new stance, lower roll center
 

From inspiration after reading Ron Sutton's post about chassis and suspension in Rob's thread, I also lowered the car 1.5" in the front and 1.0" in the rear to lower the roll center as much as possible... if your reading... thanks for the great info Ron. I will have some questions in a future post to ask about front and rear shock compression and rebound dampening settings.

I lowered the car as much as possible... while maintaining functionality with no rubs while cornering.


New measurement from floor to front fender lip, 23-1/4"

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7a2edec9.jpg


New measurement from floor to rear fender lip, 24"

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psbdb90efc.jpg


New stance after lowering

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psb79b92a2.jpg


Rear set up is Global West reverse eye 2" drop Cat-5 leafs with a 3/4" spacer between the leafs and axle. The front set up is Global West tubular A-arms with 600lb coils cut to 12" length.

The sub frame is now 4-1/4" off the ground, and the headers are about 3-3/4" off the ground.

So far no tire rubbing or scraping.

:lateral:

Awesome thread, build, skills, car, stance...:thankyou: for sharing

:hail:
Gil

Nice write up and pics. Good to hear they're working out for you so far.

Just a note of caution for those of you doing street-only builds: the ride these springs give is, uh, firm :) If you're doing a lot of just cruising, on less than perfect roads (hello, Michigan) these might not be the ticket.

Dale that is a great write up and glad those Meow-5 leafs are the ticket for ya. :D

Lookin fwd already to your next track day video. :thumbsup:

The Cat-5's should help keep him out of the kitty litter. :D

Thanks Gil... appreciate the compliments!

Thanks Scott... you were right about these leafs, they work great. The car hooks up much better now, and feels very stable cornering and accelerating. I will be out at PIR in a couple weeks to try them out, maybe I'll see you there.

Thanks Dave... I'm hoping to come away from the next track day with some compliments from Sieg after watching the video... rather than him telling me how slow I am, Lol. :sieg:

Lets's hope so!

HEY! I wasn't telling you how slow you were, I was telling you how to get FASTER! :catfight:

Haha! That's awesome!

Dale, you're not messing around. You got right to it. Rons a huge contributor. He's got me thinking or rethinking things as well. Great job on the mods and thanks for sharing the specs. Your car looks great! Can't wait to hear how your next track day goes.

Thanks... I've been following your build to. The supersonic blue color will look great on your car.



On Monday this week I met Scott Bourduin out at PIR while he was there running a track day with the Corvette Club. After we chatted for a while Scott invited me to ride along for his final session of the day. I jumped at the chance and it was great to ride along and see what lines he drove... where he braked and so on... it was a great learning experience for me.

Scott's driving ability and car are very impressive to say the least. Thanks to Scott for letting me ride along! I am signed up for a track day at PIR on Friday and I plan to push the braking a little further after seeing how Scott ran the track.

A couple shots of Scott's car at PIR (from my cell phone)

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps39eaa610.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4e099033.jpg



In preparation for my track day this Friday... I put new brake pads on and greased the front wheel bearings on my car. The brake pads are Baer decelerator ceramic matrix pads. These pads work great and have a good feel.

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psfd2ec490.jpg


Next I pulled the front hubs and greased the front wheel bearings.

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2bf621f2.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5f5735a5.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psdb58103e.jpg



I also revised my design on the cold air intake that goes from the 4 barrel TB to opening in the cowl hood. I dropped it down slightly so I could get additional clearance from the top of the air cleaner to the top of the tunnel on the cowl hood, and I went to a foam seal rather than the rubber tube seal I had before. I think this looks cleaner.


http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8eff8007.jpg


The new set up installed in the car. You can see the IAT sensor mounted in the back... this works good.

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psf5afc8cc.jpg


http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2bafa899.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psed53667e.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psfebca093.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5c13a1c1.jpg


When I switched to the LS engine it sat back further... so the hole in the cowl hood did not match up with the air cleaner. I cut a crescent shaped piece of metal from the back side of the hole.. and then relocated the piece to the other side of the hole... you can see the three screws holding the piece in place. This worked out good and the hole in the cowl hood now lines up perfectly with the air cleaner.

