The General Leif, 142 endurance racer

Got closer to finishing up on a couple of things tonight.
Finishing up on the front air dam and splitter. Right now the splitter is made out of 1/4 inch plywood. I think I make one out of 3/8 as the 1/4 is not quite as rigid as I would like. I would like to think that it cant be any worse that it was and would like to think that it is better.


I was just messing around and made this to help clean up the front end a little. I'd like to think it cant hurt. I was going to make one for the other side but forgot the air intake is on that side and should let as much cool air in there as possible.

Still need to try to get the exhaust all the way out the back and a number of little thing. More to come soon.
Marc

w00w00. We could slap some seam sealer or caulking in that split between the core support and fender, too. Then maybe fill up the area between the spoiler and the core support.

Probably not that critical right now, but yeah, sealing it up is a good idea. As for stiffening the splitter, a couple of plywood ribs would stiffen it up for now, but round off the front and edges of the ribs. The splitter and air dam is gonna give you a lot more front downforce, so you may have to play with the suspension a bit if it makes the rear end too loose.

We did actually take off the rear swaybar for other reasons, but will also be adding a rear spoiler and maybe something near the top of the rear window to direct airflow over the back of the car OR down the back windshield to direct air over the spoiler.

We shall see in a couple weeks!

If I ever get the time and money to get my RX7 on track, I'm gonna look at vortex generators. Here's a link to site discussing them, and in the first post there's a link to a supplier. Oops, senior moment ... here's the link: http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37421

We have thought about that possibility, thanks for the link(s)!

Got the exhaust fabbed tonight. Kind of hard to see but goes under the rear axle and out the back. Should not be as mush noise or fumes in the car. Not that there was a lot to start with just that after 2hrs on track you could start to smell it a little. I'll pull it off tomorrow and get it all welded up.

I think at some point I would like to replace the hole exhaust. Its just kind of a hodge podge of quick fixes that could be much cleaner and tucked up closer to underside of the car. Oh well maybe some day.
Think I'll go buy 110 gallons of full tomorrow.

w00h00! The exhaust isn't that bad... We don't really have clearance issues, do we? It can't go up higher, we already added clearance to the body! It's fine!

I have no complaints except we should add another hanger to the extension we just added to relieve some of the stress from the only other mount on there And maybe swap out that Flow[blocker]master for a straight through muffler at some point.

SEAT BACK SUPPORT!

itb-volvo said:

Got closer to finishing up on a couple of things tonight.
Finishing up on the front air dam and splitter. Right now the splitter is made out of 1/4 inch plywood. I think I make one out of 3/8 as the 1/4 is not quite as rigid as I would like. I would like to think that it cant be any worse that it was and would like to think that it is better.

Click to expand...

I like this car a lot!

A rough rule of thumb i've been given for splitters is that they (and their mountings) should be strong enough to stand on. This obviously depends on your own personal bulk, but I'd say strong enough to take at least 100kg. Aerodynamic forces can be very high.

I think that you may be correct for cars that regularly get over 250 kliks on a longish straight, but I don't think that their car will be reaching those speeds. If the mounts are sturdy and they add a couple of stiffening ribs they should be OK.

Well all systems are go. I drove it all over town yesterday while the sun was out. Car ran great. Got it alined while I was out just to double check. Let me tell you you get some interesting looks while you are driving around. As for the splitter I think it will be fine but you never know I guess. If not I will build it stronger next time. It will be interesting to see if it will be easy to run more consistent lower lap time compared to last time. Some of it will be the brake upgrade but I think if we do run lower time a big portion will be the earo. I'll post a couple of pictures in a day or two with the finished product.
Marc

I don't know if the brakes will cause us to do a lower lap time, I never experienced fade. Then again, we may have better braking because the car has slightly better weight balance now.

We don't want the splitter to come off, that'll cause some major damage to stuff if it does come off! Did you already attach stuff for additional vertical support up front?

Do we need any more brake fluid as back-up? We need to check the rear pads to see how much life they have left. They're likely fine, but we want to be prepared. I can't remember if we have any back-ups aside from some that are mostly worn. And the new pads, of course.

