I got the job! I’m going to have to put this project on the back burner for a little bit, but I’ll post an update when I’ve got something substantial done.
For the instrument cluster, maybe make a little removable panel that houses your gauges, with four bolt holes in the corners. Then have a hole in the dash/scuttle fascia big enough for the back for the gauges to slide into, and have anchor nuts on the four corners to mount the instrument panel.
Stoked for this. Please keep sharing what you're up to regardless of the pace UA-cam would want you to publish at. It's so inspiring to see how simple these structures actually are and how approachable it is to build the super cars of yesteryear in one's own garage. You're well aware that shared ad revenue with UA-cam only works at massive scale, and likes and views are great, but they're ultimately vanity metrics, so consider a definition of success that wasn't handed to you by the very platform looking to make money off of your content. What does success here really mean to YOU? If it's inspiring people through expressing your enthusiasm for vintage race cars, well mission accomplished. Please keep doing it. Something to consider regarding revenue: I've done a bit of research on different youtube channel monetization strategies and having run the numbers the revenue potential of merch in particular is pretty astounding and scales exponentially with your audience. It doesn't undo the challenges of growing the audience, but it gives the audience a tangible way to support you and they get something in return. As you build up your audience of people who want to support you, not just watch your videos, giving them something new to own that's tied to the stories you're telling is a great way to gather support revenue. It's a hassle to create merch, but there are multiple drop ship ways to do this where it's all made on-demand. There is the obvious Patreon path, but there's also things like Mail Chimp and Substack where you can get people to subscribe to your activity in general independent of UA-cam's algorithm. There are few moving pieces to set up, but in the end you'd have something you "own" (your mailing list) that can move with you from platform to platform as the internet changes. However you choose to build financial support, good luck!
What you were talking about with the foam reminds me of foam-core composites, sort of the poor man's version of aluminum honeycomb composites. Its commonly used for things like custom rear wings, where the carved foam acts as both the buck and to resist compression on the skin of the wing, but I've also seen it used for structural panels where the foam is cut to the desired shape and the fiberglass or carbon fiber is laid/wrapped in both sides of the foam, no vacuum-bagging necessary. Some people will do that partly just to form panels without a buck, since the foam can be held somewhat in place on its own, and it sounds like a good way to make flat panels rigid when you can't rely on the stiffness that curves in a panel would provide. It would be tempting to try to goad you into making a foam-core carbon tub with that technique... but I'd expect that to be a lot more hassle. You've already got so much experience with the aluminum sheet designs, which are probably significantly cheaper, plenty light and stiff, more reliable (you're not worrying about whether or not the epoxy cured properly), and a lot easier to mount components to.
The McLaren M6 was (according to Robin Herd) designed with the front underbody swept up like the underside of a wing, and when they tested it with no body work, it produced negative lift i.e downforce. So technically the M6 had some degree of ground effects, which is a little known fact.
I’m hardly building at your level. My first two cars were just junk yard abominations and my current car is only a Hayabusa powered cross cart. All for Colorado Hill Climb Association. Watching your videos bring theory into application is a real inspiration. Lots of people talk, few do it, and even fewer people show how they do it. In this day and age it’s great to help others. Thanks!
I'm a new subscriber from the UK and I am so happy and excited I found your channel, I have seriously been binge watching all your videos. What is comforting is your speaking exactly my thoughts and same ideas, I feel in some ways I'm on the right track and I cant wait to start my own build from scratch, I'm so close that I be ordering tubes this weekend, so finding your videos is a sign haha. I am really looking forward to seeing more of your videos and these explanation and planning videos are EXCELLENT!
This will be a great project. Keep the videos coming. I have really enjoyed them. My 3rd race car build is nearing completed and lets hope 3rd time is the charm. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe use a motor plate instead of a standard engine mount…. Edit.., I posted that comment before you put the formula 5000 picture… that’s the route I would go
Was in a similar spot a couple years ago - lots of complex aero ideas for a time attack build. Best thing I ever did was hire a professional aerodynamicist to work with me. I learned a ton that isn't found in books, and through hundreds of cfd runs we both learned more than we would have in years of building and testing part combos. Would advocate hiring one, to at least get you in the right starting ballpark. From there, there is still lots of room to experiment and learn. Also keep in mind you will need a proper sensor package to know how well the aero is working.
