zack_280 Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 Mark, I'm going to be at COTA for the WRL race. Any chance of you running the open lapping HPDE on Friday, 12/3? Mostly, I just want to see the car in person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markrolston@mac.com Posted December 22, 2021 Author Share Posted December 22, 2021 On 11/18/2021 at 9:14 AM, zack_280 said: Mark, I'm going to be at COTA for the WRL race. Any chance of you running the open lapping HPDE on Friday, 12/3? Mostly, I just want to see the car in person. sorry. did not make that event. But just ran COTA on 12/19 and had a great time. Car ran great. I did take it a bit easy just to get through the day without any surprises. I posted a video of the last session. My brother rode along, getting to experience the track for the first time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKw4UNuSOoM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markrolston@mac.com Posted March 28, 2022 Author Share Posted March 28, 2022 Activity here may slow down quite a bit since the car is mostly finished. However, I am doing small bits of work to refine the car. The original steering rack was one I bought from Morrison and it is really set up for big hotrods. It's too slow. So I bought one that allows for custom ratios. This is a much faster ratio so I can do full turns without taking my hands off the wheel. Also, Andris, who builds race cars at the shop had a 4th gen Bosch motorsports ABS kit available that he had pulled from a car so we are installing it into the car. True motorsports ABS is a game-changer. And a few changes to oil breather and fuel venting exhaust plumbing will tidy things up. Then lastly I started some early work mapping out a more aggressive front splitter for the track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 tuff z Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 Mark, are you going to make it ZCON this year? Love to see your Z run at Barber! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube80z Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 13 hours ago, markrolston@mac.com said: Activity here may slow down quite a bit since the car is mostly finished. However, I am doing small bits of work to refine the car. The original steering rack was one I bought from Morrison and it is really set up for big hotrods. It's too slow. So I bought one that allows for custom ratios. This is a much faster ratio so I can do full turns without taking my hands off the wheel. Also, Andris, who builds race cars at the shop had a 4th gen Bosch motorsports ABS kit available that he had pulled from a car so we are installing it into the car. True motorsports ABS is a game-changer. And a few changes to oil breather and fuel venting exhaust plumbing will tidy things up. Then lastly I started some early work mapping out a more aggressive front splitter for the track. Those Coleman racks are not very nice. They are a cheap dirt car setup meant for serious abuse. Do yourself a favor and buy a Woodward steering rack. They will custom build to your specs or you can use one of many pre-built setups. If you're not using electric power steering their servo allows you to change the force level of the assist but doesn't have any production car damping. Jon went this route on his car. Awesome news on the Bosch motorsports ABS. Totally jealous of that purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markrolston@mac.com Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 On 3/28/2022 at 8:43 PM, tube80z said: Those Coleman racks are not very nice. They are a cheap dirt car setup meant for serious abuse. Do yourself a favor and buy a Woo On 3/28/2022 at 7:31 AM, 1 tuff z said: Mark, are you going to make it ZCON this year? Love to see your Z run at Barber! dward steering rack. They will custom build to your specs or you can use one of many pre-built setups. If you're not using electric power steering their servo allows you to change the force level of the assist but doesn't have any production car damping. Jon went this route on his car. Awesome news on the Bosch motorsports ABS. Totally jealous of that purchase. Please do share- what's not nice about the Coleman racks? They were one we found that fit and had a lot of options for steering ratio. Certainly the hardware looks pretty robust in hand. I think we looked at Woodward and something didn't work out. I can't recall atm. Also, not going to make it to Zcon. Will try and make it to Znationals though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube80z Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 In response to the Coleman rack I'll add that they are heavy, need to be greased often, rely on small friction surfaces to keep play down, and if you're using hydraulic steering the servo lacks feel. I have seen a bunch of them with bent racks that are often felt as a stickiness in the steering. I got two of them used and had to do a bunch of press work to get them straight. One was listed as bent so I knew that but was surprised that the "good" one also had a smaller bend in the rack housing. Perhaps Coleman has fixed all this and they are somewhat decent these days. I think they are great for dirt cars but I'd prefer one that has proper seals on the rack and had a better system to take up any play between the rack and housing. Cary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markrolston@mac.com Posted March 31, 2022 Author Share Posted March 31, 2022 12 hours ago, tube80z said: In response to the Coleman rack I'll add that they are heavy, need to be greased often, rely on small friction surfaces to keep play down, and if you're using hydraulic steering the servo lacks feel. I have seen a bunch of them with bent racks that are often felt as a stickiness in the steering. I got two of them used and had to do a bunch of press work to get them straight. One was listed as bent so I knew that but was surprised that the "good" one also had a smaller bend in the rack housing. Perhaps Coleman has fixed all this and they are somewhat decent these days. I think they are great for dirt cars but I'd prefer one that has proper seals on the rack and had a better system to take up any play between the rack and housing. Cary thanks. I'll report back how it feels. This one is new so I'm not worried about bent parts, but a good feel and no slack will be important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73Ed Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Amazing build, incredible attention to details.. Do you have any pictures of how you set up your digital cluster behind the dashboard pods? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budgy Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 Amazing news on that ABS system. I see what those sell for brand new... wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markrolston@mac.com Posted April 29, 2022 Author Share Posted April 29, 2022 On 4/23/2022 at 3:17 PM, 73Ed said: Amazing build, incredible attention to details.. Do you have any pictures of how you set up your digital cluster behind the dashboard pods? here are a few images. The dashboard was originally a matte black fiberglass repro and we covered it with carbon fiber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markrolston@mac.com Posted June 20, 2022 Author Share Posted June 20, 2022 ABS is working. Really nice to have on track. I'll really get to test it out at COTA on July 15th. I'm now working on a track specific front splitter. The original is fine for street use but the car has some front end lift at speed I'd like to cure. So I'm working with some Klegicell structural foam, plywood, and carbon fiber to make a splitter with some 3D features. I'll also model and print some new canards to fit the new form. The shape is a best-guess from reading/watching as much as I can about the subject along with a little aesthetic constraint. Right now the shape is just getting worked out and then I'll apply a finishing layer of carbon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markrolston@mac.com Posted January 4, 2023 Author Share Posted January 4, 2023 (edited) For the most part I've just been driving the car on the track, working out the kinks, and getting used to the car's particular dynamics. The bosch ABS is a game-changer in terms of keeping up with modern cars. It's easy to make any car fast but it's a real art-form to get it to stop. I did finally get around to working on the new splitter. And I started on a new project to create some "race-fenders"- essentially some fenders to pop-on for track events that relieve a lot of front-end air pressure. Since the body is CF over a tube frame it's easy to swap these particular panels out. Edited January 4, 2023 by markrolston@mac.com forgot pic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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