Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Hoofa

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

We could have gotten the shocks in the box, but that would have made adjusting the ride height very difficult. Also, the shocks are double adjustable and adjusting the jounce and rebound would have been hard hidden in a box. There is the question of raising the center of gravity, but the Penske shocks are ridiculously light. Even F1 cars leaves them up top where they can tinker with them easier.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by 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?

Yes, this will fit under a standard 427 S/C body.

The engine is 6 inches further back.

The seats are placed slightly wider and quite a bit further back.

Radiator position is roughly the same.

Fuel tank will be in roughly the same place.

From 10 feet the car will look "normal." When you lift the hood and trunk, you are in for a BIG surprise.

Target weight is just under 2000 pounds.

We do not have a price on this at this time. It was made as a one-off for the customer. After we are done we will sit back and look at what we have done and see if it is possible to put into production.

David

[David Kirkham]

Dinobyte,

That is a seriously beautiful car. I would love to make one some day.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Guiness

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

Jeff,

Thank you very much for coming out! I really love to see our old customers and talk to them. As you can see, this year I left all sales to Joe so I could spend time with our old customers. You guys are the greatest. I was looking over our list of customers the other day and you would simply not believe who all has bought a car from us. It is an amazing list of amazing people.

The above picture of a bonnet is of a Series 1 Jag E-Type. They are now for sale. We thought about doing a Lightweight Jag, but there are only so many new ideas we can pursue at once. The Skunkworks is literally FULL of new projects...some of them I hope will cause a paradigm shift in the world. Some people know as I have taken them into the secret rooms.

I will post more pics of the Killer Billet Chassis tomorrow when I get back to work.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by ffindling

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

....Fred

I have thought about that. Hydroforming would be difficult, but there are other methods. See "Skunkworks" comments above...

David

[double ugly]

Shouldn't he be wearing white or surgical gloves or something? He's leaving fingerprints and oil on a sterile surface......

[Hoofa]

Hi David,


I'm planning on making the body from carbon fiber, I have an idea on a new process to add a little strength, (still playing but it looks as thought it will work) After searching for an off the shelf chassis, nothing is really tickling my fancy, exept yours. So I'm thinking about making my own. I just ordered some books on how to design a chassis. My latest thought is to make something like yours with either steel or aluminum ends connected by some super strong carbon tubes, they are awesome(I built a trade show booth for the company that makes them)
I'm glad I don't have the cash to pay someone to do this for me. It is too much fun. From what I've seen I don't have to tell you that. Congratulations on the new CNC, I've got an old 4'x8', I'm thinking about upgrading to something with a tool changer.

Keep Having Fun!
Chris

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by double ugly

Shouldn't he be wearing white or surgical gloves or something? He's leaving fingerprints and oil on a sterile surface......

That's not all I plan to leave. I plan to leave rubber on the road!

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Hoofa

Hi David,


I'm planning on making the body from carbon fiber, I have an idea on a new process to add a little strength, (still playing but it looks as thought it will work) After searching for an off the shelf chassis, nothing is really tickling my fancy, exept yours. So I'm thinking about making my own. I just ordered some books on how to design a chassis. My latest thought is to make something like yours with either steel or aluminum ends connected by some super strong carbon tubes, they are awesome(I built a trade show booth for the company that makes them)
I'm glad I don't have the cash to pay someone to do this for me. It is too much fun. From what I've seen I don't have to tell you that. Congratulations on the new CNC, I've got an old 4'x8', I'm thinking about upgrading to something with a tool changer.

Keep Having Fun!
Chris

Chassis engineering is extremely complicated. I imagine we have over 2000 hours in the chassis engineering alone. That does not count Thomas' formidable knowledge base he has built up over decades. People refer to him as "Memorex" with good reason.

But, by no means let me discourage you. Reach for the stars and you just might be surprised what you achieve.

