TheDoctor wrote:Woody wrote: What's the wheelbase on that thing? I'm getting an idea...Tiny... . Really need to see it sitting next to normal cars to see how small this car really is.
That is AWESOMELY small. Looks like you could fit TWO in that parking spot. That just looks so cool out in the wild.
Plus one on the "love" for the numbers you added.
Late Oct 2015
Just before I put the car away for winter, I took these pictures.
Looking forward to spring 
So you are driving it around on the street. What is it like to drive? The chassis and drivetrain were pretty hardcore track focused, how does this all work on the road?
Fast? Scary?
NOHOME wrote: So you are driving it around on the street. What is it like to drive? The chassis and drivetrain were pretty hardcore track focused, how does this all work on the road? Fast? Scary?
Have only driven it about 5 miles (or less) so far and nothing spirited, mainly just out to get some pictures. Couple things to note: Would not make a good daily driver. Suspension is stiff (all heim joints), you sit about an 1" off the ground, exhaust is just behind your left ear. The clutch is nearly digital (fine for a circle track); flywheel is light. Stop and go traffic is frustrating when every launch is a fine balance between a smokey burnout and stalling. When you stop, you spent 20 minutes talking to people about it. Plan ahead, there is no reverse gear. Take a shower when you're done because you'll smell like exhaust and have road grime on your face. Let me put it this way. Driving the Berkeley and the Beach Buggy back to back makes the Buggy seem like a completely modern car that you could drive anywhere.
However, a bit of open space and give it some gas, sounds like a tiny Ferrari, the shifts are super quick, pulls hard and will put a smile on your face...Being so small and low to the ground, everything feels fast without even hitting the speed limit. Driving at the full potential of the engine I think would be VERY fast and VERY scary.
So it drives about what I figure it would. It is a track rat.
Will the car or the driver undergo the bulk of the required development phase?!
The clutch would be my first priority. Can you tell if it is going to stay cool in traffic or is it too soon to tell?
You have done an amazing job so far, love to see it get lots of use.
I'll mainly avoid driving it anywhere where I'll need to do much stop/go. Nice thing about the tow bar is that I'll be able to quickly get the car out to where I want to drive it without the hassel of driving it through the mess in between. I also think I can get better with on the clutch with a little more seat time, it's not impossible just tricky. Too soon to tell how cool I can keep the clutch, but I try to be pretty gentle when I'm just driving around town.
And there might be some changes in the hydraulic system or geometry that could give you some more range of engagement. Somebody smarter than me can help with that.
If the clutch system is hydraulic, use a smaller diameter master cylinder. It will give you more travel and also require less effort.
theenico wrote: If the clutch system is hydraulic, use a smaller diameter master cylinder. It will give you more travel and also require less effort.
Yes, it is hydraulic. I'm probably going to look into that option this summer. I may also add some length to the clutch pedal which is very easy on this car.
Actually you need to look at both the master and slave cylinder. To have a softer clutch the master needs to be bigger than the slave. Not to sure how the math works just know from experience when working on swapping different make transmissions.
Awesome!!!!!!
No. A less "binary" clutch would need a smaller master, so there is less fluid travel. This would result in less foot pressure required as there would be more fluid pressure multiplication in the system.
Whoops need to not post things that late at night. You are correct SkinnyG. Went out and looked at what we had. The master is a 17mm and the slave is a 23, 25mm was a little hard to make out the size stamping on the slave. This made the best stock feeling even with a stiffer pressure plate. We started with a smaller slave that came with the transmission and it was almost impossible to push the clutch in. Actually ended up modifying a slave from a 60's American truck to get the size we needed. Just needed a few bits machined and bolted right on. Rather easy to figure out once we got the fluid dynamics figured out. That was actually the hardest part but easier that trying to figure out how to change the leverage on the clutch peddle to do the same thing.
TheDoctor wrote:theenico wrote: If the clutch system is hydraulic, use a smaller diameter master cylinder. It will give you more travel and also require less effort.Yes, it is hydraulic. I'm probably going to look into that option this summer. I may also add some length to the clutch pedal which is very easy on this car.
Definitely change the master first. It will make a larger difference than changing the pedal ratio.
Too cold to do anything in the garage. Started making a Berkeley board to hang on the basement wall.
Awesome - love the style choices made as the whole package works.
TheDoctor wrote: Too cold to do anything in the garage. Started making a Berkeley board to hang on the basement wall.
When I was in college, a berkeley board had a whole different meaning. And less pictures cause no one would process them.....
Gotta have something to do. I like the inspirational board. Maybe I should do that for the duster for more motivation.
RossD wrote:NOHOME wrote: I do realize that you already painted this car, so not an option. My inclination would be to reach for the cut-off wheel and make a long horizontal cut from just behind the headlight all the way to just before the end of the fender at the a-post. Then another cut from the apex of the wheel-arch until it intersected the first cut. Pull the pieces out until the tires are covered. Start filling and contouring the gaps. Repeat three more times.If that was done right, it would start to look like a Jaguar D-Type. And that's a good thing! Not that it looks bad now.
Messing around with Forza6 instead of doing real work... I think the Berkeley would look great as a miniature D-type. Lots of work, but maybe someday.
BTW thanks to this thread I was scouring the interwebz for a used Berkeley last night. Fortunately none were to be found at this time...I really dodged a bullet there.
petegossett wrote: BTW thanks to this thread I was scouring the interwebz for a used Berkeley last night. Fortunately none were to be found at this time...I really dodged a bullet there.
Now that the word is out on how well a Berkeley body fits on a dwarf chassis, we might have just blown the market for both
Tracked down an early test drive video. Quality is not great and just low speed around the block. I was using a normal digital camera zip tied to the frame.
TheDoctor wrote:Woody wrote: Beautiful work! How are the doors attached to the body? Are they removable?Removable but don't open. Each has two aluminum tubes the run the length of the door. I pass threaded rod through these and into the front and rear body work. This way, I can still remove the front and rear sections without too much work.
I'm still having a little trouble envisioning how this works. Do the front and rear sections of the body just sandwich the doors tightly into place when you tighten down on the threaded rod? Does the threaded rod rattle around inside the aluminum tube? Do you have any more photos of the doors under construction?
Woody wrote:TheDoctor wrote:I'm still having a little trouble envisioning how this works. Do the front and rear sections of the body just sandwich the doors tightly into place when you tighten down on the threaded rod? Does the threaded rod rattle around inside the aluminum tube? Do you have any more photos of the doors under construction?Woody wrote: Beautiful work! How are the doors attached to the body? Are they removable?Removable but don't open. Each has two aluminum tubes the run the length of the door. I pass threaded rod through these and into the front and rear body work. This way, I can still remove the front and rear sections without too much work.
Yes, threaded rod pulls the front and rear sections to sandwich the doors. Aluminum tube is just large enough for the threaded rod, so not too much rattle. Will try to dig up more construction pics of doors. Ideally, I would like to join the front and rear sections structurally and take the body off as one piece. We'll see how these doors hold up in this configuration for now.
So looking into a new HD video camera for spring and I've been talking to my brother about what he uses. He builds hobby drones and one of the cameras that the RC guys like is called the Mobius Action Cam. Very tiny (1.4 oz) and pretty cheap (~$70) on Amazon. Lens is very wide angle and picture looks good. Ordered one the other day and finally got a chance today to strap it onto my toy RC car and play in the snow a little. Pretty impressed with the quality and looking forward to mounting a couple on the Berkeley.
If we have a SE Michigan GRM meet this spring/summer you must bring this thing to the party.
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