Hi All,
To repeat my introduction from the newly joint section, my name is Nik, based in the south of England, middle age automotive design engineer. I was drawn to the forum few years ago by a former colleague of mine whose Stratos build is in a fairly advanced state of progress, while I am at the beginning of mine. I have seen few threads not directly related to Stratos builds, and in the absence of a dedicated forum, I dared starting a thread of my own outside of the Stratos realm, though it is currently more of a statement of intent rather than actual physical build, still in the dreaming stage.
To provide a bit of a background, my favourite rally car is the Lancia Rally 037, it was a love at first sight, when as a young lad I saw it on TV at the start of the 1983 Monte Carlo and then a year later in person during an European Championship rally. Ever since Group B ended and with it, the international rally career of the 037, I’ve been thinking about coming up with a successor, a sort of MkII version. As, with most of us, life happened, this dream took a bit of a back seat, though I kept “revisiting” it from time to time. Few years ago I finally went beyond the (very amateurish) hand sketches and started putting ideas to CAD. Three years ago I got to a stage where I was happy with the styling:
That was followed by creating models of various scales (starting with 1/100 and currently ending with 1/6) and purpose (static, Scalextric, rc nitro), image of the palette so far:
My intention is that next is a full scale road going one, but it needs to wait its turn, as a home project is first on the list (strongly encouraged by my better half). The positive is it gives me time to work out all the important details of the build (or just give up) as I would really dislike cutting metal before I have proper idea what I am after (old professional habit). Actually at one stage I even dreamt about persuading an investor to make a small fortune (starting from a larger one of course) and taking the project to “the next level”, but we all know how that goes, so if I want to get it build, there is only one way!
Starting with the engine, I don’t think there is much hope that I can go with mechanically supercharged one similar to the original, so ideally I would like to source a current-ish Civic Type R one - they are an incredible bit of kit (having had a chance to drive one in a Civic) and should suit the personality of the car perfectly. I am even tempted to get one sooner rather than later, though probably not a good idea with the building work around the house. Gearbox wise, one option is to stick with the one from the same vehicle, but I need to research further what my gearshift mechanism options are as I would hate a misbehaving one due to the fact that it needs to negotiate its way around the centrally mounted unit, though I am sure others (some notable cars here) have already dealt with the same issue. I need to do my homework on that one. Short of a standard gearbox with transversely mounted engine, there are all the other usual options for a longitudinal unit. We’ll see.
On the chassis/frame side, most likely candidate is of course a spaceframe, but I have few ideas as to how to connect the tubes – welding is probably just an all right skill of mine so I would like to consider another option that avoids thermal distortion, but it has its own challenges. I will expand on this in a further post and will most likely start with making a test piece and checking its behaviour and structural integrity.
Wheels and tyres is another choice to be made, I really like the appearance of wide rear tyres and will probably go for the widest I can lay my hands on 😊, appreciating this is not without its drawbacks. So something like this proportion wise:
There is such a vast pool of knowledge on this forum, so I am sure there will be plenty of suggestions and advice. Once again please excuse the slightly hollow thread for the time being as it will take a long time before there is a physical progress. I just hope we are still allowed to drive on the roads (as opposed to only have self-driving cars) by the time I build the car.
On a related subject, while I have been taking my time year after year, I can see an Italian company is now ready to release their own interpretation for a modern day 037 (mixed with 038/Integralle features in their own words), though I would say it appears to be neither restomod (or such like) nor very modern, it rather reminds me of my first hand sketches in the school notebook all those years back, but of course taste is a personal thing and there are many people that like what they do:
https://www.google.com/search?q=kime...iw=782&bih=434
Incidentally, a restomod 037 would be something to my taste, but way beyond my pocket. I also really appreciate the work Carteroni and Mick Covill are doing, genuinely impressed by their creations.
Thanks for reading,
Nik
Hi Nik,
Nice work on the models, like your interpretation of the Lancia 037.
I am building a Mick Covill based 037 at the moment. Although i am not much of an engineer just a hobbiist.
Heres my buils on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pims-Lancia...82898468405402
Heres another page from Nial Evans: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lancia037project
Hope to see more of your project in the future
Cheers Pim
Cheers, Pim
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Luctor et Emergo
Cheers Pim, some great progress and resource there, thanks for sharing. Best of luck with your project, I will look forward to seeing it completed.
Nik
Really interesting project Nik - can we see some profile shots with the canopies closed please. Design - from what I can see of it - looks really good and a great modern take on the original.
looks like someone else is working on this.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/n...p-kimera-evo37
Only £414k.......
Plus VAT. That's what buggers it for me....Originally Posted by LPH_UK
Gordon, from what I can gather, these guys are aiming at a restomod version of the car (mine aimed at a MkII version), though if I was to do a restomod I would have stayed much closer to the original as it is a stunner of a car already in my view. Not a cheap car as Leigh pointed out, but I agree with Guy, the real deal breaker is having to pay VAT on top
Peter, thank you, really appreciate your encouragement, please see few more images below:
At last year's Rally Legend San Marino
Back home
Going testing
Last edited by rally037; 26-05-2021 at 18:42.
- Yep - that looks really good Nik - you've obviously spent a lot of time finessing the detail - good luck with the project !
Thank you Peter, genuinely appreciated, it is a real labour of love for me.
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