TweakIt Racing's LS1 FD NASA TTS/ST2 Track Car Build

[Brent]

orginal thread from 08:
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...ead.php?t=5385

While it's not a rotary, it's still an FD and most of the stuff is still applicable.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Post from around Aug 09:

Around November 08, I was just getting back to Afghanistan from my two weeks of Mid Tour leave and on a track/car high. I was browsing the forum and saw an ebay link to a gutted and caged LS1 FD project. Just by looking at it, I knew the owner had to be building it with a Rob and Big Al. My car and Rob's car have alot of the same main components, minus the engine of course.

I picked it up for a really good deal knowing I could part it out and make a pretty good profit, but decided to keep it instead. I really liked the cage in the car and with the car having most of the main components, I decided to finish the project and see how I like it. Since I wasn't going to be home for a while, and I originally wanted the car to be complete by the time I made it back to the states, I sent it to TweakIt Racing(Dan Chadwick/Brian Johns) who are very good friends of mine. I changed my plans after that and we have been taking our time. With my track schedule and Dan's AutoX schedule, the car took a backseat this summer/fall.

The car came with a ton of brand new stuff Here is a run down of some of the stuff that came with it(all of it is brand new) Here is the original listing from previous owner:

hinson super cars v8 conversion pacakge
subframe
transmission brace
torque arm
drive shift

ls1 v8 fully rebulit 0 miles(built for track use)
t56 transmission
stop tech st 40 big brake kit
atl fuel cell(22gal... can you say enduro here I come )
magnum racing seat
tein flex coilovers
tein edfc unit for flex coilovers
sparco quick release steering system
seibon carbon hood
front bumper
tilton pedal assembly
remote cable ajuster
front and rear sway bar (racing beat)
full race cage
painted car new but does have some scatches
hinson radiator (premium)
hinson headers
ls1 harness w/switch panel

That isn't a full list, but that was a good start. I have since picked up a few more things. Here are the larger items:
-Seibon Carbon Fiber Hatch w/ RE-A Carbon Fiber wing(currently getting my money's worth on the silver car)
-Accusump.. track essential for piece of mind IMO
-Tripoint Front Sway Bar with Widefoot Sway Bar Mounts and bronze bushings
-Maval converted full Manual Rack(really helps you feel what the car is doing)
-ATL surge tank and pump for fuel cell
-18x10 CCW Classics(currently on the silver car as well). I am prob. going to run these in the beginning, but I have since picked up another set of CCW Classics that are 17x10 and 17x12 which will allow me to run a 335 in the rear to help handle the extra torque the LS1 brings as well as keep the cost of tires down a little being they are 17's. That also means I will be adding Pettit Rear fender flares eventually. Haven't decided on the front flares though


They gutted everything in the car... almost too much. They gutted the rear hatch, doors, and CF hood to where they are just the exterior shell and of course everything on the inside. I'm fine with most of that as the cage is very stout, but the hatch would not support the glass I'm fairly certain(already have the new hatch though so problem solved). They also did things like cut the front bumper/radiator support(which I purchased and will have welded back on) basically leaving my fiberglass bumper as the only thing between the outside world and my engine bay... and the rear bumper reinforcement rebar(which will be going back on the car). I expect the car will weigh around 2400lbs... so prob. more like 2500-2600lbs

Here are some pictures of it. There really isn't too much left to do to it. We have to figure out some wiring, route the fuel lines, put the battery in, exhaust from headers back, and a couple of other minor things.

A few of the previous owners pictures from the listing:







And after I got it home:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Ugly headlights that came with the car... but they will save me around 20lbs on each corner:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

I'll post some updates as time permits. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the track as I've done 35 track days so far this summer/fall in my rotary FD :runaway:.

Brent[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Update from 11/03/09

The car is coming along and I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of the year, although I'm not in a rush as my goal is Mid January as my first event will be the NASA event at CMP in Feb. most likely. The harness that came with the car was reconfigured by the previous owner and after trying to identify it(many wires had been replaced as well as certain things were not in their correct location) I've decided to pick up one from Rod Tech(hopefully). I've emailed them a couple of times and have not received a response.

The brake system is now done pending pressurizing the system and checking for leaks. Here are a few pictures of the system and the lines Dan and Brian fabricated:





The 99+ larger brake duct/shields are a perfect fit for the stoptech's


Fuel system is getting there. The pump, in tank surge tank, and fuel cell are complete, hardlines going from the fuel cell to engine bay are made, and now need to connect the fuel cell to the lines and the lines to the fuel rails. The lines are ran on the inside passengerside of the car after thinking about it long and hard(that's what she said). We came to the conclusion that it would be safer running covered lines inside opposed to under the car due to the possibility or crushing/ puncturing the lines due to several different scenerio's. Here are all the fittings left to connect the dots



Battery relocation is coming very soon as well. I purchased a Optima Red Top and a box to put it in, but I realized when it showed up that the box is waaaay too big to fit where the bins use to be. Oh well, we'll make one.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Yesterday, we changed the the Valley cover to a vented one as well as added an LS6 intake. That's one of the advantages of sharing a shop with Jerry, the owner of VetteSport and a Club Racer/AutoXer... good advice on engine stuff and parts available immediately. "yeah, let's do the valley cover and intake" "there is one on the engine right over there you can have for $XX". In order to make it work on my engine, we had to cut off the area you see in the picture:

Everything went smoothly and installed the new valley cover and intake.
Old and new one for comparison:


I had been very nervous about the weight distribution of the car. I was afraid it was going to be front heavy since everything in the rear had been removed. We finally put it on the scales a few weeks ago with all the main components on the car. It weighed 2254lbs dry with almost perfect weight distribution. It was a great relief! To give you an idea of how aggressive the car has been gutted, here is a picture of the door:


A little better pictureof the cage in the rear:


I think I have the exhaust sorted as well. I have the hinson y pipe and had been trying to figure out the last part of the exhaust and had planned to just put a turn down shortly after the y pipe. Well, I sold one of my other FD's as a roller and was pulling the engine, tranny, exhaust, etc... out of it last week. When I pulled the exhaust off, Dan noticed that it had a more aggressive bend than a normal FD catback. Looks like it is going to fit nicely around the fuel cell and everything else.