Congratulations, Ben! Proud for you on getting the job you were hoping for. Sad for me, though. I was looking forward to hearing more about your choice for a Can Am Car. I am 68 years old, so I have a fond appreciation for the cars that ran back in the 70s. I graduated high school in '73 in Zweibrucken Germany. I was hoping you might consider the Toyota Seven. A Toyota, Yamaha, Daihatsu colaboration. Beautiful car with an incredible and startling history, and surprisingly, the car never actually got to race! I am sending you an email of the car side view I created in Adobe Illustrator at Full Scale. All the best in your car creation pursuits!
Wow thanks! I know about the Toyota from the Gran Turismo games. My kid and I got interested in it when we started digging into the lore around it. Cool stuff.
Yeah baby 612 is one of my favourites. I’m fairly sure most group c cars had full width tunnels (between the wheels) in the middle and up the front, and only split into two to clear the sump & gearbox. Also, look at the Lola t222 for stylised wheel arch openings!
Very cool idea. Use fancy aerospace glue on the aluminum joints. Consider doing your own carbon fiber for the rear lower panel. Vacuum bagging at room temperature is very suitable.
Great video! I look forward to seeing the entire process. Maybe you can explore other crowd source or sponsorship funding options. If you separate the process into design, manufacture and assembly, you may be able to get some assistance with some of the manufacture and design items as well.
I love your videos so much! It’s like living my dream! I could possibly try to build cars myself, I’m a trained precision mechanic and became an automotive engineer later. Unfortunately I’m missing the space and tools to build a car myself and I also live in Germany and we have almost no places where I could drive a self made car, our laws are super strict. Even on our racetracks it’s basically impossible to drive a self made car, if you aren’t a billionaire. I wish I could do the same thing you do, or just help someone like you build it at their place. All my life I’m super interested in prototype race cars, especially those of bygone eras. As a kid/teen seeing all those group C/GTP and the GT1 cars was like a magical experience!
Nice one Ben, thanks for that. I can’t help with your decisions (good luck whichever way you go) - but if you continue posting this great stuff, I’ll keep watching.
I was lucky enough to see the Can Am in it's hay day (1963 +). In my opinion, and not because of nostalgia, it was the best racing ever. Only a few basic rules, very fast and the sounds and smells were unbelievable. I saw ever driver of the era race there from F1 and Indy. Also even if you didn't have a huge budget you could field a car that was competitive. Those days are gone forever.
Hi Ben, loving your builds & think that the new project is a great idea. I do have a couple of ideas that might help… First up would be the dash bulkhead - you talk about wanting to make it a couple of inches narrower, I think that wouldn’t go far enough to make your desire to build early Can-Am ‘lumpy’ bodywork. Bring the top in to the same width as the tub opening (this would also help when you want to experiment with late/group C style bodywork. The second point concerns the rear tubular cradle. I’m totally on board with the bolt in upper diagonal bars, but the lower ones I would run as a single piece to the bottom of the roll-hoop, you would be able to tie your engine mount bracing to this. From the bottom of the rear bulkhead I would run twin tubes diagonally forward to the centre of the roll-hoop frame (where your centre tunnel is). This would be lighter & brace the monocoque structure while at the same time providing a load path from the rear through the centre of the car. Looking forward to following the build.
Awesome video. You claim not to be an expert, but you're very knowledgable about the history and the engineering, so I'd say you did have a ton of expertise. Len Terry called his cars a pack of Terriers.... what should you call a group of Beames designs?
Very Cool project, thanks so much for sharing your vision and enthusiasm! Inspiration and ideation are addictive, but you clearly have a balance of pragmatism that gets things made. Your tunnels start way forward, and with the light car, big v8 & gearbox, I suspect your weight distribution will be 40/60 F/R (or maybe more rearward) so factor this into your tunnels / center of pressure consideration. I like that you will experiment and use data and results as your guide. That said, as I understand it (only from reading and seminars), you'd do well to keep your center of pressure aft of your CofG some to ensure that the faster you go and more downforce you make, the more you tend toward understeer so that you approach stabilty of direction (like a lawn dart). This helps as you back off when you get in a little over your head and the car is pushing the front end starts to come back. I imagine this would help initiate turn in. I'm not a professional, and my opinion is worth only as much as you paid for it, but if nothing, food for thought. Besides, you probably already read this somewhere else. I'm very curious to see what your setup / test approach will be to explore & map your aero performance envelope... onward and downward!
