even forgot to come to the pits for a car checkup that we had agreed on before I went to the track.
For the race on Sunday I practiced putting the car into neutral in the pits and before the race. The clutch doesn't fully release, so it's a bit difficult to get the car into neutral. When I got into grid it wouldn't change to neutral and when I got close into my spot I was in 2nd gear. I shut down the car and moved the car forward with the starter engine and succeeded! Neutral at last! There I was, in my own grid and my pulse was probably over 200 at this stage, I was very nervous about how I would do in the start. The start went well, and the car accelerated into the first corner with everyone else. In the corner I put the 3rd gear in and that was it, the gearshifter broke. There I was, on the main straight running against the limiter and cars passing on both sides. Coming to the twisty part of the track and going uphill I gained on the other guys, and coming to the main straight I felt I went a little wide. Or so I thought. Usually you can balance small slides like that with the throttle, but now I was in third gear and with more throttle I just hit the rev limiter. The car started squirming on the track and when I was aiming at the flag marshals stand I decided to straighten it up with the brakes. It helped, and just when I gained control a Subaru hit me in the rear. He thought that I was heading to the other direction. My car jumped and I felt like my car was shortened by one meter. Upon closer inspection the damage was just cosmetic, the rear wing, the rear aluminium sheet, a fourlink bracket and a small dent in the right rear wheel was all that happened.

Things that have to be redesigned are a new gearshifter, it's very irritating trying to figure out which gear you are in. A tachometer and shiftlite would be nice, along with a gear indicator display.

I had a very good time. Even though I remembered locost racing being fun, I was again surprised how fun it really is.

Sadly my races for this season are over. Work and other racing events are at the same time as the next locost races, so I cant attend. In a way or another I'll try to get the car to the races in the upcoming races.

Congratulations to everyone who got a prize, and ofcourse to everyone else who got to enjoy racing a Locost.

Best luck also to the new guys building cars, I can promise that it will absolutely be worth the time and money spent.

Thanks for this season to everyone at the races, pits and other supporters. It has been a pleasure racing/working with you. I'll see you at the races next year, with my own car (No. 720).

-Mika

Clicking on the photo above, you can our car's tire print above the other brake duct intake. Seems like you can get 4 year old tires too hot.

Johan Svahn (www.johansvahn.com) got the accident on film. Thanks for the pictures!

Update, haven't posted anything for a while...

2008-06-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

Mika made some modifications for the first race. He installed a radiator fan and changed the broken carbon fenders to glass fibre ones.

The rear fender guards did their job. The front wheels lift a lot of rocks thrown on the racetrack from other cars.

Car in winter storage

2007-10-11T01:06:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of when Mika drove the car to winter storage, it was quite slippery.

We had to get some room in the garage when we started to build a bigger car, you can follow its progres at http://www.ratataksi.com or in its blogi http://racetaxi.blogspot.com.

Historic Grand Race 2007

2007-08-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

This was our second race with the car, and the first time for Henrik to drive the car.

Picture from the pits, all locosts in the same row.

Coming in from practice.

Second practice.

And a picture after the qualifying, got a truck ride from the track. I drove off in a corner called "Tarun mutka". The impact was quite hard, breaking both of the righthand front a-arms. The welds of the lower front suspension mounting point were also broken. Also, both righthand side carbon fenders were broken.

Mika went back to our garage to manufacture new a-arms and the rest of us stayed behind to fix the mounting point and trying to find 10mm rod-ends. Having an accident this close to the Saturdays race, meant that there was no way we could get our car repaired to participate.

Ready for Sundays race, all cars lined up in the pits for the race. I had to start from the last place because the grid order is determined by the fastest lap in the Saturdays race.

The race has started. You can see me passing the blue/red Fiat. It was a quite tight pass, and the car oversteered a bit driving over a patch of oil, so I touched the Fiat's side with my left rear fender (my apologies).