If you do get fade you'll know. The pedal will get really hard but the car won't stop as apposed to boiling the brake fluid when the pedal will get mushy an drops (also ). Either way, you'll be looking for some way or something to scrib off some speed. BTDT

Don't forget to follow along tomorrow as we take on the new Ridge Motorsports track in Shelton, WA!

https://www.facebook.com/GeneralLeif

The race starts at 8AM and ends at 10PM! You can follow it along on our FB page that we will update throughout the race and also even watch some video live!

"ChumpCar debuts this weekend at the West Coast's newest track...The Ridge Motorsport Park in Shelton, WA. Watch the racing action live at www.pirlive.com or later on-demand at Live Timing at www.racetrackslive.com. Five camera crews will be covering every angle of of this 14-hour ChumpCar action!"

I guess there will only be 100 or so slots for people to watch the live video, so if you don't get in the first time you can keep trying.

The specific race info: https://chumpcar.com/register/supplementalrules/44.pdf

Wish us luck!

Bump... Time to change the name of this thread! We don't race with Chumpcar(now Champcar) anymore, we're mostly a Lucky Dog Racing League competitor now. www.racelucky.com

Check the Facebook page for more info! We're still running this thing here and there. I should post the updates in here as well, and current engine setup... It'd be easy to keep a log of lap times for events in here and the setup. That way we'd have a better log of what's what and why our times were what they were and so on! Jeez, I've slacked in the past many years.

We're hoping to do a track day next Friday with our first race of the season set for the end of May at Pacific Raceways in Seattle. They just repaved and changed a large portion of the track that was pretty dangerous(fun!), so times should pick up a lot. When we were at this track last year, our hot rod 2.6L B23 with the 405 head that we got from Asher(and previously was run in RSI's Chumpcar) blew up in the practice/qualifying session before the race started!!!

Git sum!

Woah, blast from the past and look at that BODY ROLL! I don't know who was in the car at the time, but they owe us a new tire after that flat spot. Can't wait to go back at the end of this month!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV5MjbUUaw8&feature=share

Setup notes for the track day tomorrow at PIR.

Engine:
-B230F .030" over(lower compression on cylinder 4, maybe dirty rings, will recheck)
-405 head with mild port work and stiffer springs, stock valves, .123" shaved, exhaust valve unshrouded and chamber re-shaped slightly to lower compression. Also added a single groove to the large quench pad for good measure(maybe). Chamber size roughly measured is 44-45cc.
-B21F K-jet intake manifold with injector bungs added.
-ENEM K13 camshaft with .015-.017" valve clearances. I think the camshaft timing gear is set at 3? advanced with the gear set as close to the factory timing mark as possible. With it 3? advanced it looks to point closer to the stock timing mark.
-850T orange top injectors, just cleaned by Dr. Injector.
-Nathaninwa throttle body adapter/elbow to 960 throttle body which is very sensitive off idle. Part of that is due to where in the load maps the car is pulling data from and the high idle, so as soon as you touch it the ignition timing wants to jump up high. I've tamed it down some by reducing ignition timing at lower rpm where we don't really drive much(low rpm cruise).
-012 AMM with custom tuning in 146 EZK and 933 ECU.
-Factory B21-B230 exhaust manifold with mild port clean-up going into a custom 2-1 downpipe with a flare/cone after the merge up to a 3" back setup with a super turbo junk muffler to keep the volume down(need to redo the entire exhaust aft of the downpipe at somepoint, it's "rough").
-82? C B20 thermostat.
-Valvoline VR1 racing oil, 10w30.
-Stock oil pan at the moment with an Accusump for help if needed.

Drivetrain:
-Ford T5 rebuilt with a 2.95 first main gearset and a .80 fifth gear(just had it done). Steeda shifter with the shift lever straightened. Cheap rubber trans mount. Fresh Redline D4 ATF.
-4.56 rear end with a Truetrac LSD(just had it set up). Fresh Redline gear oil.
-Factory smaller rear driveshaft with front section modified to have the T5 slip on the front joint. Using a semi truck center support bearing wedged in place to keep the double slip section from walking too much.
-Custom, solid "link arm poly bushing" engine mounts built last year. They're obnoxious, and turned the body into a loud speaker for engine vibrations so even though the exhaust and intake are relatively quiet, inside the car hurts your head and makes your hands tingle when you get out after a long stint.

