Divitis

It's actually the only way to add a X hole above a beam, flip-flop or not. Occupying that space, obviously.

I think it uses two of these: Btw, I don't remember much of a discussion around this piece, maybe because it appears in a SW set?

I strongly disagree. The Chiron is my least favourite out of the 1:8 cars precisely for the fact that it uses a lot of system elements in the bodywork. Fair enough. But do you make it a point of principle or it's the resulting aesthetic that doesn't work for you?

Technic should be about the mechanisms. If you want to cover them so the model looks good use system pieces. To me the current 'technic look' is a farce, a soulless crowd pleaser at best. Although some panel parts are admittedly useful as system can't replicate the curve.

Another improvement: the door handle. Maybe this little mechanism will be helpful for others too - a bit of education was also the intention with this thread. The half bush is actually very important. If the 2L bar insists directly on the 4L axle it eventually pushes it out. With this setup I can safely operate it like crazy during work calls 😁 The azul plate represents the red tiling, that's how thin the door is. And of course I need to buy one more piece... as an expat living far away from my childhood Lego collection I don't even have a gray 4x6 plate handy. Thanks! Regarding the 'rally' suspension setup, it think it comes down to the kind of roads they were racing on in the 50s, pretty rough by today's standards.

It's actually visible here. Very interesting piece it opens up some possibilities

Thanks for visualizing the flow, @Lego Tom, that's what I had figured as well. @falconluan the lower axle might spin, but it doesn't carry any load. It spins freely - I'm sorry but I still fail to see the utility of this.

Maybe I'm reading the schematic wrong, but my expectation was to see the load divided between two axles/ gear couples and I don't see this happening here. For example in the case of the first gear: the axle at the bottom doesn't spin, and movement to the one above is transmitted through one pair of 12:20 only. The other 20t gear spins freely as it's not connected to the axle. Am I missing something?

Fron the first image it looked too pretty to be functional - a really cool and unexpected piece of work!

Some more progress on strengthening the bodywork, especially its connection to the chassis. This is how the back was connected before: it rested on the yellow clip pieces and it was prone to disconnection both there and between the 2x4 tiles and the red pieces. Stud connections in general tend to become loose with rotational movement, which is inevitable when assembling the section. And this is now: bars and clips - very securely held in place - and also a sturdier connection to the two 3x13 curved panel which reach to the other side next to the seats. I can tell you, it was a very satisfactory 'click' sound putting it on. And it's solid! (big gif, give it a moment) This might be the final update here before I decide that I'm done... but please do challenge mercilessly so that I can improve things further!

Not sure if some mentioned this already, but I miss knowing what the 'next unread topic' is at the end of a thread. Now that the indication is lost I use the button much less.

I think I can relate, this is a picture of my room at 24 when I moved back home for a time. Stay wild, it's much more fun. My experience is that digital design and precise piece storage allow for more complex designs but take a lot away from the actual play and build experience.

Since it's taking me ages to complete it, I might as well show why. 1. Transmission to the real axle The u-joint sometimes snapped under stress - going full speed ahead and then reverse and keep doing so a few times. Now I switched to the heavy duty version and all is well, but the parts took a while to arrive. The silver lining is the redesign of the linkage system from the mess you can see in the first image to the cleaner version after - the design already improved things even with the old CV joints. 2. Bodywork (since the last shake test) I trust the inner structure to be quite solid, but some of the bodywork isn't up to the standard I'm going for. I tried to fool myself when commenting on the 'shake' gif a couple weeks back, but I soon sat back at the drawing board. Here's how some of the key 'panels' are connected after the extra tinkering. The side panel before (left) was connected by two studs and was the weakest of them all. Now (right) it's held in place with bars going into holes, and also better built overall - note the 3x3 round piece holding it together in place of the two round tiles. Things on the other side look a bit different due to the bracing of the gearbox, but I was able to implement the same principle. The tapered panel at side of the bonnet. This is simply a case of looking at things with a fresh eye and going "What was I thinking?!?". There was obviously a much better way to achieve the same spacing then those brackets. The connection is stronger then before, and the assembly is easier to put in place. The front mudguard (last and least) It hasn't changed in principle since the first iteration, but this latest version uses fewer parts then ever to achieve both the angle and the half stud spacing.

It's solid enough for me, but please be the judge. :) As I hate to give answers with no proof, I started the day with a shake 'n lift test - both videos are at natural speed. PS: these are heavy gifs please give them a moment to load.

Of course, but they're too long and the hood wouldn't close unfortunately. Also the 'ring' piece would collide with the 28t gear. So finally this was the solution: The development of the engine happened here, with the help of the community

I already use a pulley to transfer movement as nothing else fit (older cam design but the constrain to the steering, bottom right, is the same). However, thanks to your comment I realized I can simply do this. All those hours spent reading the Toranimaki on the toilet are finally paying off!

I hope to find time to put together a proper presentation soon - 2 pieces are still in the mail. Meanwhile, a little tease. Positive caster + Negative camber. And a sad realization that came with full model testing: the steering wheel turns the wrong way and I have absolutely no idea how I can fix it!

Can we see it moving? Pretty pleaseeeeeee

Somehow I'm only seeing this now, sorry. I think I got a little bored with myself, and also my second son got born, which sort of slowed down progress but now he's on a more decent sleeping routine so I hope I'll find time to make the proper reveal happen - funny how many seemingly basic pieces you realize you miss and have to order. Anyway, bodywork process is boring, you just sort of go through every piece in the color you chose until you find something that matches a curve and then go through every piece that combines with it to complement it. And then repeat until all combinations have been vetted and you can sleep a good sleep. The control base in nearly there too.

