Track Day 'Cuda

[CJD Automotive]

I'm looking through pics and trying post this is some kind of order. I guess I'll start from the front.
I added a few braces to the down bars in the engine compartment. I built brackets to install a removable spreader bar just above the motor plate. I keyed it so it couldn't rotate, as I needed a place to mount the fuel pressure regulator:





I also made a removable brace on each side from the frame rail to coil over mount. I need it removable to pull the headers out:













To attach the motor plate, I needed a bracket from the frame rail on the passenger side, and from the down bar on the drivers. I wanted to make a bracket the plate could rest on. Made this for the passenger side:





The driver side was a little trickier because the bar curves back:











A front motor plate requires a mid plate. Normally these are 1/4" aluminum or 1/8" steel. The Quicktime block saver plate that comes with the bell is 1/8" steel, so just added "ears" to that:



With a front and mid plate, the trans mount needs to be rubber. If not, it will crack the case. I already had the drivetrain locked down at the angle I wanted, so grabbed a Viper mount and made a trans mount. I am a huge fan of poster board templates and use them on almost everything I make:










My plan was always to run a water to air intercooler. With the turbos at the back of the engine and real estate up front for an air to air unavailable, seemed like the best option. To keep the plumbing short, and not intrude too much into the passenger compartment, I wanted the intercooler in the cowl. First things first, need to connect my intake elbow to the Hellcat 92mm DBW throttle body. I need to push it back slightly to clear the dual fuel rails/lines. I found a company that made a billet adaptor to use the Hellcat TB on different engines. I ask them could they just make it without machining the adaptor holes. They did, and also made me the adaptor on the elbow. So all I needed to do was connect the two with an aluminum tube section:







Added a Wiggins clamp to the throttle body to attach to the intercooler:



I sized the intercooler cores I needed and then made a cardboard mockup to see how it would fit. I'm using two 1000 HP cores. More cooling is always better:









Once I found a good place for it where the connections wouldn't interfere with the surroundings, and I could remove it pretty easily, it was time to have it made. I've designed this to be removable from inside the car so you don't have to pull the engine! The plate I have on the outlet is a bulkhead plate that will bolt to the firewall. It's there to seal the intercooler inside from the engine compartment:







The intercooler is attached at the bottom to the tunnel and the top at the cowl:



Once I had it's location nailed down, I could start making the inlet plumbing. I'm using a Wiggins at the core and at the turbo discharge:



As I said earlier, the intercooler is separated from the engine compartment. The turbo discharge plumbing needs to come through the firewall to connect to the intercooler. I found these stainless/silicone pipe grommets that are water tight and rated at 500 degrees. This will let the pipes pass through and allow some movement:

[CJD Automotive]

On to the trans tunnel.
Most of you know Mopars are torsion bar cars. They have a torsion bar crossmember that runs from rocker to rocker. It's about an 1/8" thick and provides a lot of the bodies torsional rigidity. My car utilizes the stock floor, and is basically stock bodied except for subframe connectors and a grafted on front/rear subframe (It would have been SOOO much easier to build a tube frame chassis and just set the body on!).
To install a T56 size transmission requires cutting a section of this crossmember out in the middle. I wanted to tie the crossmember back together with the same strength, and needed to be able to slide the largest diameter of the trans through it. I ended up building this piece after trying lots of different cardboard template:







I then realized I had a problem. I build the rear of the tunnel much earlier so I could build and install the seat structure. I kept it low because I wanted a console. When I ran the seat bar over the driveshaft, I stayed at the same height as the tunnel:



This would have been fine, except that with the motor/mid plate, I cannot tilt the engine down to remove the trans. The transmission needs to slide straight back far enough to get the input shaft out of the clutch.
After measuring how far I needed to go back, I raised the seat bar enough to allow the trans to slide through it that distance (with the shifter removed). I then had to cut back into the previous tunnel that amount and a make a removable section that could also seal off fire/smoke. The lower bolts on this panel would be inaccessible with the seats in place, so they bolt in from the underside.





With that panel done, I laid out how I wanted the tunnel.