That's it for now.

Brent

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Update from this weekend:

Well, the last few weeks have been up and down... and all around. I ended up purchasing the Improved Racing oil pan baffle to also help with the oil issue these cars on the road course. The engine had to come back out to put it in. That was no big deal as nothing was attached to it yet. The transmission was already out to make remote bleeders for it. The first hiccup occurred when I purchased the wrong baffle from Improved Racing. I am very glad I purchased the baffle(otherwise I prob. wouldn't of pulled the engine and oil pan to notice I didn't have a windage tray). Mostly because it allowed me to see the bottom end of the engine. I've now seen the top and bottom of the engine and it looks like it's going to be a good engine. I also verified that is was balanced and the components used. I also discovered when the oil pan was off that the previous owner had not put a windage tray on when he was putting the engine back together after getting it back in short block form. I only assume that he was going to go back and put one in. I have now been through everything in the car with the exception of the rearend(which will be opened up to change the 4.1 to 3.9). Here is how the car sat on Friday morning:


Engine and Tranny out:



New Baffle test fit... it fit much better than the other one(the wrong one I ordered... haha):


With windage tray :


Bottom End:


Engine back in:



Fuel system is finished minus mounting the fuel filter in the bracket. Dan did a great job on it and I'm very pleased with how clean everything is. I also really like the black fittings opposed to the red/blue ones that everyone seems to use.



Vent:

Dan securing one of his brackets he made:

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Coming into the front compartment(they will be covered):

Here is the unfinished cover:

Brackets that Dan made:


Through the firewall:

And into the engine bay:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

The engine harness showed up this week. Even though it took a couple of weeks to get here, it was money well spent I think. It is essentially the same thing as the painless, at less than half the price. Everything is nice and labeled and went in without any trouble. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the split wire loom.


Installed in the car:

Used the factory Mazda grommet to fit it through the firewall:

And into the driver compartment:

We have alot of excess slack.

Brakes:
I posted pretty much everything before, but here is a little better picture of the inside. The red line you see is the line for the brake proportioning:


Time for the tranny to go back in:

It had bolts that were the wrong size head with crush washers on them previously, so we upgraded to the correct size with the flare head and serrated back.


Engine, tranny, and driveshaft back in... now we are caught back up


In all seriousness, the car is getting closer and closer. At this point, it is a million minor things we have to do. Like wiring... to include the EFDC's:



I'll be at Road Atlanta next weekend, but that will be my last track weekend for a while. Hopefully it'll be finished before the start of next season.

Brent

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Progress:

Dan used a stock FD throttle cable on the car and its a nice fit. I don't have any pictures of it.

The exhaust is now hung. It clears the fuel cell. We have to have a pipe welded onto the ypipe and flange welded onto it to connect it to the catback portion and it'll be finished:




Today started off with Brian making a really nice bracket for the fan relays:



We were playing around with the accusump mounting location. We had basically decided on the passenger side area, but hadn't locked down the location. After looking a little more, I found a couple of parallel 10mm studs that looked like they would work perfect for the mounting brackets for the t bolt clamps for the accusump. It worked out:


I have looked at a few different custom dashes that others have made for their track cars and they looked REALLY nice! One thing I noticed about most is that they are made out of sheet metal/aluminum. When you see their track pictures, they have their dashes taped up due to the glare from the sun. Dan decided to make the dash out of 3/8th inch ABS plastic. It's a wrinkle type finish. He made a mock up of the dash using cardboard. Once he finished the mock up, he traced out the top piece:


Then cut it with the jigsaw:


After a few more trims, some filing, and sanding it was a perfect fit:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

A piece of angled metal will be bonded to the bottom of the piece posted above to be able to secure the other piece of the dash. The other side will be screwed/bolted to the metal so it can be removed with ease. This is our blank easel



Now if I could only afford that expensive Racepak. I don't see me dropping the change though, so you'll most likely just see my normal gauges.

The only other thing is I picked up a Optima Red Top. I ended up going with it for a few reasons. The first is I have the worst luck with batteries. If something happens to this one in the next three years, I take it back to the parts store and get a replacement on the spot opposed to having to weight. It's also readily available almost anywhere that sells batteries. So the convenience factor is huge! I'm sure some of you are wondering why I went with such a heavy battery instead of getting a braille or something lighter. Well, I've decided that I'm going to run the car in TTS next year which is a 8.7:1 power to weight ratio. I was originally thinking of running TTU which is a 5.5:1 ratio. That would mean that if the car was 2600lbs with me in it and half a tank, I would need 470rwhp. While I haven't seen what kind of power the engine makes yet, I'm quite certain that it won't be close to that. I also don't want to try to push the engine as far as I can. I'd rather do a very conservative and reliable 300hp or so and not have to worry about weight anymore and have the car *knock on wood* last for a long time without issue.

I had picked up a battery box from summit but it was ridiculously huge and wouldn't fit where the bins use to be with the bulkhead where it is. So we are just going to make a tie down for the battery. 2ft of 3/8th all thread, 6 fender washers, and 6 nuts with nylon inserts:


I'm going to pick up an all view mirror, it's comes highly recommended by some club racers I know. http://www.allviewmirror.com/

I also sat the bumper and hood on today:


I'm really not sure how the exterior will end up. The pettit flares still need to go on. If the car is track ready by the 23rd, I'll prob. just run my 18x10's that day. The GTC replica bumper I think sat in the heat somewhere prior to me buying the car because it fits like crap. I have a couple of different bumpers in storage and I'm taking one to the shop tomorrow to see how it fits. May end up with a different bumper. The Corvette guy that is another shop partner with Dan has been prepping his C6Z for a while now. He has a race at Sebring in a few days and is planning on leaving on Tuesday. It's going to be down to the last minute and he has been putting in the hours over at the shop. While we were there yesterday, the guy that puts wraps on bodies came I did almost a full one on his car. It is modeled after the C6R Vette like this one:



Here is his car, it has come a long way since he bought it and looks amazing with the new wrap:

Can you tell who his brake sponsor is


Soooo after I saw that his car was modeled after the YELLOW C6R, I was joking around about how funny it would be to get my car replicated with the C6R graphics as well. I wouldn't do that, but I would love to see the Vette guys reaction to it. I do have my jake decals though that will go on the the rear bumper at least.

