This book teaches you how to design and build your own sports car - from scratch! With this design guide, and your choice of FWD drivetrains, you will learn how to create your own dream car.
This guide describes the entire process of designing a sports car: setting goals, research, design, and construction, of a tube-frame, carbon fiber body, mid-engine powered car of your own design.
(This is a design guide for creating your own unique mid-engine sports car; it does not contain plans.)
"Great style of book - " This book is kindof like a big FAQ for this subject, which is good for me since that's the first thing I read about a subject when I can. Like a regular faq it is divided into sections from the subject, full of "how do i do this? why can't i do it that way? wouldn't have this way worked better?", along with references to where people can get detailed information, which is excellent. It is not a book of plans for building a car if that is what you are expecting. It is a story of a car being built, with the process described as if someone was explaining to you what worked, what didn't, why they did something a certain way, whether there was a better way to do it. It is more like a book that teaches you the process, gives technical info on the design decisions (suspension geometry, brakes, outfitting it to be a race car, engineering to get the engne in the back), so you know which direction to go in if you want to do it yourself, and can get... More > an idea of how much work it will be and what working conditions you need. Since I bought the book, do I get a free drive round the block if I'm in town?< Less
"Kimini book review" I got the book within a couple of days from Lulu, then proceded to stay up way too late a couple of evenings reading it cover to cover, and I am tremendously impressed, both with the quality of the book itself, and the contents within. Very, very professional job. Carroll Smith would be proud! What Carroll's books did for formula car prep and setup, Kurt's book has done for dual-purpose, as opposed to track-only, sports cars, but he goes further, detailing his thought process in coming up with and executing his design. One of the very best things about this book was where Kurt mentioned "if I had it to do over...." from time to time. Like he says in the book, so many authors simply tell how they did their final version of a given design, as though they did it perfectly the first time, without mentioning the ideas that didn't work. Kurt did mention the ideas that didn't work, or that may be better than what he ended up with. I think that is a... More > very key aspect that contributes to the usefulness of this book. Kurt's book truly deserves to be compared favorably with Smith, Staniforth, Milliken, et al. Great Job!< Less
"A slightly biased review....." I have been reading the 'kimini.com' site for a very long time. Kurt has managed to amuse me, interest me and in a couple of places amaze me, over a period of many years. Due to a number of happy coincidences I managed to help Kurt by taking a number of the photographs that are featured in the book. However, I was not prepared for the book. Kurt has done a simply exceptional job once more, the book is beautifully written, very interesting and often anecdotally amusing to read. I only got my copy a few hours ago, yet I have voraciously ripped through it and I am about to start my second pass. I really cannot recommend this book highly enough, it is an excellent read and a wonderful companion for the kimini.com website. Congratulations Kurt, car builder, track-day driver and now author extraordinarie.... Max
"Well Worth the Price" If you're seriously considering building your own car from scratch, then "Kimini" should be in your library. While it won't replace any of the classic books on car building, it does something that no other book does: it takes the huge amount of data contained in those volumes by Smith, Miliken and Staniforth, ties it all together and presents it in a way that makes sense to the non-engineer. This is no small feat but Kurt manages to pull it off nicely. You will find yourself thinking "okay, now I understand (how to minimize bump steer, how to choose spring rates, etc.)..." more than once as you go through the chapters. The money this will save you by preventing expensive mistakes will more than make up for the cost of the book. Best of all, it contains tips on materials, chassis and suspension design that not only save you money, they could save your life. Why reinvent the wheel when you can take advantage of Kurt's ten years of... More > experience? Buy this book and save yourself a lot of headaches.< Less
"(in) love (with) this book!" I'm in the process of reading this outstanding book (color version). OK, I'm not just reading it... I'm totally obsessed with it. I take it everywhere... bathroom, office, kitchen, outdoors. It's my new buddy. Kurt's book has convinced me that a stubborn guy like me has no choice but to go the one-off route. The book has given me more than some confidence to even consider such an undertaking. And, like Kurt describes early in the text, there just doesn't seem to be a perfect car out there for picky folks in either production or kit form. Build a car that doesn't suck in some way! Get this book!!
