Finishing up the chassis

It's been a while since my last post - I've been busy with my studies. But now it's over, so let's go back to some proper engineering.

The most important improvement was that I finished the space-frame chassis. It's still missing some bits and bats (such as mounting points and brackets) but the tubing itself is done and dusted. I ran a couple of basic tests on it and I'm pretty sure it will be rigid enough. There were some problems, though:

1. It was too heavy. And I didn't know why. Basically, what I realised was that the frame I built was taller than the usual lotus 7's. That extra height added some extra weight. A few of the tubes were too thick as well. The main two tubes, were 4mm thick and therefore the weight was 10kg each. After some weight-reduction the chassis weighs 63kg, according to Autodesk Inventor.
   
2. The ground clearance had to be adjusted as well. I wanted it to be lower than the most of the kit cars, so I had to adjust the mounting points of the wishbones.

That's it. (Didn't need the numbering, did I?)

Then there was the headlight problem:
I knew what shape I would like to use, it's just I didn't know which headlights to use specifically. So I did a little research and I decided to use one four inch dipped/main beam light and one four inch driving light on each side of the car. Should be OK, me thinks.

While I was busy with the university, I asked my friends to make some brake discs and calipers. He did a great job, that's all I can say.

I'm going to be making some changes for the blog - adding more tabs with some info about me and other stuff. Check them out later!