Park fermé after the race, I had to retire in middle of the race. Reasons for retirement were that the oil pressure light was set too high, so when it started to light up constantly, I thought it best to stop the race. I probably couldn't have driven for long either, the breather tank was too small so water was coming out of it. It wouldn't have been a problem if the breather tank wouldn't have been just the right size and mounted to the engine, at one point in the rev range the water would start to vibrate and it sprayed out of the breather hole. When testing it after wards in our garage, it had quite a force, and you could get the water spray raise to the ceiling.

After the race I had broken three of our nice looking carbon fenders...

American Car Show 2007

2007-04-06T00:44:00.000-07:00

The show stand still needed some final adjustments on Friday morning.

The Camera automatically focuses on the girls... Hmmm.

Had to take multiple shots to get the flash in the right position.

The sides look nice!

Friday's girls + a girl from the GTI stand in the middle.

The day of building the car show stand...

2007-04-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

The day when we had to take the Locost to the car show. Luckily we had time until 22:00. There was still loads to do, like the sheet metal covering the propshaft tunnel was made 5 minutes before we left, and the parts were put inside the van to let them dry.

Carbon fibre tape. It looks just like the real deal, even when looked at close. Its made of metallic foil where the carbon look has been pressed in, so it has a 3d effect that makes it look really good.

Carbonbogey.

We painted the exhaust black. The part before the muffler is stainless, so we left a bogeyracing sticker to cover a bit of that part, and when the paint dried we took the sticker off.

Looking good, picture taken at 20:17 at the garage. Takes about 1 hour to drive to the car show.

Finally there. Speed was limited by the front fenders moving a bit, so we had to tape them to the wheels.

When we got the cars inside began the work of applying vinyls on the cars. The beetle also needed a windshield.

"Disassembling" of the vinyls in progress. On the background you can see the air balloons that will be on our stand.

Painted car, engine cover ready, panhard bar

2007-04-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

Even after painting it twice, there is still a big flaw in the dashboard. Have to paint it again...

Painted car.

The spacers for the rear suspension. Here's enough for two cars.

Assembling the rear suspension.

Finnish cell phone culture, all the time on the phone.

Fitting the hump on the engine cover.

"Take a picture from here."

A picture taken. The sides turned out great, from the right angle it looks like an ice breaker.

Camber adjustment in the front.

Making of the panhard tube was a quite last minute deal.

Painting the front sides

2007-04-02T00:32:00.000-07:00

The left side got a hole so we can fit the exhaust tubing. The hole is just the right size so it is easy to install and remove the exhaust.

We moved the other frame outside so we would get more room in the garage.

Me and Mika lifted the car on the jigtable, so it's quite lightweight at this point.

The fixture to paint the nosecone and the dashboard. We had to repaint the nose because we managed to get a pretty bad scratch on it when fitting the engine cover.

Masked car, ready to be painted.

Testing how the tires fit

2007-04-01T00:31:00.000-07:00

Putting a tire on the wheel. According to rules we can only use Yokohama A048 tires in Medium or Soft compound. Tire sizes are restricted to 185 or 205 in 13" and 195 or 205 in 15".

Testing how a tire fits the car.

The fender fits surprisingly well, even though we have 205mm wide tires instead of 185mm which the fenders are made for.

Reverse gear arrived, front end assembled, exhaust continued and fitting the fuel tank

2007-03-30T00:30:00.000-07:00

Revers gear, weight approx. 300g.

Front end assembled.

Making the exhaust...

Welding the last tube of the header.

Fitting the fuel tank. The car will be a twoseater so we can take passengers along for a ride. The fuel tank will be under the passengers knees. The fuel fill we be on the side of the dash.

The stuff from england finally arrived, putting shocks on, 2nd version of race numbers

2007-03-29T00:22:00.000-07:00

I moved to live at the garage. We have quite a bit to catch up before the car show.

Finally the stuff fron rallydesign arrived, it took 3 months. First time with shocks under the car.

Second layer of clear coat on the carbon fenders.

