Track Day 'Cuda

[CJD Automotive]

Originally Posted by preston

Thanks we always appreciate the photos. Not sure about the olive green paint scheme though - c'mon this is pro-touring we need the undercarriage to be bondoed and painted in a flip flop chameleon color to be taken seriously

Everything is in epoxy, just different colors depending on what I had ready at the time and what I had to mix. It all gets painted later, just need a little protection now, and it will be very nice and pretty, just like before. It's my street car-slash-track car.

Originally Posted by preston

Far be it from me to second guess the Sutton-meister, but it sure surprises me not to see any triangulation on either of those watt links mount. I've seen his math on the loads but 1 lb of metal gussets would give me a lot of peace of mind.

The long side, on the left, is triangulated. The right side is short and isn't. I overbuild everything, so trusting Ron's calc's. (BTW, EVERYONE has told me that!)

EDIT: This is the same setup that is on Greg's car. It broke on the forth or fifth lap when he dropped a wheel over the curb. So, most definitely needs a support!

Originally Posted by preston

Really looking forward to seeing the front clip put in place. What ride height are you targetting ? I saw some numbers on your drawing that looked very low. Is this a race car that can survive the street or do you plan on a fair amount of street driving ?

I have the car set at one of the lowest race heights now. Ron designed the suspension to allow 2" of height adjustment without affecting the geometry. You can see the jack screws in the trunk, and there is another set for the front. All the way up is close to 5" clearance, which is more than some new cars.

[Ron Sutton]

Originally Posted by preston

Thanks we always appreciate the photos. Not sure about the olive green paint scheme though - c'mon this is pro-touring we need the undercarriage to be bondoed and painted in a flip flop chameleon color to be taken seriously

Far be it from me to second guess the Sutton-meister, but it sure surprises me not to see any triangulation on either of those watt links mount. I've seen his math on the loads but 1 lb of metal gussets would give me a lot of peace of mind.

Really looking forward to seeing the front clip put in place. What ride height are you targetting ? I saw some numbers on your drawing that looked very low. Is this a race car that can survive the street or do you plan on a fair amount of street driving ?

Hey Preston,

I understand your concern. A lot of people subscribe to the "When in doubt, make it stout" philosophy. I don't ... because a pound here & pound there ... ends up making the car 200-400# heavier than they need to be. So I run calcs on everything & see what it needs. Then I make it as strong as it needs to be ... but no heavier than it needs to be.

FYI ...
* The upper watts link mount tube that sticks out of the axle housing tube on the driver side DOES have a 45° brace. You just can't see it in the photos.
* The lower watts link on the passenger side, bolts on behind the coil over shock. That mount is boxed & welded pretty well. It does flex about .040" so adding a piece of 7/8" x .058" tubing as an angle brace is doable if someone wants to do that.

[CJD Automotive]

Originally Posted by Ron Sutton

It does flex about .040" so adding a piece of 7/8" x .058" tubing as an angle brace is doable if someone wants to do that.

Just need this followed up with, "..but totally not necessary, because it won't break or fail as designed!"

Never mind, it broke on Greg's car, so i'll be adding a gusset.

[CJD Automotive]

Couple of pics of the fuel cell bladder before the foam goes in. Had Fuel Safe make this to mount a Holley VR2 pump internal. The VR2 is basically two fuel pumps, so it has two -10 pickups. The Holley pre-filters also mount internal, but are mounted under and accessible by removing the fill plate. You can see the two pickups in the collector box that attach to the filters and pumps. The two smaller pumps are the lift pumps to keep the collector full at all times, under all G load situations. it's an 18 gallon cell, but thinking closer to 17 with all the "stuff' inside.

[syborg tt]

I am guessing that was not cheap and I really like watching this build as I am learning a bunch.

[CJD Automotive]

Originally Posted by syborg tt

I am guessing that was not cheap and I really like watching this build as I am learning a bunch.

Glad you like it!

The cell turned out to be "reasonably priced". Funny thing is, Fuel Safe quoted me about half of what ATL did, and they are owned by the same company.

[syborg tt]

Originally Posted by CJD Automotive

The cell turned out to be "reasonably priced". Funny thing is, Fuel Safe quoted me about half of what ATL did, and they are owned by the same company.

your suppose to keep that a secret.

[preston]

Were the lift pump mounts a requested option ? I mean I assume they are not standard.

I looked up that VR2 pump - holy cow are you really planning on more than 2200hp in this thing or put another way why didn't you just use the VR1 ?

Thanks for the tip on Fuel Safe vs. ATL.

Another thought not directed at you but someone looking at this setup - I was using saddle tanks and I used the "passive" pump from a late model Vette to continuously pump fuel into the primary tank (same as OEM vette). You could use a similar strategy here in fact I think that's what the OEM's do in the last gen Camaro and Cadillacs (pump into a reservoir with a passive pump). I'm not sure how you would run two of them though, not sure they could work that way.

Looking good !

[CJD Automotive]

Originally Posted by preston

Were the lift pump mounts a requested option ? I mean I assume they are not standard.

No, not standard! I went over what I was wanting to do with there engineer and this is what we came up with. IMSA, Nascar and Arca use a similar set of lift pumps as well with the EFI setups.

Originally Posted by preston

I looked up that VR2 pump - holy cow are you really planning on more than 2200hp in this thing or put another way why didn't you just use the VR1 ?

I am turbocharged, so I built an engine capable of a sustained 1800 HP for Bonneville and Mile events. It will NEVER see that on the street or road course/autoX. I can "adjust" the output between about 550-1100 for different venues. This is one of the reason my car is a bit of a pig. Aside from needing a beefier cage, the driveline has to handle the top power level, so much heavier components are needed for more than just a road course/autoX car.

[Bakaruda]

WOW!