I’ve never heard of anyone doing this, but I wonder if vacuum bagging, a common woodworking technique for bed laminations, would be a viable solution to eliminate the bulge when you add foam to your aluminum cavities. The expanding foam may not play nicely in a vacuum, perhaps a dry run would be wise....
I would love to have a LOLA sports racer, thought about selling most of my collection of Corvettes and muscle cars I could net out 300-400k, probably pick up a nice one, looked at some Formula 5000 cars as well, really like them too! Is the guy in FL still building the Lola's? I love messing with 5.0 liter chevrolet engines and would really like a reason to build a ridiculously exotic 302 chev.- really short compression height with maybe a 6.125 - 6.25 rod, large bore and even shorter stroke than 3". The piston side load would be really low and the reciprocating weight will be really low, it will rev 10,000-12,000. make 700-800hp with hilborn injection. Remember removing 4 oz from Rotating assembly, (clutch flywheel, etc) will get you better lap times than removing 50# from the car weight.
The gas tank is on the passenger side to balance out the driver weight. Driver sits on the right side. In my GT40 3/4 of a tank in the passenger side tank makes the car balance perfectly.
Why not draw inspiration from the most successful CanAm cars, McLaren M8's instead of the disappointing Lola T-160? "Real" M8 tubs are very straightforward, they have much "squarer" rocker panels than the earlier M6's. Later Trojan sold M6 tubs with M-8 style bodies and called them various other names, M8C, M12, etc.
Hi Ben. I like your design and I have been drawing on something similar for a while now that "kit cars" finally are legal in Norway. A few thoughts, build the parts of the "aero tunnels" that you need to incorporate in the chassis as large as possible and remove all parts that is not needed to give the chassis it's strength. These parts you build in fiberglass ( or carbon fiber ) as they are easier to change, modify and to work with. The fiberglass part can also go forward into the tunnels in the chassis to make this shape more aerodynamic. You also can incorporate the piece between the 2 tunnels, under the transmission, together with the 2 tunnels into a diffuser covering most of the rear of the car. To see how a modern kit car manufacturer build an monocoque, have a look at Superlite SL-C and GT-R to get inspiration how they solve all the problems, especially the rear suspension, I like this solution! They also have the lower suspension arms come inside the monocoque with billet machined aluminium "cups" while the upper ones are boltet to the outside with steel brackets. Superlite also had a car called the LMP, it was a copy of a Cadillac Northstar LMP race car with the engine and the Corvette C5/C6 transmission/diff shortened and bolted directly to the engine, as a half stressed member of the chassis. They did this by using 2 or 3 different billet aluminium frames, tied together with steel tubes. I have a few pictures of this car if you need. For using foam as reinforcement, see if you an find some pictures of a Ford RS200 chassis, this was built using aluminium honeycomb panels glued and riveted together to build a Group B rally monster..... I have also seen a build of a Porsche 962 where a road going Porsche flat 6 turbo engine, together with the transmission and the rear transmission, was bolted to the chassis and the main roll bar, as one package.
I got the job! I’m going to have to put this project on the back burner for a little bit, but I’ll post an update when I’ve got something substantial done.
nice for you! that bring a point.. what do you do for a living?
Great for you. We understand. We'll be patient.
For the instrument cluster, maybe make a little removable panel that houses your gauges, with four bolt holes in the corners. Then have a hole in the dash/scuttle fascia big enough for the back for the gauges to slide into, and have anchor nuts on the four corners to mount the instrument panel.
I remember Dennis Hulme (5) and Bruce McClaren (4) racing at Riverside Raceway back in the 70's. The absolute best!
Stoked for this. Please keep sharing what you're up to regardless of the pace UA-cam would want you to publish at. It's so inspiring to see how simple these structures actually are and how approachable it is to build the super cars of yesteryear in one's own garage.
You're well aware that shared ad revenue with UA-cam only works at massive scale, and likes and views are great, but they're ultimately vanity metrics, so consider a definition of success that wasn't handed to you by the very platform looking to make money off of your content. What does success here really mean to YOU? If it's inspiring people through expressing your enthusiasm for vintage race cars, well mission accomplished. Please keep doing it.