#16 Sparse bodywork progress at the beginning of April, so about four and a half months into the making. To ensure progress on the technical side would not impede work on the bodywork later on, but also to break momentarily free from the 'tyranny of gears', I was regularly trying things out. Here are some of the early approaches to making sense of the bodywork, in no particular order. I generally don't like the look of flex axles, but I explored them as the only mean to get some of the curves right. None of these new panels exist in red! (still? yet?) The first clean-ish line I got on the rear mudguard! The best early exploration that probably won't fit in the end is this. Might it inspire someone else. Two dishes back to back held together by a clear transparent Spiderman web (the only bar piece in this color) and a transparent blue round tile (I don't have a yellow one). Here's the effect with and without led lights. So overall not much progress from these early attempts, but a stark discovery: This car has no 'anchor features'. It's not a Porsche that's immediately recognizable as soon as you see the lights, or a Ferrari Monza with its asymmetrical seat. You basically have to nail it all together as one. Thank you! Again, longer post than intended. Studio rant will have to wait. Next up: probably the fight for the real axle.

A good way to look at it is mapping top speed over gear ratio, that gives a feeling of what's reasonable to achieve with the engine running at maximum rpm. The P1 can officially reach 350Km/h, divide it by eleven and you get a 32Km/h top speed in first gear. I bet your city car can do better. With the real ratios, that value is a much more reasonable 85Km/h. The Lego rations are clearly just for show. Not that that's bad, on the contrary in fact as they make the effect of gear shifting much more visible. @danielhstahl these numbers are a great find, thanks!

The grandstand is awesome, gives me old school vibes, from the airport monorail set especially. I also like how it integrates ()while being different) with the rest of the buildings.

Lovely!

#15 The gearbox stick and linkage system This is the initial linkage system to operate the gearbox. I'm reproducing it in full to give a sense of scale respective to the whole chassis - it basically occupies all of the cockpit floor. The ball join allows for surprisingly limited movements, because the axle connected to the ball touches the socket piece. This is especially pronounced for diagonal movements (exactly what you need to put a gear in). The easy solution is to 'multiply' the movement by placing the ball joint higher up and having a longer stick, but in this model it would look funny. Eventually, I figured that one can increase and decrease the sensitivity of the mechanism by putting the pivot point respectively further away and closer to the rotation center of the changeover catch. So, I lowered the ball joint so less horizontal movement is needed to turn it, meaning less movement range is required on the gear lever as well. Also, the mechanism slides on two axles, very smooth. But still the range of movement wasn't enough and I set out to miniaturize things further. In this early design, some of the cockpit flooring also helped with holding the yellow constructions in place. The change to 2L rings meant the catches need to be placed at 1/2 stud offset. Together with securing the sliders, figuring out proper bracing was quite a task and for each test I had to fully disassemble the model. The main drawback of this configuration is that the bar rotates inside the cross axe hole of the joint, making things finnicky to operates - for example, you think you're pushing while in fact your rotating the bar only. And to further complicate things, in the 125S the gearbox is tucked underneath the dashboard and the lever bends towards the driver at a steep angle. Replicating this with bars makes the structure way too weak. After countless prototypes, the lesson learnt was: one thing is what works stand alone, with the mechanism fully exposed so that one can fine tune their movements. Another what works when the mechanism is hidden and the lever hard to reach under the dashboard. And so, finally, it was with a heavy hearth that I reverted back to a more conventional set up. It's hard enough to reach in there with adults fingers, no need to make the mechanics finnicky to operate. I thought those who've kept up with my rambling until now would appreciate a little spoiler - some paneling and the pedals are still missing plus there are details I don't like but I reckon I'm mostly there. Happy to hear your criticism, of course To your points @Lipko I never thought of painting parts before, but I might make an exception for the steering wheel. It'd be so nice to have it in brown. @dantheman12 I'm very happy to hear you're finding my updates useful. And by all means, please put the ball joint idea to good use. You won't be disappointed by it's realistic friction and maneuverability - with enough space allowed. Next up: The post got much longer than I thought, so I'll save the early bodywork ideas for the next one, together with some furious ranting over Studio.

#14 Let's talk gears again! I wasn't in love with the gear ratios and generally the gearbox output being on one side and needing u-joints to be brought back to the middle; I was afraid they'd rub on the cockpit floor - which I intend to cover with plates. Also for realism, I wanted to make the whole gearbox one stud shorter and give more legroom to the cockpit. And so, I bode my farewell to the old solution and worked out something entirely new going backward from the output upstream. To accommodate the output axle, the gears axles must be placed asymmetrically - two on the left and one on the right of the central axle. All three on the same size would mean having the outermost link at an angle, which increases stress. The intuition was using the same axle to both transfer movement between gears and receive their output finally passing it on to the output axle (green). The classic 16/24 diff was also considered but there were no 12t spur at the time to engage the bigger side. Luckily I had some 2L rings available. Blue friction pins work very well to keep them from sliding in and out of gear. Positives: Realistic output. Now the gear lever sits right on top of the axle. Much better gear ratios: R: 0.297 1st: 0.29 2nd: 0.45 3rd: 0.80 4th: 1.25 5th: 1.33 Way less slack than I thought - at most the car needs to roll for about 20cm before the pistons move. Better than I imagined. Negative: The gearing for R. But I guess I'll have to leave with it being slightly faster that the 1st. I reckon if a compromise has to be made in a race car, reverse gear is a tolerable one. I had to abandon the 'modes' system illustrated above. But we already know it's only a temporary setback. Tip: An Excel sheet to calculate gear ratios saved me from a head hake, or two Next up: miniaturizing the gearbox stick, and early bodywork