Second version of the race numbers.

Continuing to make the Exhaust headers.

Locost battery. Panasonic 38Ah regenerating dry battery.

Side panels, race numbers, fitting the engine cover, exhaust, installing the propshaft

2007-03-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

It's 25th March, and the car should be ready before 5th April for a car show. Starting to feel the pressure...

First version of the racenumbers. In our class the racenumbers come from the chassis number, this is the 19th Locost in Finland to get chassis numbering.

Testing how the side panels fit. We decided to make them the easiest way, just a plain sheet of aluminium with a couple folds. Thanks to Reiska for making them!

Reiska made one that he said wasn't up to his standards, we tried it on and it fit perfectly. I guess we don't need to have it as accurately as some as his customers do.

Fitting the engine cover. We had to make a hole to fit the carburetors.

The carburetors stick out a bit. According to the rules no mechanical parts can stick out, so we will have to make a small addition to the engine cover to raise it over them. The air filter is allowed to stick out.

Fitting the painted front suspension parts. It feels a bit bad that the car hasn't been in rolling condition yet.

We also started making the exhaust.

We sprayed a clear coat on the carbon fenders to get that last bit of shine.

The support bearings for the propshaft, this is where the reverse will be installed.

The engine end of the propshaft. Here you can see the adapter to fit the propshaft to the bike engine.

Filling and sanding the dashboard. It was in pretty bad shape because the mold wasn't straight.

Final adjustment of the engine mounts, making the engine cover and fitting the rear discs

2007-03-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

Final adjustment of the engine mounts. Just making sure that the engine is easy to install and remove.

"Gelcoated" seat mold. No one told me that gelcoat needs hardener...

Making the model for the engine cover.

The cardboard model.

The cardboard model ready to be cut. The lines were drawn on the inside.

Bending the engine cover wasn't an easy task. It took three men and a lot of force to get it into shape. Atleast it's stiff.

Fitting the Lada front disc to the rear axle. The diameter of the mounting flange had to be reduced a bit to make it fit.

Measuring the center of gravity

2007-03-03T00:18:00.000-08:00

This thursday the car felt complete enough to measure where the center of gravity is so we could reduce the guesswork when ordering springs. There's still some components missing, so we replaced them with additional weight. Measuring without the wheels on is probably more accurate than with them because now there isn't a flexible tire that messes with the results, and you don't have to lock the suspension. The weight and location of each suspension was compensated in the calculations. We will do the same measurements when the car is ready. Then also probaby without suspension.

The wrench is instead of the upper waterhose.

The lead weight instead of the fuel tank and exhaust.

The car ready for measurement.

The mandatory "without hands" shot. This was the easier side because the driver wasn't as heavy when lifting the car, so we could afford having one of us taking photos. It's the second measurement and you can see the drivers neck getting tired.

Those who have a roll angle gauge in their car might be interested to know that without tires it will tip over at 60 degrees.

Big thanks to Kalevi, without his help we wouldn't have dared to lift the frame.

February's progress

2007-02-18T00:09:00.000-08:00

Places for the shoulder harnesses. According to FIA regulations they have to last a force of 14700N per belt. According to calculations just the tube should be enough. This solution was much more lighter than adding a roll cage tube into the trunk area to mount the tubes.

We started to install the engine electrics. The wiring is sorted out and all the components are installed.

We decided to add a tube to give protection for the driver's feet. There will also be a diagonal brace in the "roof". The steering axle is mounted, main electrical cut off switch is installed and the fenders have been installed.

A closer shot of the rear fender mounting. There's also screws on the inside.

At this point there's so much to design as we build the first car, that when we get resistance or are waiting on parts to arrive it's nice to go to the other car and do the same stuff that we already did on the first.

Gearshifter placement. It will be on the right side, next to the roll bar.

The gearshift cable at the engine end.

