My Elio Alternate Project Is Underway.

[JEBar]

Mark has consistently said that he won't produce them until he's certain he can sell a minimum of 100 .... he's commented that with the reaction here and in other settings, selling a 100 will be no problem .... he's gone on to say that he will be base his mode of production based the trend he sees in demand/sales

 

[Mark BEX]

The only thing I worry about is if this remains interesting to him, and preferably, fun.

I have mentioned it before: Since I was a child helping build race and rally cars with Dad, I have wanted to build my own car, not unusual, thousands of kids have the same idea, and I have since built quite a few over the years, from race cars to self designed scratchbuilts, but I mean my "own car", as a production brand.

Of course like any young person, I imagined it would be a Supercar to take on Ferrari .... now here I am completely and utterly at the other end of the scale, lol!!

This may not have happened except for my heart failure/stroke/open heart surgery 2 years ago, which I am still frustratingly recovering from, though almost there.

Now it is my priority to get my car brand into history, even if it's not a fire spitting, 200 mph Supercar, but it's still one I mean to be proud of

 

[JohnJ]

I have mentioned it before: Since I was a child helping build race and rally cars with Dad, I have wanted to build my own car, not unusual, thousands of kids have the same idea, and I have since built quite a few over the years, from race cars to self designed scratchbuilts, but I mean my "own car", as a production brand.

Of course like any young person, I imagined it would be a Supercar to take on Ferrari .... now here I am completely and utterly at the other end of the scale, lol!!

This may not have happened except for my heart failure/stroke/open heart surgery 2 years ago, which I am still frustratingly recovering from, though almost there.

Now it is my priority to get my car brand into history, even if it's not a fire spitting, 200 mph Supercar, but it's still one I mean to be proud of

The real Supercar is the one that does the most good for the most people.

 

[Mark BEX]

The real Supercar is the one that does the most good for the most people.

Funny thing that I used to think Porsche, Lambo, Ferrari etc were the cream of car manufacturers, then it hit me suddenly one day staring at a Hyundai i20, that in fact they, and their ilk, are the true heroes of the manufacturers.

Anybody can build a car and sell it for $200,000, but what Hyundai, Toyota, Kia, Chev, Ford, Mitsubishi, etc give you for $20,000 , i.e. 1/10th of the price, is simple amazing in comparison.

 

[84mpg]

Funny thing that I used to think Porsche, Lambo, Ferrari etc were the cream of car manufacturers, then it hit me suddenly one day staring at a Hyundai i20, that in fact they, and their ilk, are the true heroes of the manufacturers.

Anybody can build a car and sell it for $200,000, but what Hyundai, Toyota, Kia, Chev, Ford, Mitsubishi, etc give you for $20,000 , i.e. 1/10th of the price, is simple amazing in comparison.

Like the Elio could have, the BEX will make a huge, positive impact in the transportation world. There are so many situations (needs), where $10K for this vehicle is an absolute no brainer. Hands down the most economical and practical solution for a wide range of needs.

Can't thank Mark enough for taking up this challenge.

 

[JEBar]

Anybody can build a car and sell it for $200,000, but what Hyundai, Toyota, Kia, Chev, Ford, Mitsubishi, etc give you for $20,000 , i.e. 1/10th of the price, is simple amazing in comparison.

point well taken ....

 

[Mark BEX]

Wow, these side roll bars really took some effort, yet look very simple, but their importance, and getting them right, is quite important to a number of aspects of the total design.

As you can see I have literally regressed back to where I was a few weeks with the build, but now ready to shoot forward again at rapid speed now that many critical mounting hard points have been simplified.

 

[JEBar]

count us among those in the take all the time you need to do it right category .... looking forward to seeing you put it back together

 

[Mark BEX]

This was a tough one. I fiddled for hours this morning surrounding how I was going to locate the roll bars in place, as they are literally 2 bent poles standing completely unsupported, other than some 2" long larger tubes the ends sit in that are welded to the chassis to locate their 'feet', for want of a better word.

I imagined all sorts of apparatus bolted to the bench, gauged off nodes on the chassis, and then simplicity struck me ...

I made 2 very simple 'floating jigs' from some angle iron that simply clamp to the front downtubes, and rear downtubes, that simply square everything up, took me most of the day to figure out the jigs that only took me a half hour to make, and they work brilliantly

Might be a bit hard to tell what you're looking at here

 

[Mark BEX]

count us among those in the take all the time you need to do it right category ...

When I read those "Take you're time" messages, this is what I imagine