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February 14, 2006
I am still thinking about building a car
Regular readers of this space (both of you) know that I am planning on building a car from scratch. Not content to merely fixing up an old car or modifying a newer car to have more performance, I want to stretch myself as a mechanic and fabricator by building a car from raw parts. In my mind's eye, the car I would build would be purely fun; an open topped roadster that would deliver 100 smiles per gallon, low loud and quick, it would be perfect for carving up a canyon road or romping around a race track.
Building a car can be as simple as assembling a car from a kit that gets delivered as a large box of parts dropped at my front door. Or it can be as complicated as buying steel sheets and tubing to weld into a form of my own design. As this is will be my first complete car construction from the ground up I have been thinking that buying a kit car would be the best way to ease into the world of automobile construction.
Car kits come in a variety of forms, it is possible to buy a kit that will replicate an exotic high performance racing prototype or as ruggedly simple as a dune buggy. As I have written before, the two leading contenders are the Lotus Seven style of low slung roadster from the 1950's or the classic Shelby Cobra of the 1960's. The Lotus is smaller and less powerful, the Cobra is larger and probably more powerful than any reasonable person would ever need.
I have thought about putting a six-cylinder engine rather than the usual V8 into a Cobra for a lighter and more maneuverable car. And I have considered replacing the usual four cylinder engine found in most Lotus with a larger, more powerful power plant, probably a V6 engine of some sort. But the Cobra is truly meant to have that monster V8 and the Lotus would be an ill handling mess with a heavier engine in its wimpy little frame. If only there was a kit that was a scaled down Cobra or a scaled up Lotus...
Fortunately I have found just the compromise, the Stalker V6. Largely based upon the design of the Lotus Seven, only on steroids, it is designed to accept the General Motors V6 engine that power a zillion S10 pickup trucks and SUVs. The frame is stronger and larger than the Lotus designed frame, which is an advantage for us Plus-Sized Americans. Performance parts are easy to come by for the GM V6 can be manipulated to squeeze out plenty of power in a relatively light package.
A bonus for the Stalker V6 is that kit is very complete; essentially there is no welding required. Plus it is possible to order ALL the parts for your car from the company that makes the kit or you can source the vital bits yourself. Any North American junkyard is filled with all of the inexpensive components needed to create my automotive masterpiece.
The resulting complete car comes in at about 1400 pounds and 200 horsepower is not hard to achieve. This works out to a very tasty 7:1 power to weight ratio, which is enough to hold my attention.
The legal disclosure portion of this posting is that I am not in position to get rolling on this project right off the bat. I have a lot of personal obligations and responsibilities to take care of over the course of the next year or so. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step and my first step is to think this project through. I value the input I receive from my readers (thank you family and friends) so I hope to hear some of your views on this new development in my car-build project.
Posted by Scott at 6:39 AM | Comments (5)
February 12, 2006
A Modest Proposal
I have a “modest proposal” to make, something along the lines of Jonathon Swift’s Modest Proposal made back in the late 1700’s. Ol’ Johnny boy was a leading whit and political satirist of 18th century’s London, sort of the Bill Mahr of his time. Swift’s famous proposal was that the best solution to the pressing issue of hunger amongst the working class was to “eat the Irish.” While the joke may not translate today, at the time it was a considered a shocking and obviously satiric answer to a legitimate problem of the time.
While hunger and poverty continue to plague the world today, this is not a political blog but rather one devoted to automotive issues. One of the most pressing concerns in the automotive world is the rash of nasty, unnecessary traffic accidents involving teenaged drivers racing on the streets. Young blood runs hot and rational decision-making is not a long suit of that demographic. The consequence is that young people look to test their cars and the limits of their abilities with illegal and often dangerous street racing.
My modest proposal is that every young driver be compelled to take a driving instruction course on a real racecourse in real racecars and instructed by real racecar drivers. Put the young drivers at speed, allow them to lose control of a car and teach them how to recover. Make practical physics come alive for the kids by showing them how to toss a car into a drift and how to recover from traction loss.
And then let them race. Put them out in groups of a dozen or so in matching sedans with complete safety equipment suites on a track and let them run against each other. Instruct them to run hard, let them run off the road, bask fenders, even roll over if they play too rough. But give them that experience and show them that the track is the place where that kind of behavior belongs. Make auto racing accessible to young people; make sure that there is a drag strip and an autocross course available for “run what ya brung” events that kids can test each other in their street cars.
Showing kids that there is an appropriate place for exercising their youthful enthusiasm for fast cars will only serve to make our street safer.
Posted by Scott at 5:29 PM | Comments (0)