Yikes
 

All those monkey bars will add some weight. If the Exomotive cars pass tech with minimal cage..maybe that's a route?

Those are cool, I've not seen the Exomotive stuff yet. Something to learn from.

Doing different size tubes in solidworks is hard and it only saved 15-20 lbs by going a bit smaller on some of the cross hatch tubes in model 0.2 if memory serves. I'm also limited on materiel selection due to budget restraints so there is a bit of that in the game to consider. The materiel price drops as the volume increases and they don't stock 1.625 like they stock 1.750 DOM (they apparently use that stuff by the train load) so I get a better price on it. And right now the tube structure is only 333.53 lbs so its not as bad as it looks. I might be able to do 1.500" if the rules will let me but FIA small car is 1.625 unless something has changed since I built my last rally car cage.

Thanks for the input. Still looking for some dedicate race classes so we can figure out the license and safety requirements.
-Russell @ Nerd Rods

So here's the current plan. We're going to start with this. I'm going to order this half of the chassis with my next order of frames after I finalize the rear suspension pickup points and alignment tabs. We don't have a solid racing class but Time Trials with NASA or other Time Attack stuff looks like what the customer wants to do because of his schedule. This will allow us to get the ergonomics dialed in exactly so everyone can be comfortable then dial the cage roof in from there depending on exact rules and classes we discover at that point.

Gallery
http://gallery.nerdrods.com/Customer..._B/Gallery_03/

http://gallery.nerdrods.com/Customer...ssembly_23.jpg http://gallery.nerdrods.com/Customer...ssembly_22.jpg http://gallery.nerdrods.com/Customer...ssembly_21.jpg

http://gallery.nerdrods.com/Customer...ssembly_20.jpg http://gallery.nerdrods.com/Customer...ssembly_19.jpg

This is basically the bottom half that I'll need to get the body on the car. Then we glass the body to the frame and work our way up. Its going to be tight and while looks are very important the ability to drive this car with confidence is even more important.

Later
-Russell