cobramatt
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Posts posted by cobramatt
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I will try to get there by 8am. Will spend as much time as I can and will bring a helmet. That C7 is the sequential?
I will not be driving the C7 as I am racing my C5 and cant do the joy ride thing when I have a race but my partner and MTI President Reese Cox will be driving. I can get you a seat if your interested. We are treating some of our loyal customers and "potential" customers to some good times.........You fit in that category. I thought you had a conference and Valentine's Day duties??? The C7 does not have a sequential gearbox. We have installed our new aero package (wing, splitter, undertray, side skirts), our coil overs, sway bars, shock tower brace, and some other stuff. All made in house at MTI Racing.
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New Carbon Fiber parts fresh out of the molds. New G nose and new upper and lower air damn. Hood is next.
Our Lead Engineer, Will Stukus. Responsible for most of the geometry on the front clip. He's contemplating............I think.
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Looks good, Matt. I'm guessing the car won't be ready in time for Barber? Unfortunately I'm not going to make it either.
I'll be running in ST2 with my Corvette. We will also be bringing our C7 track car to run in DE and give people rides.
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Mocking up engine and tranny today. T56 was to big for the tunnel so we made room by just cutting it out on top and will fab a new one. Measurements look good for cross member and motor mounts. Having to play with the passenger side mounting points due to the fact I now have a new starter location. It is no longer internal. I can tell that the passenger side header is going to have to be custom or magic, due to no room and clearance issues, the fuel pump, starter, lower frame rail and motor mount are ALL thats in the way........other than that it fits perfect.
I have decided based on our last wind tunnel test a few weeks ago, of two of our Corvette Race cars that widening the front end will be counter productive due to drag. Widening the footprint is a must for handling and we are widening the stance front and rear by 4 inches. We are lengthening the wheelbase by 2 inches as well. Our new length of wheelbase is 94 inches compared to a stock of 90.7.
Our wind-tunnel testing showed that a widened front nose and fenders lost 9.8MPH at 150MPH due to the added drag trying to punch a hole through the air. We then found that a nose fascia that was stock but the flares were extended over the widened wheel base lost virtually no speed and created very little drag. Thus I will be adding to the width of the flares over the tires, which also lets me add a touch of strength and rigidity. The plan on widening the g nose and hood are now unnecessary. I also am very happy to report that our side skirts were hugely successful and created almost no drag and increased downforce considerably. I have known this on my Datsun due to actual road course testing at high speed but never had seen the wind tunnel reports. The feedback from my Butt matched the wind tunnel reports exactly.....
I am sure you understand but please dont ask for any of the actual numbers from the wind tunnel.
Also something very exciting is that the engine is 100% behind the front wheel hub center and by definition that makes this a mid engine car.
More to come...........
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How about these spindle hubs for a Z car .
Very nice. Have you lost the rear struts and doing upper and lower control arms as well? That looks great. Is this going to be a race car or dual purpose?
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Construction of the front clip has begun. Car is on the jig and all the geometry has been calculated and designed in a CAD program.
I will now have wheel hubs and bearings like a real race car and not that of a riding lawn mower.......
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Arrrgh! I planned a trip to Punta Cana the weekend of the Mitty. I guess I won't make it this year. Should have checked my calendar first.
Also, I probably would have taken you up on the suit offer a year ago, but I just bought a pretty nice OMP suit.
My friends and I have done a few great golf vacations there and if I wasn't actually in the race I would rather be there than here............good call.
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If I recall, my sorry car tried to put us both into a wall, and I'm very glad you were the one driving. With a novice (me) at the wheel there might have been an ugly accident. Hoping to help out at Barber once this year if I can get free when you are down there. Maybe I can record tire temps or something like that.
I sent you the schedule and would love to have you around for the races. We'll put you to work........
You really need to plan to come to the Mitty. It's really fun to see all the historic race cars on track. There will be numerous 510's and Zcars racing.
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One thing I thought I would throw out there for anybody who is in need of a racesuit. I have recently aquired a new "partial" sponsorship with AXCEL Sports. Look up their Facebook page to see their stuff. I was very impressed with their operation and I had them do race team shirts for MTI Racing that turned out great. I am having them currently make 5 new custom race suits for the team drivers. These are top of the line SFI 5 Sateen Nomex suits. They are made custom based on your own measurements from a tailor. If you wanted a suit like this it would retail for $2,300. Under our sponsorship deal they are making these suits for us for $1,150 a piece. You can certainly go and get a race suit for $500 off the shelf that is perfectly suitable for most all applications. I just wanted to extend this offer to anyone who might want something like this at a major cost savings. If anyone is interested just let me know.
