40 replies to this topic

[smartie93]

Has anyone ever thought about fitting a droopsnoot firenza inspired nose to a clubman?

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the clubman less aerodynamic than the standard round nose, so maybe it could be justified as a performance benefit rather than just extra styling

[jb93]

Who, what, where, when?

Edited by jb93, 23 July 2012 - 03:30 PM.

[dow62]

If you under the age of about 45 its a Vauxhall two door coupe. Made in the 1970"s mostly in silver, nice car .

[leadly]

[tiger99]

If you are handy with metalwork, and can fabricate one, go for it! I think it would look great, and provide some more room, possibly for an engine conversion.

I never recommend anyone to use a GRP front, with or without bracing bars, for safety reasons, but you could make a sheet steel fabrication as strong as the original, which would become part of the monocoque, and rely on GRP only for the outer curves.

Sadly, IVA may become a problem.....

[smartie93]

Umm, I have access to a wind tunnel and my uni specializes in composite construction so I'd probably use the standard steel front and attach a grp nose cone.

Would it not be classed as bodykit that way and not require the iva?

[tiger99]

If you can fit it over the existing structure, with maybe with a tiny little bit of metal-bashing here and there, yes. Of course, the bonnet is not part of the monocoque and can be altered, just not wings and front panel. You only need to tell your insurance company of the modification, and do the job well enough to pass MOT, which should not be hard. Bodykits which do not remove any part of the monocoque do not seem to involve IVA.

[smartie93]

Cheers for the info

Can't wait til my student loan comes through again now so the budget can stretch enough to accomodate two minis

[deanymini]

I'm glad my tax is going to a worthy cause!

[smartie93]

I'm glad my tax is going to a worthy cause!

Glad to have your support

Though it is a loan, not free money; I do have to pay it back plus interest

Edited by smartie93, 23 July 2012 - 07:49 PM.

[Brams96]

Smartie93 - Is the wind tunnel a full size one big enough for a full sized Mini? It would be interesting to further the research done by Carbon Wezzel by getting a few different shaped cars along, clubmans, roundnose, deseamed, with & without bodykits, to test the difference in aerodynamics each one has. You could come up with an areodynamic bodykit that could improve mini drivers MPG.

[smartie93]

I actually haven't seen it yet, its brand new. I hope its full sized, I'd love to do that Though realistically we're a fairly small uni, so the wind tunnel may only be big enough for components rather than a whole car (we design lots of aerodynamic aids for our formula Renault)

[Brams96]

What uni is it? There may be some info online about it? Even if it's small you might be able to do some testing with a model & scale it up after finalising the design.

[smartie93]

Swansea metropolitan. yeah I wanted to try modelling; I think we've got cfd programs as well, I didnt really get to do much in the way of designing in the first year

[Brams96]

Sounds like you need to make friends with the Formula 4 guys & do some after hours testing with your own stuff