Something to consider regarding revenue: I've done a bit of research on different youtube channel monetization strategies and having run the numbers the revenue potential of merch in particular is pretty astounding and scales exponentially with your audience. It doesn't undo the challenges of growing the audience, but it gives the audience a tangible way to support you and they get something in return. As you build up your audience of people who want to support you, not just watch your videos, giving them something new to own that's tied to the stories you're telling is a great way to gather support revenue. It's a hassle to create merch, but there are multiple drop ship ways to do this where it's all made on-demand.
There is the obvious Patreon path, but there's also things like Mail Chimp and Substack where you can get people to subscribe to your activity in general independent of UA-cam's algorithm. There are few moving pieces to set up, but in the end you'd have something you "own" (your mailing list) that can move with you from platform to platform as the internet changes.
However you choose to build financial support, good luck!
Another awesome video!!! Thanks Ben!!!!
Awesome!
I hope you end up building it Ben. Last year I started on a similar McLaren-esk build.
Great video, and this project looks amazing.
What you were talking about with the foam reminds me of foam-core composites, sort of the poor man's version of aluminum honeycomb composites. Its commonly used for things like custom rear wings, where the carved foam acts as both the buck and to resist compression on the skin of the wing, but I've also seen it used for structural panels where the foam is cut to the desired shape and the fiberglass or carbon fiber is laid/wrapped in both sides of the foam, no vacuum-bagging necessary. Some people will do that partly just to form panels without a buck, since the foam can be held somewhat in place on its own, and it sounds like a good way to make flat panels rigid when you can't rely on the stiffness that curves in a panel would provide. It would be tempting to try to goad you into making a foam-core carbon tub with that technique... but I'd expect that to be a lot more hassle. You've already got so much experience with the aluminum sheet designs, which are probably significantly cheaper, plenty light and stiff, more reliable (you're not worrying about whether or not the epoxy cured properly), and a lot easier to mount components to.
I can‘t wait to see those build videos 👍
Ditto everyone else.
Awesome video.
Thank you for sharing.
The McLaren M6 was (according to Robin Herd) designed with the front underbody swept up like the underside of a wing, and when they tested it with no body work, it produced negative lift i.e downforce.
So technically the M6 had some degree of ground effects, which is a little known fact.
I’m hardly building at your level. My first two cars were just junk yard abominations and my current car is only a Hayabusa powered cross cart. All for Colorado Hill Climb Association. Watching your videos bring theory into application is a real inspiration. Lots of people talk, few do it, and even fewer people show how they do it. In this day and age it’s great to help others. Thanks!
Great video!
I'm a new subscriber from the UK and I am so happy and excited I found your channel, I have seriously been binge watching all your videos.
What is comforting is your speaking exactly my thoughts and same ideas, I feel in some ways I'm on the right track and I cant wait to start my own build from scratch, I'm so close that I be ordering tubes this weekend, so finding your videos is a sign haha.
I am really looking forward to seeing more of your videos and these explanation and planning videos are EXCELLENT!
This is great! Always love to hear someone is diving in!
It's fascinating to her you make your thinking visible. My new favorite channel.
This will be a great project. Keep the videos coming. I have really enjoyed them. My 3rd race car build is nearing completed and lets hope 3rd time is the charm. Thanks for sharing.
It sounds like you ARE what I’m trying to inspire others to be!
Maybe use a motor plate instead of a standard engine mount…. Edit.., I posted that comment before you put the formula 5000 picture… that’s the route I would go
Was in a similar spot a couple years ago - lots of complex aero ideas for a time attack build. Best thing I ever did was hire a professional aerodynamicist to work with me. I learned a ton that isn't found in books, and through hundreds of cfd runs we both learned more than we would have in years of building and testing part combos. Would advocate hiring one, to at least get you in the right starting ballpark. From there, there is still lots of room to experiment and learn. Also keep in mind you will need a proper sensor package to know how well the aero is working.
Congratulations, Ben! Proud for you on getting the job you were hoping for. Sad for me, though. I was looking forward to hearing more about your choice for a Can Am Car. I am 68 years old, so I have a fond appreciation for the cars that ran back in the 70s. I graduated high school in '73 in Zweibrucken Germany. I was hoping you might consider the Toyota Seven. A Toyota, Yamaha, Daihatsu colaboration. Beautiful car with an incredible and startling history, and surprisingly, the car never actually got to race! I am sending you an email of the car side view I created in Adobe Illustrator at Full Scale. All the best in your car creation pursuits!
