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Thanks for the help Will, I have been running everything on. Ten sec hold + AR1 w/my new lighter 18 square setup compared to 19s staggered with RE71 should make a significant difference in my times hopefully I can get closer to the 2min mark at buttonwillow.
as of now I do not know about my track day after, I try and go once a month so hopefully sometime in the middle of March
Ok, some progress. Its been a while since posting anything new but there has been plenty happening.
Ill start with the wing mounting. I believe I posted a picture of the cardboard mock up a while back. Well once I was happy with the shape I had them water jet out of structural aluminum. The trick then is the mounting. I wanted to come up with a way that will take what will be the considerable downforce that this wing will generate and translate it directly into the chassis. To this end I designed a lever-arm mount type that attaches to the strut tower cross-bar. This sits just under the trunk which will have slits cut into it to accept the hard mounted wing.
One of the hardest parts by far is to attach the the uprights as plumb straight as possible.
There are still two removable clevis mounts to be installed running down to the trunk. This way I still have reasonable access to use the trunk-space for things like my tent and sleeping bag when i'm going to camp at the track.
You can see how im attaching the trunk with a pair of aero catch latches and some (not pictured) toggle latches
Cage-wise I have the down tubes shooting through rear bulkhead into the cross-bar then the cage itself is gusseted to the B-pillars and double re-enforced plinths to the frame rails. The main hoop would certainly be functional as a roll bar but that's only a secondary benefit. Its main purpose is to stiffen the chassis and give me a place to mount the shoulder harnesses. By design it was never meant to be rally-spec or have door to door racing levels of intersecting nodes. Increased rigidity, wing mounting and harness points with a focus on weight efficiency was the goal.
I also finally got to test mount the Regamasters with the 295 width. I wasn't able to put the car on the ground but as it was still on the frame jig but it all looks like it will work fine so far.
Im really digging the color with the black paint.
This week were getting started on the front end aero package as well as the jack points and frame rail modifications.
Quick update on something that people were interested in, the jack points.
OEM Toyota and Lexus are AWFUL, like probably the worst thing about the car. They bend, creak and flex and don't inspire ANY confidence when under the car on jack stands. As a matter of fact I put off doing quite a lot of maintenance until I addressed this borderline negligent design. This being a track car means it will have to go up in the air much more frequently than a normal Lexus so to this end I decided to re-enforce the pinch welds with double butted 10g steel angle. This will distribute the load evenly across a much larger surface area and keep the jack points from folding in or failing if the car rocks while it up on stands.
Quick update on something that people were interested in, the jack points.
OEM Toyota and Lexus are AWFUL, like probably the worst thing about the car. They bend, creak and flex and don't inspire ANY confidence when under the car on jack stands. As a matter of fact I put off doing quite a lot of maintenance until I addressed this borderline negligent design. This being a track car means it will have to go up in the air much more frequently than a normal Lexus so to this end I decided to re-enforce the pinch welds with double butted 10g steel angle. This will distribute the load evenly across a much larger surface area and keep the jack points from folding in or failing if the car rocks while it up on stands.
I thought of building something similar, minus the welds to the chassis (epoxy it). I will if I ever get around to it.
I theorize that many factors make these flimsy points as another deterrent to self maintenance. It is frustrating.
Couple of Updates. Stuff is starting to come together now.
I got the rear rain tray in place. Since the trunk area has slits along the wing up rights I wanted something to catch the water that gets past. This tray will have a drain tubes that run down from the corners out of the trunk. This mean ill be able to park the car outside or drive it in the rain as needed without water logging the trunk.
You can now see how all this fits together underneath the trunk skin. Im going to run the rear trunk lights and camera on a DT60 Motorsports Deutsche connector so it can quickly disconnect and the entire trunk can be removed.
Relocated a threaded insert in the B pillar for the OEM 3pt seat belt. After moving the seat dramatically backwards and down and gusseting the cage to the B pillar i needed to move this provision forward and down to match my should height on the raceseats. In this car ill be able to use both the oem 3pt belts then switch to the harnesses when I get to the racetrack. Also, as you can see the carpet and as much of the trim is going back into the front cabin as possible. Weight of these items is pretty negligible and goes MILES as far as creature comfort.
