The Raptor project is still largely in the concept stage of development. The end result will be an extremely light weight single seater racecar that will be powered by a production super bike engine. Utilizing high-tech materials and construction processes the weight of this vehicle will be kept to a minimum.

 

The single seater race car project will be developed along side the 2 seater Bike Engine Car project. The two vehicles will hold many of the same characteristics as one and other. The main difference will obviously be that the this vehicle will only have one seat and the driving position will be centrally mounted. The benefit of this is the car will be much narrower and thus be lighter. Another benefit is a smaller less powerful engine, for instance the 400cc and 600cc bike engines can be used and still produce very good performance figures, whilst keeping construction and running costs down.

The prototype chassis will be constructed from tubular steel with honeycomb aluminium inserts for safety and rigidity and aluminium panels for triangulation. The vehicle will look very similar in appearance to a small Formula One race car.

 

 

 

 

As the Raptor will be relatively small and very light a simple two piston calliper set up can be used to great effect at the front of the vehicle and a single calliper set up at the rear. Both sets of callipers will work in conjunction with cross drilled and vented brake disks to help cooling.

 

 

Double unequal length wishbones will be utilised on all four corners of the car. To keep drag to a minimum the spring/damper units will be located within the cars bodywork. To achieve this a system of push/pull rods and rockers will be used to actuate the spring/dampers contained within the car. The spring/damper units will be height adjustable as well as bounce and rebound adjustable.

 

 

A conventional rack and pinion steering system will be used on the Raptor project but because of the small front profile of the vehicle and shortened modified rack will be utilised. The rack and pinion will also have a smaller gear ratio to allow full lock to be achieved with fewer turns of the wheel.

 

 

The engine has not been finalised but is planned to be a 4 cylinder production motorcycle engine.

 

 

Twin radiator systems will be accompanied by twin oil coolers one of each will be mounted within the vehicles side pods. This will place them in a prime area for cooling allowing a large amount of air flow to be directed through them and in turn through the engine bay to keep this cool as well.