1995 Talon AMB Aero Hill Climb Special

[Smokin80]

Great build.

Dude... that front subframe is the sexiest thing I've ever seen. I had NO idea someone was making one. Is it built with better suspension geometry in mind? How much did it cost? (you can PM me that if you'd like)

Look up true street tuning on facebook. Ill be honest...i have a few concerns about it but nothing that i can prove. There are only a few of these running around so far and I have not been able to talk to any of them. For now I am going to get it in the car and sort everything out before i say anything good or bad about it. I will tell you that it looks great and the craftsmanship looks good. If it all works properly is the question.

 

[95eclipser]

looking forward to your review about this. I was also not aware others were building and selling these.

 

[mountain_man]

Look up true street tuning on facebook. Ill be honest...i have a few concerns about it but nothing that i can prove. There are only a few of these running around so far and I have not been able to talk to any of them. For now I am going to get it in the car and sort everything out before i say anything good or bad about it. I will tell you that it looks great and the craftsmanship looks good. If it all works properly is the question.

Looking forward to your review of this as well.

 

[Smokin80]

Small Update:

I have the front subframe in the car. it went in with only a little persuasion. Nothing i would call a problem. Steering rack bolted up and fits no problem at all. Tossed the lower control arms in and hooked everything up on one side to see how it all works. I am pleasantly surprised. Things move freely except for right before full lock which I am ok with because you never see full lock while racing anyway. The slight stickiness at full lock is nothing major and i wouldnt be surprised if it goes away once the bushings wear in a little.

Only thing that is going to be a slight pain in the ass is the sway bar. I will have to drop the frame again to get the bar in behind it because there isnt enough room to put it in the same cavity as the steering rack. I'm not sure how hard this is going to be yet but once it is in there i think it will be fine. In the long run i want to do a blade type sway bar anyway so for the time being ill find a way to make the RM sway bar work and go from there.

 

[gofer]

Did you figure out the crossmember too? Glad to hear the subframe worked out!

 

[Smokin80]

Did you figure out the crossmember too? Glad to hear the subframe worked out!

Not yet...but i dont see it being super hard. i think im going to cut it off and run a cross bar to the sub frame and then forward from that to the factory mounting location at the front. Should add some stiffness between the lower control arms and allow me to run the front mount as per normal. Ill take pictures as i get this stuff sorted out!

 

[Paintballaa5]

Hey another guy with one of Joshua's subframes! I wouldn't call my experience receiving it great, but it went in without much trouble, and aligned perfectly, and it made the car extremely rigid. Glad to see some others are having success with them too

 

[TSiAWD666]

Now that it's on the car do you see any possible additional triangulation that can be made with the LCA mount?

 

[Smokin80]

Now that it's on the car do you see any possible additional triangulation that can be made with the LCA mount?

Im not sure what you mean exactly?...

EDIT: I see what you mean now. See my post above. I think i am going to be able to work something into the front engine mount. Ill keep you posted.

 

[Smokin80]

Hey another guy with one of Joshua's subframes! I wouldn't call my experience receiving it great, but it went in without much trouble, and aligned perfectly, and it made the car extremely rigid. Glad to see some others are having success with them too

Getting it went very smooth for me. I assume you are on a 1g? did you have to build a sway bar mount?

 

[Paintballaa5]

Getting it went very smooth for me. I assume you are on a 1g? did you have to build a sway bar mount?

Yes it's 1g. I would like to eventually, but this car is more of a drag/highway car than anything, so it's not a huge priority at the moment. I like the control arm design he used on the 2g model

 

[Smokin80]

So i got the sway bar mounted to the sub frame. I used some 1x2 square tubing and welded that on the uprights behind the steering box. I also used rear sway bar saddles instead of the fronts because they are flat. It is a tight fit and took a little bit of massaging to the fire wall to make the bar clear and full suspension travel. The other issue was that the shock mounts are moved in a little from stock so it is also a tight fit on the sway bar end links. I modified the stock end links to fit by flipping both ends to face the same way. Here are some pics of the mounts and the subframe/swaybar/suspension in the car.

Sub frame with both mounts welded on and painted

Close up of one of the mounts

Sway bar on

Sway bar and frame in the car. Notice the modified end link. I think this should work just fine.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Smokin80]

I relocated the batter to the back of the car...not going to waste your time with pictures of that. Put a distribution block up front...a battery box just to the passenger side and in front of the rear axle and a master disconnect on the rear of the car.

The more fun project is the Radium Engineering fuel surge tank and teflon lines with 450 walbro for my E85 conversion for this year. I have a little wiring to do and the return from the regulator to the surge tank. Aside from that it is good to go. System uses a 340lph lift pump in the tank and then as mentioned a 450 wally in the surge tank that goes to a fuel lab filter and finally to the rail. Then it goes through the regulator which returns to the surge tank and then the surge tank returns to the stock fuel tank.

Not quite finished but you get the idea...

Check me out on instagram @mealing.racing for more frequent updates.

Cheers!!

 

[Smokin80]

I got my 78 inch APR GT1000 installed over the weekend. Really happy with the results. Need to clean up the hatch lid a little and it will be good to go.

Here is a shot of the inside of the trunk...sorry it doesnt show the floor. Not much to see there anyway. Just the 3/4x.065 tubing mounted to a plate welded to the floor of the trunk.

Cut the notches in the hatch lid so the wing pedestals slide through nicely. I like the look...nice and clean.

