Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[Lew Ledyard]

What is a wheel hat/billet center combo?

Would they be lighter/stronger than the Trigo cast aluminum wheels? What type of wheel (Cobra II, Sunburst, FIA)?

What size? (Personally, I like 15 X as much as can fit)

Not too bling?

Would they keep spinning when the car stopped at a light?

I would be in for a set of 15" wheels, plus an additional $2,000 toward R&D on the thought that if enough were ever sold I could get the R&D $ back or give it to charity. (Maybe we could help unwed mothers get their start, or put it toward some other eleemosynary endeavour.)

[big-boss]

Hat/ Billet would basically be what PS Wheel does. You buy the rim then fix the center to it. PS welds. I have seen epoxy, rivites at SEMA. They would be cool- very cool. Especially with the frame.
NIce work again boys, I will checkit out in June. What about the block?

[Lew Ledyard]

Is anyone else interested in the wheel project?

[David Kirkham]

Lew,

Been really busy on the billet chassis. I will post some more pics tomorrow.

I am really interested in the wheel project. I was even thinking about it while I was machining cool parts on Saturday. I will think more about the plan and then get right back with you.

David

[Lew Ledyard]

Cool. I was worried that my charity proposal had the "turd in the punchbowl" effect on enthusiasm.

While I really like the cast look, as long as they are not too bling and are lighter than what is currently available in 15" wheels, I am very interested.

[RodKnock]

Here's a stupid question, wouldn't they look odd on an S/C or did some S/C's come with the Sunbursts? Also, would they be made to fit over the big brake option? I love the style of wheel though.

[RedCSX1]

Your machined center and wheel has would be ideal. The original Sunburst were fairly narrow. I think around 7" wide. If they were the width of the Trigo's then you really would have a wheel that would be in high demand. Maybe more so then some of you more recent work.

Rodknock, the Sunburst only came on street 427 Cobra's.

[David Kirkham]

Here are the pics I promised.

This is a shot of the rear of the car with the newly minted trunk structure.

[David Kirkham]

Here is another shot

[David Kirkham]

This is the front of the car--looking back.

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the last outrigger for the cockpit that we machined. The outriggers are very tall (but hidden under the doors) so they help to move material away from the neutral axis (which dramatically increases stiffness). The bend is actually what moves the material up and around the seat to give the chassis its stiffness--so the driver will be sitting in somewhat of a boat when we are done. In the picture, the outrigger is the part shaped like the letter "L" by the rear bulkhead.

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the trunk/rear of the car coming together. As you can
see, we took weight reduction to the extreme. These rear structure
parts are what holds in the gas tank, and provides support for the rear
of the body structure.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a close up of the support. This part has to be very strong (but light) as it also provides the rear support for the rear-facing, down-leg of the roll bar. The 3 holes in this picture are where the down tube of the roll bar is bolted into the chassis.

[David Kirkham]

This little milled in bracket is the mounting point for the tubes the
body wraps around.

[Slojo]

What a work of art!! Absolutely breathtaking

[David Kirkham]

Overall view of the rear trunk area.

[David Kirkham]

Here is another overall shot of the rear of the car.

[David Kirkham]

In this shot you can see the bolt holes for the gas tank supports and
the rear jack hooks.

[David Kirkham]

This was a hard shot to take and show you what I was trying to convey. If you look closely at this part, (it is the furthest back part on the trunk with the round holes in it, you can see the billet aluminum is machined in a curve. This curve follows the curve of the lower part of the trunk on the body. This is where the body actually mounts to the chassis. As you can see, the programming has been extremely challenging--but worth it. It is nice to have so many people come by and be amazed at the work. It's very kind of you guys to say nice things about the chassis here too on CC. It is really automotive sculpture. I hope you all like it.

I will post more pics as we keep making the chassis.

[David Kirkham]

Now we are thinking about how to make the parts that go around the rear wheels. Because an original Cobra chassis has a 90 inch wheel base we were constrained with this chassis to have a 90 inch wheel base as well. One thing I can tell you all for sure is a 90 inch wheel base is TERRIBLE to engineer around. There is simply no room to carry the loads from the rear wheels to the front wheels. The load path gets chopped up around the rear wheel well panel by the driver's back. The driver is actually sitting BEHIND the front of the rear wheel. As such, it is an engineering trick to carry the loads efficiently and keep the chassis stiff and light.

I will show you pictures of our solution as soon as we finish them. Let's just say the block we start with is about 100 pounds and ends up being around 5 when we are done! I don't have the exact weights, but I will post them when we get them. It is an EXPENSIVE solution, but it is really the only solution that will work.

David