That's it for today. More to come tomorrow.

Brent

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

I think they picked it up from a local place here in Nashville. You could search the internet and prob. come up with something.

As far as my last update post... sorry about some incoherent sentences. I had typed it all out and accidentally hit the back button when I was almost finished and lost it all. The second time I was wasn't really paying attention to what I was typing as I was watching a movie as well. Also, a couple of corrections... the abs plastic is 1/4 inch and Dan made the relay bracket.

As for today. I'm not really sure what all was accomplished today. It was a busy day for me and I was only able to get to the shop for an hour or two. Dan and Brian made the battery tie down and it turned out really well, but then again... would you expect anything else? Here's a picture of the finished product:


I brought my Sparco Evo L with me today to sit in the car as it will be my driver's seat.

I also brought a set of R1/2 oil coolers as I am using them on my car. The car came with some other ones, but I think these will be more than sufficient. Not to mention, they bolt right in place and line up with the bumper. I went ahead and bolted them in place to make sure I had all the hardware. I'm missing one bracket and I'll order that from Mazda on Monday.

I also brought a JKL Racing SS1 Front Bumper with me that is prob. going to end up on the car. More info. here:
http://shop.jklre.com/products/fd-ss1
It's going to fit no problem. I like the design of it, not crazy about the looks. As long as it's functional, I don't mind. Here is a picture with the oil coolers back on:


And the bumper sitting on:



The CF undersweep and canards:


If I end up using this bumper, I'll put my RE-Amemiya sleek lights in since I'll have to paint the bumper as well.

Getting a little closer and a little closer.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

I am not running Power Steering as I like the feedback I get from a manual rack while on the track. I also believe in keeping it as simple as possible. Well, since I'm not running Power Steering, this created a belt routing problem. I searched around and didn't see anything that was already in production to solve my problem. Luckily, I was in good hands as we have all seen by the TweakIt Racing Air Pump Idler pulley. They worked their magic again to come up with a solution. Where the Power Steering normally goes:

The fix(prototype):



The tensioner(the belt was a nice fit):


As stated, this is the prototype. The actual bracket will be made of aluminum. I'm sure Dan and Brian can answer any questions.

Oil Routing:

My oil cooler adapter plate:



Installed with fittings:

I didn't get any pictures, but the line leaves the adapter plate and goes to the driver's side oil cooler.

.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Setrab M22 -8AN adapters were used to convert the Mazda Oil Coolers for the 8AN fittings and lines.
DS with Setrab adapters and AN fittings:


The line leaves the Driver's side and goes into the passenger side.

PS just like the DS:

This is the Moroso One Way Oil Check Valve with adapter fittings converting it from NPT to AN:

It's installed after the passenger side oil cooler so if/when the accusump triggers, the oil will go into the engine and not flow back into the oil coolers.
Installed:


Here is the bulkhead T fitting with nice bracket that connects the line coming out of the passenger side oil cooler, the accusump line, and the return line going back to the plate/engine.

Some more nice brackets and clamps for the lines:


I didn't get any pictures of the line going from the T to the accusump.

My sweet supercars.com radiator

That was part of the way through taking the Hinson decal off. It's a nice fit. After our initial test fit, I wasn't sure about it. After everything was buttoned up, it fits nice and tight:

Very close to the water pump pulley:

Using the stock overflow tank(thanks Fritz):


Soooooo... fuel is plumbed, oil is plumbed, coolant is plumbed. Getting really close now. Have to do some wiring, bolt the seats down, fluids, etc, etc...

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

I don't have any pictures from this past weekend as I wasn't around, but here are a few pictures over the previous couple of weeks that I snapped.

Idler Pulley finished product:

Dash coming together:

traqmate view from my angle:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Well, 95% of the wiring is done. The list of the last 1,000,000 little things is down to 36 items on the list now. With any luck at all, she'll come to life this weekend and I'll be shaking her out at Nashville Super Speedway the weekend after that... fingers crossed. A few pictures:



Dan made a really really nice passenger foot kickplate/bulkhead. I have some pictures, but it really doesn't do it justice. Dan may post some, or I'll get some better ones of it later.

Hatch and wing are on the car now(still have to drill the holes for the hatch pins) as well as my 18x10 CCW's. I'm going to give the 275's a try and see if I can get the power to the ground on track. If I can, I can keep an extra 30-40hp. If not, I'll put the flares on and run 335's in the rear, but have to tune it down to lose that extra hp.... double edged sword.


Dash with switches:


Dan wiring stuff in with his new earphones. They are noise canceling with microphones. You can literally be whispering on the other side of the shop and he can hear you. but it cuts loud decibals out. There was a trans am on the dyno earlier in the day.


Old and busted:


New hotness. Toe Links and Trailing Arms from Ben at Rotary Extreme(thanks man!)




I have the intake finished for now, but I'm waiting on the next Samburg Radiator/CAI group buy so I can replace it.

Hopefully I'll have a big update this weekend.

Brent

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Well gentlemen... she's ALIVE!
http://www.vimeo.com/10397469
Sorry about the poor quality, the dim lighting didn't seem to like my crappy HD camera. At the very end, Brian blips the throttle a little and you can hear a little better.

Before I get into everything, I want to thank Dan and Brian for all of their hard work on this car. We all have day jobs, day jobs that require alot of time. We have been over at the shop pretty much every night of the week from when we get off work until no earlier than 10pm and as late as 12:30am as well as every weekend working on this thing. Needless to say, all of our significant others are just as ready as we are to have this car finished... and so are we

The last week:

We worked on the car all weekend. The alignment and corner balance were completed on Sunday. I'm going to put a line of space in this...

Final Corner Balance:
Front/Rear: 49.6/50.4
Cross: 50/50
How awesome is that?

