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Racing and Project Blog
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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.
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Alex April's E30 4 point project is just about wrapped up. Took a little longer than I had anticipated, but toss a sick kid and a tax deadline in the mix and progress can get slowed down a tad. Pretty straightforward 4 point with some reinforcement of the shock tower/coil spring mount areas as well as a "strut" bar and a hoop brace diagonal. Once again seat mounting has proved itself to be tons o' fun. The old "one step forward 2 steps back" waltz was in full effect as we tried using some Recarro sliders with the stock mounting points and the front 11mmx1.50 studs. Drill the holes a little bigger... that works, slot the rear holes... whoops, the slider is hitting on the stud, spacers for the stud to raise the front of the slider.... ahhhhh now we're located! Mount up the seat for a test fit... adjust a little and measure the position and angle of the seat, get the harness bar location and angle of the shoulder belts, pull the seat back out. After welding the harness bar in and getting everything painted and tidy'd back up, go to reinstall the seats... take a step back, 11x1.50 bolt head isn't going to fit in the rails for the rear bolts, nor will a nut fit on the fronts for the studs ... off to the Grainger down off of S. Hanley and grab some socket head bolts... heads still look fairly large, but can deal with that easily enough. Back in the shop, cut off the factory studs, centerpunch, then drill out the heads. No real access to the bottom sides, so extend the hole through the seat mounts crossmember. Make up a 2"x.125" washer as a backing plate on the outer mount (inner mount was ok with a normal fender washer, outer mount had another hole w/i .25" of the new bolt hole). New 3" g8 bolts and locknuts in the front holes... a little grassroots lathe work (mix one drill and a belt sander and use your imagination) on the socket head bolts and the rears were installed. Check the bottom sides for any issues... threads are too long on outside and is rubbing on the fuel line.... couldn't possibly be any future issues there right? Bolt comes back out, run a die onto the bolt, cut the hardened bolt, round off the cut, re-cut the threads with the die and viola!!!!! Drivers seat is ready to bolt in! Now for the passenger seat! Oh... ebay sliders shipping were delayed... good, I'm tired of seats! On to the strut bar and then the rear sway bar bracket mounts.
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Just putting this someplace that's easy for me to access. GIR Track Days/Races April 16 SCCA PDX Precision Driving Xperience, Wednesday,, 4 pm - Dark, register on www.DLBRacing.com
April 26-27, NASA Race & HPDE, Gateway International, Madison, IL (http://racenasa.nasamidwest.com/)
May 7 St. Louis Region SCCA PDX Wed Night 3p-dark
May 21 St. Louis Region SCCA PDX Wed Night 3p-dark
May 24, St. Louis Region SCCA PDX Saturday ALL DAY
June 6-8, St. Louis BMW CCA DE,
June 13th, 14th - Impala Club, ("HPDE")
August 2-3 SCCA Regional Race / IT, Gateway International, Madison, IL
September 26-27 St Louis Region PCA DE (http://www.stlpca.org/CarreraClassic/tabid/61/Default.aspx )
October 19, St. Louis Region SCCA PDX
October 25-26 SCCA Regional Race / IT
October 31-November 2 St. Louis BMW CCA DE
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The Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4 has headed back north to Iowa. Won't be long and it'll be tearing up the track in NASA's TTR class.
"Izzy" earned his keep while we were loading the car up. Apparently the 3K GT's are fairly wired together and the windows wouldn't roll up with the dash out of the car (owner still had some rewiring to do under the dash, so it wasn't reinstalled during the cage build), but the locks work... We were able to hot wire the windows and proceeded to close the doors... with them locked and the keys in it. Luckily the hatch was still open... although there was no way any of us were going to be able to snake our way through the cage to get to the key or the door handles... "Izzy" to the rescue. The cage was truly a jungle gym and he had a great time snaking his way to the door to pop it open! I'll have to see if we were able to get pics of that one.
The dust had barely settled after sweeping the shop out when the next project rolled in. Another E30 4 pointer. This should be a quick one with a Fox body Mustang drift car coming in on the 18th.
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It seems in racing, there's always a plan of attack, then there's Plan B for when things don't quite go as planned.
