Hey Greg, congrats on our Open Road win!! I posted my race update on the old Racing your Type 65 thread: https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...g-Your-Type-65
Printable View
Hey Greg, congrats on our Open Road win!! I posted my race update on the old Racing your Type 65 thread: https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...g-Your-Type-65
Thank You Jim! The type 65's had a 1,2 sweep in the 140 group as Dave was just off my average by .2 seconds.
Mark from San Diego brought his beautiful Type 65 but a scheduling/weather issue cheated him from getting results but he said he's coming back for the September run.
Congratulations on your testing. I would love to chat some more on the phone as I hate typing. I will DM you.
Short video of the Coupe-R in Saturday’s race.
https://youtu.be/ps_PxrC6Vhs?si=eDjPFQ6zV9QZ8M7V
What spring rate are you running on your shocks?
I’m using the standard springs FFR ships with the Coupe-R, 750 front, 500 rear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dmac800
After this past weekend, I thought I would go stiffer, but wiser and more experienced colleagues recommend going a bit stiffer on the rear sway bar, increase rear compression a couple clicks and increase front rebound, just small changes to stiffen it up just a bit. I’m told setting this car up soft helps with any oversteer out of slow corners. It doesn’t push at all, so I’m leaving the front alone except the rebound so the car will come up in front and put more weight on the rear tires for turn exit traction. Small changes at a time, makes sense to me.
After a season of jacking up the front of the car so I can open the hood with the splitter and air dam installed (and occasionally forgetting to lower the hood before lowering the car!), I bought a set of Allstar Performance air jacks so I can quickly put the air to it and jack it up without having to get out the very low profile floor jack and jack stands at the track. This is only a problem for Coupe with the front air dam and splitter, in race suspension upper holes and a low 3" or less ground clearance. I bought the 11" long cylinders, they have 15" as well, but I measured and the 11" should work: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/AAF-ALL11302
The AP jacks are nice, I believe Logan did them on his car and I know Factory Five did them on the Logano car, but there is very little info on how the did it, so Logan's photos are helpful. See his post here: https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post396781
Since my car is fully assembled, this will be an adventure, and as my wife likes to say - "it's not an adventure until something goes wrong". I'll post my progress as I go along figuring out how to do this without setting the garage on fire.
First step, do the fronts first, they're easier to get to, so I made some brackets out of angle steel as Logan did, welded the mount rings to the brackets. The mount rings come with the jack kit and surprisingly remained round after welding.
Attachment 221139Attachment 221140Attachment 221141Attachment 221142
I fabricated mounts for the jacks from angle steel and welded them to the supplied jack mounting rings. Locating them and drilling for bolts. Added backup angles to prevent crushing the square tubes. Need to go down the hill to McClendon's and get more grade 8 5/16" did. bolts and nuts - my grade 8 bolt and nut collection is in Montana with the 289 - still getting painted.
Attachment 221201Attachment 221200Attachment 221199
https://youtu.be/BCaz5Vxg0Gg
Edit: Still have to weld gussets on the ends of the angles and turn the upper backing plate angle upside down so the jack mounting angle is lifting up against the frame tube instead of all the lifting force being on the bolts, they can handle it as they are very strong in shear - but paraphrasing Logan, overkill is the way to go. "OverKill is OK".
Looking good. I suspect this will be a really nice upgrade to the jack/jackstand boogie you have to do at the track.
Moving over to the right front now, the upper mount is problematic because it bolts to the angled frame tube, so I welded the mount ring to the angle at an angle and I drill the holes through the frame tube so they are close to centered. Looks weird, but it's strong with the backing angle and the 5/16 dia. bolts. Fronts should be done and painted by end of the day - if I'm not interrupted by the garage cat for feeding time.
Attachment 221218Attachment 221219Attachment 221220
Got the front mounts all welded up and gusseted, drilled, got some more bolts. Now painting with POR15.
Attachment 221240Attachment 221241
The mounts for the rear air jacks are more complicated, of course. Because there is no frame structure as low as the bottom of the chassis, I have to fabricate a mount that bolts to the frame structure higher up. So some more steel angle, lots of measuring and I think I have a plan. Had to remove the aluminum panels in the back to gain access to the structure - and to run the hoses and install the air jack lance receptacle.
Attachment 221433Attachment 221434Attachment 221435Attachment 221436
Slowly working on the rear jack mounts, lots of measuring and leveling and adjusting. Finished fabricating the rear mounts, drilled them up and painted. After installing them, I plumbed the air lines from the rear nitrogen receptacle to each of the jacks. Testing reveals they work perfectly. Gotta disassemble the center console (again!) to run the air line from rear to the front jacks.
Attachment 221948Attachment 221949Attachment 221950
Attachment 221951Attachment 221952Attachment 221953Attachment 221954
Ran the air line forward from the rear to the front through the trans tunnel. I installed fire sleeve over the lines in the engine compartment, especially since they pass directly over the headers.
Attachment 221961Attachment 221960Attachment 221959
Video of the jacks going up and down: https://youtu.be/xN6cLOz_81g
The air jacks are a huge improvement over the low profile floor jack I was using to raise the car up enough to fully open the hood. After warming it up and draining the oil from the dry sump tank, I removed the tank so I can re-seal it so it doesn't seep oil - a known issue with the AVIAID tanks.
