Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 - and Race It!


Book Description

Build a roadworthy two-seater open sports car for a fraction of the cost of a kit car! Using standard tools, basic skills and low-cost materials, this volume shows you how to make the chassis, suspension and bodywork, and advises you on how to modify and use inexpensive but serviceable mechanical components. Contains sections on improving handling, information on how to get through the Single Vehicle Approval test, and builders' own stories.




How to Build a Racing Car


Book Description

Originally published in 1949 by Floyd Clymer, this edition was republished in 2010 by VelocePress. This comprehensive and informative book, written in easy to understand language, puts the capability of designing and building a 1950's era midget racing car or a three-quarter (dirt track) car within reach of the home-based enthusiast. The fundamental principles described in this book may also be applied to the construction of a 50's track roadster or even a custom built hot rod. Highly technical terminology and engineering terms have been avoided, as the aim of this book is to define the construction process in clear and understandable terms, regardless of the reader's technical background or training. The principles it contains are just as relevant today as they were some 50 years ago when this book was first written. The design process is clearly explained, the raw materials required are described, and the construction process is presented in an easy-to-follow step by step procedure. Obviously, this book would also be a valuable reference for anyone contemplating repairing, refurbishing or restoring a vintage racing car. This edition also includes a 38 page bonus section featuring a reproduction of an appropriate Offenhauser Speed Equipment catalog. Out-of-print and unavailable for many years, this book is becoming increasingly more difficult to find on the secondary market and we are pleased to be able to offer this reproduction as a service to all those vintage automotive race car builders and enthusiasts worldwide.




How to Build Motorcycle-engined Racing Cars


Book Description

If you are aspiring to build a racing car, How to Build Motorcycle-engined Racing Cars could be the book that you’ve been waiting for! Tony Pashley revisits the path that he took in the Pashley Project articles in Race Tech magazine during the design and construction of two successful hillclimb cars, but this time in great detail, with a view to enabling the reader to carry out a similar exercise for themselves. Although hillclimb and sprint cars are the focal topic, a lot of the book is applicable to race cars in general. The cars under discussion in the book are powered by motorcycle engines, which are meeting with great success in the smaller racing car classes. The total process of building a car is described, beginning with the selection and procurement of the engine. Chassis and suspension design is covered in a simplistic but adequate manner as the author’s aim is to minimize the inclusion of involved calculations. Two recipes for chassis construction are illustrated in detail, along with guidance on the processes of construction and a description of the required equipment. Following on from this, the fabrication of the suspension is explained. Further chapters are dedicated to the remaining aspects of the vehicle, covering transmission, brakes, fuel and coolant systems, and electrics. The book is heavily illustrated with 200 photographs and extensive explanatory diagrams and tables. It is a vital addition to any would-be kit car builder's library.




Draw with Rob at Christmas


Book Description

Merry Christmas! The internet phenomenon #DrawWithRob is now a fantastically festive art activity book for you to draw with Rob at home... The second book based on the viral videos seen everywhere on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, TV, and more, from the creative genius and bestselling author Rob Biddulph! Christmas is different this year, with more families at home and wondering what to do! Pick up your pencils and join thousands of children around the world and #DrawWithRob - celebrating Christmas has never been so much fun! The first DRAW WITH ROB activity book went to Number One in the charts and was named 'Book of the Year' at the 2020 Sainsbury's Children's Book Awards! Now every family can share this fantastically festive new art activity book for Christmas. Join Rob and learn to draw your favourite Christmas characters - from Polar Bears to Elves and from Father Christmas to a Snowman, this perfect present is packed with arts, crafts and festive fun. The bestselling and award-winning author/illustrator Rob Biddulph is the genius behind the phenomenal, viral sensation that is DRAW WITH ROB and the accompanying activity book, and now the sensational DRAW WITH ROB AT CHRISTMAS - bringing joy to families everywhere with his easy to follow instructions and warm-hearted humour. So whether you're in home education, home-schooling, learning to draw or just having fun, let Rob show you that anyone can learn to #DrawWithRob! *WITH PERFORATED PAGES SO YOU CAN EASILY TEAR OUT AND DISPLAY YOUR ART!* Rob's original hit videos are also available at www.robbiddulph.com, and on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, with Rob appearing on TV to talk about them too. Perfect stay-at-home fun for boys, girls, and everyone aged three to one hundred and three, and a wonderful introduction to Rob Biddulph's bestselling picture book range - including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize-winning Blown Away, Odd Dog Out, and many more! Available in all good bookstores and online retailers, and perfect for children who are learning to read - or just love to!




