The carbon fibre time attack/superlap MX5 NB twins blog

[lightyear]

Wow great progress, not sure if i'm sold on the stepped sides yet but awesome work, stunning.

What is a stepped side? I am a bit slow...

[Okibi]

slow? you're more brilliant than I!

I mean how the sides "step" out from the rest of the body work at the fenders a bit like a flare.

[lightyear]

Well you have to understand that i had to pick the best design that i could make as easily and quickly as possible. I really don't have time to spend months making a nice round body. This way was just flat sheet bent and flat with a constant angle made to the body.

[deviant]

What was the decision behind keeping the headlight shape and not just continuing the curve of the uppwer wings / bonnet? I assume the same as above...to hard to do something new from scratch?

[lightyear]

I wanted to keep the headlight shape, it gives it more of a car look. Otherwise i think it would look a bit blank.

I have properly located the front clip with 4 bonnet pins.

[PaulF]

I see you've got 6UL's on the car now too.

[16bit]

do they have the spacers on them?

[lightyear]

The wheel is just sitting there. I will put the 20mm spacers that are on the rear on the front and get some 30mm for the rear. Iwas going to put 30mm all round, but found out later it might not be good on the front due to the bearings wearing out quick and pad knock off.

[Mr nanotech]

Oh my god I can't wait to see more of this blog! Are you going to be painting it or leaving it cf bodied?

[rascal]

The wheel is just sitting there. I will put the 20mm spacers that are on the rear on the front and get some 30mm for the rear. I was going to put 30mm all round, but found out later it might not be good on the front due to the bearings wearing out quick and pad knock off.

I'd stick with the 30mm all round if thats what you really want.

The 949 rims are +36 so even with a 30mm spacer you are still at a positive offset, so while bearing wear may be marginally higher than no spacer at all, it isn't a major concern, even less so since you are only deciding between a 20mm spacer and a 30mm one.

I have +17 rims on my car, so basically equivalent to a 20mm spacer, and checked my bearings mid last month and 2 years of hard track work hasn't worn my bearings out prematurely..

[lightyear]

That's good to know. I am just going off what i have been told. Maybe it is more prone on a high powered car that will be braking from higher speeds.

Nanotech, it is not getting painted. Maybe when it is looking a bit tired in a year or so i will give it a nice clearcoat.

[mr2 spyder]

Thought you would use dzues clips for the body ? Those bonnet clips spoil the look abit. What lay up/core do you use for that front?

[lightyear]

I was told for the main part bonnet pins would be better than dzus fasteners. If you look at any car from v8 taxi's to japan touring cars - they all run normal bonnet pins, not the aero ones either. There will be dzus fasteners for the rest of the edges. I was almost thinking of using velcro for the sides where the lower rear part will attatch to the car. But it might prove difficult to remove.
Lay up is the same as the hardtops 200gsm 3k 2x2 twill with a soric core. It has a bit of flex in it due to the size, so i added extra strips of soric with a layer of c.f over them at a couple of edges. That is one huge piece, it's about 1.8 x 2.0. I can not pick it up as i can not grab 2 edges. I just pop it off the pins and slide it forward. Once the bonnet has the vents cut in i will be able to use them as a handle. It only weighs 7.8kg's with the latches on, so it's not heavy - slightly lighter than the oem alloy bonnet.

[Okibi]

I would love to have those skills, thanks for sharing the progress with us.

[lightyear]

I have made 1 of the 1/4er panels, it is just sitting on the car in the pic, it will sit in the right spot after i cut out the entire rear 1/4. It weighs just 2.2 kg's.