Getting Ready for the 2006 Race Season...................

[eclipse2via]

I beg to differ on all three cases accounts. Those are early pics from when i just got the fmic and garrett setup running.

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The shields I put on after I was sure there were no exhaust or boost leaks. The dipstick spring is a hold over from my old bad compression engine. The new motor only has 3500miles but I'll need it eventually and I may as well keep it on and not find out I need it with a wet engine bay.

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The ghetto fab hood I have about $150 into. I also own a turbo Subaru so I got a scoop for $25 and a NOS hood for $112 to my door, and $10 for body seam adhesive. It's for track days and summer but I'm thinking about body filling around the scoop and painting it. My water temps never rise much above normal on the stock gauge even on track with 100deg ambient temps. Oil temps that's another thing. During summer I also run with the center grill piece removed like you do.

What are you running for a cage/bar and how does it work with ever seating you have? That's my next step.

 

[Greg Collier]

I beg to differ on all three cases accounts. Those are early pics from when i just got the fmic and garrett setup running.

On an even further off the topic subject... is your car parked on the driveway of a pole house. The reason I ask is that I designed and engineered two pole houses that were built in Cambria California in the mid-seventies...

 

[eclipse2via]

Right style, right town, wrong decade. small world I guess. Pole houses are now forbidden here. You should see the bridge abutment of a foundation I'm building on my expansion.

Sorry to go OT on my setup in your thread.

 

[Greg Collier]

Right style, right town, wrong decade. small world I guess. Pole houses are now forbidden here. You should see the bridge abutment of a foundation I'm building on my expansion.

Sorry to go OT on my setup in your thread.

This is wild... I saw HWY 1 on your avatar and thought, "could that be Cambria?" I use to fly into San Luis Obispo from San Diego on Swift Airlines, then drive up and stay at the Cambria Inn where the Peacocks would wake me up every morning. Man that was a great time of my life. I heard that Axil Roads ended up buying one of the houses I designed in the nineties.

And by the way this thread is for everyone’s pictures and ideas. I’ve already learned a couple of things that people have posted here

 

[Slow old poop]

I beg to differ on all three cases accounts. Those are early pics from when i just got the fmic and garrett setup running.

That's a relief. I was wondering how everything survived.

The ghetto fab hood I have about $150 into. I also own a turbo Subaru so I got a scoop for $25 and a NOS hood for $112 to my door, and $10 for body seam adhesive. It's for track days and summer but I'm thinking about body filling around the scoop and painting it. My water temps never rise much above normal on the stock gauge even on track with 100deg ambient temps. Oil temps that's another thing. During summer I also run with the center grill piece removed like you do.

The Carbontrix hood scoop we just put on was less than $100 and works pretty good.

What are you running for a cage/bar and how does it work with ever seating you have? That's my next step.

It's a Kirk bolt-in cage and works OK for racing, but it doesn't work with passengers. It intrudes into the passenger area, makes it difficult for people to wear a helmet, and does not have a "harness bar" for attaching the passenger harness. Better you should have one fabbed up, or look for a bolt-in cage elsewhere.

Rich
Fellow Blues Brother

 

[eclipse2via]

It's a Kirk bolt-in cage and works OK for racing, but it doesn't work with passengers. It intrudes into the passenger area, makes it difficult for people to wear a helmet, and does not have a "harness bar" for attaching the passenger harness. Better you should have one fabbed up, or look for a bolt-in cage elsewhere.

Rich
Fellow Blues Brother

Thanks for the info. I'm still searching for the perfect seat and roll bar/cage solution. I probably won't find one. There just isn't enough headroom for 1G DSMs. I've moved forward at every stage of cutting into my car but I'm not ready to gut my interior, smash down the belly pan and bolt my seat to the floor.

I just want enough protection to feel safe driving 10/10's through high speed corners like Riverside at Buttonwillow. As it is now I back off to 8/10's because of the risk of barrell rolling and winding up four inches shorter.

Who are the Blues Brothers? You and Mavisky?

Scott

 

[Greg Collier]

Thanks for the info. I'm still searching for the perfect seat and roll bar/cage solution. I probably won't find one. There just isn't enough headroom for 1G DSMs. I've moved forward at every stage of cutting into my car but I'm not ready to gut my interior, smash down the belly pan and bolt my seat to the floor.

I just want enough protection to feel safe driving 10/10's through high speed corners like Riverside at Buttonwillow. As it is now I back off to 8/10's because of the risk of barrell rolling and winding up four inches shorter.

Who are the Blues Brothers? You and Mavisky?

