Izzy's Custom Cages

What a great weekend for the Plan B Racing team! I can say that it was all a new experience for me! Never been at the "pointy end" much less been the point ;) All I had planned for the weekend was to finish both races to keep my license and be sure that the Plan B Racing/Izzy's Custom Cages/Performance Driven LLC Neon pulled back onto the trailer under its own power!

I lucked out on Saturday with Chris Edens having problems in lap 15. He seriously checked out after lap 3 or 4 (I guess he was the Pro and we were the Shmoes this time [GRM reference there]).

I was so surprised by the lead I had at the start, I forgot to shift going into 1. Before I realized what was going on, I bounced off of the rev limiter for what seemed like 5 seconds and Chris flew by me in T1 like I was standing still. Kind of a blur after that so I'll have to review the tape to see how the next 2 laps went. 

Video from the MR2 starting behind me. Listen for me bouncing off the limiter when I forgot to shift:

[YouTube: ULL-ZSe1flM]

I backed off once I saw Chris in T1 as I was coming out of Nascar 4 and just kept an eye on my mirrors and worked on some different lines. Coming through 3b I saw the standing yellow at 4 and realized it was Chris sitting at 5's corner station. Well now, that changes things! About a lap later my exhaust pipe decided to make things a little more interesting by separating from the resonator pipe. For a few seconds I didn't really know what happened, but knew something was wrong when I started seeing our friends in  white down on their knees looking under the car. I started praying for two things... the Last Lap sign and to NOT see the meatball flag. Thank you Control for letting me stay out there!

I came up on some traffic and wanted to get them in between me and the rest of the A guys. I didn't want to push anything too hard in the infield so waited until the oval/straight to really pass anyone. In doing so, I missed the last lap sign. Had I realized that, I'd have backed off and made it a little easier for the tapers up in T&S and Daryl up in the Start stand. Almost smacked into the other Neon at the finish line when he braked at the checker. Guess he didn't realize that he had another lap to go before his race was over. 

Sunday was just as new with us making the pole. I figured if I screwed up royally at the start, Nathan W, Jeff L, Pat F and Dana H. would be ALL over me. Nathan proved me right as he was filling my mirrors for quite a while. From the sound of it, all the action was a little further back so lets hear about it!

A huge thanks go out to my brother and car owner Steve Rhea, Mike Glassburner for all of his advise on setup, racecraft and just general entertainment, Tighe House for all of the hard work and BS taking for the last couple of years and to Performance Driven LLC for their amazing  springs. Hopefully next year we'll get out to more MiDiv races and get to mix it up with you guys a little more!

Awesome day today at the St. Louis Region SCCA October Double Regional Spooktacular Club Race! Our FIRST First place in ITA and first Overall Win. Things worked in our favor even after a mental error at the start when I forgot that I needed to actually shift from 3rd to 4th. I'm sure I'll have the video up soon.

Good day for the Izzy's Custom Cages LLC, Performance Driven LLC ITA Dodge Neon!

The final STL SCCA PDX is coming up this weekend! This is the last PDX of the '08 season and looks to be a very good event. The forecast.... well, we're not going to talk about it so as to not jinx it!

This will be my first time on the track this year and we're going to use the PDX to get me used to the car once again before the "Spooktacular" Club Race weekend the week after the PDX. Other than just blowing the cobwebs out of the driver, there have been a lot of updates to the car since I last turned a wheel at speed and still a couple more we want to tweek.

In the middle of all the fun this Sunday, I'll be giving away 1 FREE 4 point rollbar to either an entrant or volunteer worker who has participated in any of the STL Regions PDX's this year. So, someones going to be driving home with an EXTRA wide grin on their face!

Anyone car to take a guess at todays topic? I have confirmed my suspicions. Headliners-specifically 60's vintage "plasticy" headliners- don't take kindly to heat- of any sort. Even with wet rags and sheet metal heat dams, the collateral damage was severe during the pre heat and tack welding process. Even when the cage was 8"+ away from the headliner, it still suffered during the ~1200 degree normalizing process.

SOOOOO... we're on a little bit of a hiatus until a new headliner comes in. The good part is, the cage is so tight to the roof, that we'd never be able to replace the headliner after the cage is finally welded in, and yes, I consider that to be a good thing :D

Here are some pics of the progress so far:

69 Camaro Front half of cage

Dash bar clearance. Dash pad actually touches the dash bar.

Clearance on the dash side. Barely clears the instrument cluster and pad.

That gap on the drivers side was driving me crazy. 4"+ of room between the bar and the metal just doesn't compute for me, so I had the owner bring down the cluster and dash. The cluster just barely fits and leaves about 1/2" of gap at the widest point. With almost zero gap between the headlight switch and the downbar when the switch is pulled on (which won't be an issue as all of the electrical will be run off of a center switch panel).

(I'm a little behind on my updates)

The 69 Camaro cage is progressing well. The pad areas have been prepped, and the pads all formed up. There had to be a little touch up on a few of the pad areas due to some recent body work on the rockers. 

Straight from the body shop

Repair of the repair... making sure the cage has a solid foundation

Multiple repair panels all simply tack welded together

All seams/joints welded. Body filler was rampant in that corner

Before starting on anything, the entire car was wrapped in paper and bubble wrap... With it just out of the body shop, we're a little more cautious, although if something did happen, better now than after nice fresh paint.