This past weekend at GIR was the first road race of the year for Plan "B" Racing. We made some pretty big changes to the Neon this winter - hopefully to be more competitive than the previous 4 years in SSC and ITA:
Performance Driven Springs all around
New through the dash custom 8 point safety cage from Izzy’s Custom Cages
New Bultler Built Racing Seat
Polyurethane Bushings from Energy Suspension/Modern Performance
Spherical bearings in front control arms
New Hubs, bearings and rotors
New exhaust system: header, Purple Hornie(!) muffler, and custom side exhaust
New CAI
MSD coil pack and Magnacore spark plug wires
New mirror locations
New Tach
New Steering Wheel
New Window Net mount and Safety Solutions Right Side Net
FireCharger 5 lb fire suppression system
4 wheel alignment getting maximum camber all around
LongAcre Hot Lap timer
We really had no idea what to expect out of the car when we finally got it to the track. We were hoping that the massive understeer problem had been addressed with the some of the modifications to the suspension, but we hope we didn’t go too far. Just to add a little flavor to the unknown mix, it poured down rain at Gateway International Raceway Thursday night prior to the event which delayed loading the car up. So, we weren't able to get to the track until Friday afternoon and pretty much missed the whole T&T day.
Steve didn’t get a whole lot of sleep Friday night but was excited and ready for Saturday. With the new springs, we decided to back the Konis off to the medium position in an effort to control things a little bit and give us a middle of the road setup, set the tire pressures on the Toyo RA1's to 35 all around and planned on running 5 laps, then come in for temps and pressure readings just to see where we were.
As Steve headed out onto the track and began working some heat in the tires, he could tell immediately that the car was rotating very well. BUT, what is that noise? Turns out the exhaust tip worked loose and was dragging the ground on right hand turns. Back to the hot pits for Scott to fix the problem and head back out. Another first, having a “pit crew “ on pit road and not having to drive back to the paddock.
For anyone that hasn't run GIR, turn 6 is deceptively tough as a decreasing radius and we've had a lot of difficulty with it in the past. The Neon would just plow the front end through the corner no matter what we attempted. With the new suspension, the car is totally different. Steve was able to make the car rotate with either throttle/brake/steering input. He played with all 3 for the first 5 laps and then came in for the tire temps and pressure check. Pressures were good, but tire temps in the front are all over the place. WAY to much camber on Drivers front as we had nearly a 50 degree range across the tire. Pass. front was w/i 15 degrees. The back tires were very even (especially since they're just along to serve as weight  .
Steve went back out and got back in the rhythm of driving again and running with a couple of other ITA cars, getting faster and faster, experimenting with lines and such, when he came off of turn 7 (hairpin turn onto NASCAR oval) and saw what looked like an alternator in the racing line. He moved out to the right of it so the guys behind him can see it as well, glanced in his left mirror in order to move back into the groove when BAM! something hit the right front underside of the car really hard scaring the Bejeezus out of him. We later found out that the hit was so hard that the video camera skipped during the recording. Having already passed the pit road lane, he pulled down on the inside and used the pace car escape lane and everything seemed fine. Back in the paddock we began looking it over. We crawled all over the car and only saw one little shiny area on the right control arm where something might have hit it. On closer inspection, the tie down hole in the subframe is now concave instead of convex, so whatever it was that Steve hit bent that area a lot, but didn’t affect the overall shape of the frame. We don’t know if that caused the camber to go away as well, but basically we went from ~2.5 deg to 0 deg of camber. Turns out that it was indeed an alternator laying on the track and Steve aparently hit the alternator bracket.
Qualifying wasn’t quite what we were hoping for as Steve was 8th out of 9 drivers in the class but he felt pretty comfortable in the car. At the start of the race he got a decent start and passed a couple of ITA cars and got into a pretty decent battle with an ITR Mustang for about half a lap, but then he had an off and never saw him again. After that he had a great time battling an ITA Miata for probably 8-10 laps of side by side, on your bumper, filling your mirror type clean racing. Steve passed the Miata once and then missed a shift a few laps later and the Miata regained the position. With only a few laps remaining Steve managed to squeak by him again for the position. Ended up 4th out of 9 in ITA and was pretty happy.
The important part was that now the car does not have the understeer that it used to have, which means we are heading in the right direction.
Stay tuned for Sundays recap and some video.
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The cage progress on the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 was going like gangbusters... til we got to the seats and somebody tossed the anchor overboard 
I hate seats... why can't we just strap ourselves to the floors and call it good?
Actually, the seat installs (yes installS... there's two of them :blech:) are going fairly well. The Sparco seats are going to be attached to a framework off of the cage itself rather than bolting to the floor.
