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Last Update 8/28/08
Member RT Build Stories
Building a Malone Skunk, by Mike Veal:
I suppose I should add my three pence worth, should anyone care.
This is more a tale of woe than a glimpse into my design process. I've dreamed about building a
small lightweight car for years. In my mind, I had a short square single
seat chassis, with a tuned A series mid mounted and driving the read wheels.
Somewhere around 2000, I caught a program on the Men and Motors channel, "Kits and Cruising".
They reviewed the Malone Skunk. I wanted one. 2001 came and went, and I replaced the bathroom in my house.
In 2002 I knocked down the tiny garage at the end of the garden and built a proper double garage come workshop.
I'm English, I cannot exist without a shed.
In October 2002, I visited Malone, test drove the Skunk and was hooked. I had planed to also look at a Cobra replica and the Phantom GTR, but after
being hurled around the roads of Devon in the passenger seat I really couldn't see the point of
traveling to see the other choices. Out came the checkbook and I put down a deposit for the Skunk.
Mine was to be the first of the R1 powered Skunks.
I appreciate that I'm a bit of an oddity here, in that I'm a kit builder, whereas
many guys seem to have scratch builds. After my experience with a kit, I cannot describe the respect I have for anyone who can build
a car from the ground up.
The Skunk was scheduled for delivery in February of 2003. In July 2003 I was still
kit-less. I was due to go on vacation in August, then a extended work trip.
I pointed out to Malone that if they didn't deliver before August, then they wouldn't be able to deliver until September, no
delivery, no money. That seemed to focus Malone, and they made the delivery of the kit in the closing days of July.
They also collected the full balance of payment.
I started putting the kit together in September. In October I started to
realize that I was short of parts. There's no manual, or part list for a Skunk, so it's not until you start to put things together that you
realize bits are missing. The petrol tank (I spotted that one!), engine mounts,
steering columns, steering arms, brake disks, hub carriers. The list of missing parts was immense, but as a novice builder, I failed to spot most
of it. After constant pestering, the final parts was delivered from Malone around
Christmas of 2006.
My build has also been a trial of mis-fitting parts. The steering column ran through the
center of an engine mount. (Malone had never had the steering column and the engine in the car at the same
time). The replacement bolt in engine mount fouled a chassis member making it
impossible to bolt in.
There's a crown and pinion drive that transfers power from the prop-shaft to the chain sprocket.
Malone had previously used a Fazer 900 engine in the Skunk, and the drive unit was robbed from this prop drive bike.
Since the R1 engine rotates in the opposite direction to the Fazer 900, Malone
moved the swing-arm from the drivers to the passenger side of the car, and simply bolted the Fazer crown and pinion gear in upside down.
I did explain to them that they'd be applying the power to the back side of the
teeth in this gearbox and that it would wear, but they pressed on regardless, dismantling their demonstrator at 1000 miles (parts to build
the company demonstrator always seemed to be prioritized above parts for customer cars) and finding excessive wear and a
metallic sludge in the bottom of the box. All customers were advised to
trash the Fazer 900 crown and pinion drives that Malone had sold them and to purchase drive units
from the back of a BMW R80 / R100 bike.
When the prop-shafts turned up, they were built by Malone and both were 90 degrees out of phase and neither were balanced.
To be fair to Malone the problem was quickly rectified, they replaced the props with ones built by
a reputable company within a week.
Sourcing front wheels was an interesting exercise. The Skunk's roll centers
were designed around a 17" motorcycle tire. Since the wheel is only supported on one side, these
tires were fitted to a car wheel, in turn bolted to a Triumph Herald stub axle and upright (good enough for a
Lotus Esprit, good enough for a Skunk). Unfortunately, if you purchase a 17" rim for a car, you actually get
17.2", whereas, for a motorcycle, 17" means 17.0". The upshot of which is that you cannot put a 17" motorcycle
tire onto a 17.2" car rim.
It turns out that the first Malone demonstrator used wheels sourced from a
fledgling car wheel manufacturer. The fledgling manufacturer produced spun
rims to Malone's specification without realizing about the difference between motorcycle rims and car rims.
A couple of years later, the fledgling manufacturer threw out the tooling for the 17" rim, writing the
cost off against tax. Result: 17.0" car rims are now unobtainable. To muddy the waters, Malone and the fledgling manufacturer had a
disagreement over this issue and were not talking, leaving me to pick up the pieces.
Eventually, I sourced 18" motorcycle tires with a similar profile to the 17" ones spec'd by Malone, and
purchased suitable car rims. There is no mismatch between motorcycle and car
tires at any size other than 17".
Of course, this then gave me the problem of mudguards. The mudguards supplied by Malone were for the 17"
tire. They were not large enough to be legal on the 18" wheels I was now forced to buy. It took me 6 months on
and off to produce a fiber glass mudguard that I was happy with.
Then there is the issue of the rear brake. Malone's design looks like this Rear wheel with sprocket, chain, front sprocket with brake disk carrying
rear brake and handbrake calipers. In the UK, all trikes have to pass a Motorcycle Single Vehicle
Assessment. Despite promising to get one of their cars tested, Malone have not submitted a car to MSVA yet.
Only customer cars have been through the test. And, yes, the examiner was not happy with
a brake connected to the rear wheel via a chain.
To solve this, I had to make a custom bracket, purchase a new caliper (old one £70 now redundant) and have a custom brake disk made (£100).
There have of course been numerous other problems. The most recent of which is an oil leak from the BMW crown and pinion drive.
Looking a the unit, it soon dawned on me that the prop-shaft oil seal was fitted the
wrong way round. Having researched a little, I now know why. On the R80/R100 bike the prop runs inside the
swing-arm in an oil bath. The oil seal in question is renowned for leaking.
But when it does, oil passes from the swing-arm into the crown and pinion drive resulting in an overfill
of the final drive. The oil seal was fitted to stop oil getting into the crown and pinion unit.
In the Skunk, oil is flowing freely out of this unit and filling my footwells.
The seal has been reversed, and the car should be back on the road soon. I hope the problem will be fixed.
My car was finally finished in July 2007.
So, lessons I've learnt :
1: Talk to kit builders before purchasing a kit.
2: When purchasing a kit, examine a built car thoroughly. Make a list of
all custom parts. When the kit is delivered, don't part with cash unless all the parts are present.
3: Don't touch a product without a build manual.
4: Don't believe the manufacturer estimated cost of a build. Malone said
that the car could be built for £6000. The kit was £5000, the custom wheels were £800 (custom offsets = custom wheels), leaving 200 for an
engine, harnesses, lights, steering column, brake calipers etc. etc.
5: Don't believe the manufacturers stated weight. Malone used to say a
Skunk weighs about 290 Kg. Mine is 380Kg. Another builder I know has 390Kg.
These are using lightweight parts, and neither of us has any extras.
Was it worth the time, effort and money I've spent? No, definitely not.
Given a do over, would I do it again? Hell yes! Mike Veal, UK
Waiting on build stories for - (submit your build story for any kit, homebuilt, or plans built RT and I'll add it to this page)
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