Pete's ERA B Type - R10B

Work, Life and organising events really slowed down the progress on my build. Whilst not being ruinning by the NSW BBQ Event, I got enough done to be able to showcase what I have been up to and to give people an idea on the build process of a cyclekart.

Since the last update, I have completely skinned the front 2/3s of the kart in 0.5mm aluminium and punched about 3/4 of the louvre vents. I made an assortment of punches out of scrap plywood and old merbau timber decking. I used the merbau to make punches and then made dies out of 12mm plywood. It works well enough on the thin aluminium - the dies are stronger than the sheet itself and will split it if you aren't careful.

Ive made a lot of progress on the fibreglass nosecone. I've smoothed it out, put the front cutouts in, painted it and started making a grille. Though not quite finished as a I would like, I have made big progress.

I have made a dashboard from 12mm ply which i have skinned with aluminium and dressed with brass. It contains my keyed electric start ignition and an 85mm GPS speedometer. For 12v power, I got a Milwaukee M12 battery adapter that tucks up behind the dash out of sight to power the 12v accessories.

Steering wheel is about half way done and roughed in to shape. It is made from lasercut 3mm steel and clad in 12mm Plywood with Red 1mm G10 liners between the wood and steel which I had left over from my bladesmithing escapades

Ive also started on the windscreen and side view mirrors which are a work in progress.

Whilst Im a long way off completion, I am hoping to get a lot more done before the Goulburn Car show in November

Haven't updated in a while, but work is progressing slowly.

I've just about amassed all the parts I need to complete the build apart from brake lines and a chain.

I now have a boxed in cabin which I am skinning in 0.5mm aluminium. I've found that with such a thin metal its quite easy to get a nice radius on body panels by running the sheet over your legs back and forth like you are drying yourself with a towel. Sounds crazy but it works.

Also made a foam buck for a nosecone. Got it into shape over the weekend and laid down my first layers of glass and resin. By far the messiest thing I have ever done. I just used chopped mat for the fibreglass, but in hindsight i would use woven cloth for straight lines and simple curves whilst saving the chopped mat for the more intricate compound curves. Now time to sand, cut and recoat where necessary

front axle starting to take shape and more parts slowly starting to arrive.

Some slight design changes, there's a plethora of Austin based karts already, so have decided to base my design on the ERA Type-B. I will most likely model mine off chassis no.10, ERA R10B of Peter Whitehead who won the 9th Australian Grand Prix in this car at Bathurst in 1938.