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7cbbcfe3.jpg


My grandson spent the weekend with my wife and I. He spent some time out in the garage with me :)

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8b76ae39.jpg


I have run the engine without the cold air intake for a while... but with the computer control and the IAT sensor the engine runs the best when I use the cold air intake set up and draw the air from outside the engine compartment.

Always love your detailed posts and great photos Dave. :thumbsup: It seems we're consistently working on the same things on our rides(transmission/clutch -> ride height + wheels rehooped -> cold air setup). :) I made a similar cold air setup with a 16" aluminum cake pan and realized the diameter needed another inch, so I ordered a 17" cake pan yesterday which should be in a few days. I also was not too happy with the rubber rim ring I installed on my mine and was considering some foam instead. Where did you acquire your foam from? That looks perfect.

It was great meeting you out there Dale. Hopefully we can still get both of our cars to the same track at the same time yet this Summer :) Maybe at Ridge Motorsports Park in September - fun track and great place to develop skills.

Car's looking great!

Thanks Chris... I look forward to seeing a video of you car when your all done!

My cold air intake is 17" diameter... I fabricated mine from 22 gauge steel. I didn't like the way the rubber tube looked either. I bought the rubber foam tape 3/16" thick x 1-1/4" wide from Auto Zone. Here are some pictures of the packaging and some pictures of the install. They also had the same foam tape 3/4" wide.


This is different than the foam in the previous post... I liked this material better.

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psf5b0cfa6.jpg


http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0c58ae51.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps299dea12.jpg


Thanks Scott... that would be great to meet up at the Ridge Motorsports Park in September. I am ready to try a new track :)

Aug 9, 2013 track day video
 

Here is a new video from my track day yesterday at PIR. Last time out my best lap was 1 min 34 sec. This time out I got my best lap time down to 1 min 31 sec. My goal is to get under 1 min 30 sec... so I'm getting close.

Changes from the last track day include... lowering the stance slightly... and installing the new Global West Cat 5 leaf springs with the spherical bearing mounts. I loved the new leafs... this was a major improvement.The car did not squat when accelerating... hooked up better on the corners... and the car felt much more stable on the long high speed sweeping corner at PIR. No more bouncing at high speed.

For this event I kept the Fox shocks on the car. I wanted to see how the Fox shocks would work when paired up with the new GW leafs. I have to eat crow now on what I said about not liking the Fox shocks. The combination of the Fox shocks with the GW Cat 5 springs worked great. No more bouncing on the back straight at high speed... the car felt very stable and handled great with this combo. I am learning as I go... and finding out that the suspension set up is very complicated. The Fox shocks worked great with the heavier leafs... and Iwill not be changing back to the Bilsteins.


Here is the video... the time for the last lap (after passing the blue BMW) was 1 min 31 sec. The speed for that lap was 130 mph on the front straight and 128 mph on the back straight. I was chasing a Z06 Corvette through some traffic at the start... very fun day!



:lateral:

That looks like a lot of fun. Enjoy. I can't wait for mine to be ready.

Running nicely Dale!


What group put on the track day?? I've never run PIR.... or the new track up here (The Ridge) either. There's enough of us up here that we should try to get a schedule on a couple of different clubs so we can get some time in.

My next scheduled run is Laguna Seca on November 29th... so have lots of open time available!

Dale, I like your fresh air intake mods. Thanks for posting the PIR video for us to all check out. You were mov'n!

Please post when you guys go. My car's a long way from being ready but I'd like to go check it out.

Good stuff Dale, car looks pretty stable in the video. :thumbsup:

I might be copying that simple and functional air intake system. Nicely done.

There are back-to-back HPDE sessions at Ridge on Sept. 12 and 13 (Thu/Fri). The 12th is the NW Porsche Club of America, the 13th is Turn 2 Lapping. I'm eyeing signing up for both - anybody else up for one or both?

