TwinTorino

[city_ofthe_south]

i'll be watching. Great concept and some fun fab work.

[TonyG]

Great project.. I hate to see the Comp orange in that condition myself. But atleast it is going to a good cause. What happened to the engine from the Cobra?

[SVTforme]

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

As for the Comp orange car - I still have it, although it is a bare skeleton. The engine, trans, seats and IRS were long gone when I bought it. The powertrain from it now resides in a 1969 Mach 1. I got it for electrical system, cooling system, brakes, steering and lots of other odds and ends.

[SVTforme]

We have been spending some time lately figuring how we want to set the suspension up, and seeing what we want to run for hard points on the chassis etc. We also want to figure out how to set up the rear springs/shocks, since there is not a lot back there. We started to get the chassis points into the computer and figure out roughly how the car will behave when we set up the points the way we want to. The models is being created using program called Motionview (by Altair Engineering) which is for multibody dymanics. This is then sovled using a program called ADAMS.

Here is the model as it is today. The front and rear suspension have all the basics points in. Not much to see aside from the bare basics. You can clearly see all the main suspension parts for the front MacPherson strut suspension and SLA rear IRS. The key here is the info it spits out.. and not having detailed graphics. I will post some animations once they are up and running, as it makes more sense when you see things moving. Now it is time to determine the kinematic behavior of the car (camber/caster/toe curves) and them move onto the dynamic side of things (spring rates, shock rates etc). Also been spending some time with a complete 3D rendering of the car which should be ready to post in a week or two.

This is much easier to do now before everything is finished, and it is not really easy to guess how a car will behave by just looking at where points are. This will provide a starting point for setup, as it is much harder to move points when everything is welded in for good.

[SVTforme]

Finally got some renderings going for the cars.. figured I would post here as well as it goes along with the build progress of the cars. This was my first crack at 3D rendering.. just needed a good project to learn how to use it. More to come in the near future.

Also have lots more done on the front suspension and the subframe connectors. Pics to follow shortly.

[SVTforme]

Couple more updates:

Three main things on the go right now - front suspension/steering/brakes, floor of car/subframe connectors and steering column/pedal setup and seat positioning. Rear suspension is on hold until custom bent tubes and rear coil overs arrive.

First the suspension. Have found most of the front suspension components online in the past month or so (nearly new for discounted prices of course). Nice thing here is since I am running SN95 (1994-2004) Mustang based suspension - the sky is the limit with aftermarket parts.

Front suspension will consist of (parts are on the way or in hand now for one car):
Maximum Motorsports front tubular lower control arms
Koni dual adjustable (DA) front struts with adjustable rebound and compression damping
Maximum Motorsports coil over kit
Maximum Motorsports caster camber plates
Stock Mustang front spindles/hubs
Hypercoil springs - have not decided on rate yet

Since the strut rods are no longer needed, the brackets that house the bushings were removed. Custom brackets will be made up to stiffen the area once again and also provide mounts for the radiator, A/C condensor and ABS unit.



With the suspension almost in position, the stock control arms make contact with the frame. Tubular control arms correct this issue, although just barely. The goal here is to get the suspension in the exact same position as in a stock Mustang to keep the suspension geometry the same (easier said than done as we are finding out).



Nearly new tubular control arms compared to the old ones. Since we are running coil overs, spring pockets are no longer needed. They are also lighter and much better looking.



As for the subframe connectors - hoping to have them in within the next week or so. The passengers side is nearly ready to go in. Just have to jog the subframe connector 4" as the front subframe is 4" inboard of the rear (more to come on that shortly). As you can see, the front trans mount has been removed, and the remaining piece left will be used for welding to the connectors. A custom trans mount will need to be made for the 6-speed, and also a driveshaft loop needs to go in as well as seat mount supports. This will all make a bit more sense once they start going in.

[SVTforme]

Got started on laying out the driving position this week as well.
Starting fitting the Sparco's into the car. They are extremely comfortable and will help keep a person planted when on the road course. Stangely enough, sparco does not make seat adapters to bolt into a Torino, even though the model name is Sparco Torino .



Started to fit the Mustang pedals into the car. Several reasons for using these instead of Torino ones. Mustang uses a cable clutch and Torino ones need significant mods to make work with the clutch quadrant. Want to be able to keep the stock Mustang pedal ratios going into the hydroboost. Want to be able to use the stock Mustang electronics since all the dash wiring is from a 2004 Mustang. Also like the pedal positions much more and they are much better for heel/toe driving on the track. Measurements were taken from a 2004 Mustang to be able to position the pedals the same distance from the firewall, height off the ground, and releationship to the steering wheel. The goal here is also to use a stock floor shift Torino column as I hate the look of a new column in an old car.



Well.. here is the first issue as we were expecting. The clutch quadrant hits the windshield wiper motor area. This area will need to be modified to make it work. It is looking like we will end up grafting a Mustang firewall onto the Torino. That way everything will bolt right up (including brake clutch and gas pedals, steering column, hydroboost unit, heater box and all wiring and cable pass throughs) and look much cleaner. Since we have 2 complete Mustang firewall assemblies and a plasma cutter.. this should not be a big deal.. famous last words I guess.


Stay tuned..