Hi Craig,

Don't wory about me, I have on my flame retardent underware. :-)

Sorry about the MII comment. Saw the spindles and made an assumption. My Mistake.

Aruba was great, but did not do any scuba or even snorkling this time. Just layed about the beach and tried to relax. I feel much better now, ready to jump right back into the projects. I did see your vette, but everyone was so busy I decided not to distract anyone and let you attend to your business. Killer Vette. Will we be seeing you in the Hot Rod open track smackdown if they decide to have it next year?

I hear you about trying to relax - off to Mexico to do a bit of the same to get set for our Stude project.

Open track smackdown? Is that still going to happen? Haven't heard much about that since last January.

Look forward to shooting the bull sometime.

Pass the popcorn!

Hi Frank,

You want butter with that????

OBTW, it was great chatting with you at SEMA. Hope you saw all you wanted to. I have been to a few trade shows in my time, but nothing quite like SEMA.

AHHHHH.... Mexico. I love it down there.

Where abouts you heading. Maybe I can talk the wife into a quick trip and we can rent a couple of VW bugs and have our own off road rally. :-)

Last I heard, HR was hopeing to get something (in regard to the OTSD) set up for next year. Only time will tell.

Hummmm....

When I turned on my computer this morning, I expected to see a reply from HotRods. I was surprised when I found no response.

I went back and tried to remember what pushed me to make the infamous "giggle" comment. If I have the time frame right, Rotrods had basically ignored a comment in regard to cage design and said that you have to make compromises when building a car in order to make everything work.

While this may be true in a lot of ways, the suspension and drivetrain components must be selected based on the overall performance goals of the project. And the structural integrity of a car designed to handle 1,800 HP and hit a max speed of 220 MPH plus should not be compromised based on other considerations. I for one would be more concerned with the structural integrity of the car and the safety of the passengers than any other consideration.

It was your basic "non" response to what I felt were legitimate concerns that caused me to reference you project on a thread at CC.

Sorry if I had stepped out of line in that regard.

New update at the site

http://sn65.com/Fire%20&%20Ice%20uni...nforcement.htm

Check out the fuel door we are currently evaluating.

With that said, it is time for the suspension gurus to chime in and help with the front end geometry.

Here are our issues....

We are going with a strut front suspension. We intend to use the early Mustang lower control arm and the front strut.

When we set the suspension at ride height, we have about 1" of suspension travel before the lower control arm buries itself into the frame rail.

Is this enough? I don't think so.

To gain more suspension travel we can modify the lower control arm and front strut or we can go with a 2" drop fox body spindle and strut.

If we alter the lower control arm assemblies by sectioning and "bending" we will end up with about a 1" rise from the control arm mounting position to the ball joint pivot point. If we go with the 2" drop spindle we will end up with about a 1" drop from the control arm pivot point to the ball joint pivot.

I am thinking that it will be better to go with the 2" drop. I can always relocate the control arm mounting point down a bit if the goal is to end up with a true horizontal plane from the inner pivot point to the center line of the ball joint.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

This weekend we finished up all the chassis mods. Just some grinding and sanding and we should be ready to drop her back on the frame rack for the final torsion test.

Here is a link to the latest photos.

http://sn65.com/Fire%20&%20Ice%20uni...nforcement.htm

It will be interesting to see what the final numbers come in at. I am guessing that we will have reduced torsional deflection by somewhere in the 80 to 90% range. Not to bad for a car without a cage.

Hummm....

We just performed our final torsional test and the numbers have not changed from the last test.

Hummmm.......

We are currently at 70% reduction in torsional deflection. I would have guessed that all the welding and the last few mods would have netted us some gain, but evidently not.

However....

We did cut the lips off the rear quarter panel / wheel opening in preparation for the fender flares. Right now, the quarter is not attached to the outer wheel housing. And, the quarter draws tight on the side under pressure and loosens up on the side under compression.

This must be throwing off the numbers. I guess we will have to weld the quarters back up before we can finish the test.

It is funny how little things can have profound effects.

Well... Things are moving along.

We have the fender flares roughed out. We won't be able to do the final fit until we test fit the 3 link rear end.

http://sn65.com/images/Fire%20&%20Ic...1-22%20065.jpg

Also we have finished boxing the motor mount reinforcements.

http://sn65.com/images/Fire%20&%20Ic...1-22%20081.jpg