MR2-FA: Project Guiding Principals

I know I'm in the process of another project but I'm at the point where not a ton of thinking is involved and I'm shortly going to start a project that requires a ton of thought so over the next couple of days I'm going to be posting more about my plans and some analysis I've been working through - namely the disection of Toyota's styling and how that could be ported over to the MR2. 

Before I get into any of that I think it's a good idea to discuss a few guiding principals for this project.  I've seen multiple projects like this attempted, and I've seen a lot of them fail for various reasons.  There's a lot that can and will go wrong.  You can run out of money, you can run out of talent, and you will invariably hit obstacles that you don't know how to get around.  The guys who succeed are the persistent ones: the ones who view each issue as a challenge and then set about solving it in a creative way.  I'm not worried about that part. 

What I'm worried about is my own wild ass ideas getting the better of me and going in 1000 different directions and not actually finishing anything.  This is a problem I have and I don't know how to solve it other than putting myself and my thinking in a box.  It's sort of like the purpose of the law - it's there to at least try and guide you away from behaviours that are ultimately detrimental to yourself and to society. 

In the context of this project if I were left to my own devices and could spend whatever I want I'd probably take a couple of years to do it.  I'd end up with  an entire body crafted from resin impregnated carbon fiber baked in an autoclave and tested in a wind tunnel.  It'd be an awesome feat of backyard engineering but in the process I'd go broke, my wife would leave me, and I'd only get to see my two kids on weekends when they let me out of the funny farm. 

So, here's the box I'm going to put myself in for this project in the hopes that I don't accidentally achieve any of the above:

1. The budget for this project is $1,200 for materials and no more.  That's roughly what a full body kit for the MR2 costs inclusive of shipping so if I wasn't doing this myself that's the price point I'd be stuck with.  That sounds like a lot when you're just talking about materials but if you figure out the price of headlights, a metric assload of fiberglass and resin, and foam and clay for sculpting that's going to get eaten up pretty damn quickly.  Creativity will be required to keep the costs reasonable, which is one of the reasons I do this stuff.  Bonus points will be awarded for keeping it at around $800. Keeping the costs that low means that I've got more money to spend on the rest of the car and still hit my overall budget.

2. I cannot recieve any outside help on fabrication unless it's something I absolutely don't have the ability to do and couldn't learn in a reasonable period.  Knowing your limits is important.  Never stretching your limits is a recipie for a trite and meaningless life. 

3. All parting lines on the body must be maintained. They can be moved depending on the requirements of the design, but they can't be eliminated.  Building integrated side intake vents may look cool, but what happens when you need to actually take them off to fix something or get in an accident?  That's right - you need to undo all your work.  If something goes wrong or something happens to the car I want to be able to repair or replace the damaged panel.  That's a lot harder if you've molded everything together to get rid of the parting lines. 

4.  OEM levels of fit must be achieved on each part.  That means keeping the vast majority of the stock panel mounting points.  It's no good to spend all this time building parts if what I end up with is something of lower quality/fit/finish than the crap you can get on eBay.  No zip ties are allowed except for under extreme circumstances.

5.  All functionality of the vehicle must be maintained.  This means that I need to have a location for tow hooks, need to be able to get to the lights to replace a bulb without disassembling the entire car, and need to keep things like the trunk latches, release cables, etc. intact or at least have a good substitute.  To me these are all things that actually make a road car a car. 

6.  All finished parts must be high strength and able to stand up to the punishment of being on a road going car.  I'm not building a trailer queen destined to have mirrors under the engine at a car show.  This things going to get driven hard so I don't want paper thin fiberglass parts that are going to crack the first time they get hit with a tiny rock on the freeway. 

7. Crash worthiness of the vehicle must be maintained.   Carbon fiber door skins are cool and all, but if the door skins of the vehicle in question are an integral part of side impact safety and you don't have a full body cage you've just created an easy way to commit suicide on the street.  Same thing with bumper supports.  Yeah, removing the bumper support means you can have less mass beyond the wheelbase which helps cornering but what happens when you come into that corner too hot and run into a wall?  Yep - you go from being a person to an object.

8. Basic principals of aerodynamics must be followed. This is a big part of the reason I want to do a fast back.  Notch backs are hell on aero.   If you're looking for a way to educate yourself on this topic but aren't an engineer buy a copy of Tune to Win by Carroll Smith.  It's a great resource but is written in a way that a normal person could understand.  I know the basic stuff but that doesn't mean I've got a ton of experience applying it.  I know how a properly ducted and shaped radiator setup should look, but that doesn't mean I know what angle works best on the MR2 to speed up the air coming out of the back side.  I know how a NACA duct works, but no idea how large I need to make one on the underbody to create enough airflow to help cool the engine.  Actually applying this stuff is one of the interesting parts of this project for me - along with figuring out how to test it because that's the hard part. 

9.  Corner cutting is not allowed.  The bitter taste of a cheap and poorly done part lasts far longer than the time you actually save over doing something right.  I'd rather not take all this time then have major regrets.  If I have to throw something away, or completely change directions to get the job done - I'm doing it even if it takes months longer.