Project Pistachio - (scratch-built) '64 Fiat 500

[legend]

http://picasaweb.google.com/10178361...spFde1VtKvYVw#

some great ideas in this build

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by legend

http://picasaweb.google.com/10178361...spFde1VtKvYVw#

some great ideas in this build

Thanks for sharing that legend! It was good to be able to compare what I'm doing to a similar idea that sticks closer to the original.

It also reinforced why I chose to do a composite body from scratch - there wouldn't be anything left, except maybe the roof shell (probably because I just haven't made it up that high in CAD yet). I've read quite a few times on major builds where very little of the original vehicle survived, and I know how far I have to go to have peace with it, so I usually just start modeling. If I had the skills, or time to learn them, I'd roll and hammer this body out of aluminum sheet, but I don't so it will be composite.

I see he has an engine start button too. I am using a Honda S2000 button, which will be mounted where the key tumbler was in the Accord column. One of the biggest design ideas that pushed me towards building this was the thought of pushing that button, hearing the little four come to life, and then pulling the paddles at 11K - like a microexotic! I am going to try a Flowmaster (original 40-series) and hope it doesn't sound like a ricer fart can. Hopefully, Flowmaster's technology will cancel the right frequencies and bounce the good ones out the back. I had a pipe on my old KZ1000 that had a warm, deep, rich, exhaust note. I ran an open pipe (no baffle) and that pipe was 4-2-1, with a very unique can shape. This is 4-1, but hopefully the Flowmaster will do the trick...

[legend]

The McLaren F1 stylist built some and did the shell as a clay model from scratch, I'll go look it up

http://www.simod.co.uk/barchetta_595.htm

here ya go


and these guys too it a stage further
http://www.simod.co.uk/xlr8.htm





chassis looks up to the job, but I'd want a cage in something so light and fast

[toddshotrods]

That's pretty cool. I like the tube chassis, but agree with you - a little more cage would be nice. I insist on it in something this small.

[Al Moreno]

Are those girls sitting on the grass? Oh, wait....... there's a car in that picture!

[OLDFLM]

I still have a 1960 Austin Healey Bugeye at my parents in NW Ohio that would make a great project like this! It started out as a father/son project but then I found my Firebird. Love the idea of this build!!

[toddshotrods]

Originally Posted by OLDFLM

I still have a 1960 Austin Healey Bugeye at my parents in NW Ohio that would make a great project like this! It started out as a father/son project but then I found my Firebird. Love the idea of this build!!

Thanks! I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I was thinking this morning that something like this has to be a blast to rip around autocross and short road courses in. IIRC, the original Mini was a formidable competition and I'll have a little more power, a little more tire...

[legend]

sorry to be spamming your thread with stuff, but DPcars.net schemed up a bike engined mini on their DP1 chassis, looks like loads of fun

http://www.dpcars.net/dp1test/dj.htm