Komodo Motoring - Sumo A (1962)

[koolkei]

This thread is about the story and legacy of how the Komodo Motors came to be today.
this thread is meant for more of a story telling thread of our past.

original post below

:P we are a small engine manufacturer from japan and are looking for a partner to make our first car
about our history and how we started can be read here
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8476

1955


we are a small and developing company, and this is our first big stride to go forth into the automotive industry
but, we don't have the resources or time to fully design and develop a whole new car by ourselves for the moment.

for this purpose we are trying to get a partnership to help us produce our very first car.
with our to be partner providing the platform, and us fitting our engine and do the final tuning.

what we are looking for (not rules but guidelines of preferences)

• a body with a lot of trim option going forward
• weight of 700kg or lower (with an engine roughly 110Kgs)
• total cost of around 3500
• production units less than 68
• Release year between 1955-1958

this is meant to be a car for the Japanese Domestic Market (we're not going multinational yet)

we are looking forward to the option we would have to pick

update: news, we finally have finished our prototype engine are very happy with the results
this is our engine that we will be producing and putting in the car.

KoM.zip

(74.31 KiB) Downloaded 215 times

[squidhead]

Well... we are up to designing a car in 1955, but the company dictates we do sportscars, and usually we are very limited in resources so building it all is not really possible for us in 1955.

[koolkei]

it's really just 'hitchhiking' the production line

[oppositelock]

How's this?

glhs386 - Komodo Alpha.zip

(88.53 KiB) Downloaded 239 times

[koolkei]

that's good option right there will look into it.

also i noticed quite the tech for a low cost small car, and the engine output is quite high for it's time (not that this matters, we'll be using our engine)

btw, which car company designed this?

[oppositelock]

GSI = Grey-Skies Industries. Glad you like it. I can also help optimize it for whatever engine you want to use if you send me the file.

[Oskiinus]

hmm... Airborne Motor Company (name of Airborne Automotive before 1973) can be interested into launching Komodo Motoring into the market, but with 10% profits at least to end of production of the car if it's chosen and having 10% of actions. (the actions you can consider by yourself - I won't force to anything personally, just having some hand on this thing). What type of car do you want? 50s mini?

[Spitfire599]

Spitfire is a budding American car company started in 1948, and in 1955 have expanded by creating their own luxury division. However, they're not inexperienced building cars such as that, and their design studio cranks out some pretty futuristic looking cars, so I'd be willing to partner up!

[koolkei]

hmm... Airborne Motor Company (name of Airborne Automotive before 1973) can be interested into launching Komodo Motoring into the market, but with 10% profits at least to end of production of the car if it's chosen and having 10% of actions. (the actions you can consider by yourself - I won't force to anything personally, just having some hand on this thing). What type of car do you want? 50s mini?

giving 10% of the action will be taken is perfectly fine. and for only 10% of the profits of each car, it's a bargain for us, considering we only put the engine in. also getting help with more the experienced company would be a huge help anyway. we would totally agree to the condition asked if you were to be picked as our chose partner.

Spitfire is a budding American car company started in 1948, and in 1955 have expanded by creating their own luxury division. However, they're not inexperienced building cars such as that, and their design studio cranks out some pretty futuristic looking cars, so I'd be willing to partner up!

if you are willing to share the expenses and get some of the profit, while helping the Japan-US connection back up.
it would be a plus to all sides

so try your luck and post your prototype here

[koolkei]

bump.
we are still looking for partner and the proposed designs

[koolkei]

1956

it was around the mid of october 1956. we only received 2 proposal after asking lot of companies.
a lot of japanese manufacturers just plainly said no, and quickly at that. although we understand it's because of the nation economy, japan just have started waking up again after the war. as it turns out, both to be the non-japanese companies that are finally interested, which was also looking to get into the market here anyway, or so we were told.

"well i guess we don't have much choice. we just have to make do with what we have and work from there" is what i said to my employees. we are still a small company, i treat my employees like my family. we make the choices together, not me and "the board of directors".

so this was the first proposed car that we received. this is the car from Grey-Skies Industries.
they Proposed the name 'Komodo Alpha'
and this is the car.





now we wanted to put our own engine in the car. and that we insist on it to cut down on production time and cost.
so instead of arguing with us, they actually gives us advice and feedback about the engine. which was super helpful on our side.

so this was the setup and the stats with our originally designed engine



after months of re-tuning and revising the engine with the advice, the engine got quite a lot more optimal. but then it turns out the engine is getting heavier, and more expensive. so we were forced to dial back some of the tune to keep the production simple, it was a bit of compromise, but we can't go too complex, otherwise it would be too expensive for us to make enough of if it actually sells better than expected.

so this was the end result.



it didn't need much tweaking on the whole car part itself. really good job from GSI

the car, with the finalized engine was able to pull from 0 to 60 in 14.3 seconds thanks to it's high and flat torque curve all along the powerband with peak of 105Nm@2k RPM. the car also manages a top speed of 139Km/h, more than you would ever do on a japanese road of the day.

as for the looks. we had to be honest with ourselves. it's not ugly. it's just........ plain, really plain. in the front, there are 2 small headlights, an indicator for each side, and a grill, a REALLY small grille that was a bit tricky to work with. and on the back. just 2 brake lights on each side and a place for the license plate. but, somehow it actually looks good and fitting with the body.

but aside from the car, the company itself was really unbelievably friendly, giving priceless advice and tips just because for us. unheard of in a global industry of the size.

[oppositelock]

Great review, thanks. I'm curious, what changes did you end up making to the engine?

[koolkei]

I think like -1 quality on exhaust. And i forgot what else i did, but i made it slightly less efficient. Because cost

[Oskiinus]

Not to be offense, but I would like to see how would you review Ashin (Ashisuanto = Ashin, second name is just shortened for not killing people's tongues xD)

[koolkei]

i will, i was planning to. haven't got either the mood or the time to make it (i suck at writing prompt. the one above took like 1 hour or more....)

it will be coming tho