Good evening all / Noswaith dda

First of all let me introduce myself. A proud Welshman, 49 and happily married with two children which by now are adults themselves. I have always been interested in cars and a bit of speed even since I was old enough to ride a bike. 

I have just started planning my second self build car which will hopefully be a single seater mid engine bike powered monster.

Now older and wiser I have been toying with the idea of building a single seater car for hill climbs and sprint days. Scouring the Internet I came across this picture which took my eye. 

My first build started 15 years ago in which I followed a book by Ron Champion.

  It took around three years to build at a budget but the car made it on to the public roads.

The car was built on a budget with the donor Sierra only costing £30, by now a Ford Sierra is worth a few pounds more. Since then I have been restoring a few Golf GTIs and then VW Transporter conversions.

I joined the grabcad community and was able to download a chassis design which I could measure and get an idea for what I was going to build. Technology has come a long way in 15 years which will make my life a lot easier in collating information for the build.

The website allows you to measure the chassis but a bit of common sense is required here and its going to be a slow road to a rolling chassis.

The first task is to build a table, on my previous build it was a wooden table so I will opt for the same here.

With the table in place and using the drop test method to get it level, the floorpan of the chassis is marked up and all I now need is steel.

  The next step is to order the steel, an unknown when it comes to the gauge. Yes I can measure the outside diameter of the steel tubing and box section but unsure of the thickness. The information on the web is vast but starting to get an idea. 

As I am building a sprint car and looking for a strong, safe, rigid chassis not so much racing impact strength as I need to keep an eye on the weight so to get the most out the powertrain. I am looking to use the engine out of a SUZUKI GSXR 750 or something similar.

The build will have double wishbone suspension front and rear with a chain driven differential not sure as to which uprights and hubs to use yet. Again weight is the issue here and without spending an absolute fortune, its going to be a challenge.........