A build diary. Hmm. Does that mean I have to stop sucking wind and complete a project? Always thought it would be a bike of some sort, long, low, with all the best elements of properly going over 2 with a big guy and four underhead camshafts working pushrods I could get from (now) former chief bike inspector Tom out at the BNI meets, Jack D. via email, and looking at what bikes that made big numbers in past decades from S&S, etc.
It was the trip to BUB that did it. That, and a business opportunity to continue with a diesel aircraft two-stroke with turbocharging program.
Category 1, Group B3, Division C, Class to be determined by engine size, Type 2: forced induction.
Now, to take the collection of scribblings on restaurant napkins and index cards, engineering tablets and the occasional brain fart written down on a snippet of paper while driving forth and back from the salt flats, run them through the cerebral grinder and come up with a chassis. Long, low, and roomy enough for a 6' plus galoot to have an iced latte cup holder close at hand, hence up-sized from the garden variety sarcophagus that cuts the wind muchy goody.
I stopped in Salina, UT, to ogle the belly tank of our man Elmo Rodge, thinking a bike chassis running under the back cover would work a treat. Or, with single wheel forward, a bolt in trike system w/ belt drive. Hmm, still a lot of food for thought being digested on that route.
And then, and then, and then that red TR6 with front wheel drive at World Finals gave me pause for thought (nod, nod, wink, wink to Stan Back when he stopped by the Landracing.com trailer and took time for a chin wag on said subject).
Now one finds oneself considering one of the great hordes of unfinished Bede 5D projects littering garages and barns across the purple mountains and fruited plain. Build a legal cage to fit.
But, the front part of the cycle-car will house, under an aero front of undecided nature and design, an fwd with Hayabusa or some such turbocharged motorcycle engine between cockpit and front end.
Of course, if the air-cooled aircraft boxer motor gets far enough along, then it gets the engine compartment. Of the three in development, 260 hp is the largest air-cooled model. The already certified 450 hp drone motor developed for the guv'mint is better held back for a light-ish helicopter as I'd like to see a redesign and balance the crank w/o tungsten slugs.
Well, there it is. As soon as I sweep the remnant webcast audio parts off my drafting table the doodles will appear on paper, though I expect to upgrade to new design software from what's been on the on the iMac since Methuselah.
If I don't post for awhile, it's cause I'm out earning a living. But ideas on a chassis will be welcome and considered. Blatant insults will be taken to heart and I'll throw my hands in the air, stop work, and wander to a corner seat to drink my Missouri red plonk while feeling sorry for myself. No, I'll just crawl back in my sanctum santorum and keep figgerin' the adds and take aways.
I was going to call the first, now abandoned, M/C project, "Natty Bumpo" with a nod to James Finemore Cooper. Now, I dunno. Maybe MoxNix Cycle-car until it's time to fill in the entry paperwork and add decals.