(EDIT 2008: This shifter as we installed it isn't advised. The cable made such tight bend that it had enormous friction. It was a bit tricky to shift because the lever didn't move back to the middle position by itself. Also finding neutral was difficult)

FEA, frame with roll cage and panels installed

2007-02-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

I finally got all panels attached, and the stiffness raised quite dramatically.

The colors show how much the frame twists, red being the highest. Same forces as in the previous pictures.

The torsional stiffness is 4165Nm/deg, which is quite much more than the numbers by Ron Champion (1630-2030Nm/deg). The roll cage brings more stiffness, and the stiffness of the ready frame is usually 15-20% less than that of the calculated.

The frame is as it will be when we build the car, so all wall thicknesses for the tubes are 1,5mm. The floor, firewall and propshaft tunnel is 1,5mm steel when the sides are 1,5mm aluminium.

You can't probably go much higher than 5000Nm/deg if you plan on using the book chassis. Going higher than this would require welding additional tubing, which our racing series doesn't allow.

Analysing the frame made me realize that it was quite simple to make a stiff frame. I had it pretty much as stiff as it can get right from the beginning. What really amazed me how easily you can ruin the stiffness of the car, just removing one of the most critical panels (or making it non-structural by having it removable) can lower the torsional stiffness by 25%!

FEA addition

2007-02-09T23:00:00.000-08:00

In the program the color scale being used is pink where there is maximum compression, and blue where there is maximum pull. But it's a bit difficult to get a clear picture of the forces involved because of the scaling. I just found a menu where you can change the colors to make it a bit easier to see the forces. Green shows the lowest forces in the tubes, when red is the highest.

The picture shows the most stressed tubes in the frame when it is being twisted. This picture isn't related to material thicknesses used in the model, it just shows how much force goes through each tube. As you can see the colors in the roll cage are nice and even, so not that much going on there.

The tubes that have to work the hardest are the R tube and the tubes around it on the right side of the engine bay. The triangulated structure seems to take quite a bit load off the left side. If only we would be allowed to have two R tubes. The loads in the prop shaft tunnel tubes should be sorted out once we get the panels added.

FEA, frame with roll cage

2007-02-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

Modeling continues

Now the frame twists 1,7 degrees with the same forces as in the previous picture. There is 70% more stiffness compared to without the roll cage. The diagonal in the roof contributes to 30% of the addition in stiffness. The color in the nose says that it twists much more evenly than before, and the roll cage distributes load even to the trunk area.

There's still a little more tweaking with the frame to get the forces to load more evenly. I also figured out how to add the panels, as I thought the mistake I made was very small...

3d model is ready for FEA

2007-02-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

The wireframe feels ready. I already got to twist a simplified version in a FEA program.

The frame is supported from the upper rear damper mounting points, and it is twisted from the upper front damper mounting points.

I got a stiffness of 936Nm/deg, when Ron Champion says the ready frame should be 1630-2030Nm/deg. At this point adding panels seems a bit difficult, but hopefully it will get sorted quite easily.

First car painted

2007-02-05T01:28:00.000-08:00

The team's official photographer got himself so expensive equipment that he can't empty the camera, so I'll have to post some pictures taken with my own :-)

Henrik's car will be baby blue with carbon fenders.

The dashboard is still a work in progress, and the nosecone has a small fault on the other side. Might be that we will have to make a small bulge to the nose cone to fit the radiator. There is two manufacturers for these Renault Clio radiators, and seems like we bought the slightly bigger one.

Moottoritilan peltien sapluunat pitäis kans tehdä piakkoin.

The aluminium for the trunk was made from 1,5mm aluminium, and it required quite a bit of persuasion to get it into form.

Hopefully Henrik will post more pictures very soon!

-Mika

Preparing the car for paint

2007-01-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from the "better" camera

Thinking about how to mount the engine.

But I guess we forgot about serviceability. This bolt was mounted the wrong way when we welded the mounting points for the engine.

From the picture you can see the engine mounts. We tried to make them as light and stiff as possible.