Front 3/4 view. Sorry i cant really get a good shot of the whole car yet as it sits. Once i have it on the wheels ill pull it out and get a better picture. The wing sits so the main element is about even with the top of the roof.

That was a lot of work...Nap time. . I am 6'1" and 240 lbs...wing didnt move at all. I will likely throw some bags of sand on it and sit a couple people up there just to be sure my welds are not going to crack. But, initial feeling is that it will be plenty strong to handle the downforce.

Slicks should be here in the next 2 weeks and i can get the car sitting on the ground again and finish up the last few things. The Aero kit should be here in the next month or so. I wont have it on for the hill climb this year but hoping to get it on this summer and test so I am ready for next years climb.

Cheers!

Garrett

Check me out at www.facebook.com/mealing.racing or on IG @mealing.racing.

 

[dsmcrzy]

Great progress! Keep us updated on your season!

Can you share what the aero kit looks like yet?

 

[turbosax2]

Not sure how I missed this before, but the car looks really fun! Keep up the good work!

 

[Smokin80]

Great progress! Keep us updated on your season!

Can you share what the aero kit looks like yet?

Not yet! Very soon!

 

[Smokin80]

Sorry for the delay in updates...had the wind knocked out of my sails a little... been lazy.

So i had a really rough go at the Hill Climb this year. First i was struggling with the alignment...just didnt like the feel of the car. So i played with that the first 2 runs on day 1. Got it sorted and then the 3rd run on day 1 i had the little 2 inch long rubber line from the wally 450 to the outside of the surge tank split...lost all fuel pressure so that wrecked that run. Then the first run of the day on day 2 i had a plug wire come off the coil at 8000+ rpm and 30psi and it took out the head gasket(im guessing hydrolocked a little with ethanol). SOOOOO no good runs in this year.

Only positive news is I still managed a 2:05 just "cruising" up the hill on one of the alignment setups i didnt like. I had to wring the cars neck last time to get a 1:59 and i was literally waving at corner workers and what not on the 2:05 run. With the APR GT1000 and the 285 BFG r1s's the car has huge amounts of grip.

Couple shots from the climb:

The tubular front sub frame.....

It still needs some work. I am going to convert the inner mount of the compression arm(Rear curved bar) to a uniball with a urethane bushing on either side of it. ANY movement in that joint causes the alignment to wander around. It should be a simple fix.

Aside from the lower arms needing to be designed a little stronger (mainly where the shock mounts) i think the setup is going to work well. As with anything when you are working with something fairly new and untested there are issues to work around. Im confident i will have this working perfectly for next year.

V2 Andrew Brilliant Aero Kit:

The aero kit is in my hands now(at my dads place for the time being) and I will have it at my garage in august after i return from summer holidays. Here is a teaser of the Hood...the quality looks FANTASTIC and i cannot wait to get this all installed this winter.

I will update more as i get the aero package installed on the car.

Cheers Garrett

www.facebook.com/mealing.racing

 

[Smokin80]

Ok...I am in the middle of moving so progress has been a bit slow. BUT i have made some progress. The kit is fitting really quite well considering it was the first one out of the moulds. Ill just let the pictures do the talking! PS....follow me on facebook and instagram at @mealing.racing....i update that much more frequently as you can imagine.

With the side skirts just propped up to see the look and fitment. These will take a bit of custom work to mount.

Bumper trimmed to fit the intercooler and just hanging from the middle. It fits amazing. The hood has no latch or pins on it yet so it is stitting up a touch. It will take a little adjustment on the nose of it to match the profile of the bumper perfectly but nothing crazy. You till notice the rear wheel is quite a ways inboard. In that picture it is sitting 3 inches in with Andrew designing it around 2 inches for the best aerodynamics. He ran his at about 1.5 to find the happy medium between looks and performance. I currently have the wheel sitting at 1.75 inches but that is not shown in this picture.

The fitment is awesome as far as I am concerned...not show car good but easily going to work for a race car.

Cant wait to get the side splitters and front splitter mounted.

Thanks for looking.

Garrett

 

[Strm Trpr]

Nice!!
Is the AB V2 aero kit available?

 

[Smokin80]

Nice!!
Is the AB V2 aero kit available?

This is the v2 kit. Talk to Andrew I’m not sure how many he plans to sell.

 

[Smokin80]

Got the side splitter on the drivers side properly mounted up!

Louvers are riveted at the top and bolted with m6 rivnuts at the bottom.

Side splitter goes about 18-24 inches(varies along its length) in. Hex bolts will be changed out for some nice smooth button head allens...but for some bloody reason they are proving a bit hard to get. GRRRRRRRRRRR

Not a great pic but you get the idea!

Will be working on getting the passenger side sorted out this weekend and then the front splitter and rear diffuser. It isnt a massive amount of work but juggling work and kids and life makes it take awhile. Goal is to have it ready for the middle of april for a shakedown track day and then off the Knox Mountain Hill Climb on May 19-20th in Kelowna, BC, Canada!

Thanks for looking

@MEALING.RACING on instagram and www.facebook.com/mealing.racing

 

[Smokin80]

Well! The car is not completed...but it is damn close. Here is a picture of where I am at. It is at the exhaust shop getting the exhaust modified to fit around the diffuser. Going on the Dyno April 20th and then final push to make it race worthy.

 

[ChessmoDSM]

Very nice build brother, can't wait to see videos of her on the mountain!!

 

[ViciousLord]

She's gorgeous.