thehelix112

So while my suspension is apart, I figured I'd try to get some adjustable sway bars on the cheap. My plan for this involves modifying the stock sway bars so they can be made both more and less stiff. This is to give myself the opportunity to experiment with a range of suspension setup philosophies. I want to be able to try both ``balance the car with the springs then use a light bar to tune'' and ``balance the car with the bars and run light springs to try and get mechanical grip''. As before, much appreciation to EMWHYR0HEN for his tireless assistance, and for the ride in the beast. So. The parts: From Midwest Control: (http://www.midwestcontrol.com) - Female rod ends: 2 x (don't remember atm, plus they're very small and might not fit - will update later) - Male rod ends: 2 x (don't remember atm, plus they're very small and might not fit - will update later) From any metal supplier: - 1/8" hot rolled plate. Around 1.5" x 2'. The tools: This assumes a general toolkit with appropriate spanners, sockets, drives and ratchets. Additionally helpful is: - welder - angle grinder with cutting and grinding discs The procedure: Step 1. Remove the front sway bar and lower control arms from the car. Hang onto the bushed connector between the two for length reference later on. Wire wheel the end of the sway bar to get it ready for welding. Wire wheel the flat while you're at it. Step 2. Mark and cut parallel to the vehicle centre-line on the inside edge of the hole through which the bushed connector fits. This line should be perpendicular to the main sway bar rod that runs across the vehicle when its installed. Step 3. Cut a length of the flat steel around 2" x 4", and tack weld this onto the flat surface provided by the cut you made in Step 2. Optionally, pre-heat the area, focusing on the bar, for welding. Note: When installed on the car, this flat should extend downwards so be careful that you know which way the sway bar is, so can place the flat appropriately. Step 4. After triple-checking everything is aligned, oriented and otherwise in place correctly, weld the flat onto the sway bar. Step 5. Get the lower control arm, and wire wheel around the sway bar connector attachment hole. Mark a line on the inside edge of this attachment hole. Grind the raised section down until the plate can sit flat. Weld the flat on both sides to the LCA. Note: On adjustable or lengthened control arms (such as mine), the position of the flat will be different. I used a stock control arm as a reference point and lined the two arms up with the inside pivot points even, then marked (parallel to the pivot axis) over from the stock arm's connector hole to where this was on the longer arm. Step 6. Repeat on the other side of the sway bar and the other control arm. I've only done up to here, so will continue the story once I've done the remaining steps which involve trimming the flat plates to the correct sizes, drilling/slotting holes for adjustment, and final installation. Dave

Cool. Wasting no time putting the welder to good use I see? Dave

Get a kick out of punishing people? I personally think we should be shooting for the longest period of `quiet' possible. Dave

Grim, Looking forward to the pic. I'm unconvinced that the lower ride height reduces the frontal area. Its covered for a current LMP1 car in the latest RaceCar Engineering I have at home so I'll check there. My thinking goes that lowering the vehicle increases ground effects which increases downforce. If you're increasing downforce without also reducing regions of low pressure towards the rear (which I think is the case here?) then I don't see how it couldn't add drag. But I'm not an expert, and will probably prove myself wrong when I post the LMP1 stuff when I get home (unless someone else has it handy?). That and I seem to recall hearing about F1 cars working to get the ride height as high as possible down the straights to reduce drag. Though I've no idea where I heard that. Dave

I'm confused, does it have the entire GTR running gear, or just a RB26? Dave

Grim, Sounds about right to me, though its been a while since I read it. Great book isn't it? I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Simon McBeath's book and the aero section in Milliken & Milliken are also worth the read. When you say / are you talking about delta wings? Also, I thought it was termed camber in reference to the curvature of the profile of a wing (tapering towards stagnation point). The general concept I took away from the book was that of pressure gradients. Air does not like to flow `uphill' (as in down the back of the hatch), and needs energy to do so. A turbulent flow around this region is more highly energized, and this energy is used to flow up the hill. When the energy is depleted, the flow will detach. Also I would pay close attention to the wind tunnel results in this sub-forum. Lots of great empirical evidence in there. I don't know whether you are against spoilers for aesthetic reasons, but from what I can see, the results support the theory that a wing/spoiler reduces drag by promoting air flowing under the car to flow upwards and fill the gap at the back of the car. Tests 10, 11, 12 with whale tail, MSA short, and SDI 5.25" spoilers show drag reductions to 103.5hp, 98.7hp, 99.0hp respectively. However the highest reductions in drag come from blocking off frontal openings, which others have theorized (correctly I think fwiw) reduces the buildup of high pressure in the engine bay by limiting airflow into it. Test 14 blocked the lower half of the front, reducing drag to 88.8hp, Test 18 blocked the lower half of a MSA Type III airdam, reduced futher to 86.4hp. The results and their pics are worth the read. Dave

So Ash, have you had your car on the track yet? Dave PS. Thanks for the fuel filler cap many eons ago.

doublexl240z, The more pics the merrier! Also any information about what rules/applications they were constructed for would be awesome. Dave

Does it have any sort of seat compatibility issues? Dave

Does anyone perchance have pics of a car with ZGs and a ducktail spoiler? Dave