I built the pieces that attached to the floor that also attach the removal cover for the shifter. I flanged everything as a fire stop and will seal everything with fire tape:



Then I started on the removable shifter section:







I added some baffles underneath to attach and seal the Nomex shift boot.





I made the front of the tunnel section that will connect to the firewall, but needed one more access panel to service the shift rod, reverse cable, and gear position sensor:





Not sure what the metal composition of the factory sheet metal is, but TIG welding was a no-go. Mig it is.





So this is a weird step down tunnel! My console is flush with the last step, so it transitions into the shifter panel level. The side cutout's on the shifter panel become the E-brake lever and sway bar adjuster pockets.
The drop down from the front section will probably get cup holders. This whole thing will be covered in removable upholstery.

And just because you made it this far, here's a couple of renderings of the outside. Not exact, but close enough to build panels and work from, which is what I'm doing now:

[camcojb]

That car is sooo cool!!

[ScotI]

Agreed! So cool & love the logic/needs driven fab work. That rendering is freakin' sharp.

[syborg tt]

Well, you are making me want to build another crazy car after watching this build.

[Che70velle]

Just wow. Holy wow!

[WSSix]

That rendering is great motivation. So hot, too.

[CJD Automotive]

I'm getting pretty bad about keeping this thread updated, and even worse on taking pics. Had one of those pic memories pop up and realized I haven't posted on this in awhile. So, some stuff that's been done (some for quite awhile!):

Some of you have seen the suspension pickup failures on the Ron clip, and now it's time to address those:







I added gussets to the forward, lower control arm pickup point. It now connects to the frame rail and has gussets in the rear and front, in the direction of load.

I sent the exhaust pieces out to be inconel wrapped. While I really liked the clean look of Headershield's process, it is non removable. The big race car teams went this direction to save weight. I am more concerned with being able to remove the shells so I can inspect or repair the pipes than I am about weight. Turbo stuff moves and cracks, not if, but when:

















I left the turn outs long so I could trim them once I build the rocker box that encloses the side pipes.





I had been careful all along to just modify the firewall. Because everything was built with the firewall intact, I felt making a new one at this point wouldn't run afoul of any rules if I compete with the car:




Once the firewall was in place, I could start working on the wipers. With an intercooler in the middle of the dash, a wiper transmission wasn't going to work. My ECU can communicate on the Bosch LIN bus, so I got two Bosch wiper motors. These will be at the outside corners of the windshield and both sweep toward the middle. Once I got the position where I wanted, I had to build a box that was sealed from the inside. My dash bar runs right where this needs to be. I had to build a box larger than the opening, through the opening!

I didn't take any pics of the right side while building the box or wiper motor mount, but here are a few close to being finished roughed in and then epoxy:




This one shows the high temperature silicone pipe grommets for the turbo discharge




With the cover off




Cover on and turbo reconnected



Here is a front shot showing the right side completed and the left still to do:

[CJD Automotive]

Couple things in that last pic, the cap on top of the cowl is where you add coolant to the intercooler system. The other is the hoses you see are just mock up to get the lengths needed.

This cap is connected to a tube that is at the highest point of the intercooler (and the entire intercooler system). It is a fill and bleed point. I have a bleed on the intercooler radiator as well.



And this is the back side of the firewall where the intercooler mounts that shows where the discharge pipes go. The entire intercooler assembly doesn't take up much more room than the stock cowl tub did:




I took some pics of the left side wiper build and this shows building a box bigger than its opening. I couldn't just bend up a box, I had to build it in pieces and assemble inside the hole:













After assembled inside, I could then weld it:





I need a flange inside the box that the lid can bolt to and help keep water out:



Didn't take any finished pics of this one, but its the same as the other side.

[CJD Automotive]

I had originally planned to mount my coils down by the oil pan. The dry sump hoses and steering quickly made that a non option.
Up top was my only option, but I knew I didn't want them mounted to the valve covers! I made a mount that attached to the strut tower braces that would allow the coils to come off with it:

This is the strut tower brace I'm going to use as a mount:













The right side was going to need two coils down low because of how I did the headers (I originally planned them all down low). The front two need to be up top, though:











The rear two just needed a little bracket: