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so i'm making slow but steady progress on the frame design. suspension design has to finish first before the chassis can really be designed for real. but it will be somewhere between a 4 tube chassis and a space frame. lots of people claim to have designed a "true spaceframe" but when you look at it, it's pretty obvious they don't have full triangulation and many support points are not completely dimensionally supported. most people lie (or simply don't know) about what their frame actually is, and most people don't question it. "space frame" sounds F1, so it sells. "attempted space-frame" doesn't sound good. but anyway it looks like i'll be going with 18ga mild steel in 1" square for the 4 main tubes and the suspension boxes along with the bottom rails, and 1" round for interconnecting supports. a few spots will also have .25" bar supports and a handful of 8ga gussets. because of regulations and rules in places like SCCA, the roll cage structure will be 1.3"x12ga dom mild steel round tube. front suspension will be dual uneven a-arm with antidive and inboard linked suspension with a flex tie bar. not done with rear suspension stuff yet. still learning a lot, really. i've been having a hard time going back and forth between rubber-mounted and hard-mounted engines. the thing is going to be a track toy, so i've been thinking hard-mount. but i don't like what it does to the trans. i am mean to transmissions... so maybe i should rubber mount it and just add some extra frame to the rear.
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