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Matt called me the other night and I was sick as a dog, but didn't want to say "Hey I feel like ass can we talk later?" because I haven't heard from him in so long... Man those things look sooooo nice... Really can't wait to see the newly transformed machine!!
I want you to come down and be part of the team at The Mitty.
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Makes me want to go smash my car into a wall....
I guess those will wind up getting painted (?), such a pity
Don't go and smash your car into the wall just to get new fenders. Start racing and you'll hit the wall eventually I assure you. Come to think of it, I almost put your car in the wall last time I drove it.
I will be wrapping the car in Vinyl like I did before. It is cheaper (their one of my sponsors) and easy to fix. I do however admit that paint would be slightly lighter..........
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That's a great plan. I built a perfect tube frame replica of a bent car once. had thought since all the body lines were straight and the car drove nice it was okay. Always measure first. Never will make the mistake again.
I'm also very curious about the panels and the roof. Would love to know how much weight that can drop.
Cary
I knew there would be someone who could relate to how something this important could easily get overlooked. I'm so focused on how the build is going to come together and the timeline, It never even crossed my mind. I'm glad I have other people around me. My 24 year old fabricator at the shop is the one who said, "Don't you think we should make sure the rear of the chassis is straight before we build the front clip"? The rest of us sat there and looked at each other..........
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Those are slick! Can't wait to see the new roof.
I am axious to see the roof as well. Since my car has the cage I am not worried about this being structural. If the car didn't have such an extensive cage this roof would not work. It will however in this application, I believe drop more weight than any other item I'm replacing on the car. I have an exact weight prior to transformation so we will see the exact savings in the finished product.
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Received the first of the new Carbon Fiber body panels today.
WOW........
The fender weighs 3 lbs.
Now were cookin' with gasoline.........
We were about to chop the front off and start on the front tube clip when we had a brilliant idea. How about lets send the car to the frame shop and have them put it on the big expensive machine that determines if the rest of the chassis is straight before we spend all this time and money building something new that is based on bent geometry. Its sometimes the most obvious things that get overlooked in any build and even some of the best, not implying that I'm one of the best but I've built a few, suffer from the same issues.
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Great news............
I purchaced a T56 PPG Dogring transmission today for the Datsun. I am planning on driving out of state to pick it up Sunday. This will mean that I will have a TKO600 for sale if anyone is interested. I am eventually going to try and upgrade to our MTI full sequential transmission and this gets me halfway there, I just dont have $25k for a tranny right now. The dogring is half that and I was able to buy one from a race buddy who wrecked his car in our last race and he has decided to buy a completely new car and part the old one out. He posted the tranny and I bought it along with an extra clutch for the Vette within 5 hrs of his post. I really got a deal. Thanks to my crew chief John Brown for keeping his ears to the ground and alerting me as soon as he heard of its availability.
Waiting on the carbon fiber fenders and g nose to be able to plot our mounting points and map our geometry for the front clip. Im excited to be cutting the g nose and hood right down the middle and widening the car by 3 inches. I really think it will help the footprint stability of the car greatly.
Upgrading the intake and throttle body upon re installation.
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Dawn and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May all your Z wishes come true............
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I am on a lot of car forums, from Toyota Supras to Ford Trucks, but this is by far one of the best cumulative threads I have ever read. I am subscribed and look forward to reading about the future of this amazing machine and owner.
Thank you very much.
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Today I ordered the new body panels. Just as I did before, Brian at Z CAR CUSTOMS-JDM and I are working together on all the pieces. We are doing the following:
New IMSA front Fenders
New upper and lower IMSA Gnose
New IMSA air dam and custom one piece lower air dam (new product)
New ZGR tail
New hood w/ custom rise cowl (new product)
New roof skin (new product)
New custom vented front cowl (new product)
The big deal is that all the pieces are going to be in 100% CARBON FIBER and the Gnose, air dam and hood will be 3 inches wider than the original mold.
I am very excited about the added strength and weight loss in doing everything in CF. There is almost an 80lb savings in weight over the steel roof and fiberglass panels. The roof and hood are brand new custom items that Brian and I are working on. If you, like me, have an S-30 that had a sun roof and you are thinking of what to do, I would strongly suggest the CF roof skin.
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Did you miss a gear at 4:17>
I don't like watching stuff like this..... it gives me the bug.......
