Hi all,
Just a quick update on progress with the Escort project.
As far as the car goes itself, we've been a little constrained this past three weeks due to:
-workshop renovations - building a new composites room, and painting the workshop floor
- bushfires -Mark Browne, project instigator / leader, in Wallan, and the fires came within 200 yards of his place last week
- fundraising - I've been travelling a bit throughout Qld and NSW visiting the unis, running a few racecar design seminars for their Formula SAE teams and teeing up a few more. (Proceeds going to the Escort project)
(For what it is worth, FSAE is a student engineering design competition where they design and race small open wheeled racing cars. 610cc capacity, generally around 160-240kgs, depending on motor, and some now getting into electric powered cars too. Check them out if you get a chance, the quality of engineering is brilliant - sometimes
)
The Formula SAE car we built in 2003, just so you know what I was on about (that's me front left):
On that final point, I'll be in Perth this coming weekend (22 and 23 Feb) giving a two day FSAE Design seminar at Curtin Uni, for students of Curtin, Edith Cowan and UWA. If you are interested at all please message me here or privately. I've got one of our forum members hopefully coming along on the Sunday, and I'm going to Edith Cowan Uni socially on the Monday to check out their motorsport engineering facility - can see if I can arrange a tour if any of you are interested.
Back to the Escort, we've just received delivery of some floor pans, rear turrets and a panhard rod, and we are meant to be getting our four-link kit soon. Spoke to the dude at Trackart (see roll cage photos above), and it is looking like he will do our cage for us. As a one man business he can't afford to do it for us gratis, but he is still helping us out significantly. Lovely guy, does brilliant general fabrication work. Given the beauty of his welding, we are going to try to keep the cage raw steel with a clearcoat if we can - or at least a significant part of it.
As for the wider Parkinsons cause, we have got some guys who have agreed to design a website for us. I can't give a company name yet, as I don't know if it is official or through the back door. We sent off logo / branding concepts to them just yesterday, along with a bit of a brief about what we want to put on the website.
Plan is for the website to be a bit of a fun, light, pisstakey sort of thing. When I was diagnosed, all the services were helpful, but they also tended to be really serious and left you feeling pretty morose. Shakies have a predisposition for depression (great work on the other thread re the classic A4DE too - well done to all!), and to be honest I just wanted someone to share a laugh with occasionally. So that is where we are going with the website. Intended overall name - "Shaky Foundation" - which leads to assorted puns like you can't build stable future without a Shaky Foundation, etc. Subheadings like Movers and Shakers (stories of inspiring people with PD), Shaky Advice (tips for people living with PD and their families), etc. Progress on the Escort will come under the heading "Slim Shaky's Escort Service" - as those of you who have contacted me on Facebook will know.
I'm crapping on a bit here. Feel free to doze off...
Website logo we are playing around with:
Gratuitous pic of me on my first bike, to make some link to the intent of this forum:
And at last, genuine VMX - My RM100/125, which was surplus to requirements and went on the market recently - only to be taken off again when we found a rubber grommet in the engine case was not so much factory installed, but rather an "aftermarket" part carefully chosen to fit a crankcase breather hole apparently machined by a rock...
Serves me right for thinking I could sell a bike without giving the engine a full rebuild. My public apology to the gents who came to look at it.
Cheers all, thanks for the interest