I'm making them adjustable, but only for initial fitting. The owner is based out of Iowa, so we'll be fitting the seats to him when he comes to pick the car up, possibly next week. If all goes right, we'll play with the angle, play with the fore/aft placement, tack the seat brackets in place, pull the seat(s) and finish up the welds.
The factory seat brackets had to be removed in order to get the seat as low as possible. The floorpan/tranny tunnel has been extensively massaged (read, cut) to make room for the seats and framework. I became reintroduced to the beauty of the air hammer with the right fitting.
The cutting chisel was a god send. I discovered the spot weld cutter a little late in the project, but it worked very well. The only downside to the air hammer is that things can (and do) go wrong quickly The 3000GT actually has a floor and subfloor throughout most of the cabin. This is making things a little interesting, especially for reforming the floorpan... but that's for next week.
1 3/8" tube was used for the framework with 1.75" tube split to form collars that the brackets weld to. This will allow us to move the collars along the frame for final fitting.
 
On the Neon front... we're racing this weekend! We'd hoped to do the T&T, but it just wasn't in the cards today. Almost 1pm before we had the car unloaded and the paddock area set up for the weekend. Steve may have run a couple of sessions, but I missed out as I had to be at my real job @ 2p.
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Good progress on the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 the past couple of days...
I had a glass company come out and remove the front windshield for the A pillar gussets and dash bar installation. WOW is it easy with the windshield gone. I really should start doing that for every cage, but probably wont except on special occasions like this. I'll be calling them back out to remove the rear hatch glass and probably install the Percy's Lexan Kit that the owner bought.
Rear X is complete.
7th & 8th points are complete.
The body gusseting plates are formed although I'm waiting on a 1" dimple die to get here to complete the gussets. I just got the cage too tight to the body to use my 1.5" or 1.75" die sets Lateral bars are already tied into the A pillar in a couple of spots as I was able to get the fit pretty tight. The rest will be connected with the stamped gussets.
Dash bar is in and will tie into the factory cross beam with a dimpled gusset.
The sill bars and main door bars are welded in and the bisected bars for the X will get welded in tonight.
Once the X's get finished, the pads will finally get tied into the chassis, as I wont need to move anything around anymore. Been looking forward to that moment for some time as that's the major turning point in every cage project.
Once the pads are tied in, the diagonal will go in followed by a bar that will tie into the tranny tunnel and will be the support bar for the seat/harness mount frames.
For more pics: 3000 GT VR4
On the Neon front, car was teched today and other than some brake lights that aren't working... no major problems! Still waiting on some vinyl from some sponsors and then the new look is complete. We'll have the car at the friday Test & Tune and will see how the new springs, spherical bearings, poly bushings, cage, rear bar, intake, and header/exhaust have changed the car! Only one week away!
Updated pics! ITA Neon
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Making decent progress on the 3000 GT. Main Hoop & Laterals, along with the windshield brace, roof bar and associated gussets are all complete. Rear hoop braces and 2/3's of the rear triangulation are complete with the third bar to be completed before the diagonal/harness bar goes in. Doorbar X's and sill bars are being fit and will be one with the cage shortly. Windshield will be coming out tomorrow to get ready for some of the gusseting into the A pillars and roof.
The always "fun" 7th & 8th points will be starting this evening. They'll be tying into the factory front framerails although not going through the firewall.
Some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23583304@N00/sets/72157604145725225/show/
The Neon looks like it's going to be ready for the St. Louis Regions first race of the season at GIR in 2 weeks. Interior and Cage paint is done, graphics installed, alignment done and all that other stuff that seemed to take forever. Sounds like tech inspection is going to happen this weekend! We'll be doing the GIR Test and Tune on Friday and playing around with some of our new toys.
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The newest project, a Mitsubishi 3000 GT, will be running in NASA's TTR class. Basically a wide open class where anything goes, which means that this is going to be a fun project. No limits on pad size, number of points or gusseting to the chassis. There will plenty of use of the dimple dies on this project
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Walked out to the shop today, opened the door and was stunned for a second by a blue car up on stands. I'd gotten so used to seeing the Neon sitting there, it threw me for a second to see the Mitsu 3000 GT sitting there.
