continued from above
Once these were cut, brackets made, and they were test fit the lower steel brackets were bolted to the trunk lid. The OEM steel trunk lid is very strong but we also extended the lower portion down to touch an adjustable perch onto the tubular rear bumper beam. We will made a "saddle" that looks prettier before paint, but this puts much of the vertical load into this beam and less on the trunk structure.
The trunk can swing open fully and the wing element clears the roof easily. This is due to the rear biased, high mounted placement of the wing element.
The "windows" above were cut out by hand - using a hole saw and jig saw. There are much faster ways to do this using robots... a CNC water jet or plasma table makes this much faster but we didn't have the time to transfer all of this into CAD then run use someone's table. Yes, I need to buy the shop a CNC plasma table...
The lightened uprights were completed and then endplate designs were tested and tweaked...
Some details on the image above (red line) have been completed but its the best picture I have of the finish wing currently.
Quote:
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GTL class - any spoiler or wing configuration with a maximum of 6” tall from its highest mounting point or a maximum height of 4” above the lowest point of the rear window, whichever is less. The maximum width of the spoiler/wing must be no wider than the original panels of the car and must not extend more than 6 inches past the furthest point of the rear of the car. No wing may exceed 8 inches in chord length (front to back) at any point.
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We know that the 2017 aero rules for Optima are pretty limited and we will create a separate aero package for that series. We will use a carbon fiber trunk to mount that Optima aero package, which would make for a simple "trunk swap" to be legal for that series. The big wing would be used in NASA and other events.
A massive splitter, the soon-to-be ducted hood, and some other bits will make up the front aero. We just made this front splitter for my 330, but the one for the M3 will be bigger in every way.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Wow, that was a lot of ground to cover, and I didn't get to everything that's completed. Next time I will show the twin fire systems, chassis wiring that has begun, the fuel system components that have been arriving, and the Motec M1 + wiring harness which is being built by our friends at G-Speed.
The rear differential is now assembled with a Wavetrac LSD and Ford Racing gears, the exhaust headers should be wrapped up soon, and then a driveshaft and exhaust can be built after that is in place. The custom coolant reservoir was just completed, heater hose plumbing has begun, and Ryan is spec'ing out the oil hoses next.
This is what the M3 looks like today. Tune in next time to see more progress!
Thanks for reading,