Wow thanks! I know about the Toyota from the Gran Turismo games. My kid and I got interested in it when we started digging into the lore around it. Cool stuff.
Yeah baby 612 is one of my favourites.
I’m fairly sure most group c cars had full width tunnels (between the wheels) in the middle and up the front, and only split into two to clear the sump & gearbox.
Also, look at the Lola t222 for stylised wheel arch openings!
Brother are you just me from the future? Because I was thinking about one of these myself
It sounds like ypu need heave springs. This will help reduce the tradoff between mechanical grip and the stiffness required for body control.
Love it! Just found your channel. I have played around with very similar designs since I was in my 20 (I’m 48).
Very cool idea. Use fancy aerospace glue on the aluminum joints. Consider doing your own carbon fiber for the rear lower panel. Vacuum bagging at room temperature is very suitable.
Thank’s for the awesome content. I’m really enjoying this series.
Great video! I look forward to seeing the entire process. Maybe you can explore other crowd source or sponsorship funding options. If you separate the process into design, manufacture and assembly, you may be able to get some assistance with some of the manufacture and design items as well.
I love your videos so much!
It’s like living my dream!
I could possibly try to build cars myself, I’m a trained precision mechanic and became an automotive engineer later.
Unfortunately I’m missing the space and tools to build a car myself and I also live in Germany and we have almost no places where I could drive a self made car, our laws are super strict.
Even on our racetracks it’s basically impossible to drive a self made car, if you aren’t a billionaire.
I wish I could do the same thing you do, or just help someone like you build it at their place.
All my life I’m super interested in prototype race cars, especially those of bygone eras.
As a kid/teen seeing all those group C/GTP and the GT1 cars was like a magical experience!
There is a huge lot of lola body molds up for auction right now fyi
Don’t tell people! It’ll make it harder for me to get a t70 front clip 😆
Nice one Ben, thanks for that. I can’t help with your decisions (good luck whichever way you go) - but if you continue posting this great stuff, I’ll keep watching.
I’m so excited for you, I’m watching it again.
I'm glad you got a job!
Just been recommended this channel so have subscribed !!!
Do you have a FB page ??
I was lucky enough to see the Can Am in it's hay day (1963 +). In my opinion, and not because of nostalgia, it was the best racing ever. Only a few basic rules, very fast and the sounds and smells were unbelievable. I saw ever driver of the era race there from F1 and Indy. Also even if you didn't have a huge budget you could field a car that was competitive. Those days are gone forever.
Hi Ben, loving your builds & think that the new project is a great idea.
I do have a couple of ideas that might help…
First up would be the dash bulkhead - you talk about wanting to make it a couple of inches narrower, I think that wouldn’t go far enough to make your desire to build early Can-Am ‘lumpy’ bodywork. Bring the top in to the same width as the tub opening (this would also help when you want to experiment with late/group C style bodywork.
The second point concerns the rear tubular cradle. I’m totally on board with the bolt in upper diagonal bars, but the lower ones I would run as a single piece to the bottom of the roll-hoop, you would be able to tie your engine mount bracing to this. From the bottom of the rear bulkhead I would run twin tubes diagonally forward to the centre of the roll-hoop frame (where your centre tunnel is). This would be lighter & brace the monocoque structure while at the same time providing a load path from the rear through the centre of the car.
Looking forward to following the build.
Good stuff Ben
Awesome video. You claim not to be an expert, but you're very knowledgable about the history and the engineering, so I'd say you did have a ton of expertise. Len Terry called his cars a pack of Terriers.... what should you call a group of Beames designs?
Look forward to seeing your ideas thankyou for showing them to me👍
Very Cool project, thanks so much for sharing your vision and enthusiasm! Inspiration and ideation are addictive, but you clearly have a balance of pragmatism that gets things made.