Anyways, we were ready to push the button on Sunday to start the car, but Jerry(Corvette guy at the shop) was at an SCCA club race at Road Atlanta so we were fairly certain that the ecu would throw a theft code and not allow the car to start. This was confirmed by turning the car over as well as pulling the engine codes. No big deal. We were also having an issue getting the fpr set to the stock 58psi fuel pressure.

Monday came and Jerry loaded a different map into that should be a little closer to my application as well as turned the theft device off. The car still wouldn't start. Well, after troubleshooting for a couple of hours, we discover all 8 of the injectors are bad. We did this by using the same method that is posted in my fuel troubleshooting thread on this forum. I assume it's from where they sat for so long they just got stuck. We were able to locate another set of injectors at the shop, threw them in, and it wasn't a 1/4 of a revolution and the car SCREAMED to life! Pay day. We let the car run for 20 minutes or so. Everything was working. The fuel pressure was high. Oil pressure was good, accusump came up, etc.... everything was working as it should. We shut the car off and went to Krystal to have a celebratory dinner(around 10pm).

Tuesday we come in and check the car for leaks. One little oil leak on one of the adapter fittings for the oil cooler that needed to be tightened a little more. Now no more leaks. We discovered that what we thought was fuel pulsation dampener on the rail, was actually a stock fpr. The aftermarket fpr was removing and the stock one holds 58psi no problem. Problem solved. I picked up a couple of little things I was needing like shift knob, exhaust gasket, and oil catch can(brian put it on) and put them on. Jerry is looking on the computer and realizes our MAP sensor and TPS sensor are not working. We have to have the MAP sensor functioning to be able to tune the car. In order to get to the map sensor you have to pull the fuel rail and intake manifold off which is extremely simple. After replacing the MAP sensor, no change... still not working. At that point we called it a night.

Wednesday. Brian started troubleshooting the MAP sensor. We had a couple of hang up's, but after a couple hours, Brian discovered the MAP sensor was wired in backwards. So much for purchasing a custom made stand alone harness so you don't have to deal with electrical issues. Fixing the MAP also fixed the TPS. We installed my widefoot sway bar mounts and the sway bar off my silver car. The clutch pedal stop bolt was adjusted and now we have a functioning car that moves I'm sure more stuff was done, but it all kind of bleeds together at this point.

Today, I'm going to drive the car around a little to start breaking everything in some more. We are hoping to have everything done tonight. Tomorrow will hopefully consist of me driving the car around a bunch and really breaking it in, followed by Jerry tuning the car, and loading it up on the trailer and getting it ready to make it's track debut on Saturday.

I'll see if I can't get my pictures uploaded here after while.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Back from the track!! The car did awesome!! I did get one video today, but it's prob. going to be really crappy because I really don't have anywhere to mount the camera. I'm going on 2 hours of sleep right now and I still have more stuff to catch up on, but I'll go a little more in depth here after while if I don't pass out first.

Originally Posted by Chadwick

She weighed in at #2780 with driver and 10 gallons of fuel

50/50 cross weights and 49.6% front, 50.4% rear weight.


Dan

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Hi Dave, I remember. The gunmetal NA car I'll see if I can't get you some pictures of the dash. As far as the cage, it was already in the car when I purchased it. I think there are already quite a few pictures of it in this thread, but if there is something specific you'd like to see, let me know and I'll see if I can't snap some pictures of it.



Hi Niles, what Dan said above The car originally weighed in dry at 2250lbs. At that point, it was looking like it would be around 2600-2650lbs with me in the car... which wouldn't work. My class is a 8.7:1 power to weight ratio which would mean I would have to de-tune the engine to less than 300hp. I added a few things and now I can have 330rwhp. We are still having issues getting it that low by simple ecu de-tuning, but I think we are going to run a restrictor plate or a stock LS1 throttle body to get it within class specs.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Encountered a few new race car build pains, but nothing that won't be remedied in the next week or two. Car was at CMP last weekend, but I had some transmission/clutch issues so I didn't compete in the Time Trial. I drove some sessions in DE to show my student a few things. Here are a couple of pictures with the everything painted and my stickers added:



I did the prep work and sprayed the primer and Brian sprayed the base/clear behind the shop. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Next event is VIR May 21-23 with several fellow RX-7 track rats. After that, NASA Time Trial at Road Atlanta in mid June.

...

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Been trying to sort out an issue. I had a major transmission/clutch issue at CMP a couple of weeks ago where the car didn't want to shift. I knew I had transmission issues, so I went ahead and picked up a transmission that had some modifications, but included everything I needed to bolt it right up. Of course, that wasn't the case and I'm going to have to have a new driveshaft made to make it work. The old transmission went back in that has a couple of bad synchro's.

When I picked up the car in the project stage, the engine and transmission was together with a new clutch. It also had the tilton brake and clutch set up mounted to the firewall... This is why you never assume anything. Once I removed the transmission and saw my clutch had been completely ate up, I realized there wasn't a pilot bearing installed. We installed a new McCleod clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel as well as a new throwout bearing and a new PILOT bearing. Once getting everything back together, we still were having clutch disengagement issues. After going through everything, the only thing it could be was the clutch master cylinder was not displacing enough fluid. Once again, we assumed since it was already mounted up, they were the proper sizes. They weren't. The clutch MC was a 3/4" bore and the recommended size is 7/8" after speaking with Tilton. I've read some people are using 15/16" bore, but the guy I spoke with at Tilton said that if it takes that much with my clutch, there are other issues. So I had a the 7/8" bore overnighted and it arrived at the shop this morning.

The big challenge is the fact that all the clutch/brake stuff is under the dash. In a car with a cage with door bars, it makes it a royal PITA to access. Brian fought with it for a while and won. Clutch is now bled, and clutch is now working as it should. The clutch pedal is much more firm. The transmission will be good enough to get me through the weekend at VIR, after that I'll figure out something to do. We'll also be pulling out all the Tilton assembly to change the bore size on the brakes. The current set up is front 1" rear 7/8". I'll prob. change the front to 7/8" and the rear to 3/4". I'll have an update and hopefully some pictures and video's after the weekend.

