Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[Mark IV]

Somewhere, slowly moving out of Utah, is a railroad gondola car full of aluminum chips and kerf.....courtesy of the Kirkham Brothers.

Methinks perhaps you have too much time on your hands and a full machine shop, a dangerous combination!

Way kewl!

[David Kirkham]

We go through about 1 ton/week!

David

[bnewell]

Awesome pics.......thanks for sharing!

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

We go through about 1 ton/week!

David

Hey David,

How about an all aluminum 1966 Mustang fastback


Bill S.

[KM480]

Okay, I know many on this site are Cobra/Ford only fans... but how about an aluminum Lola T70 replica?...

Or.... a Scarab of Lance Reventlow fame?

Or how about marketing aluminum front fenders for the factory lightweight cars of the 60's... 63 chevy fenders for a Z-11 repop, and 63 Catalina fenders for the a SD 421 clone? Did the Galaxies and SuperStock Dodges have aluminum fenders as well? Lots of possibillities!!!

[meat]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

Gents and Fellow Car Nuts,

If you had a "million dollars" what kind of a car would you build. More realistically, if you could have anything you wanted, what would you do? I am speaking of a replica that we all dream about. What options would it have? What engine?

I mean if you wanted the ultimate Chariot of Fire, what would you do? And why?

Cobra specific?

A stiffer, lighter chassis. Monocoque would be nice.
Lower center of gravity.
50/50 weight distribution.
Computer-controlled brake bias w/manual override.
Computer controlled anti-roll bars w/manual override.
Streamlined undercarriage.
Cup holder.

Your pal,
Meat.

[69boss429]

Dear Mr.Kirkham,
You must immediatly stop what you are doing with that billet alum chassis!
If not I will be forced to come out there and order one in person.
That is exquisite,breathtaking,and went to the very top of my wishlist of cars I'd stuff full of an all aluminum Boss 429 engine.
Congratulations!
Now,I'm off to purchase a powerball ticket.

[David Kirkham]

bnewell,

Thanks, more pics coming up in the next few days, weeks as the build progresses.

Bill,

The thought has crossed my mind many times.

KM480,

Yes, the possibilities are virtually endless.

Meat,

I like the cup holder!

69boss429,

Thanks for the kind words. This car really is a reflection of our company and we love to try new things. The car is spectacular in real life.

Well, everyone has gone home from the Summit. It was a GREAT time! Thanks to all who came. I will post more pics of our Killer Car soon.

David

[powerslide]

David, will you accept the Hope Diamond as a partial deposit? Or maybe my first born child.....oh hell you can have my wife, too!

Mama mia!

[David Kirkham]

powerslide,

Thanks for the kind words...

I have one wife already and we Mormons gave up having two wives long ago!

David

[Hoofa]

That chassis needs a cool new body.

[SLHetal]

Hoofa,
Super nice car! However, would you be so kind as to zoom in and take a closeup of the young lady in the drawing on your wall in the first shot? Strickly for body historical reference purposes...you understand. This may be appreciated by a large number of the site's membership.
Sam

[What'saCobra?]

Full-hearted Congratulations from one wacko engineer to another!

Birthday indeed!

Truly an engineering masterpiece, just like your favorite F-22A. Fabulous penske shock layout, which was the final hint from the picture. Didn't really see enough during visit to be sure, but was hoping. Gonna' be a sweet handling machine with that stiffness. Mostly because it allows softer shocks to control vibes, rather than infinite stiff shock valving. Softer shocks allows better tire grip with less chassis upset, of course.

Adjustable Penske's will be de rigur, of course. A trifling 2400 USD or so.

But, what's a mere million between friends?

Now, just a little more geometry and webbing to get to the magic 10K Lbsft? It is a matter of marking the territory, no longer just utility.

You have achieved something FORD would have dreamed of and spend 20 or 30 million to achieve. This first step in stiffness will make this Cobra the finest handling machine this side of McLaren, Lola and Mercedes. (Don't forget, my little 2 Liter Lola T-212 had a 10K stiffness in 1971... almost 40 years ago!) But, it wasn't bloody billet!!!

i am really amazed, NS Sherlock. And i thought the SS chassis was the plus ne ultra? Of course, it is. But, this is something out of the skunkworks.