FYI: The Porsche Club automatically puts you in Novice with an instructor if you've not run with them before. I've heard you can beg your way out of that if you have an instructor from another club vouch for you, but no guarantees ...

Thanks! Getting out on the track is great... makes all the hard work worth it.

Thanks Greg! I'm lovin the new engine and trans... I had a great time on Friday :D

The track day was put on by Cascade Sports Car Club… they do a lot of events at PIR and are a great club. Their next track day at PIR is September 6th. I would be open to a track day at either PIR or the Ridge in September if some NW guys want to get together. You should run PIR sometime... it is a fun track and very nice facility.

Some day I want to do a trip to California and run Thunderhill or Laguna Seca. It would be great to meet some of the Lat G guys down south :thumbsup:


Thanks… It looks like we have a couple of possibilities for a NW group track day. We'll see what happens... that would be nice to meet you even if your cars not ready yet.

Thanks Sieg... The car did feel way better at high speed than the last time out. I’m sold on the CAT 5 road race springs… what a difference in handling. I think the spherical bearing is the key… the springs are free floating and that is what makes the difference (no twisting or binding… just a consistant spring rate). All I know is they feel way better than what I had before.

I would highly recommend adding the cold air intake on your car… just be sure to allow enough clearance so you can get good airflow into the air filter. I enlarged the opening in my cowl hood to match up with the 17” diameter shroud. It’s a much better set up to draw cooler air from the outside rather than the hot air under the hood.

Please start prepping Norwood for a September track day get together for the NW guys :drive:


So it looks like PIR September 6th or the ridge on September 12-13. I'm open to running the Ridge or PIR.

:cheers:

I just got a JURY SUMMONS for 4 days beginning September 3rd --- so PIR "appears" to be out for me on the 6th! BUT -- always the big BUTT.... sometimes they kick your butt out if you don't get picked for a jury -- and this jury duty is in Redmond -- so that's a small court and if they ask me any questions I'm certain to fail. HAHAHAHAHAHA



I'm going to do my best to try to run on the 6th at PIR....


REVISED POST:


After reading the event -- this is driver training with a 4 hour classroom on the 5th.... So I'm not interested in that... I've done a lot of schools -- I don't need to start learning the definition of an apex....and I'd have to be excused from jury duty on the 4th - in order to get down to Ptown early enough on the 5th...

Greg... the classroom training is typically for beginners who have never been on a track. I'm confident that you can be excused from the classroom stuff since you have have experience with other clubs. I will make a call tomorrow to find out for sure and let you know.

Awesome....


I've done Bondurant 3 day ZO6 -- and Bondurant Formula Mazda -- and Spring Mountain (Ron Fellows) 3 day ZO6 -- just finished DirtFish 3 day Rally driving school... have run Thunderhill with Nor Cal Shelby Club 3 or 4 times -- and Sonoma twice now.

Dale,

Great video, my wife thought i was nuts with my headphones and leaning through the turns...actually my leg was sore from pressing the go pedal under my desk :)

its what i need to get back in garage...thanks for the motivation.

Thanks, I'll PM you tomorrow after I make the call.

Lol, time to get the project going Tony!

Unfortunately, I'm out of town on vacation on the 6th. But you kids have fun without me!

Let me know what you guys figure out so I can put in a request for time off at work. :thumbsup:

Greg... Regarding the track day out at PIR on September 6th-- I talked to Mike Smith at Cascade Sports Car Club and he said since you have the experience, you do not have to attend the class room session on the 5th... just show up on Friday morning at the track and you can run :cool:

They will have an instructor ride along with you on the first session to check you out, and show you the lines... then you will be good to go solo the rest of the day. Now hopefully you can skip out on jury duty Friday! I am going to get signed up tonight... look forward to meeting up with you out there!


Thanks Scott... we will cross paths at the track eventually. I plan to get a trailer soon so I can hit some the the other tracks that your running.