Brent

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Transmission issue resolved, still haven't switched the brake master cylinders though. I'm heading to VIR this weekend with Fritz. We'll see how it goes since this will hopefully be a trouble free weekend(first one since this event last year). Just looking to get some seat time and have fun.

Here's a couple of video's of me from the BMW event at Road Atlanta in September having some fun and learning the car:

http://www.vimeo.com/14915294

http://www.vimeo.com/15040928

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Thanks Chuck! No, I think that's the wheel that had a little rash when I bought them. I've actually never driven on those wheels. They went on the car for a while when I was building it, but haven't put the flares or anything on yet.

VIR went well. I posted a new personal best of 2:06.9. Here's a video of me(with Fritz in front of me) during one of our Time Trial sessions.

Originally Posted by Cgotto6

Hey, Just curious why you are switching up the bore diameters. IIRC you are running a front BBK with stock rears. I am curious because this is very similar to the setup I plan to run with a tilton twin master set up. Just trying to get as much info before I order my masters. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

The tilton master cylinders that came with the car that the original owner purchased are the wrong size. The pedal is extremely hard and their is essentially no modulation. I'm prob. giving up 2 seconds a lap at Road Atlanta, for instance, compared to braking in my silver car that was my previous track car.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Prior to the weekend, I had been to CMP for a lemons race where I drove ~30 minutes on a small portion of the course and another time in May when my car was broken. So this was realistically my first time on course. The track was really slick and I eased my way into it. I still had a couple of brake lock up issues, but nothing significant. I also had a close call in turn 3 that I was able to save(see video). I ended up getting 3rd on Saturday(got knocked out of 2nd in the last session). The top 4 guys were all within .5 seconds of each other. On Sunday I got 2nd. I'm ok with that for being my first time there. Still alot of time left in the car, just have to get the driver up to speed. Here's a short video:


I'll be at Road Atlanta in 2 weeks for the MVP event to get some more seat time and the end of year event the first weekend in December with NASA. Right now, my class has 13 cars signed up for the December event.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Just to keep my build thread current, here are some pictures from Road Atlanta back in November and a video from the last time trial of the year in December.

With the gf riding









Car is getting wider fenders over the winter to run 315's in the front and 335's in the rear. Brakes will be sorted. I'll also prob. have some new coilovers.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Quick update: I graduate U.S. Army Ranger School on Friday and will be back in the real world shortly after. So what are my weekend plans after being sleep deprived and starved for the last few months? Maybe a nice easy weekend or eating and sleeping? Nope heading to the NASA-SE event at CMP with a little help from my friends. Chadwick and Charlie from Mazcare are helping me make the event since I have no way to prep for the event. Wide fenders and tires will be on the car and I think the brake issue is better. I haven't had any time to get my new coilovers yet though.

If anyone wants to see a good depiction of Ranger school, the discovery channel did a good documentary on it last year. Here are a few videos of it: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/ranger-school/

Hope to see all my fellow track rats soon.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Making progress...










So..... Ronin front fenders and Pettit rear flares are on. CCW's have been converted to 11in wide in the front and 12 in the rear. Tires are 315F and 335R. Penske's have been ordered. I purchased the 8665, which is a triple adjustable shock with external resevoir. It's the same shock the rolex cars use. I'm hoping to have it in before Road Atlanta in June.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Thanks!

Yes, 18x11 in the front and 18x12 in the rear. Front tire size is 315/30/18 and rears are 335/30/18. 25.6 outer diameter. I also have a set of 17x11 and 17x12 that are 315/35/17 and 335/35/17 with the same outer diameter as the 18's(25.6in)

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Waiting for the new coilovers to come in. Do you think I need them? Check out that lean!



And a few more:

Pete and I creepin:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

I obviously won... haha

....

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Really fun weekend at Road Atlanta. A good bit of RX-7's and RX-8's. Saturday went well and I took 1st place in TTS with a time of 1:35.4 in the first session of the day. The car had more, but I was working my way into the new set up and feeling it out. My new coilovers didn't come in so I was way undersprung. This was also my first time at Road Atlanta in 7 months. I wanted a 1:33 so I decided to save my tires for the 1st morning session on Sunday morning.



Sunday the track God's made me work for my Ho Ho. First session out was the only session I was going to be able to make my goal of 1:33. So as I am pulling onto grid, another car is in my spot(3rd overall) so I just go ahead and pull into the 1 spot since I figure A.R isn't running since we are less than 1 minute out. I yell at Mark Nunally to let him know to pass me when we go out, but he says don't worry about it. Nothing but clean track, air, and opportunity. So after the warm up lap I take off and am doing my usual 85%ish lap before I do a couple as hard as I can(normally my 3rd lap is the fastest). As I am going down the back straight, I bang 3rd gear off the reve limiter(new traqmate dash is reading half the rpms... at 6000rpm's, it reading 3000rpm's)... I knew better. It walked the serpentine belt and cut my upper radiator hose spewing water onto my windshield. I back off a little, cross the start/finish line and am met with a black flag. I was expecting it since I knew I had a little water coming onto my windshield...

I pull into the black flag station and he informs me that my transponder isn't working. f@#k... I forgot to put it on. That lap was a 1:38 according to the traqmate and would have been good enough for 1st in TTS if I would of had my transponder on the car. I pull in and wait for the next session of the day. I will now have to grid last since I didn't get a time in the first session.

