Mid engine fun
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DeathBySnuSnu
- Posts: 195
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:45 am
Re: Mid engine fun
Some more together.Working on the rear hood now.
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P_Vilefort
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2022 12:41 am
Re: Mid engine fun
If you wanted to keep it simple then you should have used a two link trailing arm suspension with coil over shocks and a De Dion rear suspension component or a track rod setup to help locate the side-to-side reactions of the suspension. See this for some ideas and a PDF. https://www.theengineerspost.com/types- ... on-system/
What I see is not simple. Simple would have been a CAD drawing of a tube chassis and an FE analysis to guide you on how to make the best design that will create great torsional and bending resistance with a minimum of tubes. That fiberglass body will not add much to any torsional resistance so it has to be created in the chassis. You could have used the VW chassis and cut off the rear torsion tubes, designed a tube box for the rear suspension and to hold the engine and transaxle.
There have been other mid-engine versions that could have given you inspiration and kept it simple.
What I see is not simple. Simple would have been a CAD drawing of a tube chassis and an FE analysis to guide you on how to make the best design that will create great torsional and bending resistance with a minimum of tubes. That fiberglass body will not add much to any torsional resistance so it has to be created in the chassis. You could have used the VW chassis and cut off the rear torsion tubes, designed a tube box for the rear suspension and to hold the engine and transaxle.
There have been other mid-engine versions that could have given you inspiration and kept it simple.
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Ol'fogasaurus
- Posts: 17881
- Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:17 pm
Re: Mid engine fun
I think it would be a lot of work on CAD but then I haven't worked on CAD since the mid 90s.
The cage alone I would think should be designed differently for load transfer that the body and probably the frame would have a hard time doing. It is the twisting that can be done both by the suspension and the torque plus other things that can happen.
CAD has changed a lot since the 5 different versions of it I used back in the late 70s and into the 90s were in use and I am sure they are still upgrading constantly based on what I understand.
Lee
The cage alone I would think should be designed differently for load transfer that the body and probably the frame would have a hard time doing. It is the twisting that can be done both by the suspension and the torque plus other things that can happen.
CAD has changed a lot since the 5 different versions of it I used back in the late 70s and into the 90s were in use and I am sure they are still upgrading constantly based on what I understand.
Lee
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DeathBySnuSnu
- Posts: 195
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:45 am
Re: Mid engine fun
Suspension was designed by Volkswagen. It is old school but I am pretty sure they had more engineering design power than I alone do.
The tube chassis was bought as a mid engine beetle off road unwelded kit. I never built the beetle. I cut the height down of the kit and made the body mount perimeter myself as this was a non pan , flat floor board kit .
It does look a lot different this short. Chassis is extremely rigid, might not be if the car weighed 2000lbs more. The plastic body is not a structural member.
And yes I have cad and use it daily, but close to retirement age.
The tube chassis was bought as a mid engine beetle off road unwelded kit. I never built the beetle. I cut the height down of the kit and made the body mount perimeter myself as this was a non pan , flat floor board kit .
It does look a lot different this short. Chassis is extremely rigid, might not be if the car weighed 2000lbs more. The plastic body is not a structural member.
And yes I have cad and use it daily, but close to retirement age.
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Ol'fogasaurus
- Posts: 17881
- Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:17 pm
Re: Mid engine fun
You or CAD!DeathBySnuSnu wrote: ↑Sun Feb 11, 2024 6:39 pm Suspension was designed by Volkswagen. It is old school but I am pretty sure they had more engineering design power than I alone do.
The tube chassis was bought as a mid engine beetle off road unwelded kit. I never built the beetle. I cut the height down of the kit and made the body mount perimeter myself as this was a non pan , flat floor board kit .
It does look a lot different this short. Chassis is extremely rigid, might not be if the car weighed 2000lbs more. The plastic body is not a structural member.
And yes I have cad and use it daily, but close to retirement age.
When I retired, they were working on getting CAD to work on multi (I forget how just how many angles) angle milling/machining things.Lee
It would be interesting to see what the "pan"/frame does look like.