Thought some of you might be interrested about our new project.
We are building a track taxi for a 2008 season. We are going to race it in some of the Roadsport and asphalt sprint races.
After i converted my Vanagon Multivan to Subaru WRX Sti engine, it was clear that we really need to make Vanagon for track use It's going to be exotic ride. Full story in T3 Race Taxi
Please feel free to comment.

Mika

ps. pictures of my Multivan and Race taxi

looks like too much fun!

Beauty

Wow, that does look like a really neat project The coolest stuff comes out of you shop . . .

Did you get to finish the Locosts?

Thanks guys.
It will be fun, even my Multivan is so much fun. It's priceless to see the looks on peoples faces when they loose to that old brick.

RaceTaxi will be even more fun, it's so much lighter.

1. Locost is ready. We did 4 races with it and now we know what to do different for the 2nd one. Other Locost is about 60% ready.
Here's the finished locost (now all the carbon parts are broken, thanks to Henkkas off track journeys )
http://bogeyracinglocost.blogspot.com/

I will make new headers for my 914 and fix some places for next season. Luckily i have engine and gearbox ready to go.
I think i will put Subaru engine to my "street" 914 when its time come.

I'll need to check your cars when i come to 2008 sema show

Mika

That Locost came out great

the FEA anaylsis rocks!

why the solid rear axle?

Just out of curiousity what kind of stiffness (force per degree of frame deflection) were you looking for with your FEA?

I have been told that the safety margin for frame stiffness on a sub 100lb car needs to be above 1500 pounds per degree of deflection.

How did you connect the R1 transmission to the driveshaft? Is the driveshaft chain driven like the stock bike wheel would be?

Ahhhhhh....

Vanagons, they are awesome. 50/50 weight ballance and they are quite tossible around a corner. The handling really improves when you dump the 14 inch rims and go with a larger rim. My 15 inch Mercedes wheels made such an improvement I couldn't believe it. Another Vanagon in the neighborhood has 16 or 17 inch Porsche wheels and that would make it even better.

The manual transmissions won't take a lot of power, but the automatics will. VW hired cheap (and not very good engineers) when they designed the transmission. Some idiot designed 3 sharp slots in the second and 3rd gears. The slots have no radius in the corners, and are a huge stress concentrator. So, over time, a crack takes off across the gear. My tranny was rebuilt and I still have the broken second gear assembly with one third broken off and each of the other two thirds having a crack working its way across the gear. The last year or so had a gear fix (1990 and 1991 I believe)


That van looks like fun and the white color matches my 1986 that I bought new from the dealer.

Ken

Aaron, rules say that we need to use solid rear axle. That axle is from Lada (russian copy of Fiat!).
Sorry Jim but i don't have the FEA info for you. Henkka did all the FEA things with the help of Ossi Oikarinen (BMW F1 teams test engineer), but i'll ask. We did the FEA so we can make it as light as possible. It's easy to add or delete tubes when it can be tested on a screen. Driveshaft is connected with specia part which we made in a place of chain sprocket. Driveshaft is made of 2 Volvo units with 2 bearings in a middle.
Ken, yes the car is really awesome around the corners. It's really hard to believe its van and designed in 70's. I'we had problems with my Multivan's gearbox. But it was so tired even before Subaru conversion, that i don't really know how weak it is. Haven't had any gear problems though. I have now new gearbox with LSD for it and it's out of the car which had only 88000km in it.
Next we will start to make roll gage and start to prepare the taxi for some ice racing.

Mika

Pay attention at about 1 minute into this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SW8CmgcfmE...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWLFGPl1Kdk

Yes, thats really cool. That is actually vanagon which has splitty body in it. Our goal is to have as much power as in that one, but from much lighter engine. But that will be our evo1 then. For next summer we are planning to have about 330hp from the Sti engine.

Mika