The second session I try to go out last. I wanted to sand bag on the back straight and try to get 20-30 seconds behind me and the last car. Didn't happen. I had a couple cars pull behind me and could not get them to pass. F@#k it, lets have some fun and carve through some traffic. Man of man, what a fun session, I was passing people everywhere. I passed a guy on the outside of 10a, in the esses, turn 5, etc... I was having an absolute ball and was really excited to see the video later. I was running low 1:40's with traffic and maybe a 39. Well, as I was just about to turn into turn 7, I hear a POP, and as I turn in, the car snaps to the right/inside of the turn. I cut the wheels left and only ended up spinning half way around(thanks to alot of luck)... which put me sitting backwards in the middle of the track staring right at a C5 Corvette. After a few cars dodged me, I was able to work my way behind one of the walls so the session wouldn't have to end early. In the process, an MR2(I think) came around the turn and went off track as I was trying to get out of the way. He drove right back on though. Soooooo, I drive the car off to the inside after the session is over and getting the go ahead from the corner worker... next to the skidpad. The tow truck driver gave me a lift back to the paddock. I grabbed one of my other wheels/tires and my jack and put them in the bed of my truck and went back to change it. Not real sure what caused it. It could of been rubbing on something in the fender well, but I doubt it. My other 17in A6 on the passenger side have no marks/grooves. I also checked my tires yesterday afternoon and their was nothing. My 18in tires are the exact same dimensions as the 17's and they also have no marks/grooves on them after 3-4 days at the track on them. I think I prob. hit some debris on the track. Once again, I was thinking that I'd like to see the video and see what happens.


You can't keep a good man down... or I'm too stupid to quit. I threw my 6 year old R6's back on in the heat of the day and prob. sweat out a gallon of water in the process and had just enough time to throw my suit back on and drive the next session. I almost sat it out because I thought I might need to rest after sweating so much and not eating lunch yet, but I wanted to have some reaction time(aka the next session) if something happened and I didn't get my time that session. Once again, I went out at the back of the pack and fought through traffic. I made a conscious effort to slow down since I was going from a really sticky set of tires to a not so sticky set of tires. I was keeping my eye on my speedo/time on the traqmate I only needed to beat a 1:42.4 to get first. After a couple of laps of pacing I got a 1:42.2. I went and got the timing sheet for the session to confirm the time and to confirm the other guy hadn't picked up any time. Back in first... and let me tell you... that was the most hard earned TT "lap" I've ever ran... haha. So I ended up getting first today by the skin of my teeth, but at this point I'll take it any which way I can get it. We had 6 in class again today so we were one shy of getting 2 hoosiers for 1st place. I'm good with 1 though.

So back to the video... I picked up the traqdash this weekend. I talked to the traqmate representative at the track as he was there with discovery parts and he told me that I just needed to put my camera into standby and when the traqmate starts timing, the camera will start recording... not the case and I don't have any video's from today because of it. Really bummed about that. I was really looking forward to editing video's this week My video's from yesterday didn't really turn out either. I'm going to have to play with this stuff between now and VIR next month so it's good to go.

Big thanks as always to Dan(Chadwick) at TweakIt for installing my new accusump after my old one was recently damaged and mounting my tires for me on a ridiculous time line.

Just talked to Matt at Penske and my coilovers are starting to come together and should be done soon if Indy Car teams will stop calling... I'm the low man on the totem pole.

I'm hoping before the UTCC to have the Penske's on, a new front splitter, maybe a rear diffuser, and the fire suppression system installed. I'll prob. have some pictures soon as well.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

A couple of new things:

Penske 8665 Coilovers:


New Traqdash from Traqmate(was able to get one of the first 100):







traqmate HD to overlay my data onto HD video:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

And a couple more of the Penske's(more info on them later):

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

So a little information on my Penske 8665 Racing Shocks. These were built at Penske Racing Shocks in PA by Matt(who is an FD owner). The 8665 is a pretty neat little damper. It is what alot of the Rolex/Grand Am cars run and is the same shaft that is run on the high end stuff like Indy Car. It is a triple adjustable shock that all adjustments are on the top side of the car opposed to others where some adjustments are located on the bottom of the shock. Low speed compression and rebound(30 clicks of adjustment) are on the top of the shaft and high speed compression(14 clicks of adjustment) is located on the external reservoir. My starting spring rates are 900F and 750R. We'll see how they feel and adjust from there.

Two adjuster knobs on shaft:

Reservoir adjustment:


My Shock Dyno Sheet:


Bottom Mounts:


Brake box out of the car awaiting the new one to be installed:


Making a new dash due to the old one being damaged:


Trying to get a few things done to the car before the Grassroots Ultimate Track Car Challenge in a few weeks. I'm hoping to get a front splitter on the car before then as well. Week after that is a Chin Motorsports event at Road Atlanta that I'm going to be hopefully dialing in the suspension and getting some practice in. The week after Chin is NASA Road Atlanta. After that, moving to TX and heading back overseas immediately most likely.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Had alot going on the last few weeks, but found a little time to get to the shop.

Today Dan worked on re-installing the pedal assembly and fabricating new hard lines that go to the brake and clutch remote reservoirs.

My pedal box was waaay out of adjustment and I was not comfortable with it once it was out of the car and we could observe it function. Dan called tilton and found the newer model that has some revisions done and appears to be a much better design.

How they mount in the car:


in the car, the pedals look nicer as well. Have to add an extension to the brake pedal to be able to heel/toe most likely.

Part number:


hardline bracket:

With lines:


with the soft lines before, they were always a pain to get bled due to always having high/low points that fluctuate. The hard lines are a way to make a linear drop from the external reservoir to the master cylinder reservoir.

I did little things most of the day like change spark plugs, beat out the sharp edge on my rear fender well, etc...

Also received my amsoil shipment. I'll be changing out the fluids in the next day or two. Pictures are for my reference so I can remember what I put in and when I changed it.



Greddy diff cover and diff cradle are on. Here's the greddy cover:


New Hawk brake pads came in. Thanks Hawk and Andrew Racing!


Rollbar reservoir mounts for the Penske's:


Penske shaft size in mm's:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

I like the characteristics of the stock diff. I haven't really found another one that feels that good for track stuff. The greddy covers allows an extra quart of fluid which will help it run a little cooler. It's also already tapped for a diff cooler if I decide to add one. Bill Lackey with the dry sumped LS1(450ish rwhp) melted the bearings in his last year during a race. Mine has been fine so far.

The cradle is just a little extra protection. TweakIt makes a cradle and is currently doing a group buy on it here: http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=952898 PFS makes one as well.

..

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Here's a video from the Chin event the weekend before Road Atlanta playing with one of my track buddies in his C5:


Soooooo... Road Atlanta with NASA-SE on Aug 6-7.