Over the weekend we finished up the rest of the work on the Neon. Amazing how long little stuff takes. There's still a few minor details left to do, but Steves going to take care of some of them while I get to work on the VR4. The wiring issues for the tach seem to have been cured by actually tightening all of the bolts on the ECU- go figure! Some wiring cleanup for the tach/shift light, brake light for the video recorder, charging the FireCharger system, painting the rest of the floorpan and some touchup on the cage, installing the brake ducts
 and a few pieces of padding and she'll be ready to go.
The airdam we fabbed up was about an 1/8" to low for the trailer, so Steve's given it a shave and we're good to go.
The shop camera took a hit at some point in the project and is now making everything look like its from Willy Wonka's bubble gum factory, so unfortunately, all my pics look like they're from the 1930's. Time for a new camera I guess.
 
 
The Neon lost 50 lbs over the old setup with the original bolt in cage that had been added to over the years. We're still 150 lbs over teh minimum weight for an SOHC. I'm not sure which would be cheaper, 150 lbs of weight reduction (wheels, radiator, coilovers etc) or swap to a DOHC and call it a day
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Light at the end of the tunnel!!!!
Cage left to do:
Pass side Taco gussetsSeat Back BracingRight Side Net MountsWindow net lower mountKill Switch BracketFire System Pull Switch BracketDe-Spatter all weld joints for paint prepHarness guidesReinstall Drivers Glass & mechanismFinish Lateral Bar pads (Boxing them in)Paint Dash Cage Tubes and AreaReinstall HVAC & Dash
Non Cage left to do:
hook up tach and shift light
Steering Column Reinstallfire system install (Lines are getting flared for AN fittings)paint interior & cageexhaustNew Hub Knuckle installSeelig Parts install (mainly plug wires and MSD Coil pack... Ultra cool windage tray/crank scraper's going to wait for a while)Rear View Mirror(s)alignmentnew paint/graphics schemebrake & WOT indicators for videoPreload new front wheel bearingsMount brake ductsGrease Tie Rod Ends
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Never realized how many colors are involved on the Neon. There's a Viper Yellow, a Plum Crazy, another purple and the factory blue/purple. Now we're adding gray and black... We might have to have a color pallette meeting
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... is still pretty dim and small, but at least there's light!
Barely have checked off anything, and in fact the list is still growing!
Cage left to do:
Pass side Taco gussets- Seat Back Bracing
Right Side Net MountsWindow net lower mountKill Switch Bracket- Fire System Actuator Bracket
- De-Spatter all weld joints for paint prep
- Harness guides
- Reinstall Drivers Glass & mechanism
Finish Lateral Bar pads (Boxing them in)Paint Dash Cage Tubes and AreaReinstall HVAC & Dash
Non Cage left to do:
hook up tach and shift light
Steering Column Reinstall- fire system install
- paint interior & cage
- exhaust
- New Hub Knuckle install
- Seelig Parts install (mainly plug wires and MSD Coil pack... Ultra cool windage tray/crank scraper's going to wait for a while)
- alignment
- new paint/graphics scheme
- brake & WOT indicators for video
One big item off the list is the seat and harness mounting. Doesn't sound too complicated, but after about 11 hours of work, the "Butler Built" seat is on it's own framework attached to the cage. The harness mounts are also attached to the seat framework as well.
Now that the seat is in position, the Safety Solutions Right Side Net is up next. That typically takes about 2-3 hours if the stars magically align the dash bar and the head/shoulder locations (Dual driver car, so we might have 2 different spots to mount too).
Adding up the weight removed, we're right around 33 lbs. Luckily the seat framework came in about the same weight as what was holding the Corbeau seat in (factory sliders with some HEAVY 1x square tube mounts fabbed by the previous owners)
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Never make lists, as once you do, they just keep getting longer. I don't think I've checked off a single thing on my previous list... BUT, the cage is 7 bars from being complete. 2 short gusset bars to tie the dash bar into the doorbar nodes (and also to remove some conglomeration of factory dash bulk). 1 bar going between the hoop bases and 1 bent bar tied into that and the drivers sill bar for the seat and harness mounts. The seat will be attached to this framework rather than the floor or factory seat mounts. this way, the seat and harness' will move with the cage rather than be tied into the cage at the seat back brace, and the floor at the base. All that will be left will be the harness mounts and the Neon will start going back together. We're toying with loading the car up and take it down to AFI Automotive in St. Clair, MO and let Curt work his magic on the exhaust and do an alignment on it. The new FireCharger system showed up yesterday, so once the seat is mounted, right side net and dash is reinstalled, we'll run the system. 5 lbs of free weight placement!!!!
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