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Old 10-13-2020, 04:57 PM   #351
FC
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Had not clicked on this thread in a while. That's a lot of work! Very cool stuff.
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Old 10-19-2020, 10:07 AM   #352
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Nice!
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Old 10-19-2020, 10:42 AM   #353
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I do quite enjoy this thread. TY JV
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Old 10-19-2020, 11:21 AM   #354
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I follow this thread as well, I didn't realize you changed the gauges, that is pretty cool !!
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Old 10-20-2020, 10:01 AM   #355
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Thanks, I'm glad people get some enjoyment out of it. Despite the challenges it's still a lot of fun.
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Old 12-04-2020, 12:18 PM   #356
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Damn, more than a month since an update.

I actually drove the car at an event! It was super wet and cold, so I ran the PS4S tires. They are phenomenal in the wet. The car was a total pussycat. I just unplugged the boost controller so it ran on the spring, and it was one of the most friendly cars I've ever driven in the wet. One of the courseworkers liked the sounds the car made, so she recorded a video on her cell phone



The only thing I really didn't like was the brake feel. I plumbed the car with -3AN braided PTFE hose when I moved the ABS pump to behind the driver's seat, and the brake feel was really terrible. I got all the air out of it but it still felt like stepping on a sponge. So as much as it pained me to do it, I ended up completely re-plumbing the car with copper-nickel brake lines. Definitely not the most fun job, but it was pretty satisfying to learn a new skill and I only had to re-make one flare out of all of them to ameliorate a leak. Brake feel is fantastic now, just like stock. So I'm happy with that. The copper-nickel stuff is super easy to work with. I could have done a better job making pretty bends, though :giles:





I had planned to do the December Dixie event in the car, but I can't travel without quarantining for two weeks so that's out. I may try to get to one of the upcoming trackcross events at Summit point in December just to shake down the car a little more in the hopes of doing the Dixie and Charlotte National events in '21.

I've started playing with some of the advanced features of the Haltech, the first being traction control and the second being flat-shift. The flat shift feature is pretty cool. I have it triggered off of the clutch switch used for the stock cruise control, so it switches states just as the pedal is moved through the first ~ 20mm of travel. That's convenient with the dog box, since to flat shift I just have to "dip" the clutch pedal a bit while keeping the throttle pinned. It briefly cuts ignition and fuel and lets you bang the next gear. Should be really nice for ProSolos.

I'm contemplating setting up exhaust-air-injection rolling anti-lag as well, but it will require a decent amount of fabrication and I'm not sure I want to tackle that right now. I guess we'll see what the next few months bring.

Last edited by clyde; 12-04-2020 at 01:09 PM. Reason: conformed Youtube link
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Old 12-04-2020, 01:07 PM   #357
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John V View Post
Damn, more than a month since an update.

I actually drove the car at an event! It was super wet and cold, so I ran the PS4S tires. They are phenomenal in the wet. The car was a total pussycat. I just unplugged the boost controller so it ran on the spring, and it was one of the most friendly cars I've ever driven in the wet. One of the courseworkers liked the sounds the car made, so she recorded a video on her cell phone



The only thing I really didn't like was the brake feel. I plumbed the car with -3AN braided PTFE hose when I moved the ABS pump to behind the driver's seat, and the brake feel was really terrible. I got all the air out of it but it still felt like stepping on a sponge. So as much as it pained me to do it, I ended up completely re-plumbing the car with copper-nickel brake lines. Definitely not the most fun job, but it was pretty satisfying to learn a new skill and I only had to re-make one flare out of all of them to ameliorate a leak. Brake feel is fantastic now, just like stock. So I'm happy with that. The copper-nickel stuff is super easy to work with. I could have done a better job making pretty bends, though :giles:





I had planned to do the December Dixie event in the car, but I can't travel without quarantining for two weeks so that's out. I may try to get to one of the upcoming trackcross events at Summit point in December just to shake down the car a little more in the hopes of doing the Dixie and Charlotte National events in '21.

