nicjasno

The hand built version never saw production. The photos for the box were made before it was decided that springs like that might not be the best idea and all sets were produced with the familiar small grey shocks.

Thery are getting less complex. That is my observation aswell.

Yes, but small models don't need that much power, so you can power them from the sbrick directly. The big stuff needs more batteries then.

The biggest limitation of the cylinders isn't friction. Once they are properly lubricated and cleaned, they slide easily, but the biggest problem are the tiny air inlet holes, that force the piston to move slowly (left drilled inlet, right stock lego inlet). The second limitation is in the switches. They are designed to be stopped at each position, that's why one needs to remove the stoppers, that cause a great deal of effort to move the switch handle. And of course the inlets need to be drilled to match the ones in the cylinders for greater airflow. From the outside, the parts look the same. I don't consider this to be cheating. The parts were designed for model cranes, excavators and such machinery. So they need to mimic the slow movement of hydraulics. If the cylinders had big holes from the start, the movements in those models would be too quick and jerky. Likewise if the switches would have no stoppers, you couldn't easily switch between positions. An engine using unmodified parts will work, but expecting any performance from it is really naive. The cylinders act like shock absorbers and severely limit the speed just with the small inlets alone.

That's pretty good actually. Enough for what its intended to do. If you want to do heavy loads, you can drive the motors through a battery box, that is operated (switched on) by the s-brick via another electric motor :) I see the sbrick as an automation/controll unit, not as the main power router. One can easily overcome its throughput through the above mentioned method.

Nice and simple. I like it. :)

It was "liberated" out of a differential :)

Refresh the dropbox folder. You should have enough pics to figure it all out.

Here's my attempt. Limited slip differential, 2 speed gearbox, everything is transversely mounted, macpherson suspension, steering... everything. More pics on dropbox: https://db.tt/JXl3QTh3 I will probably not continue this and will refocus on the e30 chasis. The main problem with lego fwd setups in my opinion are the completly useless CV joints, that limit the wheel steering angle way too much. If anyone wants more pics of this, do say.

Tbh, i'd have prefered shorter cylinders. 1 stud shorter, to be precise, so that the range would be in line with the total movement of the crank of the engines :) But i can see how longer cylinders will be better for cranes and stuff like that.

Liftarms and connectors will be far more efficient.

Your construction is not very good. What happens is that the bricks just give and when the gears are under stress, a gap forms. This construction can be made with a lot less material and very much better with technic stuff instead of bricks. This way you will not get gear grind. And on the last pic with the bogey, you have to support the gears on the 5 stud axle like on the left side, if you don't have parts, at least reverse the setup and have the brick supported gear on the right side, with a thin 12 tooth gear on both sides. Otherwise it will not work. The gears you use to transfer the power from the motor to the wheels are also very inefficient and take up way too much space. This can be achieved simply by an axle that connects both bogeys with 12 tooth gears on both ends and one bigger gear that connects to the motor. Without any other gears or bricks.

The problem with your design is, that the diff will fall apart in the middle. Very quickly. The structure doesn't support any torque.

From the driveshaft to the gear on the differential. The place where the grinding occurs.

Gonkius: that diff is not going to work. It'll desintegrate on the first sign of stress. I made many versions of the turntable diff, untill i found a good sollution that can take the stress. The main problem is the 90 degree transfer. I found that the only way to make this sturdy is to use 70s lego technic gears (the red and blue ones. Here's the dropbox gallery: https://db.tt/EvwsXhBL

You totally do drive like an old grandma :)

Ordered mine a few days ago. WIll report when it arrives.

The intrepid, along with cars like all audis, most saabs, 70s cadillacs, subarus and many other cars have a longitudinal setup. Both engine and transmission are longitudinal, there just happens to be a differential between the engine and transmission (or in some cases below the engine), that then drives the front wheels. In a transverse setup, everything is mounted transversly. This is not a matter of interpretation. It's actually very black and white. Transverse setup: And here's a longitudinal audi drivetrain (pictured is the quattro, but front wheel drive audis are the same, minus the central diff and driveshaft to the rear wheels)

The spacers were absolutely unnecessarly. You should have moved the pivots 1 stud more outward....

No, because the diff drives the engine as if it's a longitudinal setup, it's just rerouted. In a true transverse setup, all gears are transverse.

That mini doesn't really count. I did a ford mondeo chasis (never finished) with true transverse 4 cylinder lpe and transverse 4 speed gearbox (8880 style) and macpherson suspension. Sadly no pics :(

This would be better:

While it's going to look awesome, it's probably going to be way too heavy.

Remove one of the half bushes, add another grey connector like the one holding the balljoints in and extend the axle to 5 studs. Then put a ball joint in that connector and you're good to go.

If you move the steering rack to the level of the lower suspension arms, it'll be basically 0. And you will have more space for everything aswell and the servo sitting much lower in the frame. The problem is that you have the 6l steering link close to the much shorter suspension arm, causing big differences in the radiuses they describe when moving. Another problem is that it is angled in the oposite direction, causing further problems. If you mimic the angle of the lower suspension 6l link and move the whole thing to its level, the bump steer will be gone and the steering will also be lighter and more precise.