[WIP] Red Beryl X (AWD Supercar)

[JLiu15]

Hey guys, here's a project I've recently started working on. It's been a while since I built anything as I've been quite busy for the past couple months.

Anyways, this will be a supercar project. My 4th supercar so far, hence the name "Supercar IV". To be honest I've run out of creative names after giving "Red Beryl GT" to my BrickFair 2018 MOC, so I'm happy to take suggestions if any of you have a better name in mind. From the photos below this may seem like a mere rebuild of my Red Beryl GT, but this MOC comes with several upgrades:

1. A 4WD drive system
2. A 4-speed gearbox, controlled remotely

This will be my first supercar to contain such features, and if everything turns out well this could be my most mechanically advanced supercar MOC up to date. The presence of a 4WD system makes it easy to install a 4-speed gearbox, as I took advantage of the two gears of different sizes on the old differential serving as a central differential. I wished that I was able to make the shifting mechanism smaller or use a stepper mechanism for it, but a stepper mechanism is a bit too big and complex to fit in the available space and there is too much structure around the gearbox to make the shifting mechanism any smaller. Although the mechanism appears obstructive as of now, building seats and a roof over it should help conceal it.

I am also planning on installing Brickstuff LEDs to this MOC, as well as potentially adding a 4th motorized functions (such as motorized doors or a motorized rear wing).

If you guys have any suggestions for me, please let me know.

EDIT: I've decided to name the MOC "Red Beryl X", as it's essentially an upgraded sequel to my Red Beryl GT.

Photos:

Edited January 28, 2022 by JLiu15

[letsbuild]

THe bodywork has some potential, as does the chassis, but doesn't it seem a little narrow?

[Meatman]

Not a big fan of how you have the front shocks connected.

[brunojj1]

Suggestions:

• Try to put everything as low as you can. It will result in a supercar sitting lower and looking more sporty and realistic.

• I can´t spot any 7x5 frames. Don´t be afraid to get some and use them wherever you can in the chassis. That will help to achieve more rigidity and provide plenty of attachment points for everything.

• Especially the central column is too thick and way too high IMO. You may want to put seats somewhere at some time. A thick wall between driver and passenger is ugly and unrealistic. I´m always trying not to occupy the center with functions, other than routing axles and wires through a tunnel 5 studs wide only. You can add stability by reinforcing the sides of the car and/or make rigid roof / A-pillar connections.

• You can put some of the motors / Sbricks / batteries or the gearbox into the space between seats and rear wheels, save space elsewhere.

• Perhaps the servo could be put in front of the front axle, so you would save space in that area, e.g. to root a link to the steering wheel.

• Some big progress regarding sequentially shifted gearboxes has been made in the past few years by the community. I would highly recommend @Didumos69 work on this, particularly his latest development of a gearbox and servo-shifted mechanism.

• A motorized rear wing would be a very nice add-on, please do it!

2 hours ago, letsbuild said:

THe bodywork has some potential, as does the chassis, but doesn't it seem a little narrow?

The car´s width is perfect at 25 studs, not possible to go narrower without sacrificing the suspension and no need to go wider at the standard scale (approx. 1:10) in the given setup.

[MajklSpajkl]

I really like the front mask so far! I don't know much about building supercars, but I would definetly follow Bruno's suggestions, If I ever tried one ;-)

Good luck - I am looking forward to your MOC.

Best regards.

[JLiu15]

6 hours ago, letsbuild said:

THe bodywork has some potential, as does the chassis, but doesn't it seem a little narrow?

The axles are built with similar dimensions as other official Technic supercars that use wheel 15038 with tire 44771, so I doubt anything will look way too off in the end.

A lot of people were complaining of my Red Beryl GT being too long during the build. Its proportions turned out fine. Sometimes it's just a matter of things not being the way they seem before the model is finished.

4 hours ago, brunojj1 said:

Suggestions:

• Try to put everything as low as you can. It will result in a supercar sitting lower and looking more sporty and realistic.

• I can´t spot any 7x5 frames. Don´t be afraid to get some and use them wherever you can in the chassis. That will help to achieve more rigidity and provide plenty of attachment points for everything.