Suspension:
-IPD front swaybar? IPD rear swaybar with adjustments but links to chassis are at a relatively steep angle. Set in softest setting for the most vertical links(still no where near vertical).
-Old, off the shelf Bilstein HDs that are too soft and/or blown. The front doesn’t feel too bad with just a bounce test, but the 240 rear shocks definitely aren’t stiff enough.
-225lb rear springs, 950lb 8” fronts.
-Delrin bushings and reinforced swaybar mounts on front control arms.
-Boxed rear trailing arms with newer Volvo rubber bushings throughout.
-Adjustable stock panhard rod with at least one or both ends in poly, can't remember.

Brakes:
-Vented 164 front brake rotors with 240 ATE front brake calipers and stock Volvo 240 pads.
-Stock 140 Girling rear brake pads with Volvo 140/240 Girling pads.
-Modified front backing plates with ducting from the front bumper openings.
-Removed rear backing plates, no e-brake parts and very poor ducting(far from rotor) made from early 140 defrost vent/tubing.
-SS lines throughout, rear brake bias valves adjusted for a little more rear bite.

Body:
-Fiberglass front lip spoiler
-Aluminum decklid spoiler.
-Plastic rear quarter windows pushed out at the back to vent and match the rain gutter.
-Plastic rear window.
-Plastic wind deflectors on either side of the windshield pushing air over the rain gutters
-Rally roof vent.

For the no chicane setup at the PIR trackday tomorrow, we'll be running super light weight 15x7 SSR, FWD offset wheels with some old 225/50-15 R-comp tires from RSI's "plum" ITB car from a few years ago.

What else? Stuff. And more stuff. 9 years of racing this thing stuff.

Come on out if you're not working! Our last session is at 2:40pm, so you want to be there well before that.

Track session success! I wasted a session by loading the wrong BIN when I went out onto the track for one of them, but by the last and fourth session I had the AFR close enough to where I want it. Only problems were a little oil leak at the Accusump that we already knew about, worn out/weak shocks that we already knew about, super old tires that we already knew about, and a fuel leak at the top of the cell when full that we didn't know about...

Running PIR without the chicane, without real aero work(aside from the front/rear spoilers) and the slightly taller tires I was reaching around 6100rpm at the end of the front straight(120mph) and 5800 or 5900 on the back straight(115mph) in 5th gear. So, it has plenty of room to run if we can get a little more power out of it, have better aero efficiency and are drafting a faster car.

Rough best lap time of 1:27/28 with a stopwatch feature on a phone in the grandstand.

The engine had good power throughout the powerband, pulled fine to over 6500rpm, and pulled decently enough in 5th gear where normally a 3rd gear would be used for maximum attack if we needed to do some drastic fuel saving.

With 225/45-15 RS4s that have more grip, we'll probably be just over 6400rpm at 120mph with room to go before hitting the limiter at 6700-6900(not sure what I want yet). In 3rd gear though with those shorter tires and more grip, we'll be hitting the rev limiter in 3rd going around turn 7 and it probably won't be useful in turn 12 either, unless we rev it out to 6900-7000rpm. According to LH my rev limit was set to 6920 but the tachometer was only saying around 6750 or so if I remember correctly(only hit it once). Time will tell but 6900rpm is 129mph with the shorter tires, so that's good enough. With the taller tires we can focus more on fuel saving and keep the RPM down a little bit.

Time to get some of the things sorted out before the race at the end of the month at Pacific!

First up, fixing leaks and maybe getting shocks... I have some feelers out about the GAZ stuff that should be perfect, but likely out of our price range at the moment. I'll look into getting some cheaper off the shelf stuff such shortly.

Shocks?: https://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=349025

More pictures and video on our Facebook page!



Speed/rpm chart with our transmission and rear-end using a 23" size tire on the left(205/50-15 or 225/45/15. 205/45-16 would be 23.25".) and a 23.9" tire on the right(225/50-15, 205/55-15 or 225/45-16. 205/50-16 would be almost 24.1" and maybe good for a rain tire):

Doing some prep work for the race at the end of the month!

Cut a hole in the hood for a radiator hood vent, swapped on some R-Sport Rally spec shocks that are likely too stiff but it’s what we have for now, fixing the oil leak hopefully(everything looked ok??) and going to pull apart the fuel cell that was seeping when full.