If I would have listened to the naysayers, I would have never started this company! Remember, Fear is the thief of dreams.

David

[double ugly]

"Remember, Fear is the thief of dreams."
What a wonderful statement. I am going to remember that. I sure wish I had heard that years ago.
John

[KM480]

Dave,

You mentioned a couple times how the lack of a roof hinders the quest for ultimate chassis dynamics... what about tucking the billet chassis under a Daytona body or incorporate the LeMans top into the deal to attain that supercar chassis?

[David Kirkham]

John,

Yes, I love that phrase. It is not mine. I first heard it from a friend that plays the piano on what she did when faced with a new, exhausting piece.

KM480,

Yes, we could put the chassis under a Coupe or a Lemans hard top car. But, right now we are still in the artistic phase and really have no idea how much this thing even costs. Like I said, we must have over 2000 hours in chassis engineering alone (not counting ANY CNC programming or machining).

We will see what the future brings. As for now, the customer is extremely happy with the car and I am relieved!

David

[BLACKJACK]

Oh My Gawd !!!!!!

Dave: In The Words Of My Dear Sweet Grandmother From Pittsburgh: "plumb Friggin' Gorgeous".

I've Been Salivating All Over The Keyboard Looking At The Pictures. Absolutely Incredible.

Now - - - Having Said That - - - When Are You Going To Start Building The Replica P-51 Mustang ??? I Have A P-39 Airacobra But Without Selling My Home I Couldn't Afford A (real) P-51.

I Know, I Know, We've Had This Conversation Before. My Offer Still Stands To Do All The Test And Trial Flying And "sorTing Out" For Expenses Only.

Man, The Coupe Is Fantastic !!!!

Y'all Have A Really Great Day.

Blackjack

[David Kirkham]

Blackjack,

Thanks for the kind words. I messed up (staying up too late) and posted all the pics on the other thread. I will fix that soon. In the meantime bump over there and you will see some really cool pics.

David

[David Kirkham]

Here is an overall view of the billet chassis. You can see the vertical parts of the chassis now coming to life--like the door hinge pillars and the cowl supports for the windshield. You are looking at the car from the right front corner towards the rear of the chassis.

[David Kirkham]

In this shot you can see the cowl supports going up behind the dash. The cowl supports will take the load of the stressed tunnel and feed them into the foot boxes.

Also, you very clearly see the door hinge pillars in this photo. The plates the door hinges pillars mount to are hidden under the doors. That is one of the big secrets for the incredible stiffness of the chassis.

The rear bulkhead is also very clear in this photo. The rear bulkhead forms the back of the cockpit and takes all the loads from the wheels and the differential and feeds them into the tunnel and down along the sides of the chassis under the door sills.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the front right suspension corner. Notice the hubs are shaped like a "tulip." At least that is what we call it. The outer diameter of the hub will be used to drive the rotor hats. That way there is a thermal disconnect between the rotor and the bearings. Also, the rotors will now run perfectly true as they are no longer dependent on their "trueness" by being attached to the hub or the wheel. Any machining tolerances will thus be eliminated and the dreaded break shudder is now a thing of the past.

Also, notice BOTH the upper and lower ball joints are loaded in double shear. This was done for safety purposes. We hate single shear applications and have eliminated them every where we could in the car. That way, if a bearing fails, there is something left to still hold the wheel on the car. (That makes steering easier ) An original Cobra has both the upper and lower ball joints loaded in single shear...as do most cars.



Here is a shot of the front of the chassis. Notice the lengths of the control arms. The is what is called a long arm/short arm system. The upper arm is shorter than the lower arm so the wheel cambers in as it travels up. Also, notice the steering arms are mounted right in line with the upper control arm. That is to minimize the bumpsteer. We have all but eliminated the bump steer in this chassis.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the right rear suspension. Notice the hollowed out rear upright. That is to allow air to flow through the upright to more effectively cool the brakes. That is a trick we took from F1.

