Thanks HappyJack


Yes it is designed to keep the engine from rocking side to side. Which keeps the shifter where it is expected to be. Makes the 2-3, 3-2 shift easier to do in a hurry.


It is my version of this Engine Torque Brace for 79-85 RX-7 - Racing Beat

 

Updates. Built a strut brace using .065 wall 1" chro-moly tubing and some L/R 1/2" hiems. This completes structure of the car. It bolts to the front of the shock towers using some 3/8" weld nuts I installed several years ago. Talk about long range planning!





On to the alignment machine. The car was ballasted to simulate my weight and the weight of the missing body work. Then ride heights, corner weights and alignment was set.

Overall really pleased with how it is turning out. The car carries more than 50% of its weight on the rear tires and has great cross weights. The rear axle is dead straight - not warped by the welding I did 4 years ago.

On the down side the car is heavier than I had anticipated. So it may be candidate for a bridge port motor in the future.

 

I am so in love with this car and way impressed with you, the man who made it happen. Mad respect! Hope to see it driving someday.
What kind of radiator do you use?

 

Thanks!


I "think" it is a Ron Davis two row double pass radiator. I say that based the shape of the tanks. It came out of an FC race car and my friend, David Long at Santa Fe Garage welded the Moroso filler neck on it to make it work in my car. It measures 21x19"

 

Fitting up body work. The hood is carbon fiber and the fenders are from another race car. Once I get everything prepped I am going to take the bolt on body work to Maaco and get it painted Chrysler Prowler yellow to match to match the rest of the car. So this is the before picture!

 

Looking good, where's the hood from?

 

car looks great!

 

Thanks guys. The hood is from a local guy that makes E Production body work for racers. He can lay up glass reinforced with Kevlar or carbon fiber.

 

I want that hood...What's it look like underneath? I'm tempted to make a fiberglass hood and mold it onto the stock steel hood with the center cut out so that it can be used with the stock hood release and hinges.

 

I'll get some shots of the bottom of it. The glass hoods that I have seen including this one cannot be used with stock hood hinges or latch.

 

Underside of the hood. It has some reinforcement added to it so it holds its shape. This is a racer car part and it is really freaking light!



Final shot of the air box. The hose and bottom of the box is insulated with Thermotec silver heat barrier. The top is covered with Thermotec gold refective cloth. The gold stuff is pretty trick looking in person....ought to be worth 50HP if I am doing the math right!!

 

That's easily worth 50hp

That hood looks great

 

Btw Scott, I went back through this thread to get some inspiration for my current build (no thread on it yet) and it looks like all your old pics are gone Do you still have them? I can go back and put them in the correct posts, uploaded to the forum so they'll never disappear if you want...

 

Yes I still have them. Let me know how to get back in the right place.

 

Hmm, looks like you were/are using a photo hosting site and then linking to those pics in your posts here. Did the pics get deleted off that site? Or did the site change the way it's links work maybe? If the pics are still there, give me a link and I can go see what's up, maybe I can fix the links here or something

Another option, although a fairly large undertaking, would be to email me the pics, I could go back upload them to this site and edit the posts to show them again.

Normally I'm not a fan of all the work involved, but I think this is one of the threads that inspires others to take on builds like this.

 

PM Sent Mr. Trans-AM

 

So I got Maaco! The results are very good for what this is and what I paid for it. I took them all of the bolt on body work instead of the whole car. Very satisfied.

In addition to putting it all back together I have been working on a few other things. I figured out that 2.5" hose fits under the header panel. So I ran a hose from the left front turn signal over to the air box in the right side head light bucket.

Also finished up the tow clevis I have been working. Pictures later.





Left side head light bucket. the hose connects to a modified brake duct that I trimmed to fit the turn signal opening and then runs behind the header panel to the right side.

 

Looks good! Maaco does decent work for the price for sure.

 

I'm sure you've thought of this, and I'm not digging in the right places or interpreting it right... but is it legal to move to non-stock hubs? I mean, I know brakes are free within diameter limits, but I didn't see references to it being allowed to change hubs. For that matter, you mentioned a 2nd gen subframe swap a while back... is that legal?

I'm asking because I'm evaluating how far to take a 1st gen STU build of my own, and would really rather not overshoot.

 

Great question! I just spent a few hours reading and re-reading the latest GCR and I have to say that you are right. There is no current language that supports an alternate front hub.


This build has been going on since the fall of 2009. At the time the rule set was more liberal with respect to suspension design. So I used that as justification to do the hubs back in 2010. Over time the rules have changed....obviously.


Now I think a clarification is in order because we need a way to take advantage of the big brake allowances. After all not all cars have big brake options available in the aftermarket. I guess we need to write a letter to the CRB and ask for a hub allowance.


Regardless I am racing this car the way it is.

 

I think there's more than ample argument of a need even aside from needing to fit the allowed alternate brakes; I mean, even in Prod, a 'stock brakes' class, alternate hubs and rotors got legalized for safety reasons. I suppose you could carve up a stock hub to fit an alternate rotor or something, but that just seems ridiculous.

 

Yeah, trying to create a hub using an OE rotor would be a really bad idea. I've seen this done on a Fox Mustang and it came to tears.


I think the allowance needs to asked for.


In the 2010 GCR there was an STU suspension rule that read something like this:


"Alternate front suspensions are allowed as long as they are the same design as the OE suspension"


Meaning, to me, that an alternate design strut suspension could have been used on an FB. So perhaps at that time an FC style strut suspension could have been used. Not sure if this supported an FC sub frame swap, however.

 

You've come a long way since I looked at your build last. Awesome job. Gives me incentive to get back into mine.

 

Modifying a stock rotor to become a hub which we can slip an FC rotor over worked out pretty well for us. We end up drilling the rotors out to fit the 4X110 bolt pattern which has its plusses and minuses, good if you already have wheels you can use, bad that it is tough to find good 4X110 wheels. This was the second set that I made the bad part about this job is that I had to do it on a mill with a rotary table, by the time I had made enough chips to cut the entire rotor off my arm was sore from cranking the handle so much, the first one I was able to get one of the tech center guys to make it on a CNC lathe so it went a lot faster.

 

We have also used a modified rotor/hub like mhr650. It seems to work really well. We have done 2 chump events (28+ hours of racing) with that set-up. No indications of problems. I do not see any problem with using the rotor/hub modified by machining off the rotor.

Carl