Re-enforcing the cage to the chassis as much as possible this particular reinforcement will ensure that the door frames stay put so the roof wont buckle.
Awesome stuff, where did you learn to weld? Iv thought about doing the Fab school in Rancho Cucamonga just so I can learn to do my own fab work on the car.
Hurtado- I have learned to weld here and there, but i only know enough to do very simple stuff. Things like cages, seat brackets and safety stuff i leave to professionals for the meanwhile.
Hurtado - mig welding is easy with a little practice, and a good mig welder can even keep the welds small. Tig welding is much more of an art that takes time to perfect.
Will - what storage routine do you follow? Do you run your engines every so often, and how do you avoid flat spotting and other storage issues? Also, what is your daily? Looks like everything in your garage is a full blown race car.
Will - what storage routine do you follow? Do you run your engines every so often, and how do you avoid flat spotting and other storage issues? Also, what is your daily? Looks like everything in your garage is a full blown race car.
Storage differs from car to car. If its a full blown race car on ethanol or race gas I have to drain the tanks before it sits, I also generally install battery breakers on all of the cars so I can fully de-energize the batteries if I know its going to sit for more than a week. I try and start the cars and idle them up to temps every so often just to keep the fluids moving around but, for example, the NSX I only see once a month if that because where I store it is a pain in the *** to get to. Flat spots have never been a problem for me. ill move the cars around as i can but I tend to use the tires up so quickly that it sort of is what it is, though, if I'm going to compete on a set of tires they are generally stored off of the car in plastic wrap.
These are the breakers i have been using for years they are super simple and straight forward and can be had for cheap on Amazon, I normally go with 100-120amp. I DO NOT ever use LiPo batteries as I have seen more than one car go up in flames because of them. I don't care what people tell me. its not worth it. I'll stick with my tried and true gel PC680
As far as dailies I have a few, I just sold my Type R not to long ago. I bought it to do some testing so I can write our 2017 HFFChallenge (Honda Front wheel drive Challenge) rule set. Its a competition group that I run with a couple other guys out here in SoCal that classes and competes in FWD Honda cars. I needed to get a baseline for this car and the easiest way for me to do it was to just buy one and drive it. The plan was to use it as a daily driver, which I did for a while, but the traffic i deal with on my commute makes manual cars a huge pain in the *** now that im getting older.
I also own an Alfa Romeo Stelvio, which the GF drives now since I bought a Lexus GX470. I sold my 05 4runner and regretted it ever since. This one is the perfect replacement. Im trying REALLY hard to leave it alone and just drive it as is but we'll see how long that lasts, haha. My friends have a pool going betting how long till it has wheels roof rack and shocks.
I bought it because I needed something to tow my new trailer. I ended up selling my dually ramp truck and picking up this Futura Trailer that lies flat on the ground when loading. It seems everything i need to load onto a trailer has only a couple inches of ground clearance and im not a big fan of removing bumpers and reassembling a racecar at the track.
Here's pictures of the Alfa Stelvio, NSX and s2000 CR
Some updates, its getting good. Got a bunch of stuff back from powder coat. turned out really good. I was able to put the car on the ground with the new wheels verify clearences. I have to say with the camber spec I am running with this car that the 18x10 +35 on 295 tires is perfect. I do want to trim the rear tire well frame back a few inches to be safe but that'll be easy.
First time Id driven the car in a few months., I only pulled it outside into the sun but it was nice to hear it run. I still have some wiring to do on the trunk but im going to worry about that when I get it back into my hands,
Wing is one of the last parts to go on the car. it has to be bonded to the tabs on the top surface and those tabs bolt to the uprights. Since the bonding goop needs a very specific mixture and temp to set correctly it will need to go to the carbon guy for that work.
Splitter, and ducting work starts this week.
Got the carbon parts back for the ducting of the coolers and radiator on the front end.
Also picking up some of the last few parts as I go. This is the solid transmission mount from Figs and a pair of rear traction bars. I also got some miscellaneous bushings to press in when I have the knuckles apart for the LSD install.
I wonder why your planted seat bracket sits flat and mine sits at like a 2 inch decline in my 13.
On the drivers side I had it cut and re welded to be that way. Passenger side is untouched. I moved it to my build thread after mis-posted in the wrong thread. Sorry JW.
01-21-20, 03:06 PM
