Pics of street bike powered lakester buildup in progression

Well I guess I will post some of the pics I have taken so far in my belly tank lakester build. Maybe the photos can help some other builders with ideas. What we have here is a wing tank from a 1949 F-84E Thunderjet, very unique beacause of its center mounted rear wing. It is being built for street and show only. I am using a 2003 Yamaha R1 engine ( fuel injected 1000cc ). The inner frame is mild steel 1-1/2". I still have alot more supports to put in, but the main structure is there. I am using transverse leaf springs and radius rods front and rear. The front axle is a vintage altered anglia axle with billet drag spindles and custom machined hubs. I wanted to use the 5x5.5" early ford bolt pattern, so it took alot of machining to do so. I used the original anglia hubs and machined them down so I could fit them inside of the front hub flanges from a new 2007 dodge 4x4. This was more work than I wanted to do, but it allows me to use the vintage wheels. The brakes are from a late 80's suzuki samurai. solid front disc with aluminum calipers. The rear axle is also suzuki samurai, it comes stock with the wide 5 pattern.I had to shorten the rear axle on one side though to get is centered in the correct place to align the drive shaft to the engine. The motor mounts sideways and uses a dwarf car style driveshaft adapter flange, so it uses a normal driveshaft with u-joints. The motor is all stock and puts out about 160 hp. I modified the intake air box so it has old style velocity stacks sticking out of the tank. And I also custom made the exhaust header pipe. The car will use the factory streetbike dash components and has fully functional on board diagnostic. The shifter is a couple of rods attached to a bell crank. The clutch is normally cable operated, so I mounted the cable to the frame and installed a hydraulic pull type slave cylinder to actuate the clutch. The fuel tank is custom made and has a tube that goes up near the headrest where a hidden access panel will open to allow fueling. The engine radiator lays flat behind the fuel tank and will have air ducted to it from intakes in the body. The electric fan in mounted underneath and takes the air and blows it out the bottom of the tank. The steering system involved alot of pulling my hair out. Becasue of the amount of clutter down by the pedals, I could not use a simple steering rack, besides I was worried about bump steer. So I used a jack shaft and sprockets and connected the steering shaft to the reversed corvair box via #40 chain. The pitman are is from an international scout and still required more modifying to look right( its way to big, but I needed the length). The steering arm on the front axle also had to be custom made due to the angles and because of how narrow the car is. On the front of the tank I am mounting a modifed prop spinner from a cesna.

So the amout of work it takes to build one of these lakesters is rediculous, but at the same time all SO WORTH IT! I got the engine started this weekend and have a new rush of energy that its gonna take to get this thing finished. I will try to keep updated photos of this lakester posted. I plan on having all the suspension components jet hot coated for a more dull shine, and also a new paint job in navy blue or silver.
This lakester will be put up for sale when finished. I plan on taking it to a few meets. Hope to have it finished within 5 months, money permitting of course. Oh by the way, thats my dad in the top center photo. He has been building cars since he came out of the womb. He keeps my fabricating skills in check. LOL.
If you have questions about the build feel free to ask. Thanks Joe

 

heres more photos

 

and here are the most recent pics

 

awesome

 

This is gonna be killer! Neat ideas here.

 

neat !

 

Are you using the Yamaha trans? What about reverse? Very interesting build.

 

Very cool!

 

No reverse for now unfortunately. I did find a company in Australia that makes an inline reverser for there racecars, but it costs about $1200. So thats out of the question. I plan on going much simpler and putting a ring gear on the rear pinion flange with a starter motor. I think it would work just fine.

 

pretty cute. what's the status on trying to run at b-ville?

 

Im just going to build it to what I think is adequate. If they say I can run with only minor modifications, then I will take it home and do the necessary fixes. But if they say no, it's not the end of the world, like someone already told me, "I'm just a pup", I still have time to get into racing later.

 

Sweet! I love it.

 

Really nice work. I wish I had that kind of talent.

 

Thanks! That really does meen alot to me.

 

Well now, I just flat like that little tank. Very creative.

 

That is really cool! The rules can be pretty tough, but what the hell give it a shot!

 

That is really cool man!!

 

Hell yeah!!!

 

YEA!!>>>>Its gona be real important to get the slack out of that steering chain. Those handle bar thumb switches gota go, would look much better with some togle switches. Ive got to hand it to ya, Thats gona be one awesome ride. Keep us posted on progress, I cant wait to see it finished. Cool build.

 

Well I am still putting a larger gear on the top so the slack will come out of the chain, plus I am going to put a small adjustable idler to keep the chain pinched tight. I have seen similar steering used on a sand rail, so I am hoping it will work out ok.

 

Ya I though that the bar switches might have to go. I kept the factory bar switches for the compact and easily mounted design, I dont have much room for a dash. But now that you said it I think I should change it to old school looking switches, would be more fitting of the lakester.
Thanks for the comments.

 

Some folks local to me are using these motors in caterham super7's. He has
designed and built his own reverse box, you might want to contact him, its a
pretty simple chain drive box, not sure if he selling them or what.

Their website:
http://www.ennerdale.ca/

 

excellant!

 

Very creative.. Just what we need to see more of.

Great job!

 

That is awesome and inspiring.

 

Thanks fulltrack. I called him and he is going to email me some info about the reverser box. He said it costs $2000. I hope that is not in USD. OUCH!

 

here are some more recent photos. The buildup has slowed down due to my new baby girl Sydney, but I have not lost interest. I still have plans to finish in due time. I had some custom wheels machined that will make this baby capable of some higher speeds I will try to get some photos of the wheels loaded soon. They are very cool, 18x3.5" solid forged aluminum disc with the original early ford 5.5" bolt pattern. Trick stuff

 

heres the pics of the aluminum wheels i had made. My machinist said that he could make more of them if anyone else is interested. The price is approximately $1500 for the set of 4 cast forged wheels like I got. The billet forged wheels are a little more expensive but they are a little lighter too. They can be ordered in various sizes too.

 

About your statement concerning Bonneville, have you acquired a rule book? It is so much easier to build it once with a rule book than doing it all over if making a pass is the plan. Sealed firewall, roll cage, fire bottles and nozzels, shocks, wheels that are allowed, etc. There are quite a few requirements depending on your class. There were a couple of streetable lakesters being driven around at Bonneville last month. But to pass tech, they were not even close.

 

Have you drove it yet and if so is it fast?