The Racecar Book


Book Description

Though students aren’t yet old enough to drive, that doesn’t mean they can’t satisfy their need for speed. Author and physics teacher Bobby Mercer will show readers 25 easy-to-build racecars that can be driven both indoors and out. Better still, each of these vehicles is constructed for little or no cost using recycled and repurposed materials. The Racecar Book will teach readers how to use mousetraps, rubber bands, chemical reactions, gravity, and air pressure to power these fast-moving cars. They will learn how to turn a potato chip can, a rubber band, and weights into a Chip-Can Dancer, or retrofit a toy car with a toy plane propeller to make an air-powered Prop Car. An effervescent tablet in a small canister makes an impressive rocket engine for a Mini Pop Car, and old CDs, a small cardboard food box, and drinking straws become a Mac-n-Cheese Roller. Every hands-on project contains a materials list and detailed step-by-step instructions. Mercer also includes explanations of the science behind each racecar, including concepts such as friction, Newton’s laws of motion, kinetic and potential energy, and more. Teachers will appreciate the opportunity to augment their STEM curricula while having fun at the same time. These projects are also perfect for science fairs or design competitions. Bobby Mercer has been a high school physics teacher for over two decades. He is the author of The Flying Machine Book and Smash It! Crash It! Launch It! and lives with his family outside of Asheville, North Carolina.










Racing Chassis and Suspension Design


Book Description

Hand-selected by racing engineer legend Carroll Smith, the 28 SAE Technical Papers in this book focus on the chassis and suspension design of pure racing cars, an area that has traditionally been - farmed out - to independent designers or firms since the early 1970s. Smith believed that any discussion of vehicle dynamics must begin with a basic understanding of the pneumatic tire, the focus of the first chapter. The racing tire connects the racing car to the track surface by only the footprints of its four tires. Through the tires, the driver receives most of the sensory information needed to maintain or regain control of the race car at high force levels. The second chapter, focusing on suspension design, is an introduction to this complex and fascinating subject. Topics covered include chassis stiffness and flexibility, suspension tuning on the cornering of a Winston Cup race car, suspension kinematics, and vehicle dynamics of road racing cars. Chapter 3 addresses the design of the racing chassis design and how aerodynamics affect the chassis, and the final chapter on materials brings out the fact that the modern racing car utilizes carbon construction to the maximum extent allowed by regulations. These technical papers, written between 1971 and 2003, offer what Smith believed to be the best and most practical nuggets of racing chassis and suspension design information.




Racing Car Design and Development


Book Description

Dialogue between one of the world's most experienced racing car designers and a technical author-graduate engineer on the theory and technique of racing car design and development. Contents include: The anatomy of a racing car designer; biography of Len Terry; description of nearly 30 Terry designs from clubman's sports car to Indianapolis winner; a blank sheet of paper; handling characteristics; the theoretical aspects; oversteer and understeer; practical implications; structural considerations; space-frames and monocoques; the cockpit area; the structural engine; progress and legislation; suspension; changing needs and layouts; the torsion bar; self-levelling systems; anti-dive and anti-squat; progressive-rate springing; stiffness/weight ratio; brakes, wheels and tires; influence of smaller wheels; twin-disc brake systems; attention to details; low-profile tire phenomena; aerodynamics; wings and things; intake ram effect; ground effect vehicles; the cooling system; radiator location; cooling the oil; safety and comfort; primary and secondary safety; driver comfort; materials; components-ball joints, batteries, brakes, clutches, dampers, drive-shafts, electrics, flexible bearings, flexible fuel cells, gearshift linkages, instruments, non-return valves, non-spill fuel fillers, oil and fuel pipes, Perspex mouldings, radiators, springs and steering gear; design versus development; the competition-nine other racing car designers discussed; future developments.




Engineer to Win


Book Description

"Is titanium for you? Can better brakes reduce lap times significantly? How do you choose the rights nuts and bolts? Which is more important, cornering or straight-line speed? Why did it break again? Engineer to Win not only answers these and many other questions, it gives you the reasons why."--Back cover