Your tunnels start way forward, and with the light car, big v8 & gearbox, I suspect your weight distribution will be 40/60 F/R (or maybe more rearward) so factor this into your tunnels / center of pressure consideration. I like that you will experiment and use data and results as your guide. That said, as I understand it (only from reading and seminars), you'd do well to keep your center of pressure aft of your CofG some to ensure that the faster you go and more downforce you make, the more you tend toward understeer so that you approach stabilty of direction (like a lawn dart). This helps as you back off when you get in a little over your head and the car is pushing the front end starts to come back. I imagine this would help initiate turn in.
I'm not a professional, and my opinion is worth only as much as you paid for it, but if nothing, food for thought. Besides, you probably already read this somewhere else.
I'm very curious to see what your setup / test approach will be to explore & map your aero performance envelope... onward and downward!
I’ve never heard of anyone doing this, but I wonder if vacuum bagging, a common woodworking technique for bed laminations, would be a viable solution to eliminate the bulge when you add foam to your aluminum cavities.
The expanding foam may not play nicely in a vacuum, perhaps a dry run would be wise....
I LOVE this! Build it and get the job!
Did you hear from Hoosier?
I haven’t yet. But it looks like I’m getting a big enough tax return that even if I don’t hear from them I can get some new rubber.
I would love to have a LOLA sports racer, thought about selling most of my collection of Corvettes and muscle cars I could net out 300-400k, probably pick up a nice one, looked at some Formula 5000 cars as well, really like them too!
Is the guy in FL still building the Lola's?
I love messing with 5.0 liter chevrolet engines and would really like a reason to build a ridiculously exotic 302 chev.- really short compression height with maybe a 6.125 - 6.25 rod, large bore and even shorter stroke than 3". The piston side load would be really low and the reciprocating weight will be really low, it will rev 10,000-12,000. make 700-800hp with hilborn injection.
Remember removing 4 oz from Rotating assembly, (clutch flywheel, etc) will get you better lap times than removing 50# from the car weight.
I hope you get the job and do it.
Will one gas tank throw your balance off? Wouldn’t you want it I. The passenger if one to somewhat balance your body weight?
The gas tank is on the passenger side to balance out the driver weight. Driver sits on the right side. In my GT40 3/4 of a tank in the passenger side tank makes the car balance perfectly.
Why not draw inspiration from the most successful CanAm cars, McLaren M8's instead of the disappointing Lola T-160? "Real" M8 tubs are very straightforward, they have much "squarer" rocker panels than the earlier M6's. Later Trojan sold M6 tubs with M-8 style bodies and called them various other names, M8C, M12, etc.
Lets goooo
👍
Using pencil and paper is getting revived by Ben
Yeah I'm kinda thinking about switching to paper and balsa wood
Hi Ben. I like your design and I have been drawing on something similar for a while
now that "kit cars" finally are legal in Norway.
A few thoughts, build the parts of the "aero tunnels" that you need to incorporate
in the chassis as large as possible and remove all parts that is not needed to
give the chassis it's strength. These parts you build in fiberglass ( or carbon fiber )
as they are easier to change, modify and to work with.
The fiberglass part can also go forward into the tunnels in the chassis to make
this shape more aerodynamic.
You also can incorporate the piece between the 2 tunnels, under the transmission,
together with the 2 tunnels into a diffuser covering most of the rear of the car.
To see how a modern kit car manufacturer build an monocoque, have a look at
Superlite SL-C and GT-R to get inspiration how they solve all the problems,
especially the rear suspension, I like this solution!
They also have the lower suspension arms come inside the monocoque with billet
machined aluminium "cups" while the upper ones are boltet to the outside with
steel brackets.
Superlite also had a car called the LMP, it was a copy of a Cadillac Northstar
LMP race car with the engine and the Corvette C5/C6 transmission/diff shortened
and bolted directly to the engine, as a half stressed member of the chassis.
They did this by using 2 or 3 different billet aluminium frames, tied together with
steel tubes. I have a few pictures of this car if you need.
For using foam as reinforcement, see if you an find some pictures of a Ford RS200
chassis, this was built using aluminium honeycomb panels glued and riveted
together to build a Group B rally monster.....
I have also seen a build of a Porsche 962 where a road going Porsche flat 6 turbo
engine, together with the transmission and the rear transmission, was bolted to
the chassis and the main roll bar, as one package.
Find an aluminum big block Chevy.. I have an 8 stack Hilborn EFI system I’ll sell to you cheap.
Boxes, harnesses, the whole deal.