3 link suspension

[David Pozzi]

Mark,
Great stuff, it looks like a really good system. I'll look you guys up at SEMA.
On the subject of back seats, if you install a roll bar with seatbelt anchor cross brace, you won't ever want to have a back seat passenger in the car, it just isn't safe having them sit back there with a bunch of tubes right in front of them.
My wife's 73 Camaro has an Autopower roll bar and back seat but I can't even get back there to clean the rear window let alone sit there.
David

[Damn True]

I just tried to visualize getting to my back window to clean it with the cage I am planning and I threw out my back thinking about it.

Back seat? Guess I wont be having one.

Anyone know if you can buy carpet remnants from ACC large enough to cover the rear firewall?

[Vince@Meanstreets]

I just tried to visualize getting to my back window to clean it with the cage I am planning and I threw out my back thinking about it.

you know why? its 11:30 pm....get some sleep! LOL you could do an anti roll bar of some sorts...but it won't be sanction legal.
Mark, design looks good. BTW what ws wrong with your welding? LOL
second thought how would one get a "new" design sanction legal? just up late

[Vince@Meanstreets]

I know this is off base but im not afraid of being black flagged...
for Race-rods concerns for lack of early stang support. Having the creator of lateral dynamics an early car owner can be a blessing for us. So being patient may reap great rewards.
Im local to Griggs and you must have caught them on a bad day? But they do tend to be who do you know types so f em too...for a front suspension try these guys, im sure you saw the link on pt but i'll post it here for those who don't frequent it anymore. I too wanted to improve the Ford Chevy II design by grafting a QA1 or Grantenelli style tube front end so I can use off the shelf tubular arms. It looks like it could be done so I may look into it.
As far as the rear its very close to a Camaro rear so a couple changes could yeild a 3 link for Mustangs.Time will tell. Vin

[Damn True]

Yeah, it is late. The cage I am planning is going to be a lot like the one in Stevo's car, but the a-pillars will go through the dash, and the door bars will be a bit different.

Total Control Products is building a pretty wild track car http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com/...ecar/main.html might be good place to look in terms of a project headed in that direction.

Maier apparently has some stuff for the early 'stangs as well.

http://www.maierracing.com/index.html

I dunno about their early stuff, but their late model stang stuff is pretty widely used by the guys racing in NASA.

[Steve Chryssos]

Mark,
Great looking kit. Sometimes you can just casually glance at a design and know that quality and function are present. You system surely qualifies. If you don't mind, show us a 3D rear view.

F-Body back seats are completely useless anyway. I built a nice shelf that holds a beach towel and a small cooler as well as some stereo equipment. And yeah, I put my contortionist skills to work when climbing in the back of my car. If I'm not very careful, my voice raises by two octaves while stepping over the horizontal bar. But I only need to get back there two or three times per year, so no biggie.

[Mean 69]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I will have to agree with you all in terms of backseat issues, I pulled the backseat out of Lateral I, there really is no use for it anymore. But, there are folks that would like to have a rear seat for small kids, etc, and we didn't want to exclude them from being interested in our kit. Honestly, the design didn't make that requirement terribly difficult to solve. I will say though, our feeling is that the performance of the cars we are building REALLY speaks to safety, and that means a well executed cage for cars that will be driven (which are the ones we are really interested in). You really just never know what will happen, on the street, auto-cross track, or road course, this hobby is inherently dangerous.

Vince is right, we also have a 65 Mustang project car that has been on hold for quite a while that is likely going to end up as a mule for a Ford development kit, including chassis structure kits, etc. The TCP car is actually already built, and it ran quite a bit with the American Iron race series last year. I have a friend that drove the car in one of the races, and he really liked the car. Our intention, from the suspension side, is to take the performance potential one step (or two, maybe three) higher than their setup, same goes for brand "G." We actually consulted with the guy I mentioned when we were debating early on about which approach we should go with the rear setup (i.e. primarily a non-invasive approach that would leave resulting performance compromises), and the strong feedback we got was to put performance first. That's what we did.

Here's a shot of the rear/side view of the engineering model, as well as a look at the differential. We are really excited, at this time all of the assembly fixtures and techniques have been validated, so all of the prepatory work to gear up for production is basically behind us for this iteration. The approach we have taken for the design and build is a highly modular one, which means we will be able to configure the specifics for various platforms (Mopar, Ford, etc) very efficiently. One of the other things that I feel is important to point out is the technical basis for the design. Everything is done for a reason, load paths are triangulated to make the structures as rigid and light as possible. The software systems we use are so good these days, structural analysis is far, far easier to study as a result. For instance, something as simple as the radii on the bellcrank piece (the pivot you can see in the back shot) had a surprising effect on the strength of the piece: changing it from "x" inches, to "x +1" made a HUGE difference, it was a complete surprise. I don't mean to bore folks with this, but we have spent so much energy in the design of the setup, I just feel it is important to point out. Most of our competitors don't do this type of analysis.

Thanks!
Mark

[Musclerodz]

Looks good Mark. When I first saw it the pic, I thought of Unique's setup, but yours actually makes sense to me and hell for stout. Should be an excellent alternative to what is out there for the more agressive people. So is Matt working solely for you, or just the reason he won't accept outside work? It is a shame all that welding he does will be on the bottom side of the car.

Mike

[Steve Chryssos]

Damn that's sexy! When someone takes a peek under the back of my car, that's what I want 'em to see.

[Damn True]

Ditto,
Just gotta find a way to fit it into the budget.