I started Project PL8 in August 2023. The goal is a street-legal sports car made out of basalt fiber, with students doing the engineering. We're up to 64 people now, and I run both the org and the engineering.
StatusActive, founded August 2023
Team64 members across 4 business and 8 engineering teams
Target carMid-engine V8, steel frame wrapped in basalt between carbon fiber skins, 120K budget
Built so farBasalt fabric cut, one test panel laid up and vacuum-bagged, tooling started. No running car
Not recordedCurrent member count is inconsistent across sources (53 in the one-pager, 64 in the resume), so this page uses 64
Sheet 02 of 08/Why basalt
Working with basalt
Almost nothing about basalt is standardized for a car structure. There's no number we can look up, so every structural decision needs its own test.
PL 01Measuring and cutting our first roll of basalt fabric. The rest of the car depends on whether this material can be laid up cleanly.
PL 02The roll laid out in a hallway, because we don't have a clean room yet.
PL 03Cutting a ply to length by hand. How well it's cut here decides the fibre alignment in the finished part.
PL 11We ran masking tape across the roll and cut along it from both ends.
Sheet 03 of 08/Target car
The target car
The main numbers on our spec sheet (weight, power and torque) are all marked "Est." because nothing on this car has been built, weighed or driven yet.
PL 04The target car on one page, with an LS3 V8, a Porsche G86 gearbox, and a triple-layer chassis made of a steel tube frame wrapped in basalt between two composite skins. Every number on it is still an estimate.
Sheet 04 of 08/The team
Running 64 people
Running it is mostly about writing every decision down. The team turns over every year, so a choice that only exists in someone's head gets made again from scratch next spring.
PL 09A general meeting. Most of the job is keeping 64 people across twelve teams working toward one car.
PL 12Our table and roll-up banner set up in a courtyard, with two members in PL8 shirts.
PL 14The same banner and table cover under a tent at another tabling event.
PL 15Our table at a car meet in a parking garage. We brought Thai tea and cookies.
PL 16A group photo at the table later that night.
PL 17Talking to visitors at the recruiting table, in a room hung with car paintings.
Sheet 05 of 08/The money
The budget
Most of our 120K budget goes to the powertrain at 38K and the chassis at 36K. The rest of the car splits what's left.
PL 05Where the money has to go. Powertrain at 38K and chassis or shell at 36K take up most of it, and the rest of the car splits what's left.
Sheet 06 of 08/Where it stands
What exists now
So far we've cut basalt fabric, laid up and vacuum-bagged one test panel, and started building our own tooling. There's still no chassis and no car.
PL 18A box of supplies with tape, metal mesh, a gauge and a can of Miracle Gloss wax.
PL 06The autoclave we'd need for a cured structural laminate. It sits in a campus lab we don't own.
PL 08The first panel under vacuum, with the bagging film pulled down over the layup. This is the step where a flat test piece either consolidates or doesn't.
PL 19The bag on the counter with the vacuum port still on it, and a mallet and clamps beside it.
PL 20Close up of the clear bag film where it folded over the red mesh.
PL 08The first panel, out of the bag. A flat coupon is the cheapest way to find out what the process produces.
PL 21The same panel at an angle, where the surface picks up the light.
PL 07Cutting sheet stock for tooling in a member's garage, which is our shop.
PL 08It takes two people to feed one panel. Most of our early manufacturing lessons were about fixturing.
PL 22Two of us pushing a sheet through the table saw.
Sheet 07 of 08/Next time
What I would do differently
If I started it again, I'd build a test coupon before an org chart. Pulling a flat basalt panel to failure would tell us more than any sponsor deck.
PL 10Officers at a recruiting table. The logo, the shirts and the table cover are all part of the same identity system I drew.
