The Merkur Club of America Forums

merkurdriver wrote:Looking almost safe enough to drive! j/k - coming along quite nicely.

At this point I think it's safe enough to drive off a cliff!

Four months to get it ready enough to make the drive to Carlisle.

We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there....

Wow.



Wow.



I really hope I get the chance to see this car in person someday! Is Carlisle really only 4 months away? I'd love to go but I'm not an MCA member yet and I don't even know if I could.

That's cool how you have removable sections of the rollcage so you can take those door ones on and off. I never would've thought of that.

That's really amazing.

Aren't you mad that people welded to your car though? They didn't like the idea of using epoxy on the mounting points huh...

I read your going to be stuffing a "T5 and known good engine" into it. Do you have any special long term plans for the drivetrain though??

As always I wish you best of luck with this adventure! It's hard to even call this a "project" because its such a massive undertaking.

yottabit wrote:Is Carlisle really only 4 months away? I'd love to go but I'm not an MCA member yet and I don't even know if I could.

No requirement to be a MCA member to attend Carlisle, but it's only $20, so why wouldn't you?

Crap, i need to renew my MCA membership, and my local autocross club membershit... ship, i meant ship.

brad, refering to the following picture of the square meets tube, any thoughts on putting an angle piece of square in? looks like you have a little bit of a lever system going on and in an extreme situation i could see that joint bending right over.



of course, i'm probably over analyzing it and in addition, i'm probably NOT a mechanical engineer, but hey.

welds look good. project has come a lot farther than i thought it would. i figured you'd have packed up by now.

good work. good friggin' work.

demonfire wrote:brad, refering to the following picture of the square meets tube, any thoughts on putting an angle piece of square in? looks like you have a little bit of a lever system going on and in an extreme situation i could see that joint bending right over.

I see what you're seeing Ray, but I think if you saw it all in person you'd be saying, "Aw, never mind.". Most of what you're seeing there wasn't even in the initial build plan - it was on-the-fly engineering... "Hey, what about this!?"

That said, the initial idea was indeed more sound from an engineering perspective, as those two down tubes would have "V'd" at the tunnel. It was my decision to have them go to the floor extension squares, mostly because I wanted to maintain full width access to the smugglers compartment.

I suppose I could put a removable horizontal brace between those two end-caps, but I don't think it will really matter.

I'm thoroughly and completely impressed and somewhat nauseated at the same time. I should mention that the feelings of nausea are way less intense than they were a few years ago. In fact, I really don't notice the nausea any more because the fact that you have gotten so far with this (and added a darn cool roll cage) amazes me.

Good show!

What a bizarre cage.

Looks stout.

Colin wrote:What a bizarre cage.

Yea, I was shocked when Autopower told me they didn't have an off-the-shelf cage available for a XR4Ti combined with a Brat!

The basic 6-pt portion of the cage is relatively standard, save for perhaps the gonzo-reinforcing of the shock towers. I thank John, Grant, Ian and others for reinforcing that principle. I would have been embarrased to show the car in public if I simply went to the rear wheel wells.

It's really the add-ons that connect into the floor beam extensions that give it the oddball look. It's very much been an erector set mentality there, where you just start off building something, and make it up as it comes together. So far, I've had surprisingly few regrets relating to how I could have done something differently.

http://www.m5ute.com

Colin wrote:http://www.m5ute.com

Holy freakin' cow!!!

Thanks for posting Colin.

Looking at this makes me feel good about many of the build decisions I've made. Conceptually, I've taken many of the same approaches, yet in a far less sophisticated manner. Look at the inner wheel well bracing, for example. Where he's used custom-fabricated braces, I used "precision hacked" Suzuki Samari roll bar pieces! I suspect that mirrors our golf games - Stuart goes out and shoots a 2-under 70, Brad goes out and hacks up the course for an even 100!

Overall, simply awesome build quality on this - very much a "clean sheet of paper" design that is well thought out.

Yours has a tail-gate, Brad.
Looks like a hole in one to me!

The M5 has a tailgate, too.

That'll teach me to comment before I actually visit the site...

Filling in the void at the top of the B/C pillar with Terocore. There's some 3/8" reinforcement rod buried in there that goes between
the Brat rear roof pillar and XR side roof pillar. Note the hardware cloth in place for the next application of Terocore...


Taken immediately after the next application of Terocore - the masking tape was used to dam the material in place.


Next morning, tape removed. Also note how the roof pillar above the door is filled, which really is the primary use for this product.


A shot of the Terocore-filled A pillar and surrounding area. Note the 3/8" PVC tube, stuffed down the A pillar prior to filling,
to function as conduit for any electrical wiring.


The graveyard of Terocore cartridges...

Just a couple shots, now with the rear seats and temporary angle-iron cross bar removed. No need for that any more - this thing is SOLID...