This was first run after electrical system overhaul - everything working as it should, no smoke was generated.
https://youtu.be/c2DcHwnZt4w
That's pretty trick. And always a good thing when none of the magic smoke comes out.
New wing from APR, it's a GTC-500. Much lighter than the aluminum Winglogic wing, plus a bit more downforce and less drag.
Attachment 223140
I never liked the method of screwing the wheel well vents into the Coupe body, so with some winter time on my hands, I decided to fair them in so they look better. This is also another reason why I wrapped the body initially - knowing many changes would be made and when I get done changing everything, I'll remove the wrap and paint it, probably after next racing season.
So, I removed the wrap around the front wheel well vents and proceeded to cut the vents and glass them in with some fiberglass on the inside and Duraglas on the outside, Ran out of Duraglas, so continued on the right side with HSRF because I had it in the composite drawer and it works pretty well for fairing the vents into the body. To finish it off, I tossed on a section of new wrap.
Attachment 223266Attachment 223267Attachment 223268Attachment 223269
Attachment 223270Attachment 223271Attachment 223272Attachment 223273Attachment 223274
Now I can move on to the rear wheel well vents.
Damn Jim, that looks a million times better!
Starting on the rear vents.
Attachment 223416Attachment 223417
Finished the rear wheel well vents.
Attachment 223735Attachment 223736Attachment 223737Attachment 223738Attachment 223739
I decided to fabricate new wing mounts, replacing the heavy aluminum mounts from FFR. I had a roll of carbon fiber left over from another project, so I rolled it out, cut it to size and laminated 8 layers in alternating directions. I applied the epoxy resin into the CF with it lying on a sheet of polycarbonate, then another sheet on top to give it a mirror finish. I weighed down the top sheet with 9 gallons of Delo 100 40 wt. low ash oil I have waiting for an oil change in the bus. After it set up, I drew the outline of the mounts and cut them out with my jigsaw.
I added additional thickness in the mounting bolt area to fill the .220" space between the frame mounts, these new mounts are thinner than the old aluminum parts. I then poured more epoxy on both sides (ruining the mirror finish) so I can sand them down with 800, 1000 and 3000 then polish them.
The new CF mounts weigh one third of the old aluminum mounts. These new mounts are very stiff - and they look like proper race car bits. :cool:
Attachment 223740Attachment 223741Attachment 223742Attachment 223743
Looks great!
That is awesome! love it.
Jim when you installed the front Aero Bumper did you need to sand down the front air opening in order for it to slide into the original opening
Yes, on both the hood and the outside of the bumper opening, it's a very snug fit - which is good because it takes some of the downward load, this way the load doesn't go through only the mounting bolts/screws/Dzus fasteners or whatever you're using to attach it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Larrys Garage
New head lights, turn signals, hazard flashers and switch plate. Plus new carbon fiber wing and carbon fiber wing mounts and some other stuff. I've never liked the turn signals that came with the kit, so I bought the halo headlights with integrated DRL and turn signals for a cleaner look. I may get it registered, but before I can do that I have to install a speedometer with an odometer and a horn. Also pay 9.9% Washington state tax :(
https://youtu.be/IF2myeo6Y8o
Ready for racing season soon!
She looks and sounds great!!!
Rob
Awesome job Jim! Best looking car on the track, bar none
You've done a great job. Looks like it's ready to win!
That is a beautiful build! Wish I was still in the Seattle area to see that in person.
Happy racing!!
I wanted to get rid of the crappy plastic brake light switch and decided I would install a brake light pressure switch like I had in my other race cars - very reliable and no need to adjust the crappy plastic switch when I want to adjust pedal height.
So, while I'm in there, I installed a set of brake pressure gauges to provide better control over the brake bias pressures. I used this calculator to determine weights, weight balance and the desired bias setting that gave me rear pressure of 630 psi and front of 550 with neutral bias as it sits with me, full fuel, etc. in the car. All up weight going on track is 3,017 lbs. The Coupe-R is heavier than the standard Coupe, then you throw all the safety gear, cool suit ice water, driver, etc. and some optional extras like air jacks, turn signals :rolleyes: and it's all OK because 530+ hp :cool:
I run the bias back and forth in the video so you can see how the pressures change. The front pressure is lower than the rear because of the .75 front master (vs. the .625 rear) and the front brakes are much larger - so less pressure gives more braking force. You can see that when I run the bias all the way front, the pressure are almost equal - but the front brakes are doing most of the work at that point.
Going to be interesting to see what the pressures look like on a dry track - and will be very handy in the wet when I need to get the braking torques very even with just a slight bias to the front.
https://youtu.be/fRXTJYMpOP0
Attachment 225794
Are the additional nuts and washers on the master cylinder side to limit overtravel in case one cylinder fails?
Thanks,
Dave
Gen III #17
Yes, but they do not work if one of the threaded rods fails or backs out of the clevis - the washer has to push against the bellows of the failed master. Testing shows the rear brake sees about 300 - 400 psi with front master open (not bled, open brake line). So, 300 psi should be enough to keep m from hitting the Armco too hard.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Tabor
Seems good to me.
You've seen this thread?:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...616#post602616
Dave
Gen III #17
Interesting thread - I've always put the spacer/washers on my race cars, starting with the Formula Mazda. Some old race car driver pointed it out to me - but also said not many people do it. I did have a brake master fail (slowly) on my Formula Ford, but not enough to go completely flat, just noticed a longer pedal over a couple of races.