We have 10 cars in my class and a little over 50 on grid(that means 50 cars on track at the same time). There are a couple of guys in my class that I think are going to be a handful. One of them is my buddy Alex in a 996 GT3 that is really well set up suspension wise and he is an incredible driver. The other is David White, who is a pro grand am driver for bimmerworld, and is driving a purpose built M3 that is built by Randy Mueller.

First session out on Saturday is the warm up session, I have some pretty old tires on and manage to run a 1:35.1 with traffic. That puts me 3rd overall, and P1 in my class. The next session out is the money session as it's not going to get any cooler(about 90 degrees outside by this point). I had changed tires to a better set, went out a session with my student, and then suited back up and jumped in my car dripping with sweat. We get out on track and one of my Corvette buddies is in front of me. We are moving pretty well and on pace for a 1:32 when he blows turn 5 and gets out of shape. I back out of it to give him plenty of room. He recovers and we both continue on. I ran a 1:33.6. He came over after the session and apologized a dozen times about messing up my lap. Really not a big deal. It's part of it and I'm sure I've done the same to him on more than one occasion. It just so happened my GT3 buddy was with us in the paddock as well talking. We get the time sheet and he ran a 1:33.4... he kindly thanks my Corvette friend for messing up my lap and giving him the lead I went back out a couple more sessions and tried to get my time down, but with the heat, around 100 by this time, everybody's lap times were going up. That ended up sticking. In my class Alex in the GT3 ran a 1:33.4 for 1st, I ran a 1:33.6 for 2nd, and David in the BMW ran a 1:33.8 for 3rd. Always good to have some really close times!

I hit the awards ceremony and dinner, drink a couple of beers, head back to the paddock and sit around with a bunch of friends and tell lies and drink a couple more. Earlier in the evening I had put a set of sticker Hoosiers on(always the fastest when they are stickers) for first thing Sunday morning. Since we didn't have a warm up session on Sunday, the first session is a timed session. It would be significantly cooler(75-80 degrees). The cooler air and sticker tires, I knew I had a 1:32 and my mind was telling me a 1:31. I made one final check before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep.

As I'm heading to the track Sunday morning, it's starting to sprinkle. I go to the driver's meeting, the instructor meeting, and the TT meeting. I do one final check on the car and head to grid. I finished 4th overall the day before out of the 50 car field so I'm sitting in a good spot on the grid to not hit any traffic for a couple of laps. I have a very well prepped C6Z, a GTR race car, and a GT3 in front of me. We go out on track and run our warm up lap. We come down the hill full song and take the green flag... to be greeted by a waving yellow in turn 1. A 350z had forgot to latch his hood(honest mistake) and as soon as he pulled out on track it flew up. The caution turned into a full course caution. We stayed under a full course caution for 3 laps. When we finally went green again, we had already caught the slow cars and had very thick traffic. We only got 2 green laps. No one got a clean lap. Oh well, so much for the sticker tires and cooler weather. If that wasn't enough, in one of the 2 green laps, I ripped my shift knob off and it went flying. :P

The next session I go out and run a 1:33.6 again. However, that was with engine trouble on the back straight. I had lost power towards the end of the back straight(turn 9) and carried it all the way through turn 12 and across the line for that 1:33. It def. would have been a 1:32, but it was not meant to be. That ended my day. I ended up with several 1:33's throughout the course of the weekend. Here's a couple of laps from one of the sessions playing with a GTR with alot more hp than me:


So the aftermath:


So, I pulled the valve covers a week or so ago before I took the car out of the trailer and found this:


Valve was still in the hole so I was hoping I might get lucky.

I found all parts:


The root cause of everything was the roller shaft breaking on the rocker(pictured above). Which caused this:


and this:


The good news is that there was no damage done to the block. I can basically pick up a set of pistons and another set of cheap heads and be up and going if I so choose. Not sure if that's the direction I'm going to go though. Looking at all my options currently. Giving some serious thought to a LS2 or LS3. I'm looking into possibly getting an engine that is going to make a ridiculous amount of torque that I can choke the hp down in. I have plenty of time to figure it out.

Spent the rest of the day just messing around at the shop hanging out. Dan and Brian were on the dyno getting the car ready for Nationals in a couple of weeks:


Brian painted a bunch of stuff this morning, to include Dan's hood... and cleared all the new carbon fiber parts our friend Jason made for his S2000:

Rear 1/4:


Trunk:

.

[Brent]

Somewhat out of order, RA was from June. GRM Ultimate Track Car Challenge was July

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Good news gentlemen! Fritz and I will both be there!

A couple more pic's from Road Atlanta where I was able to take two 1st's in TTS.

After the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

My brain and body are fried! Two students plus my sessions and 100+ degrees!

"Almost" Racing:


The Riley that won:


Cool entry:


This morning:


I'll have a full run down in a day or two. Hate that Fritz had issues. Would of been interesting to see what kind of time he ran. Just ain't the same without you man!

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Just ran a new personal best of 2:05 this morning.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Just got home finally. I have videos, but they are hot garbage unfortunately. I have to get this camera stuff sorted out.

Eric cracked his manifold and was leaking boost. I don't think he raced today. Thunder race ended under caution Sat. And Sunday. Danny put like a minute on the entire field,one of the world challenge or grand am mustangs was busted for cheating, and that bumped Justin up from 3rd to 2nd in ST2.

Wish you could have been here. Not the same without my fellow track rat. More tomorrow...

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Here's the first video(non HD). Like I said, it's really bad. I'm not sure the new camera is going to work. I have to do some digging. I also have a couple of other things to sort with the traqmate as it isn't tracking my gears and my data synch is about 1 second off(which is super easy to fix... and I will fix on the next one). Bear with me guys:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Thanks again for all the kind words guys. So, the weekend....