• Especially the central column is too thick and way too high IMO. You may want to put seats somewhere at some time. A thick wall between driver and passenger is ugly and unrealistic. I´m always trying not to occupy the center with functions, other than routing axles and wires through a tunnel 5 studs wide only. You can add stability by reinforcing the sides of the car and/or make rigid roof / A-pillar connections.

• You can put some of the motors / Sbricks / batteries or the gearbox into the space between seats and rear wheels, save space elsewhere.

• Perhaps the servo could be put in front of the front axle, so you would save space in that area, e.g. to root a link to the steering wheel.

• Some big progress regarding sequentially shifted gearboxes has been made in the past few years by the community. I would highly recommend @Didumos69 work on this, particularly his latest development of a gearbox and servo-shifted mechanism.

• A motorized rear wing would be a very nice add-on, please do it!

The car´s width is perfect at 25 studs, not possible to go narrower without sacrificing the suspension and no need to go wider at the standard scale (approx. 1:10) in the given setup.

Thanks for the good suggestions!

As for keeping things low, the roof will literally be immediately above it, so the height of the SBrick is probably gonna be as high as the car's gonna be.

As for 7x5 frames, there's two black ones supporting the gearbox, which are kinda hard to see since they're black lol.

I realize the central column is way too oversized with there essentially being a wall between the seats, but unfortunately I did not foresee this and I would literally have to restart from scratch if I were to modify it.

I've placed most of the motors and other electronics in already; this includes the battery, SBrick, 2 L motors (drive), a servo motor (steering), and a medium motor (shifting the gearbox)

As for putting the servo in front of the front axle, again, that would involve a total rebuild of the front section, which is not worth it for a small modification.

I will look into more advanced shifting mechanisms in the future, but I'm keeping the simple mechanism here. Its structure is already overflowing so no point in making its space issue worse. Incorporating such a mechanism would also involve a major redesign, which I don't feel is worth it.

I am considering a 4th function for the unused port on the SBrick. It will either be motorized gull-wing doors (both will be synchronized as there's only one remaining port) or it will be a motorized rear wing. Currently I'm leaning more towards motorizing the doors as there's a perfect amount of space behind the floor panels for a motor/mini LA setup or something.

3 hours ago, MajklSpajkl said:

I really like the front mask so far! I don't know much about building supercars, but I would definetly follow Bruno's suggestions, If I ever tried one ;-)

Good luck - I am looking forward to your MOC.

Best regards.

Thanks! You should also check out my Red Beryl GT which I brought to BrickFair Virginia last year. There's many design crossovers between the two.

[JLiu15]

UPDATE 2/23/19

I've made some good progress on the MOC here. The Brickstuff LEDs are now installed, and in the process I had to modify the chassis a little to allow space for a Brickstuff battery. Currently only the headlights have Brickstuff LEDs, but I plan on adding them to taillights as well. The headlights' flash patterns can be changed using a controller by the fake engine.

The bodywork has also made significant progress - the sides and hood are now in place. I've also modified the floor panels a little, and now there are 4 gray 11x5 panels instead of 2 black 11x5s.

If you guys have any suggestions for me, please let me know.

Photos:

Edited January 28, 2022 by JLiu15

[JLiu15]

UPDATE 3/14/19

A lot of progress since the last update. I've added a ton of functions to the model - the seats are adjustable forwards/backwards and up/down reclining. I've modified the steering mechanism to allow for a working steering wheel, and I've added a mechanism for opening the gull-wing doors, which is motorized.

At this point the model is filled to the brim with functions. There's only gonna be more as I'm planning on adding a manually controlled wing mechanism, similar to the one on the Chiron. It's definitely gonna end up as a function-over-form MOC, and it's already far more advanced than any supercar MOC I've made.

As for the seats, the adjusting mechanism is something I've never done before. The seats slide along three axles, and a rack/pinion system with a friction pin adds friction to their movement. Up/down reclining is done by a worm gear which slides along one of the axles the seats slide on, and a knob at the end of it is used to control it. The seats are a bit small and out of proportion, but then again there's limited space due to all the functions.

