Dauntless Bodywork Update

Here are some photos from Rennie Clayton at Dauntless Racing of the bodywork they are making. They are finishing up making a set of all the required body parts in glass. These parts will then be cut/spliced to additional bits which have been pulled from the same moulds. This process is necessary to increase the dimensions of the parts in order to fit the Tatuus. The Tatuus is longer and wider than the Stohr chassis that the bodywork was originally designed for. Once these parts are done all of the major components will be mounted to a chassis mockup board and closely checked for dimensional accuracy.

You will notice that the parts all have a primer finish. Dauntless applies this finish during the layup process. The finish provides a smooth surface, making the final mould finish easier to perfect. This set of fiberglass bodywork will also become our Messenger SR "test mule" bodywork. The final set will be carbon - of course!

The tunnels are shown with only the first skin portion and without the core. This is done so that the appropriate modifications can be made, then they will add the honeycomb. The width of the Tatuus gives 4" more length per side to straighten out the entries and exits which will give a significant improvement to undertray performance.

Here is a frontal shot of the new front fenders. The oversized flanges are retained until we finalize the Messenger SR moulds.

The front fenders are made in two pieces. The primary piece and the "spats", shown below:

Here is a shot of the rear fender and the radiator inlets. The radiator inlets are being made in separate pieces just in case we need to do any extending lengthwise.

As you can see there is much more to do. The center section of my body will come from the original Tatuus design and will use the donor panels from the FC body that came with the car. Once we are happy with our finished product I can have Dauntless make moulds of those finalized panels and create whizzy carbon bits there also!

I will say that I have been very impressed with the way Dauntless has tackled this project. Everything is done off of strict production deadlines with weekly updates (when is the last time you got a weekly update from any race "prep" business - much less they actually met agreed upon deadlines)?????? If anyone is thinking about doing a FC conversion they should talk to Rennie or Stan at Dauntless or give me a call. The more xsr Dauntless the merrier!