I'm sorry as this is not my in-car video. I am driving the White Vette in front of this red one. If we watch my video you don't get to see how close the race between Kevin and I was. It does seem as if he had a little difficulty there coming out of T5 and it slips out of third.
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OK.....
This might not be the Zcar but this is my last NASA race of the year at Road Atlanta this past weekend. I am happy to announce that I was able to defend and secure the NASA Championship for 2013 in the MTI Racing Datsun 240Z. The Z has begun the process of being torn down so the rebuild can take place. I will certainly post pictures of the re-build.
This is my MTI Racing C5Z and I ran it as an ST2 car this past weekend. Even though the car is street legal and underpowered in class we were able to manage 3rd place in class and in the process have one of the best battles for position with fellow C5Z racer and friend Kevin Harvey of the year (I think I say that after every race). When you have a minute and really want to watch something entertaining check out this in-car footage from Kevin's car of our battle from start to finish. Kevin also makes one of the best high speed saves I've ever seen at the checkered flag that you don't want to miss.
I want to wish all my fellow Hybrid Z friends and family a wonderful Holiday season, a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.
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For me it's from multiple minor injuries from trying to be a hero when I was younger. Matt, for you it is more likely either from Seal School, or perhaps from all that pole dancing you do at the club. Word on the street is that you plan to finance your rebuild at a rate of $1 at a time!
I guess getting shot, stabbed and the time my shute didnt open and I pulled my secondary at 1200 ft and hit the ground doing around 70mph and broke both my hands, a foot and dislocated my knee and my shoulder could have something to do with it. I've sold a kidney, most of my blood and as much semen as they allow a man my age to give to help in the re build and I know I cant make any money on a pole due to my back pains. I do accept charity..........if anyone is in the giving spirit, I just dont think anyone feels sorry for me.
BTW...........Over dinner tonight my engineer and I discussed our direction moving forward with my car and everyone is going to freak out when they see what we are going to do. Our target date is to be complete by March, I would love to have the Z for the Barber race in Feb but Ive always got the Vette. It always takes longer than what you put on paper. I assure you it is going to be a huge step in a direction few have ventured with this platform.
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I wish we could swap vertebrae the way we swap motors. I would be first to sign up. And knees and shoulders and necks.
Just an observation...........
Is it the accidents we have been in that makes us hurt all the time or is it just old age. I can hardly put on my shoes in the morning and message just makes it worse. When I'm strapped in the race car I'm fine, when I try and get out is when we have issues................unless its on fire and I move like the wind.
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I thought everyone would get a kick out of this.
This is a funny video I did this past weekend at Road Atlanta while doing some testing for next weeks race in the Vette. A friend asked me to take his wife for a few spirited laps. She's a trooper........
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Matt, I was shocked when mine came in at 2709 without me in it, but my cage is fairly substantial, like yours, and I also have Pete's framerails in the car as well. When I hear guys talk of weights in the 2100-2200 range I just shake my head and wonder "how". That weight was before I swapped to CCWs and revamped a few other things. I'm hoping that swapping from the Bowtie Block to the LS platform will have lowered it by 100+ pounds. I'm also hoping that the other mods I made previously removed an additional 75#, based on my own weighing of individual components.
Your plan sounds solid and I'll be very interested in seeing what you come up with. I'm wonder if going with a modified tie rod would also help longevity on the steering links.
Going with the upper and lower control arms that are hung from a chromolly tube frame front clip will change everything. The hubs and bearings will now be like those found on an actual racecar vs. a riding lawn mower. The geometry of the suspension and tie rods after the upgrade will be like an actual race car (or modern designed sports car) vs. that of a semi modified 40 year old platform that has failed me twice. I am very interested, as you are, in how much weight will be lost in this transformation. I am adding back some in the undertray that wasn't there before, so there will be some give and take. The radiator box I will fab out of something that is extremely light vs. metal/aluminum. I am not molding in any body panels and I believe there is even more weight to be removed in the rear "molded in" flares. The IMSA flares that are wider will be slightly heavier but no mud drops weight I believe. I have also given thought to losing the rear three piece IMSA tail, as I think the wing is doing most all the work. Redirecting the exhaust out the sides will allow me to drop the fuel cell 9 inches thus lowering the rear CG drastically. I might even have room in the engine bay to re locate the dry sump tank and in doing so reduce weight in the length of oil lines and oil in them. The addition of the adjustable shocks (Moton or Penske) will hopefully pay huge returns in set up and performance. It should but we will see........$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
My Dream LS7GTZ.......project underway
in S30 Series - 240z, 260z, 280z
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Thank you for your kind comments. They are very much appreciated.