The frame painted black, side panels added and we're preparing the car for paint.

Henrik's car ready to be painted

2007-01-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

We decided to first make Henrik's car finished, and then continue with Mika's car. When making parts, most of them will be made double, so we don't have to start making them twice. Currently we're working on the reverse and the propshaft.

We got the basecoat on Henrik's frame, and it will be painted black next week.

First update of the year

2007-01-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

According to the timetable, the car should be on it's wheels. We're a bit behind, but nothing dramatic.

Rear suspension.

Welding the brackets to the rear axle.

Picture of the frame.

Henrik's car has a floor. We should get the prop shaft tunnel done today, and then we will paint the car as soon as the weather goes below 0°C.

First dry test, picture of the frame, rear suspension points welded in

2006-12-29T23:25:00.000-08:00

Finally got a steering wheel borrowed, so it was time to take my first test of the car.

Tight left, watch out for the welder...

In addition to the brake rule, we don't either like the rule about Traction Control...

Haven't taken pictures of the frame in a long time, here's the current situation.

Mika explaining something to my dad. Probably about where the forces go in the suspension.

Also the rear suspension brackets are installed.

A couple more pictures

2006-12-18T01:25:00.000-08:00

The new upper front a-arm.

A closer shot of the TIG weld, looks nice.

The mount for the lower rear suspension point. More close shots of the welds.

A better picture of the brakes, this time inside a 17" wheel. Cayenne rear caliper to the right :)

Front suspension, suspension jig, glassfibre parts

2006-12-17T11:13:00.000-08:00

A picture of the lower front wishbone.

We will have 60mm wider a-arms compared to PMC:s jigtable that we borrowed, so sadly it was of no use for us (they didn't really believe we had this much wider suspension). We still had to make it a bit of a compromise because we weren't sure which brake parts and wheels we would use. With the Taunus stock calipers we could have still gone ~35mm wider. Our racing rules state that the suspension has to be under 1660mm wide, so we would like to make use of all the space allowed.

A picture of our jigtable, it is for both front a-arms.

We got the upper front a-arms sorted out too, they just need to be welded together. So the front end is looking quite good at the moment, all it need is to be welded together.

We also tested brake options, seems like we can never get the brakes to fit into 13" wheels, so I guess we'll have to step up to 15...

No way. The brake disc is as big as the 13" wheel. Brake disc is from a GT3 Porsche and the caliper is from a Cayenne.

Picture from the composite department. +the lada rear axle.

And some results. One nosecone for each car, plus one as a spare when something happens.

The mold for the seat, borrowed from our school's formula student.

3d modeling started

2006-12-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

Got finally started with 3D-modeling of the car, but there's still a long way to go to get something out of it. At least you can fit a "man" into the frame. The biggest benefit of this will be that we can get accurate measurements for jigs that we will use when making the car. We had some problems with the tubes having the wrong measurements in the McSorley cutting list, so atleast we'll have someone in our team to blame next time when we start to make the frame.

We also got the lower front a-arms done and the engine mounts are now in place. The car looks quite wild with a engine... Pic's will come as soon as I get the camera emptied.

Composite work, got a rear axle and prop shafts

2006-12-03T00:10:00.000-08:00

Both frames are ready minus the propshaft tunnel and suspension mounting points. We've got a Lada rear axle and prop shafts from a BMW, Ford and Volvo. We'll start getting drive train sorted out this week.
We got the molds for the composite parts and at the moment we have a nosecone and one set of fenders ready. At the moment we're making the carbon fenders and a spare nosecone. We're also making the seat.
The engines have been bought through German ebay, and they should be here next week.

A closeup picture of the carbon fender, looks nice :)

We will start making the front suspension parts today, and the car should be on rolling before the end of the year.

Started to weld the roll cage

2006-11-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

We started welding the roll cage. We're still looking for a rear axle...
We also decided on installing an R1 engine in the second locost, so if you know anyone who has one as a spare, let us know.

