Okrasa Special

steve wright · Post by **steve wright** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:31 am

So Macaulay has been busy with mocking up a 3-D image of the car to try and bring some of the depth, dimensions and curves to life, as well as a formal set of line drawings to take measurements from. And Barry starts tomorrow! We don't expect much visible progress to begin with as there is an awful lot of measuring and thinking to do - we agreed the best plan was to simply "have a play" and lay some wire to see if the overall shape and dimensions work. With something this big it's a bit scary, but as Barry commented, you've just got to start on one spot and go from there.
[img][img]http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac13 ... viewv1.jpg[/img][/img]
[img][img]http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac13 ... trear1.jpg[/img][/img]

cubist · Post by **cubist** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:51 am

Ooooh... YUM!

roy mawbey · Post by **roy mawbey** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:03 am

Steve,

After looking at photo's Dave just posted on early dash panels in the other thread you started regarding pre-A's, just what would the designers and engineers at Porsche sitting 60 years ago at their draughtsman desks have thought, to have seen a 3D drawing of their efforts ( like your car for example) in front of their eyes.

Technology and the brains developing it, leave me speechless sometimes and to be able to actually use the software to make the image appear is also impressive.

You know some clever people Steve.

Roy

steve wright · Post by **steve wright** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:45 am

Hi Roy,

yes I have to say I've no idea how Macauley has done it and it's all Greek to me. To say he's gone beyond the call of duty on this would be an understatement too as he's done it all free, remotely from Norway, having to put up with my persistent tweaks and changes! I just hope I can repay the favour one day when it's finished by offering him and Barry a drive! Not that I'm getting ahead of myself given we're only just starting on the bodywork!

Cheers,
Steve

louis356 · Post by **louis356** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:47 pm

Has the look of a baby Carrera b GT to me

steve wright · Post by **steve wright** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 4:02 pm

oh it does doesn't it! that wasn't conscious, but unsurprising given we're trying to build something in period with the early '60s. The one observation I'd make is the rear of the Carrera B GT is longer as is the wheel base as it's rear engined, rather than the Special which has a much shorter rear. great photo to be able to refer to though!

louis356 · Post by **louis356** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 4:56 pm

I like the deeper set lights...

...but hate those round spots on the nose and don't even think about rear lights as indicators ..yuk

steve wright · Post by **steve wright** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:03 pm

ooh that's clever!

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 8:09 am

Haven't been to '356' for a while on DDK.
Good progress!

When does the real fun start?

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 3:15 pm

Yesterday

.

No pics for a while yet, as it's going to take a long time before you'll be able to see much, and even then, it'll just be bits of wire.

Nevertheless, a very enjoyable day in the workshop, and I think I can see where I'm heading on these initial stages: something I was a little concerned about. Taking that first step, and all that.

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 5:34 pm

Do you think it will be a 'bird-cage' approach or use the wire frame as the guide to shape and then frame the panels locally for fixing/pivoting points.

When I did my Lola the two piece fibre glass body had to be lifted on and off to get access. This led to a fair bit of local damage, a strained wife (my chief mechanic at a hillclimb) and agro all round. Pivoting the rear to open as a huge clam shell from the back made a huge difference to living with a race car.

I'm looking forward to this project, comfy seat and popcorn all ready to go!

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 7:28 pm

No, the wire is purely there to get the shape.

After my kick-off yesterday, I think it'll end up as something of a combination of wire and wood. I found the 5/16th wire absolutely brilliant for getting nice curves (verified with my coachbuilder's sweeps), but I think it'll be very useful to then join the various major wires with ply stations, and then finally use the smaller (3/16th) wire to infill so that we can double check the shape is coming along.

I suspect that we won't really know how we're doing for a couple more weekends or so, and there's a lot of to'ing and fro'ing looking at the laptop (300+ Classic leMans pictures), the actual drawings, the renderings and the actual car.

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:38 pm

I dare-say a good level of 'instinct' too.
The eye will be the best tool in the end I think!

3 weekends = the hillclimbing season will have ended, so I'll have time to watch the action.

steve wright · Post by **steve wright** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 8:48 am

And so it begins… I know Barry said it would be a while before we posted pictures and I know Barry wanted to hold off a bit so we were able to show something substantive, but I couldn't wait!

With every project of this scale starting is always the most daunting part of the whole process, but after taking a deep breath Barry started on the A and B-pillars as reference points before building up the side profile, along with the curve of the top of the front wing. The plan is to build this up completely front to rear, confirm it all works, replicate the other side, and then resolve the front and rear to work the two in together. I’ve been surprised at how quickly things have moved and relieved it all seems to be coming together. Sounds easy when you write it down in a couple of sentences doesn’t it!

There was a worry in the back of my mind that it would look great on paper but none of the design would work in reality and we would waste a lot of time and money trying to make something work that was always going to be butt-ugly. Although it’s early days I’m quietly confident we’re going to end up with a period-looking, beautiful, svelte and very purposeful looking little car. One of the things I’ve been surprised by is the experience of learning something completely new. I’ve spent most of my life looking at cars and have suddenly realised there’s a whole new language and world of design out there to learn. There are now a million new things I notice even when I look at familiar cars. For example I didn’t realise how far the B-pillar between the door glass and rear quarter glass on the early 911 leaned back from the vertical.

We’ve experienced a few challenges already. The inner door skin will foul the gear-change for third and fourth, so a small indentation will be required in the inner door frame to get those two gears. The roof really prevails over the footprint of the car, so to avoid making it look like a frog Barry has spent a lot of time already working to get the design to minimise its dominance. The roof is very deep in comparison to the chassis, so getting the side of the car deep without it looking slab-sided is key to making it evenly balanced. I really wanted a haunch over the rear wheel like the Porsche Carrera GTL/Abarth designed cars, but to do this Barry has had to taper the side of the car in towards the centreline, while not making it obvious. And the front wing is proving tricky. It needs to be deep and wide enough to provide decent wheel travel but svelte and low enough to not obviously follow the radius of the wheel slavishly and to allow for a nose that is relatively short and tapered. It also needs to tie into the scuttle and reconcile with the top of the door line, at least in the beginning of the curve as it travels away from the A-pillar.

I have to say that just two days into the project it’s obvious Barry isn’t like the rest of us, at least no-one I know, and that’s meant in the nicest possible way! His ability to craft something from nothing using the most basic of tools (I haven’t even got the workshop to a state where we have a vice on a workbench yet), see how curves and shapes can be reconciled, and be able to move something just a few millimetres to transform it from not working to perfect are amazing. If you thought the guy was good at rebuilding early 911’s you should see him at work on creating something new. Mate you should’ve been a sculptor.

Anyway, a few photos to show progress, enjoy.
[img][img]http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac13 ... CN2378.jpg[/img][/img]
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theorangeperil · Post by **theorangeperil** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:13 am

WOW! It's looking great already.