itguy Posted August 17, 2006 Posted August 17, 2006 Excatly what I was thinking ref the seatbelt mounts - blimey... Still couldn't see the front suspension mounts clearly on any of the photos and would like to see how they are done... Quote
samcooke Posted August 17, 2006 Posted August 17, 2006 QUOTE Following those threads I must say I feel sorry for the guy. Kind of. Or you could say that if you look at a design like that and decide you're prepared to trust your life to it, you deserve everything you get. Of course I can sympathise and RH have lots of questions to answer, but the builder bought the thing. And I'm pretty sure 'lightweight' is a misnomer looking at the number of bolts all over it. Check out the rear underside - pretty. Quote
YouMustBeJoking Posted August 17, 2006 Posted August 17, 2006 They weigh about 600Kg Is that lightweight? Quote
stu999 Posted August 17, 2006 Posted August 17, 2006 They weigh about 600Kg Is that lightweight? For a RH, yes... Quote
jak Posted August 17, 2006 Posted August 17, 2006 They weigh about 600Kg Is that lightweight? It'is for a RH, or dax for that matter. Quote
Symbiotic_Caterpillar Posted August 17, 2006 Posted August 17, 2006 I've just been taking a look at his build site here The chassis reminds me of one of those cardboard cut out model things you get on the back of a cerial packet. I wouldn't want to drive one. Quote
Lurksalot Posted August 17, 2006 Posted August 17, 2006 bargepoles and touching in the same sentence F me ,that looks like hard work Quote
tex Posted August 18, 2006 Posted August 18, 2006 They weigh about 600Kg Is that lightweight? It'is for a RH, or dax for that matter. oi - i'm watching you.. regarding the lightweight RH - statement from RH "We have been looking at the various comments on our lightweight and the issue of sva Our lightweight demonstrater was succesfully sva tested prior to official launch of the car,with a car properly approved we started selling the kit.We have seen a number of Lightweights built and registered all over the world Our car has been recently striped down for examination and NO PROBLEMS WERE ENCOUNTERED this car has been used on track days,on the road all year and if you remember used by the press (including a trip to France) We have just re-tested our own car again (this week) succesfully! We all know the SVA centres vary enourmously from region to region some things they pass in one station sometimes same fail in others It apperars the kit car industry suffers from these inconsistancies and interpritations through no fault of their own" Quote
felters Posted August 18, 2006 Posted August 18, 2006 You should see the chassis Barry. It is very scary. I think Southampton are better these days. Felters has just been through there for example with his 11. Yep... I don't actually have experience of any other SVA centre but it seems to me that the individual examiner does exert a degree of judgement and there are bound to be inconsistencies. Looking at the date the Robin Hood was failed the day after I was there on my first visit - personally I felt that the guy that did mine was fairly pragmatic where he was allowed to be. That said the bulk of the cars they do there are, for obvious reason, Jap imports. I have seen the chassis at a Show - it was grim. I also remember that Audi and Bristol Cars have both done research into building all aluminium cars. They both decided that to build one with the same strength as a steel chassis was pointless as it would weigh a lot more. BTW my XI weighed 482kg with a full tank of petrol at SVA... Quote
cast iron Posted August 18, 2006 Posted August 18, 2006 I saw the lightweight at Harrogate last year, very scarey, even the factory demonstrator had the master cylinder fluid resevoir held together with 2 jubilee clips. Even the rear roll hoop mounts were out on a lip on the back of the chasiss, I'm sorry to hear the guy put so much effort in but common sense would of told me to steer well clear. Quote
Blatman Posted August 18, 2006 Posted August 18, 2006 They weigh about 600Kg Is that lightweight? It'is for a RH, or dax for that matter. oi - i'm watching you.. regarding the lightweight RH - statement from RH "We have been looking at the various comments on our lightweight and the issue of sva Our lightweight demonstrater was succesfully sva tested prior to official launch of the car,with a car properly approved we started selling the kit.We have seen a number of Lightweights built and registered all over the world Our car has been recently striped down for examination and NO PROBLEMS WERE ENCOUNTERED this car has been used on track days,on the road all year and if you remember used by the press (including a trip to France) We have just re-tested our own car again (this week) succesfully! We all know the SVA centres vary enourmously from region to region some things they pass in one station sometimes same fail in others It apperars the kit car industry suffers from these inconsistancies and interpritations through no fault of their own" I have to say, if they can't even get the spelling right for an important press release/internet "statement", what chances they can operate a CAD machine properly if the Word spell checker is beyond them? Quote
Man On The Clapham Omnibus Posted August 18, 2006 Posted August 18, 2006 I have just looked through the series of pictures on his build site and I can honestly say that I have never seen such a dog's breakfast of a car design. The poor chap must have put so many hours of his life into trying to make a decent job of it that I can only assume he has private means - there's no time for a job in there surely? Aluminium, especially the 'ordinary' stuff rather than aircraft alloys, is soft and 'plastic'. If that monocoque were made of steel, apart from being very heavy, I would be a lot happier. Aluminium, though, is like putty and has little elasticity (mild steel hasn't much but at least it is tougher) and I can foresee holes becoming oval, panels stretching, joints between panels shearing (despite the bonding - adhesives are very variable when applied under less than lab conditions) and the whole will become a rattling heap of milk bottle tops in no time. Just try to imagine the extremely high momentary stresses at suspension mounts and engine mounts when the car passes over potholes. And the diff seems to be bolted to aluminium panels only, the stresses from the torque reaction will distort the panels I would have thought. I am not a chartered engineer like some of the learned members, but I have spent a lot of years with both calculator and with dirty hands and my gut feeling is that it is not viable. Quote
dern Posted August 18, 2006 Posted August 18, 2006 and if you remember used by the press (including a trip to France) Was this the PPC trip where the car broke down in Paris and came back on a truck? Quote
Ian Podmore Posted August 18, 2006 Posted August 18, 2006 I've witnessed what has happened to all my folded ali radiator brackets after 10 years / 20,000 miles.... Oval holes at rivets, fatigued at every fold and broken off. If they break my radiator will hang off the hoses. Big deal. Couldn't drive a car with the chassis made from ali sheet on that basis alone. Aluminium chassis in production cars are made from extruded sections, not from bent sheet and and a few hundred weight of rivets and bolts. Quote
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