Project "Marginal gains..."
Turbo Mini Forums

Cheers Denis

I had to modify the inner arches in some way in order to package coilovers, so it just made sense to try and resolve the problems caused by using the standard damper top mount position at the same time...

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 21st Jul, 2015.

The latest small mods to the front subframe are now done, so I can fit the front end up again and recheck clearances;



The solid yellow circle is where the downpipe from the turbo is very close to the removable front lateral tube. You can see here it has moved forward and has slight bends near the ends. It will probably end up having gussets near the ends back to the longitudinal mounts.

To be fair the original lateral tube was designed around NA and had plenty of clearance then

Then the reason for the start of the shear panel pocketing was to increase the clearance where the downpipe goes under the sump and then squeezes between the shear panel and the steering rack mounting tube (yellow hollow circle).

Less clear is the fact that top wishbone mountings have moved back slightly to help with gearbox clearance and also keep the wheel central in the arch with the caster increase (combined with the large dia tyres) made the wheel / tyre look very forward in the arch.

From this image you can see the somewhat OTT number of subframe to chassis mounts :)

The rear lower centre mount is probably not necessary now with the addition of the shear panel

The rear upper centre mount is required because all of the inboard suspension loads are taken by this tube now, it's single shear but its an M10 which feeds directly into the bulkhead main cross member





Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 6th Jul, 2017.

The quality of this build is fantanstic

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

Cheers Jim for the kind comments

Looks incredible.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

I too, have been deeply impressed by the vision and skill involved.

Thank you again for the generous comments, it does help keep focused

Cheers

Boring bodywork but needs doing



As all of the inner arches are cut out to get the engine and gearbox in I don't see reason to reinstate anymore than connects the bulkhead cross member back up to the scuttle, still need to finish the area where the tube passes through



Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 6th Jul, 2017.

Just found this on Build Threads and thought I had seen it somewhere before!

Great work as ever!

http://www.build-threads.com/build-threads...red-turbo-mini/

Cheers

Yeah it was a strange one, someone got in touch with me ages ago through a forum and asked if I would put the build forward to 'Build Threads'. I hadn't been on the website before so had a look and some nice builds on there.

Anyway I'd forgotten all about it when Anthony the guy who owns the site got in touch with me recently and told me he was about to host it

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 27th Jul, 2015.

Still on the sub 600kg crusade (Also with a little of Steve W's help elsewhere ) but it's getting harder

I still can't decide what style / overall look I want for the car which means I am still undecided interior trim wise... Should still be subtle / understated but balanced against weight saving.



For the doors it's currently is a sort of carbon MK1 height door bin which I am still considering putting some of the switch gear into (sort of 'Works' style) also considering a MK1 style vinyl inner door card.

I lightened the standard door hinges some time ago and still planned to turn the lightening holes into slots but it was still never going to be as light as an ally set;







So I am around 7.5kg per door as shown with a perspex MK1 sliding window kit

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 6th Jul, 2017.

oh good grief!

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

I like those hinges, Did you make them?

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

I looked into it, but even though they are a tad pricey, it was still cheaper to buy them IMO

These are DSN

Rear beam MK3

MK1 was T45 tube and and was getting too heavy and needing a jig and too much fabrication

MK2 is as below, ally box section with the usual section cutout for clearance, lighter but not happy with the reduction in stiffness of the box section as a result of the cut out.



MK3 is also ally box section but what I really want is the sectional stiffness that an uninterrupted deep box section will give to the floppy single skin heelboard area. But to do this the rear seat base area needs a bit of persuasion.


There were some areas of corrosion on the underside of this original seat base mainly where it joins the sides and where a couple of tabs are spot welded on. I bought a full replacement boot floor which has the seat base inlcuded so I decided to use that instead.



As I say I'd rather replace a whole panel than patch it

And from the underside;



The beam with internal stiffening and the radius arm mounts should come in at about 3.6kg

Again I want to keep the main body / chassis side of things completely standard

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 17th Oct, 2017.

not viable to put a plate along under the seat about 4 inches forward from the heel board and use that as the box ,and connect the suspension straight to the heel board ?

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Yeah I think along the lines of what your suggesting and directly mounted to the heelboard is potentially the way for maximum weight saving but the obstacle for me is the radius arm length.

I don't want to add making a pair of radius arms to the never ending project, so it had to be KAD or SC arms which are standard length, from memory the pivot axis of a std radius arm is about 72 - 75mm from the heelboard which would mean I'd need to have four protusions from the heelbaord to mount the arms to.

Some custom trailing arms about 50mm longer solve this but I know I'd faff too much trying to get the camber stiffness, maybe Phase 2 (If Phase 1 ever gets finished!) If I had a cage then I'd definitely go this way as the trailing arm mount support tubing from the main hoop would be comfortably under 2kg and pretty straight forward to do.

ahh gotcha , no chance of extending the hub end of the arm with a plate bolted to the hub triangle?

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

you know you love it !!!

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

http://www.16vminiclub.com/forums/showthre...ht=rear+spacers

like that? tho I have to say it wouldnt be in keeping with the rest of the build.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

I think Robert was talking about physically extending the wheelbase (That's how I understood it)

But no plans to to have any kind of extensions of any sort bolted to the trailing arms for wheelbase or track increase - I think Robert likes to 'twist my melons, man' :)

If I was to change the track width (Like the Watson's type conversions do) I would just change the position the trailing arm bolts to the beam - I am changing from the standard positions to make any arch extensions as small as possible.

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 4th Aug, 2015.

NON non , pas de melonz pour le twistyzz!!

i was seriously wondering if it would work to extend the arm back to cater for the heelboard being used as the arm mount , i'm guessing thats a 'non' ,not enough room, or poor arm rigidity?

Edited by robert on 18th Oct, 2017.

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Pardon...

Honestly, my first alarm bell would be stiffness as a result of extending the arm.

Secondly, only extending by 50mm or so looks like a fair amount of overlap of new and old bits, not really looked tho' so might be OK

On the bright side it would help with trailing arm to tyre clearance for the 185/60 13's

Well the plan was to have the LH side sill looking like this by the end of play, but as you can probably see from the mottled areas that's not what happened...



As the 2 - 3mm of epoxy / sealer (whatever it was) was linished off the extent of the localised rot was clear



So it's going to have to be full length floors due to this and other areas I'm not happy with (all areas where guides / brackets are spot welded to the floor as well), it's just plonked on for now but another step backwards in terms of progress but should be a step forward on terms of not patching things up



Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 5th Jul, 2017.