In 2019, Griphaus were approached by Action 99 Cars to develop a custom bar system for both the rear and front seats of their Porsche Cayenne Motocrane Arm Car. The bar systems 'beams' developed where to allow them to mount multiple monitors and the control desk/ wheels.
Griphaus developed a fully articulating beam system on the rear that had a dual slider built-in allowing the ability to swap hardware across sides within minutes, or temporarily move the control wheels to the side to make it easier while entering and exiting the car. Beam height, angle and position of the wheels are fully adjustable. Giving you paralleled adjustability depending on the needs of the Operator. In order to create a rigid beam system, we developed various plates and adjuster plates that fix to the B-Posts of the car and neatly integrate with the cars interior panelling.
We also developed a front beam system that had limited fixing potential. As there was no significant weight in the system, we sandwiched the very rear of the dashboard with various contoured profiles, before mounting the front beam, taking advantage of having the maximum amount of evenly distributed pressure placed along the entire length of the passenger side of the dash.
Initial visual inspections behind the dashboard and disassembly.
Initial visual inspection of the B-Posts of the Porsche Cayenne. We had to develop a system that securely fixed to the B-Posts while having no interference with the operation of the seat belt system.
Many considerations were taken with regards to the contoured inner profile of the B posts and establishing where we could penetrate through the interior panelling of the car while still maintaining 100% safety on the seat belt side and not hindering any of the operations of the car rear door system and the operation/adjustments of the front seats. We didn't have much space to work with, so it made for an interesting development stage.
In house 3D printing of prototype parts was absolutely essential on this design and proved invaluable. On our first trial fitment we established pretty soon that our initial design completely blocked the rear door lever when set at a specific height and would have made exiting the car impossible. An oversight by all but an invaluable lesson and example as to how 3D printing saved the day. After adjusting our design to include a bend in the support arms to accommodate the clearance needed to operate the door lever, we were on route to success.
With a single measurement session and 2 prototype fitment sessions, the part designs were finalised and ready for manufacturing.
After a gruelling installation day, the following day the vehicle was unveiled through multiple demonstrations to several invited private guests.
The Porsche Cayenne Motocrane Car in action... Doing what it was born to do!
A demo video made by Action 99 Cars of the team doing some test runs down the private airstrip near their facilities.
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