There are, as of this morning, about 100 engineers at the small and large car companies that are plotting their retort. As it should be. Good luck to them. Long live the competition.

My curiosity was raised when i realized the bed size of your new NC. No other reason for that size, since multiple heads are not yet very common. Now i know.

Of course, there are several grades of forged aly bar, the finest granularity laughingly referred to as "unobtainium".

Congratulations again because i just simply cannot properly express my enthusiastic appreciation of what you have uniquely achieved.

Viva the KBros!
Viva American enterprise!
Viva America!

[Hoofa]

Why are the front shocks so high? Can you get them in the box

[1ntCobra]

Will this frame fit under a standard 427 S/C body?

Will the engine, seats, radiator, fuel tank, etc. fit in their standard places? Will there be more legroom?

What is the target weight of this Cobra going to be?

And is this frame option going to cost a million dollars?

[Dinobyte]

How about building the GR1.

2005 Ford Shelby GR1 Concept with Aluminum Body

[David Kirkham]

Hoofa,

Looks like you have your own Skunkworks project going on!!! What are your plans?

David

[Guinness]

Don,
I saw an original front and back half of an E-type Jag and the alumimum front end that I posted. I don't know what the long term plans are (one off or production). A lightweight E-type replica would be very cool indeed!

David,
Any further info? Thanks for another awesome open house, I had a great time! Please pass my thanks on to all Kirkham family & employees.

Jeff

[David Kirkham]

What'saCobra,

Thank you very much for your kind words. My thanks goes to our customer who literally gave us a free had to come up with anything we wanted. He just trusted us to come up with something really cool. I must admit, it has kept me awake nights trying to make him happy. The scrap bin is litered with false starts and frustration. Everytime a customer would come by here with a new Supercar they were driving, we would beg them to let us put it on our lift. We then looked and looked at what Porsche, Ferrari, and others had done and then we tried to incorporate it all into this car as best as we could.

You are certainly right, a stiffer chassis allows for softer springs and shocks. I think this baby will really ride sweet. Let's say, I have extremely high hopes.

As for the Penske's...well, this particular set was over $5,000! Like I said, we were given a free hand with absolutely no rules or guidelines. Penske's it had to be. Interestingly, being given a free hand sounds like a dream come true...but it does come with it's own problems. He wanted our BEST work possible...so, that means it had better be our best! It made me pace the floor late at night on many, many occasions.

Given the constraints of the original body geometry, I really don't think we could have come up with a design any stiffer and kept the weight the same (actually, the car should be slightly lighter.) There simply isn't enough room in one of our cars to put any more geometry in there! The lack of a roof seriously impacts the stiffness as well.

Yes, Ford would have spent millions and millions and millions to do this and probably never could have made it. But remember, they didn't have access to Solidworks, Surfcam, and Cosmos along with a room full of 4-5 axis CNC machines in the 60's. Today, we only see so far because we stand on the shoulders of giants. There is no doubt Ford's racing program of the 60's was certainly a giant and we see further because of it.

Your Lola T 212 was a mid-engined car with the engine behind the driver. That completely changes the game and allows the ability to dramatically increase the stiffness of the chassis. The Lola body and chassis have geometry available to them we simply don't have.

As many who are reading may not know, the stiffness of aluminum is only 1/3 the stiffness of steel, so we were starting at an extreme disadvantage with our building material. Originally, we were only shooting for a 50% increase in stiffness as we were making the chassis out of aluminum. Frankly, I am amazed we were able to get the stiffness so high--but that is what staying up late at night does...along with the extradonary talents of my brother's mechanical engineering skills. He has the best mechanical engineering mind of ANYONE I have ever met.

Also, keep in mind, we were not going for the "ultimate" stiffness. We were going for the ulitmate car. The car was conceived from the beginning automotive art, or sculpture. At times I even dreamed I was Michaelango "freeing" the chassis from the aluminum.

I welcome a 100 or even a 1000 engineers to come up with something better! When they do (and someone will!) I will be the first to be there and see what they have done so we can incorporate the advances into our own future products.

Thanks again for the kind words!

David

[ffindling]

How about a hydroformed aluminum cobra body with a fully unitized
chassis structure.

....Fred