Here are a couple of pics of my #94 car shortly after I finished it last Spring and a pic of #13 still under construction. They are very close to identical except for color. If anybody is interested in seeing how #94 was built, there is a step-by-step build thread on our Florida website at: www.electrathonfl.homestead.com .

What a fantastic vehicle design! That's rather similar to how we are hoping to build our next car. I love the work and the cage as well!

Like the car, particularly the roll cage.  Mine is very similar to yours, but I didn't copy your idea.  I had this drawn out way before I even built #59 back in my freshmen year of high school.  Nice job! I like it!


-- Edited by Zaine Stapleton on Saturday 26th of December 2009 05:29:46 AM

-- Edited by Zaine Stapleton on Saturday 26th of December 2009 05:32:38 AM

Thanks for the compliments. If you have looked at my build thread you may have noticed the silver #14 car. My students and I built that car six years ago. It has always been a very reliable car (we still have it and race it), so these two are a refinement of that design. The biggest difference I see, Zaine, is the battery location. Does your car have working front suspension? Our #14 car had independent front suspension when we built it, but it proved to be more trouble than it was worth, so I eventually replaced it with rigid suspension. I also built both of the above cars with rigid front ends for reliability and light weight. Being an old stock car racer, I have had many object lessons in the importance of a good rollbar/ cage...

Jim, did you make any changes when building the black car? How thick is the conduit you're using? Might be a good way to add on to our current cage. How hard is it to weld compaired to steel?

No, my car doesn't have any front suspension.  It looks like it, but it doesn't have one.  There bolt on arms.  I did this because I wanted enough room up front for the battery, steering rack, and my legs to go.  I get that question a lot about the front end. :P

The black car is 1.5 inches longer because of a mistake I made when bending the tubing at the rear of the ****pit. The rear fork is different, but only because it's what I had on hand and makes no difference to the structure of the car. The conduit I'm using is just ordinary EMT conduit sold at any home improvement store. I would never consider using the stuff on anything structural in one of my stock cars or street rods, but on these lightweight cars the stuff works just fine. Welding it is not a problem; I use a small MIG with flux-core wire and it woks fine. Keep in mind that EMT conduit is Galvanized and must be welded in a well ventilated area - the fumes are dangerous. I usually have a fan blowing across the table where I'm welding to carry the fumes away.

I finally finished the new car. Here's a pic and I have changed my avatar to a pic of both cars...

Looks very good! Aaron