Maybe we'll see you out there.

:cheers:

Wow! Thanks Dale!!


Now I'll just have to see if I'm in or on some weeks long jury <just shoot me!>

Greg... that's cool if you can't make it :thumbsup:

I hope you can but no worries. I know that jury duty is unpredictable. I would recommend getting signed up to reserve a spot. You can cancel one or two days before the event and they won't charge you anything. If there are any others guys in Oregon or Washington interested in getting their car out on the track just go to Cascade Sports Car Club and sign up... It would be great to see some other Lat G guys out there.

link to Sept 6 track day registration at PIR for those interested: http://www.cascadesportscarclub.org/...2ac6cd61baf106

Awesome Dale!! 3 seconds is huge!! :thumbsup:

Love watching your videos Dale. I bet you keep getting faster too. :)

Would be great if a bunch of Norcal and PNW guys could get together at a track sometime (who needs those Socal guys?!) :action-smiley-027:

Thanks Gaetano! The car felt pretty dialed in out there on Friday. Now I just need to step it up and push it a bit harder each time out.
:cheers:

Thanks Dave... that would be great to have a Lat-G track day somewhere in Norcal I would love to see your car and the other guys on here (Socal :action-smiley-027: ). Count me in for sure. It looks like your car is getting close... I would sure like to hear your new engine out on the track!

:lateral:

Enjoyed reading about the continued improvements Dale. :thumbsup:

And giving us track vids to watch is very wise. :D

Love your write-up! :thumbsup:

Can you explain how you got full throttle out of the stock linkage?
Thanks

Thanks!

I used the original 69 Camaro mechanical throttle pedal linkage... then modified the arm that is on the engine side of the firewall. I fabricated an extension so the length of the arm is about 9 inches... this gave me enough travel to go from idle to wide open throttle using the second hole on the lever arm on the FAST TB.

The throttle has a good feel and does not come on to quickly. I wanted to make sure I had lots of travel so it would be easier to control the car when rolling the throttle on.


Here are some pics of the mods on the lever arm. The arm measures about 9 inches from the pivot point on the firewall, to the pivot point on the connecting link.
http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2f395665.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psee172ac5.jpg


http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5cd34586.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4dd54e95.jpg

http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/...psb98b6a61.jpg

I made the lever arm just long enough to get the full range of travel on the TB. This worked out good... and the throttle has a good feel (not to fast... not to slow). I made sure I had plenty of clearance through the whole range of travel so the arm would never get hung up and get stuck.

Thanks for posting that Dale :thumbsup:

Kinda funny how we continue to work on the same things Dale. I had to do that exact thing with my mechanical linkage also. My lever at the firewall had to be extended by about 4 inches and shifted to miss hitting the fuel rail and fitting at the end of the rail, and the linkage rod has custom bend in it also. LS or BBC, doesn't matter. :)

I also just finished my cold air intake which is similar to yours, except I used a 17" aluminum cake pan. My filter doesn't sit quite as high as yours(maybe 3/4" lower), so I'm able to run an aluminum "bubble" top that promotes air flow instead of the filter top. My plan is to do 2 runs on the chassis dyno with the cold air unit in place and 2 runs with just a standard filter base just to compare. I'll let you know what the difference is.

Thanks Skip... it's nice to finally enjoy the car after all the work :D
:cheers:

Thanks Ron... looking forward to more updates on yours!

We both seem to keep coming up with the same solutions :thumbsup:

That's a great idea to test the two set ups... I would like to know the results. I wonder what the difference would be between the "bubble" top, versus a filter top? I have run just a plain drop base air filter taking in the air under the hood.... and the same air filter set up drawing air in through the cowl hood. The engine seems to run a bit better with the cowl induction set up.... so I'm sticking with that.

Be sure to post up some pictures of your cold air intake set up... I'd like to see what you came up with.

It's fun to do all the little detail stuff after all the hard works done!