Guys,

First of all please understand that Jim in R&D is suffering a permanent eye-twitch right now as I type this... He doesnt know why, but the start of this thread is the cosmic source. Jim is super-talented and he really has an excellent vision of this new design. He does NOT want this to evolve into a nuetered crowd-sourced, please everyone car and there is so much already fixed in the design.

Lets have some feedback though on body shape as so much chassis engineering is already done on CAD.

Here are the Goals of the car and the facts to date:

Design to be a "World Platform" Factory Five: This means running gear that is available in major parts of the world like Asia, UK-Europe, Middle-East, Australia/New Zealand... etc. We are planning on exporting the FFR experience to the world!

Based on Single Donor Subaru WRX Running Gear: Tough, economical, wide variety of source cars/models, performance capable, solid aftermarket, loyal following.

Chassis: Factory Five Space Frame Chassis, 95" Wheel Base is optimal for small-lightwieght perfomance car. Add wookie-capable interior/space as goal.

Layout: Mid-Engine, Rear Wheel Drive Configuration, two seater roadster

Target weight - 1,800 lbs.

Body: Shape in-process and design competiton, goal is no paint, gel coat panels form

Target Kit Price: $9,900

Target Vehicle Completion Cost Under $15,000: People may doubt this but it CAN be done with vectors that have only come together recently... Late mmodel and plentiful performance-based donor parts pool, and only possible by leveraging our design and manufacturing partners and recent technology on robotic welding, CNC design-based molding, and manufacturing, and our collective experience with making over 8,000 kits for 15 years.

Design Partners: Can't say it enough. No kit car company can accomplish these goals that we have set for the project without full up-front integration of chassis engineering with Solidworks, Body design and shaping on CAD and the correct combo of engineering and design that the team here has amassed. The computer and latest CNC tech will make this happen (already has been part of the project from inception).

Lets talk about what you want to see on body design and any other engineering questions you may have. I would love to see cars like the attack and Porschge 918 and lotus 211 that seem to come close (if someone knows how to post photos, I'd love to see em on this post (I'm still lagging on the forum skills), but the design competiton will be the best place to formally do this. March 1st is the competition launch date. We will have a ton more details going forward on that date.

Dave Smith
FFR001