Scott

If you're 6-foot and under the AutoPower bolt-in cage is perfect for the 1G for both driver and passenger with full interior.

http://www.autopowerindustries.com/Roll_Cages.htm

I love Riverside... especially counter-clockwise!

 

[eclipse2via]

That's probably the way I'll go. I know I'll have to revise my seat mounts and gauge pillar pod. My helmeted head rests against the top of the door frame with the sparco stuff. When I have a cage my wife will feel much more comfortable with my track days as well.

Riverside is a blast but just for safety I slow down. CCW I enter about 95 and then I slow to 80 before mid turn and exit close to 90. I think I should be able to maintain that 95 throughout the corner if I don't brake. The bus stop through cotton corners is my favorite section. An AWD can make up a lot of ground on high HP cars through there.

It's funny I never ran CCW there until about 2 years ago. Now every time I go it's always CCW. I wish the groups I run with would change it up a bit so I could even up my tread wear without resorting to remounting tires. #1 CCW and #13CW are my favorite configs.

 

[Slow old poop]

Who are the Blues Brothers? You and Mavisky?

Scott

Everybody that races a blue DSM is a member of the Blues Brothers Racing Team, also knows as Team Smurf or the Blue Meanies.

I also belong to GeezerSpeed racing team.

Rich

 

[Greg Collier]

Began air-cowling for radiator and FMIC.

 

[mavisky]

Go team smurf.

Looking good Greg. That's one of my winter projects this year while the car's snowbound.

 

[drivemusicnow]

Began air-cowling for radiator and FMIC.

What type of metal are you using for this, and how easy is it to shape? I have been trying to find some thermoplastics that I could form to the shapes I need, and set them like that, but I can't find anything cheap/strong/small enough quantities. I thought about using aluminum, but haven't really gotten too far into looking around for it.

Also, why did you choose rivets over something like Dzus fittings, or some other removable option?

 

[Greg Collier]

What type of metal are you using for this, and how easy is it to shape? I have been trying to find some thermoplastics that I could form to the shapes I need, and set them like that, but I can't find anything cheap/strong/small enough quantities. I thought about using aluminum, but haven't really gotten too far into looking around for it.

Also, why did you choose rivets over something like Dzus fittings, or some other removable option?

I'm using galvanized sheet metal. With each corner seam bent with a 1/2" edge, it's easy to use rivets. I could weld the seams but the rivets make it a very quick process.
It's very light, durable, and won't flex against the air. It’s like fabricating a series of small HVAC plenums. Areas that need to be removable I use sheet metal screws to attach them to the body of the car. I’ll also use metal plenum tape at the odd-angled or round joints to seal off any air gaps. I’ll put up more pictures as it takes shape.

 

[logic]

Greg, I might have missed it somewhere, but did you ever figure out a way to get out to Mid-Ohio for next week's event? And, just to hijack your thread even more, who else is going to be there? (We finally booked our room at the Travelodge just off of I-71 and Rt. 13. I've had tickets for months, but apparently I'm too lazy to book a hotel room...)

 

[Greg Collier]

Greg, I might have missed it somewhere, but did you ever figure out a way to get out to Mid-Ohio for next week's event? And, just to hijack your thread even more, who else is going to be there? (We finally booked our room at the Travelodge just off of I-71 and Rt. 13. I've had tickets for months, but apparently I'm too lazy to book a hotel room...)

Hey Ed,
Nope... we couldn't get the $10,000.00+ that was necessary for the race. We are going to race California Speedway that weekend with TCRA. There will not be one DSM racing at the nationals, I do know of an EVO that will be running the Time Trials though...

 

[Greg Collier]

Finished the air-dams (cowlings) over Labor day... but forgot to take pictures before I put the front fascia on!

I have stars for my rep points!

 

[Slow old poop]

I have stars for my rep points!

Humph! I have one crummy green bar. I better go win something.

Rich/Green with envy

 

[Zero Bar]

Humph! I have one crummy green bar. I better go win something.

Rich/Green with envy

Same here!! Car looks good Greg.

 

[gsx roadracer]

Hello everyone!
I just joined this afternoon after doing some searching for options to help aid in my ever occurring over-heating issue that I have while running track events. Hopefully a few ideas I saw here that Greg has used will help. I currently run Time Attack events with Midwestern Council and have attended a few HPDE events with NASA this year. Hopefully next year I will be running in NASA TT series.

Rich-I was at the Autobahn event in July as well. Glad to hear AMS was so willing to offer their services to help. Will you be going to Road America in late October?

