-
I feel like removing the actual suspension geometry from the equation makes it a lot more manageable possibly?
It does, as long as you keep the overall weight of the car and the weight distribution the same. If you don't, then you'll end up with the wrong suspension geometry for your car. You can't use the same suspension geometry from a front-engined car on a mid-engined car as the weight distribution is going to be totally different, so the roll centres, anti-dive and anti-squat are going to need to be different too. You could use it, but it's likely it'd handle like a total dog and at worst leave you in terminal oversteer situations.
You're also likely to have the issue that most production cars use McPherson struts up front, and they won't work with a low-level spaceframe chassis - the tops of the tower struts would be at eye height. On the Sylva range of cars they got round this by chopping the McPherson struts down and welding in a top-eye with a taper to turn the strut into an upright which could be used with a double wishbone suspension system. However, once you start doing that, you're moving so far away from the original suspension system that you're basically working from scratch albeit with some fixed geometry limitations.
I don't doubt the bodywork will be a big ask too, I was loosely thinking kevlar would be a good way to go
Super bold. I've done quite a bit of work with carbon (wet lay-up and pre-preg), kevlar and GRP. Kevlar is a total and utter swine to work with. I do use it, but only very sparingly and only for reinforcing carbon honeycomb panels to prevent intrusion into the passenger cell. It is a total unmitigated bitch of a material to work with.
Brommers-
There's a strong likelihood I'm talking absolute nonsense on certain aspects of this idea at the moment so I may well revisit some of these ideas! I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of the "bible" for this sort of thing so I can start reading up and realise how foolish I am!
I do also like the idea of alloy bodywork but I feel like the amount of equipment required to get into doing it would be a bit prohibitive...
Nahguavkire
I definitely appreciate it's a fairly mammoth undertaking alright and I'm conscious of not making it unpleasantly difficult so I think it may definitely be a better idea to try and utilise some existing suspension from a donor car and working from that but it would be nice to read up on it all first to have an idea of why I'm choosing a particular donor car and why it works well!
I feel like removing the actual suspension geometry from the equation makes it a lot more manageable possibly? I don't doubt the bodywork will be a big ask too, I was loosely thinking kevlar would be a good way to go but again I'm only beginning to think about this whole idea for a project so I'm not in a rush to get started until I've done the homework and come up with a good plan that should be achievable rather than diving head first into something I'll never finish!