tube80z

Thanks, I may have misread you're previous post but what I got from your analysis was that all the force in accelerating or braking was going through the front heim. That's what I was having trouble understanding. With the top of the strut being fixed it's also going to pick up a good deal of the load. In playing with stock arms bolted to my bench I was amazed at how little resistance they offered when twisted. With the wheel being offset from the strut axis there's also a force trying to turn the wheel into the car (when accelerating) and this puts the toe-link into tension. And vice versa for braking. I've had a number of cars with rod ends in bending. I'm not saying it's ideal but I know when the end is starting to get overloaded the jam nut has a habit of loosening up. And the next phase is usually some small bending you can feel. So far these parts have been beat on very hard and this hasn't been an issue. Not exactly an engineering analysis but I'm comfortable enough with them. If they can survive wheel hop that broke my back (and why I'm not racing this year) I think they should be okay. That said they are inspected before each race. Cary

I'm curious how you came up with this. I don't understand how there's a single rod end in bending outside of attached ARB loads. Cary

Here's another option This is John Thomas' rear suspension. It bolts into place of the stock crossmember.

More grip. That's what I'm told. It depends on the surface you run on. Lost of bumps digressive will probably be better but a smoother surface should favor linear valving. Cary

It was farther up in the post, http://www.jakelatham.com/radical/info/brake_calculators.shtml I used this one to sort the brakes on my old car and when loaded with good data helped me sort some balance bar issues I was having.

And if you have all that you can use the link above to do the work yourself. And better yet you can see what different sizes will do.

This is an online version of a spreadsheet that will help with brake calcs, http://www.jakelatham.com/radical/info/brake_calculators.shtml. I would recommend the 6.2:1 pedals to reduce effort. If you give more info on your car we can probably give better examples for weight and balance. With regards to bedding most of the newer pads are much easier than they have been in the past. If you can't drive it on the street you'll need a session to slowly bring them up to temp and then let them cool. Another option is to tow the car with a tow bar and bed the brakes that way. Seen a few people do that in a pinch. Cary

It's not really coilovers that would make for a stiff ride. It's really the ride frequency and making sure the shocks are correct for it.

According to my wife, I'd be just fine:-). Cary "that's how I roll"

This is getting a little into the weeds but I often wondered why a dual purpose car couldn't be setup using stacked coils. This was very common in touring car racing in the late 80s. If you take a look at the eibach site you can see an example on the top of this page, http://eibach.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.exe/03755.3.4367199316300020273. The plate could be clamped down getting rid of the lower rate spring when your ready to race. Or you could use it for mush less travel. If your interested in more info the formulas for calcing this are at http://performance-suspension.eibach.de/cms/en/motorsports_motorsport_products_ers_calculating_formula. And with regards to street safe roll bars I've often wondered why the floor couldn't be used rather than the roof. The current BTCC Vaxhaul Astra has an interesting floor treatment that looks poachable. Cary

You should check out speedway, I got the same piece for a lot less. And also check the engagement of the splines on the input shaft. When we did this if was almost off the splines. That's why there's a thicker flywheel made for conversions. Cary

You mean something like the attached? This was a V8 car with dual side pipes. It was a lot louder in the car but much cooler than with the exhaust down the tunnel. You have one of two choices to keep your ground clearance, put it through the lower frame rail or go above the fame rail and poke through the inner fender. Hmm, looks like attachments can only be 620x280 now. Here's the pic linked.

While I don't have any theory to add to this I can tell you I vented my inner fender panels and used this to extract the radiator flow. I used a smoke bomb to check the air flow and found that it mostly went out the wheel wells. I do agree the rear of the fender could be altered to make this approach work even better. C

What I'm talking about is changing rake, and it's really not that large of a ride height change but it does change the lateral load distribution. This is a very effective means of chasing balance that doesn't rely on lowering the grip of one end of the car. And there are times you may want to raise the car. If it's cold and you can't build enough heat into the tires would be one example. A one inch change in IC locations will add around 40 to 50 degrees of tire temp. Cary

Actually it is quite easy. Just change the ride height. I often do this before messing with the bars. Cary

HPR has them on their site with pics (blade type) http://www.hrpworld.com/index.cfm?tpc=Genesis_Technologies_Cockpit_Adjustable_Sway_Bar_Kits&form_prod_id=217,212_1432&action=product. These are 1100 to 1500 per bar. I wasn't able to find a good pic of the type John mentioned but if you take a look at http://www.gurneyflap.com/Resources/BRABHAMBT28-2124.jpg you'll see a manual slider arrangement. The adjustable models hooked a cable to the slider to move it and used a pin in channel typically to keep it from rotating. An easier way to build your own is to use square arms (1.5x.5 tube) and put a roller bearing on top and bottom. This is held by a simple flat bracket on both sides with the cable adjuster actuating it. This can be done with simple cut and weld tools and makes a lighter piece overall. I first saw these on the IMSA GTU And as you can see if you have the setup really close only one side needs to be adjusted, not necessarily both.

You need a custom upper spring seat and then something flat for the bottom. If you can weld then you shouldn't have too much of a problem making this work. If you can't then the cheaper alternative may be to get coilover collars that have solved this problem for you.

I'm not sure I'm completely following your question but I think your asking what type of springs are talked about when we specify rates and lengths. The most common are 2.5 inch coil over style springs (although you don't have to have coilovers) just a flat perch top and bottom. These can be found just about anywhere that sells racing parts. Good brands are eibach and hypercoil and you'll find there are tons of companies that make these. Hope that helps, Cary

My engine is the one above in the white Z. Steve used it for some time and is looking to change the cam to one less radical. My new car will have a V8, which we've joked somehow needs to have 4 SUs. Cary

The only thing you may want to think about with this design is how you adjust caster. And the pieces that look like they would be going under the frame rails won't be serving much purpose. The TC bucket area is fairly stout if you want to connect to that.

What were they using for a balance tube? Because we never saw that on my motor. Then again I had a cam that had a lot of duration. Steve at ZTherapy talked to Dave Rebello and they mentioned the same thing when they tried tripples but they didn't have a balance tube. So my data point of one is probably skewed. And I would agree for the money I'd opt for EFI. Cary

Also true in with the strut. And with a rocker it's very hard to get a linear range over the travel a street car generally has. I hear this one often used as a selling point. But I don't think it's correct. While technically the shock and spring are now bolted to the car they still move when the wheel is raised and lowered. So I'm not seeing how this is less unsprung weight. Perhaps by some definition it is. It is more intertia that needs to move and more friction because of additional joints.

The problem with this approach is you will have very close to the same king pin inclination (KPI) as the stock strut. The shock isn't that much of an issue. This has been done on a similar cars and doesn't really end up giving the jump in performance that you may expect. It's cool and sooner or later it will be done. Cary

The article you read is probably from Marc Sayer and is total BS. ZTherapy built a prototype 3 SU setup to see if it would work and it works quite well. I had it on the engine I used to use on my autox car. When I ran it I had two huffaker modified SUs that created great top end but were like a light switch (on or off -- no in between). When I got to sample the same engine with the tripples I couldn't believe it was the same engine. It had a much smoother power delivery and a lot better mid-range. I've also tried the same engine with real 50mm SUs and the power delivery wasn't as smooth but top end power was the same. To get the pattern made for the manifold was fairly expensive and there wasn't a ton of interest. So it may be a while before you see those available. And this won't be cheap. Cary

My only advice is don't use air to clean the chips. Use a brush. Air will get things under the bed and that's not good. Cary