Jeff

 

[Greg Collier]

Hello everyone!
I just joined this afternoon after doing some searching for options to help aid in my ever occurring over-heating issue that I have while running track events. Hopefully a few ideas I saw here that Greg has used will help. I currently run Time Attack events with Midwestern Council and have attended a few HPDE events with NASA this year. Hopefully next year I will be running in NASA TT series.

Rich-I was at the Autobahn event in July as well. Glad to hear AMS was so willing to offer their services to help. Will you be going to Road America in late October?

Jeff

Welcome aboard Jeff and I'm glad to be of some help with your over-heating issues.

It's good to hear you're running the NASA TT next year; I know the mid-west director Dave Royce will be generating some great events for you guys. If he gets out of line let me know, and I bump him off the track at one of the west-coast races he'll be racing in next year...

 

[Slow old poop]

Hello everyone!
Rich-I was at the Autobahn event in July as well. Glad to hear AMS was so willing to offer their services to help. Will you be going to Road America in late October?
Jeff

If the car survives the AMS Track Day at Autobahn on Sept 18, we'll be at Road America in October.

Rich

 

[Zero Bar]

If the car survives me kicking the crap out of it for another bolt coming loose, we'll be at Road America in October.

Rich

Fixed.

 

[Slow old poop]

Fixed.

Correction: I don't kick the crap out of it FOR a bolt coming loose; instead, I drive the crap out of it, and bolts come loose.

I don't know any other way to drive: To me, it's either flat on the gas or standing on the brakes. Anything else is called "coasting."

Rich

 

[Zero Bar]

Your a better man than I am then, I get easily frustrated when the same thing keeps going wrong. I'm sure you've been frustrated from these bolts coming loose all the time, but I know that's racing, although telling myself that usually doesn't help!!

There's also the saying, if your not breaking stuff your not driving it hard enough!!

 

[Slow old poop]

Your a better man than I am then, I get easily frustrated when the same thing keeps going wrong. I'm sure you've been frustrated from these bolts coming loose all the time, but I know that's racing, although telling myself that usually doesn't help!!

DSMs are tough little cars, but they definitely need to be sorted. Greg Collier sorted his for years, and I've spent my first season fixing things. Maybe next season all the little niggling problems will go away, and I'll be able to run more reliably. If so, maybe I'll write a book about how to prepare a DSM for road racing.

For the moment, here are some things I learned about nuts and bolts this season:

1. Don't buy somebody else's car unless you KNOW it's a good one. Builders take shortcuts (ahem!) that will come back to haunt you, such as wrung-off bolts, cross-threaded bolts, wrong size bolts, wrong thread pitch bolts, missing bolts, etc.. You wouldn't BELIEVE all the crap we found on my car. If you look at my engine, you'll see that half the bolts are new and shiny, because they had to be replaced.
2. Use Blue Loc-Tite on everything (except Heli-Coils, of course).
3. Don't believe the shop manual. Torque to specs, but See No. 2
4. Safety-wire everything you can. (I wish somebody would sell nuts and bolts already drilled--a set of four drilled turbo bolts cost me $40 from AMS)
5. Always buy new stuff. Used parts are tired iron. In fact, buy race stuff if you can. There is a reason why somebody made that part for racing. Probably because the stock part breaks.
6. Install polyurethane motor mounts to stop engine vibration.
7. Buy a Heli-Coil metric set. It's a lot cheaper than buying the Heli-Coils one at a time. You only need four sizes anyway.
8. Buy a set of metric taps and dies (10, 12, 14 and 17 mm). It's a lot cheaper than buying them one at a time.
9. Buy a supply of metric nuts and bolts (I think all we need are 10, 12, 14 and 17 mm) in various lengths. It's a lot cheaper than ordering from the dealer every time you need them. It will also let you complete tasks instead of stopping work on Sunday afternoon because you have to order nuts and bolts from the dealer on Monday.
10. Buy a set of metric ratcheting wrenches. Those are handy little devils.

Maybe I'll go into the racing nuts & bolts business. If all the people who say they are interested in running a DSM on road courses actually do it, I'll make a fortune selling them drilled nuts and bolts, safety wire, nut & bolt assortments, Heli-Coils, taps, dies, Loc-Tite, and ratcheting wrenches.

There's also the saying, if your not breaking stuff your not driving it hard enough!!

Racing is very hard on a car. Everything breaks. This season, we broke a battery box (!!!), downpipe flange, the transmission mount on the engine, boost controller, O2 sensor, the starter, exhaust hangers, accelerator pedal, shifter cable, and just discovered that we have a broken power steering pump bracket. Last season we were breaking brake rotors. As Emily Latella used to say, "If it's not one thing, it's another."

Rich/DSM nut