About as stripped as can be

Test fitting the hoop and halo

Glen Johnsons Spec Miata was finished up over the weekend and is now getting prepped for it's first outing in full race trim this Wed. evening with the St. Louis Region SCCA's PDX. Enjoy it Glen! Shiney side up! Or should I say somewhat oxidized side up ;)

The finished project is can be found here: 8 point SCCA Spec Miata Rollcage
Here are a few teaser photos:

Passenger Side X and sill Bar

Drivers Side NASCAR style Doorbar

Passenger side roof clearance

As Glen was getting ready to take off in his new racecar, the next car was pulling into the shop. And when I say pulling... I mean we had to pull it manually into the shop. The car is a 1969 Cheverolet Camaro which is undergoing a full "frame-off" restification. The body ... and thats all there is... showed up on the body shops chassis dolley. It will be getting a full 10 point NHRA 4130 cage. The owner is aiming for the 10's in Stock Eliminator. Pictures and updates to follow. We're currently prepping the pad areas for the install and measuring and mocking up the cage.

Since I have zero idea on how to embed a youtube video into these posts like ultra cool cat christoc, you'll have to work for it  

http://www.youtube.com/v/OgUbAu0oPdo

We fabbed up a GT style tow eye for a recent project. .

GT Style Tow Eye extends through the hood. Bolts to the factory shock mounts. Here's the underhood shot.

Jim Easley's Spec Miata project is complete! Look for it to hit the PDX's, track days and ultimately the SCCA Club Race days soon!

More pics of the build here: http://www.izzyscustomcages.com/JESpecMiata.html

Jeef drops off the Honda S2000 for a cage tomorrow.

Where'd the time go? Been so busy lately that I've lost track of what I haven't updated!

The Fox body "Domestic Drifter" project is long gone... unsure whether it's been sliding yet at any of the Midnight Madness events or not... I'll have to get an update!

A new BMW E30 came in for a some work. The track day M3 received a full 8 point road racing cage. We ran into a snag on the seat installs so we're waiting on some new fixed back seats to show up. Also installed some sway bar mount reinforcements on the front struts.

Alex April brought his E30 back in for the passenger side seat install before the STL BMWCCA's June 6th HPDE at GIR.

While we wait on seats for the M3, a Spec Miata is in the shop for an 8 point. So far we have the interior pulled and are prepping the pad area's for the installation.

The "Plan B Racing" team attended the STL SCCA's  June (or was it May?)  PDX and had a great time! The Neon ran well and we continue to knock time off of the clock! We're updating some minor issues involved with the suspension adjustment (mismatched bolt sizes/wrong "crash" bolts left over from it's years of Showroom Stock duty). Once we get those resolved, we're hoping that we'll only have to adjust the camber once/twice a day... instead of every session!

"Plan B" also attended the STL SCCA's first Rallycross of the year at GIR! What a great day!  As a bonus, it was Father's Day and my brother Steve & I  dragged our father Harold with us to play in the dirt (ok, hay). The Sentra SE-R performed great and was flogged unmercifully. After the official competition was over, we were able to get some fun runs in. Ol' Harold showed us youngins a thing or two. For the first time ever in a FWD car at speed... on dirt, I'm thinking he may have given us a run for our money! He hasn't driven a car aggressively on dirt in about 50 years since driving the back roads down in Arkansas in a '38 Packasaurus with a dead cylinder and mechanical brakes!... uphill both ways!

Oh.. the Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4's cage has been painted... I'll link to some pics here soon.

The "Domestic Drifter" project is done and will be sliding at Midnight Madness soon. The project included a full 6 point cage, jacking pads, driver and passenger seat mounts and a little remounting of the rear watts link mounts/braces. The cage was pretty straightforward. The rear pads were beefed up a little to reinforce the stock shock mounts. The Griggs racing kit converts the stock shock setup into a coil-over setup. The stock upper shock mounts leave much to be desired SO.....

That should carry the loads of

The main hoop pads tie into the lower control arm torque boxes and rocker panels rather than the floor pan.

The jacking pads extend down from the rear hoop pads down to the floorpan to make the constant tire changes associated with drifting a little easier. A section of 1" tube had to be added underneith the floorpan to protect the factory fuel & brake lines. Why Ford placed the fluid lines so close to the likely jacking point is beyond me...

The front pads worked out fairly well and double as jack points

and the topper... the flag mount for the Jolly Roger:

I'll post some pics of the other repairs as they deserve their own post :) Bubble Gum & Duct Tape p.2????

Wrapped up the BMW E30's 4 point rollbar, Recarro seat install, strut bar install and rear sway bar mount reinforcement over the past weekend.

The strut bar install took more time than a prefab bar should take to install. Quite a bit of tweaking was involved in order to get the bar close to fitting. Definitely not a 20 minute R&R job should a motor swap ever be in the future.

A little last minute sway bar reinforcement was added to the list as Alex is planning on upgrading the rear sway bar and the rear mounts are known to fail with the heavier aftermarket bars.

On to the next project! The "Domestic Drifter" project has rolled in and is well underway. The car owner, "Gru" is building the Fox Body Mustang into a Formula D drift car. Rather than building the usual Nissan 240sx or using his very cool Nissan Skyline for track duty, Gru is building a rarity in drift circles.... a domestic! V8 power plus a full on Griggs Racing/Koni coil over suspension.

So far, the pad areas have been prepped, dash removed and the main hoop has been fabbed up. I'll update as we go along.