Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[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.