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Comment by olivermarks | Hacker News Reader

I'm a big fan of people building vehicles - I do - but there's a hot rodding expression 'beautiful deathtrap'.

People build aesthetically attractive vehicles, often with very powerful engines, spend a fortune on paint and visuals but there are lots of potentially deadly mechanical single points of failure.

Some of these vehicles are mostly trailer queen show cars, but the ones that are driven a lot often need some safety work. I know of a socal shop that fixes high end customs designed by TV show car personalities so they are actually driveable

Uncle Tony's garage showing some scary hacks video: https://youtu.be/a-DfxrEnDsI

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For every genuine safety hazard there's dozens of people complaining about stuff that just isn't. Seems like safety is just the trojan horse that the "you shouldn't have modified anything it was perfect the way the factory built it" people use to get past the gate these days (not saying you're one of those people).

I skimmed the video. I didn't see anything particularly out of line. Their metal fabrication wasn't great but it's fine for what they're building and frankly where they're building it (don't get me wrong, that suspension is a kludge but they probably don't have enough car to break it).

I like to see stuff attached to fiberglass anchored better and over more area but I'm no expert on fiberglass so I don't have a good feel for what you can get away with and what they did was as good as what you see on boats.

I think you missed my broader point. I wasn't particularly criticizing this Bugatti emulation, I was making a broader point about people building aesthetically pleasing vehicle, because looks are everything to most people, and skimping on the mechanicals.

This emulation looks like a film prop vehicle and they were very clever in how they created it. I did a metal bashing workshop with Gene Winfield (now 94 years old and going strong) last fall, a famous car customizer and builder of a lot of Hollywood vehicles including the Bladerunner vehicles. He was very clear on what was for visuals and what had to actually work and go down the road.

This will go down the road just fine though. The tiny little diesel will make it go but won't break their ghetto CV extension. Those small car calipers and plate brake rotors will let it stop just fine (probably better than you'd think since they're so big). The structural stuff is ugly, overbuilt and heavy. The design isn't the greatest (lol what even is triangulation) but they make up for it in metal well enough that they probably won't be able to hurt it. What it won't do is perform as well as it looks. Don't expect to track it with that tiny little engine and questionable (in the most literal sense of the word, they probably don't even know their numbers) suspension geometry.

These guys are welding and using angle grinders without any face / eye protection. There is a different set of safety standards in their country.

I had red hot metal flake land on my eye once. Even while wearing safety glasses (the type without the side shields). When I went to the hospital, the nurse was extremely concerned if I could see anything because of how red/puffy my eyes were.

After a 12 hour wait, the doctor had to use metal tweezers and dig it out of my eye. Absolutely terrifying. He said there was rust residue that needs to be removed and would need to go the specialized eye center where they would need to use a specialized drill.

After that, I double up on everything. Not worth it.

> After a 12 hour wait, the doctor had to use metal tweezers and dig it out of my eye

12 hour wait to see the doctor for an eye injury? Were you in the middle of the desert?

Wow, sorry to hear you went through that. I do a lot of metal fab (hobbyist) and that is basically my worst nightmare.

Agree, you can't be too careful, especially when you are frustrated and about to cut corners to save time

You left out the most important part - is your eye ok now?

Yeah that is pretty upsetting to see, they are potentially doing permanent damage to their eyesight. Presumably someone is paying for all of this but isn't paying for eye protection?

They have no protections at all, except for a COVID mask. Eyes, head, hands, legs, feet, nothing.

For true safety you really need mass production as you need several "copies" of the car for crash testing.

The best practice IMO is to modify cars (or components of cars) that have already gone through that testing. I use first gen Jaguar suspension modules that work in most project cars and provide superb ride, steering geometry and brakes for example. I am very opposed to restricting vehicles to those the authorities have rubber stamped because there are some truly awful and dangerous mass produced cars out there.

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