I've started playing with some of the advanced features of the Haltech, the first being traction control and the second being flat-shift. The flat shift feature is pretty cool. I have it triggered off of the clutch switch used for the stock cruise control, so it switches states just as the pedal is moved through the first ~ 20mm of travel. That's convenient with the dog box, since to flat shift I just have to "dip" the clutch pedal a bit while keeping the throttle pinned. It briefly cuts ignition and fuel and lets you bang the next gear. Should be really nice for ProSolos.

I'm contemplating setting up exhaust-air-injection rolling anti-lag as well, but it will require a decent amount of fabrication and I'm not sure I want to tackle that right now. I guess we'll see what the next few months bring.
Nice!

It's really weird how you don't realize how much flat-shifting is a learned activity until you start doing it.
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Last edited by clyde; 12-04-2020 at 01:08 PM. Reason: conformed youtube link
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Old 12-04-2020, 01:13 PM   #358
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Quote:
Originally Posted by clyde View Post
Nice!

It's really weird how you don't realize how much flat-shifting is a learned activity until you start doing it.
I used it in Sam's car at the Charlotte Pro and was enamored. I did a preliminary test on it this past weekend on my private 1/8-mile test track and it's intoxicating, especially with how fast the gearbox can be shifted.
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Old 12-04-2020, 04:16 PM   #359
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John V View Post
I used it in Sam's car at the Charlotte Pro and was enamored. I did a preliminary test on it this past weekend on my private 1/8-mile test track and it's intoxicating, especially with how fast the gearbox can be shifted.
So many years of driving has ingrained muscle memory so deeply that I find keeping my right foot on the floor remarkably difficult. But, it's pretty cool when it works!
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Old 12-30-2020, 06:51 AM   #360
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Nick's post reminded me that I've done some stuff worthy of updating this thread.

First of all, this happened:



Suffice it to say it's challenging to register a car like this in Maryland. In five years, when the car is 20 years old, I have options, but for now this works.

Going back to last year, when I ditched the FD RX-7 gearbox and went to the 4-speed, I needed to clearance the unibody a little. Part of the internal mechanism for the shifter wanted to occupy the same space as the trans tunnel sheet metal. So I did the rational thing and cut a rectangular hole just big enough to fit the gearbox. There was really no way to close it back up from the bottom, so I put it off. You can get a sense for it in the image below. It was about a 3" x 4" rectangle and it opened up the underside of the car to the interior.



Given that I'm off work for two weeks I bit the bullet and tackled this. That meant removing the entire dashboard. Super super not fun.

The tricky part is there are multiple layers and varying thicknesses of sheet metal forming the unibody. As viewed from the interior, the top layer is about 16-gauge, pretty thick. The next layer down is also roughly 16-gauge. Then there is a bottom layer of roughly 22 gauge, so very thin. The approach I took was to cut the opening into a circular shape on the sides, clean up the squared-off ends, and form two curved pieces of 16-guage to bridge the top and bottom layers. That's in the picture below. It took a long time because I don't really have any metal forming tools, so it was just all manual bending by hand. That bridged the top and "middle" 16-gauge layers of the unibody and made everything strong again. I then just folded up the 22-gauge bottom layer and tacked it into place. Hard to describe but it turned out okay. Welding sheet metal is a little tricky and I'm not a welder.



So that fixed the sides, I then made a "cap" of 16-gauge and welded that in. The welds on the leading side look abysmal but they're actually well-penetrated, I just didn't take a lot of time to make them look pretty.



So, that project done, next I updated my gearbox mount. This is version 2. Version 1 was made from .080" wall, 1x2 rectangular tubing. I was worried it wouldn't be strong enough and it wasn't. After the dyno session it had a bit of a bend in it. I decided to scrap it and make a new one out of 0.120" wall, 1x3 tubing. This one came out really nice.



Last step here is to reinforce the center section which was cut out for bolt access by adding a couple of pieces of angle steel, then prime and paint it.

Now that the car is registered I can take it out on the road and work on some of the areas of the tune that are hard to hit on the dyno. Side benefit is the car is a riot on the street, although it's geared a little bit too short.
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