Regardless of how much ahead of the game I try to get, it’s always a last minute thrash to get the car ready. I’ve had a lot going on in my life the last month and it’s been a bit of a struggle all around. However, Like the the Beatles song goes, I get by with a little help from my friends. We worked on my car last weekend and then I had to head back to Georgia. Dan worked on my car after work for like five hours on Tuesday and then took a day off of work on Wednesday and worked from early in the morning until late at night. I arrived back in TN around mid-day and met Dan at the shop and continued to work in the scorching heat. Over the weekend, we finally had sorted the brakes thanks to Dan. The Penske’s went on, put it on the scales for corner balancing, and then a fresh alignment. Brian and Tara came by and made some new graphics/decals for the car. We finished up around 9pm and I headed straight to the hospital to spend the night. My girlfriend had a major surgery the previous week. Luckily she was released Thursday morning and I headed immediately to VIR.

I finally arrived at the track around 7:30pm. I checked in and did a quick around the paddock to see what other cars were there. There were some really heavy hitters: a Riley, a 700hp Superlite, Radicals, etc… I then went to work finishing up the last few things I needed to do to the car and adding the mound of sponsor stickers to the car. Fritz had a busy few weeks as well and finally arrived at the track around 9pm. We get a little more prep done and leave the track around 10:15pm. I made a Wal Mart run and then finally make it to the hotel around 11pm. One of my Southeast buddies was staying with me and arrived around 11:30pm. We stayed up a couple more hours talking car tech, looking at shock dyno’s etc…

I wake up at 6:15am and after a quick shower and breakfast, I arrive at the track at around 7. Hit the standard all hands meeting and then the UTCC meeting. There are 75+ cars in the UTCC. I know it’s going to be a zoo on track for the first session(which is a warm up session and doesn’t count for anything). I grid towards the back and have some really old tires on the car. I just want to get the car and driver up to temp. I’ve never seen that many off’s in a session, let alone a warm up. A couple of cars actually went metal to metal and were sent packing. I took it easy and adjusted to the car and the changes we had made.

By the time we had the first session, it was 11am and it was pretty close to being 100 degrees out. I put on a better set of used tires and reported to grid. I knew that this would be the fastest timed session of the day and needed to get a lap in early. I was able to find some mostly clean track and lay down a pretty good lap. Fritz had a camber bolt come loose and then 3rd gear blew out and he never got a timed lap  Of course this would happen at this event. I hated to see it happen to him.
I ended up going out in one other session and my time became slower due to the heat. I called it a day and just walked around and caught up with a bunch of my track friends. The car felt great and, more than anything, I need to erase muscle memory and brake later and throttle input sooner. Overall, I’m really REALLY happy with the car right now. It’s finally starting to really come together. I ended up running a personal best on Sunday morning of 2:05. It was a cooler session as it was at 8:30am and I experimented with downshifting into 3rd gear in turn 1 and again in turn 4 opposed to being in 4th. It paid off. I now think I can also pick up some time being in 3rd going into roller coaster. I think on some fresh tires and a March or October day, the car is a low 2 car. With someone like Fritz driving, prob. A sub 2 car.

Two more track weekends left in the next two weekends. Both at Road Atlanta. Hoping to run a pretty quick lap at Road Atlanta at the NASA event. Time will tell(pun intended).

To all you guys building track/time trial/time attack cars… stop messing around and get your cars out here! We need more FD’s on track!

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

oh yeah! Traqmate was trackside and helped me resolve a few issues I had. They also attached 3 go pro's to my car to get some promotional video. I had one on my helmet, one on my fender, and one facing the rear on the bumper of my car. Hopefully they turned out ok.

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

Well, I made the Penske page:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

I also made a traqmate press release as well, here's the video they put together from the release:

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

I'm in the grassroots video at 30 seconds and around 3:10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJH5z...layer_embedded

Originally Posted by Brent Dalton

UTCC issue of Grassroots Motorsports came out yesterday.

[Brent]

That's basically it for now. I'll go back and clean the video's up so they show up when I get a chance. I've moved to TX and deployed again so I'm basically done until next spring. I have some stuff in the works though

[JhnRX7]

NICE!! Thanks for compiling this for us. I am extremely jealous of those Penske's!

Question: What is the max pad thickness with those stoptechs?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by JhnRX7

NICE!! Thanks for compiling this for us. I am extremely jealous of those Penske's!

Question: What is the max pad thickness with those stoptechs?

Thanks man! Hopefully you guys can make a trip to VIR next spring/summer since you have a tow rig now

You can get them in .650" or .709"(18mm). Mine(.650") normally last 20-25 track days. Rotors have been on the car for the last 2 years and I expect them to last through next year as well. That's currently without brake ducts. Never have got around to fabricating any on this car. Not too concerned about it until I start looking into doing enduro's, but will probably get time(hopefully) sometime next year. It's on the list, but not high up on it.

[JhnRX7]

Originally Posted by Brent

Thanks man! Hopefully you guys can make a trip to VIR next spring/summer since you have a tow rig now

You can get them in .650" or .709"(18mm). Mine(.650") normally last 20-25 track days. Rotors have been on the car for the last 2 years and I expect them to last through next year as well. That's currently without brake ducts. Never have got around to fabricating any on this car. Not too concerned about it until I start looking into doing enduro's, but will probably get time(hopefully) sometime next year. It's on the list, but not high up on it.

Thats the plan! I REALLY want to get down to VIR.


Thanks, I am looking into doing an AP setup right now and I was curious about the stoptech kit... it is pretty cheap compared to a lot of other options so it is pretty tempting.

[djmtsu]

Looking good Brent!

You and Dan can bring your FD's to DGRR. Because racecar.

[Herblenny]

This thread is all WIN!

[Brent]

Originally Posted by JhnRX7

Thats the plan! I REALLY want to get down to VIR.


Thanks, I am looking into doing an AP setup right now and I was curious about the stoptech kit... it is pretty cheap compared to a lot of other options so it is pretty tempting.

Hope we can get something planned. I'll give you, Dan, and Rich a heads up once I find out what dates are available in the spring.

Originally Posted by djmtsu

Looking good Brent!

You and Dan can bring your FD's to DGRR. Because racecar.

I may possibly be able to make DGRR this year. We will have to see as it gets a little closer.

Originally Posted by Herblenny

This thread is all WIN!

Thanks Phil. Look forward to seeing what is in store for all of your projects.