Interestingly, you can also notice 2 "false start" rear upper control arms laying there on the table. One of them is the fault of a customer of ours who came in one day with his new Ferrari 430. We begged him to put it on the lift and when we did...well, we saw a better way. The other is the fault of Cosmos (Finite Element Analysis)...telling us we needed more material.

Also, notice we carefully lined the push rod up on the rocker and shock to minimize any side loading that could occur. Finally, you can also see the lower push rod is also mounted in double shear. That way we can get away with very small bolts and fasteners and make a very strong part.

From this view you can see the rear bulk head is slanted backwards--just like an original car. It made the actual manufacture of the part extremely difficult. There were almost constant battles between engineering and manufacturing on this--engineering always won--and I lost my hair (but unfortunately, not my waist!)



Here is a shot of the right rear suspension corner looking forwards. If you look closely you can see the push rod is actually slightly tapered. A push rod is loaded in compression so its failure mode will be buckling. Buckling almost invariably happens in the middle of the part and so we made the middle of the part thicker. There is no reason to make the ends thick--so we cut them off!

If you look at the leading edge of the rear lower control arm, you can see we milled (right into the billet of the control arm) the mounting brackets for the stainless steel brake flex lines. We wanted to keep them safely out of the way of any flying rocks, bugs, jihadis, politicians, or Corvettes our customer happened to run over. Besides, they look really cool tied up like that. The flex lines on an original Cobra aways bugged me they were just left flapping in the breeze. I didn't want lines flapping in the breeze on my automotive sculpture.

Notice the rear bulk head is completely milled out to reduce weight.

Also, notice the really cool adjuster sleeve nuts on the rear upper control arm. The sleeve nuts are threaded with a right hand thread on the outside (next to the control arm) and they have a left hand thread on the rod end. That way you don't have to take the mounting bolt off of the control arm to adjust camber, caster, or toe! Just loosen the jam nuts (not shown in the picture--we forgot them) and turn the sleeve nut and the wheel will move. Then just tighten the jam nuts back down again. On an original Cobra you have to take the control arm bolts OUT of the car to adjust the caster and then shim the control arm forward or backwards. To adjust the camber on the rear you have to take the bolt out, turn the rod end at least 1/2 a turn, and the assemble everything again. It is a real pain. With this sleeve nut option, we can adjust camber, caster, and toe to 0.001 inch if we want to. We borrowed this idea from a Riley and Scott chassis we saw.

Notice the drive flange is extremely tight to the upright. That is so we could make the 1/2 shafts as long as possible. The longer the 1/2 shaft, the less angularity they 1/2 shaft CV bearings see as the wheel moves up and down. That helps the bearings to last longer. The drive flange is made just like a modern car with a splined axle that goes all the way through the hub. If there is an axle failure (almost impossible with the 17-4 material we are using) then the hub will still be able to rotate on the bearing. If you break an axle on an original Cobra then the wheel will fall off. Now, not to scare anyone here as I haven't seen a wheel fall of in years...the last one was a 289 that was originally under engineered in the first place. But, this is customer I definitely didn't want to see on You Tube.

Also, from this angle you can really see the drive pins are milled directly into the rear hub. No need to worry if you torqued your drive pins here! They will never come loose.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the rear of the chassis. The box will contain the differential. We are going to use the original Dana 44 differential because it is the strongest, lightest, and smallest differential available today.

Notice the reservoirs mounted directly on the shocks. We wanted to keep the package nice and neat. The big gaping hole in between the shocks is for the sway bar. The sway bar will be a "Z" bar design that pivots right there in between the shocks.



Here is an overall view a little further back of the rear of the car.



Here is a rear 3/4 shot of the car. Just for a better overall effect.

I will post more pics as we go along. I am happy to answer any questions you all may have on why we did what we did and how we did it.

[xlr8or]

Will the birdcage for the body be aluminum as well? That should be fun.