The motorized gull-wing door mechanism is a nice extra feature, but it has several drawbacks. I was going to attach the linear actuators parallel to the chassis, but the gearing made it so that they would only go in opposite directions. This is because the motor is only attached to one of the linear actuators, and the three bevel gears setup automatically reverses the direction of rotation. A universal joint would not be an option in this case, as the linear actuators need to bend at a steep angle. My only choice then was to attach them perpendicular to the chassis and force them to extend straight, with a link being used to actually raise/lower the door. Despite sliding the door opening mechanism on two axles to keep the linear actuator going straight, there's still plenty of play in the mechanism.

There's definitely some drawbacks with this model that would require a rebuild from scratch to fix, but overall I'm happy with where this model is headed and I'm making some significant improvements over my Red Beryl GT from last year. I'm planning on bringing this MOC to BrickFair this summer, as well as two other MOCs.

If you guys have any suggestions for me, please let me know.

Photos:

Edited January 28, 2022 by JLiu15

[JLiu15]

UPDATE 3/21/19 - modified doors and front end

The progress may not seem like much, but I spent a lot of time polishing up areas that I was not completely satisfied with.

The original doors did not sit flat when closed - they slanted back a little. It was not too noticeable from a distance, but it was very noticeable when viewed up close so I modified the doors and now they sit perfectly flat. I also added a third axle for the doors to slide on, giving them some extra stability.

I also modified parts of the front end. I placed the headlights a stud higher as they were absurdly low in the original design. I also redesigned the "hood" and widened it to span the entire width of the body. Note that I also replaced the black 8L axles in the A-pillars with red ones to match the red flex axles.

The only addition to the model in this update is the part of the body between the doors and the rear wheel wells. The model is about 70-75% complete now, and I anticipate finishing it early next month. I'm really looking forward to this MOC - I think it will easily be my best looking MOC once finished, and it already blows my Red Beryl GT from last year out of the water in several ways - both in terms of looks and functionality. If you guys have any comments/advice for me please let me know down below - they are what helps me build in the right direction!

Until next time,

Justin

Edited January 28, 2022 by JLiu15

[Jeroen Ottens]

Looking good indeed.

as for tips:

I would keep the red 8L axles black and try to replace the black connector to which the red flexaxle fits red. This will give a more continuous line.

I don’t know what the exact arrangment of the gears in the linear actuators is, but if it is possible to move one of the bevelgears to the other side of small LA it will make the two LA’s move in the same direction.

Good luck with the last part

 

 

 

[JLiu15]

1 hour ago, Jeroen Ottens said:

Looking good indeed.

as for tips:

I would keep the red 8L axles black and try to replace the black connector to which the red flexaxle fits red. This will give a more continuous line.

I don’t know what the exact arrangment of the gears in the linear actuators is, but if it is possible to move one of the bevelgears to the other side of small LA it will make the two LA’s move in the same direction.

Good luck with the last part

 

 

 

Thanks for the advice!

I'll take a look into your suggestion for the A-pillars - I'll definitely be changing some things here and there before finishing the MOC.

For the LAs, I've tested a variety of bevel gear placements while they were in their original orientation and all of them resulted in the LAs extending in opposite directions. It's hard to describe in words - it's basically what happens when three bevel gears are placed 90° to each other and the first/last gears would rotate in opposite directions.

[JLiu15]

UPDATE 3/28/18 - finished MOC

The Red Beryl X has been completed! I finished it last night, and honestly I feel it's a huge improvement over my Red Beryl GT last year. Of course, this MOC had its shortcomings, but overall the building process was very enjoyable and I was able to finish it earlier than anticipated.

I feel like the main shortcoming with this MOC is the transmission. Since the model turned out heavier than anticipated, the drive motors tend to struggle on the 2 higher gears. However, it drives ok on the two lower gears. A little more gear reduction before the transmission could have helped, but that would also result in the lower gears being ridiculously slow. The front suspension also tends to sag a little, but it springs back up just fine when compressed.

I plan on getting this MOC filmed in the coming weeks, and I plan on bringing it to BrickFair Virginia this summer. Stay tuned for the MOC topic!

Until next time,

Justin

Edited June 9, 2019 by JLiu15

[JLiu15]