Catch up on the Autograss project. The volancia!

Just a short catch up on where we are regarding the latest project. The last post was 3 months ago and can be found here if you are interested.

https://steemit.com/cars/@leighscotford/project-update-autograss-volvo-powered-lancia

So we have only had a couple of weekends working on the car since the last blog, and now the lock down has put a stop to myself getting the spanners out. However, my father has had to isolate for the 12-week period due to health reasons, and has managed to pass a lot of the new spare time, in the garage playing about on the car. The chassis/roll cage has been formed although not fully welded together, as we may have to adjust certain bars when we get to mounting the suspension. The cage is built out of CDS steel (cold drawn steel) all to coincide with the sports rules and regulations, bent with a hydraulic former. The body will be bolted onto the cage, and can be removed should we need to access anything for repairs, and more commonly, cleaning.

Once this stage was completed, a huge amount of time was spent deciding on the position of the engine and transmission. This is a huge decision that will determine a lot of future decisions, and undoubtedly, problems. It will also determine the front to rear weight ratio which is a very important part of the performance, and characteristics of the handling of the car. So after a very in depth discussion, and a large amount of calculations and measuring, we made the absolute final decision, and mounted the engine. The very next day we decided to cut it out and move it 80 mm, true to form.

Then it was time to bolt on the ancillaries, including the exhaust manifold and turbo. The manifold is from the normally aspirated engine, as it is a nicer flowing 5 branch manifold. However we needed to turn it upside down to lift the turbo to a higher position. The turbo we are using is a much bigger unit off a Mitsubishi evo 8. Once this was on, it was time to start forming the bulkhead. This is the fire shield between engine and driver. It was a bit of a brain ache to form this around all of the peddle positions, steering components, turbo etc. But what my father did was basically a form of art.

(Note the seat is not in position)

The steering is all in hand, engine is mounted, driveshafts are in, so it’s onto the front suspension. For a front wheel drive car, with over 80% front weight, this is where you make or break the whole design. I’ve had it in my head how I wanted the wishbones made, and as I can’t be there to help, I had to draw up a super sophisticated, detailed draft, and sent it to my farther, so he can manufacture the parts and fit it to the car, and it turned out great. Solely due to the professionalism within my drawings.

And that’s pretty much where we are now. A few more pennies to spend, and we should be there. Unfortunately the sport which should have started in March has been suspended until further notice. We have now decided not to try and get this car finished for this season, but to aim for March 2021. This helps out with the finances being spread a bit further away, and now we do not need to rush.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks for the interest