-Mika

EDIT 2008. This isn't the way I remember it. Mika just called me and announced that my car will have a R1 engine. He quickly went through how much my Ford choice would cost, and how much for the R1. He also mentioned that he already was bidding for a R1 engine on ebay :)
I dont regret changing to a R1 engine. It proved to be much more fun than my low budget Ford could have ever been. Also having the plans to build a second car to the same specifications does have it's merits. - Henrik

Progress has been slow

2006-10-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

Progress has veen slow because we've been ill, and we still are. Yesterday we got almost all the welds in the frame done except the propshaft tunnel and some minor tubes. We've got a Yamaha R1 engine in the engine bay so we can design the propshaft and the engine mounts. Seems like at this point the rear axle will be a Opel unit. We ordered the roll cage kit and they will probably arrive early next week. Also the tubing for the suspension has been ordered, and hopefully it will also arrive on next week.

I'll post pictures of the engine later.

-Mika

Both locost frames are coming along quite well

2006-10-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

Both frames are now in the same stage. Next we will weld the "trunk" area and then we will move on to the suspension mounting points.

-Mika

Beginning to cut the frame, building the jigtable.

2006-09-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

After our test at ahvenisto we decided to start building our cars for the season 2007. W ordered Ron Champions book, Build your own sports car for £250. This is a very important book, because the rules on building the frame in the Finnish locost racing series are based on this book. While waiting on the book, we printed the McSorley cutting list and drawings for the tubes and started cutting the frame tubes to right length.

This picture was taken afterwards, it already has the book. :)

I built the jigtable while Henrik and Torbjörn were cutting the tubes. The jigtable will be where the frames will be assembled and welded, so it needs to be straight with accurate measurements for the frame. We got almost every tube cut on 24th September, and got started on welding the frame the 27th.

The front ends were done in a separate jig that we were able to borrow from s40racing. Making the second front end Henrik had some trouble, the third try cutting the tubes proved to be right.

The frame was first tack welded with MIG, after which the final welds were done by TIG welding. At the beginning the top and bottom of each frame was welded on top of each other to save some time measuring.

-Mika

EDIT 2008. I remember Mika calling me just a couple days after the event in Alastaro that he had just ordered tubing for two cars. Just two weeks after our decission to build these cars we were already cutting the tubes. -Henrik

Where it all began.

2006-09-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

Locosts had been in our mind earlier, but the final decision to build one came a bit by surprise. We wanted something that was much more affordable than the Porsche. The suspension modifications we did to the Porsche during the winter 2005/2006 also made it feel like it would make as much sense to make a new car.

The final decision to build one was made under a test in Alastaro. I got a ride in Markku Vehviläinen's Toyota GT powered locost and at the end of the day Mika also got to drive it. Mika just casually asked: "Should we build a locost for the next season?" to which I replied "yeah".

From Mika's Porsche blog, how he felt after his first drive in a locost: "At the end of the evening I got a ride in Markku Vehviläinen's Locost, and I also got to test it myself. Already in the second corner it was clear that I'm in a race car. The Locost didn't at all feel like a typical compromise built racer, very impressive!".

Mika focused on the driving. Markku is fastening the seat belts on the passenger side so they won't flap around in the speed, no one dared to go as a passenger.

Mika on the track.

As engine choices we will have a motorcycle engine in Mika's car, when Henrik is going to drive with a Ford OHC engine.

The day before American Car Show 2007

2006-04-04T00:35:00.000-07:00

Roll cage painted.

Last parts painted in the color of the car.

Hmmm, hole in spacer 50mm, when the outside diameter on the rear axle is 57mm. Nothing happened here, move along...

Mika took the drive axle with him to make sure it fits. Luckily we could borrow a friends lathe.

Low emission model.

Testfitting the ready exhaust manifold.

The rear fenders fit just like they should.

We got the "gelcoated" seat saved by cleaning and sanding the surface. We decided to put a coat of carbon to give it the final look.

Special tools.