Firehawk's N2 racecar project

[firehawk]

Ok, pedals now have their mounting points. I used just a small piece of sheet metal to make a flat area on the footwell and then welded 8mm nuts to four large square washers and them onto the floor.

The aluminium grip sheet is just supported by a small L-shaped bracket welded to the inside of the side beam and there's a big gap underneath it so it won't support much weight. I think I'll paint "NO STEP" on it with stencil like on an aircraft's wing control surfaces.





Because the pedals are now further back, the seat must also be moved so I made new mounts for it. This type of mounting is approved in the local FIA member organization's (AKK) rulebook so it shouldn't cause any problems in scrutineering.





To give an idea on how far back the seat is now positioned, here's a picture from the other side.



While moving the seat back positions the driver's weight farther back and lower, it also creates two additional problems. Firstly, the steering column needs to be extended either with a huge spacer or just cutting the shaft and welding more in between. Either way, I'm probably going to need a quick release steering boss to be able to enter and exit the car.

The other problem is the shifter. It's impossible to reach when belted to the seat so I'm going to have to make a "dummy" shifter with a linkage to the real one. On the other hand, it does allow me to set the lever ratios to my own preference.

[green_boy_91]

thats quite far back man, i think ill be mounting mine around 10cms further forward but im guessing ur alot taller to but yeh thats the same problem i was thinking about, shaft and the shifter, will defenetly have to keep an eye on how u do the dummy shifter i may have to do the same

lookin good, have been watching this for a while keep it up

adam

[Blue86]

Hey,

What about using a shaped shifter, like you see in the Ozzie supercars before they went to sequential?

[firehawk]

Okay, didn't have _any_ time to work on the AE86 the whole summer so I'm pretty much picking up the project from the condition it was in May. Sorry for the late replies..

green_boy_91: I'm not very tall but as the driver is, along with the engine, one of the heaviest single "parts" of a race car, having that weight as far back as possible will be beneficial in improving traction on corner exits.

Blue86: Hmm, could work - I'll need to try it with some kind of a mock setup to see how it moves. The shifter knob may move vertically quite a lot when moving forward/back on the shifter pattern due to the pivot being inside the transmission. Using a linkage would give the additional bonus of getting to customize the lever ratio for a shorter throw.

Anyway, the first thing on my long overdue TODO-list was the seating position and I eventually got the pedals, seat and steering wheel to where they feel most comfortable. With these measurements, I made the mounting holes for the seat and chopped up an AE92 steering shaft I had laying around and used it to extend the original shaft.

A quick release boss is required to be able to enter and exit but when seated, the steering wheel sits nicely right behind my knees.





I also finished assembling and sealing the wheels and picked up some lightly used Formula 3 tyres to try on - I'm going to test fit them on the car today. The 230/570R13 Dunlop F3 rear tyres are pretty beefy.

[firehawk]

Yupp, pretty chunky rubber.

[cannabolic]

dirt collector

[firehawk]

I hacked together a quick mockup to test how a shaped shifter would work. As I suspected, the knob would move vertically quite a lot when moved forward/back. Here's a few pics to illustrate;





Radically shortening the shifter throw would help but this would require a rather thick spacer between the gearbox and the pivot. So it looks like the linkage-operated extension would be a better solution.

[firehawk]

Managed to fight off the temptation to play some more Forza Motorsport 3 for a while and went over to the garage to work on real race cars instead of virtual ones.

I'd already started on the fuel tank enclosure and got the framework mostly done. The top of the tank now sits at about floor level in the boot;



The welds are just tacks for now - I still need to double- and triplecheck that the frame is true and straight. The frame will be cladded with aluminium sheet after the body has been repainted.

Since the RCI tank has an integrated sump under the tank itself, it needs to be somewhat raised from the mounting level with two support beams.



The beams are just 0.8mm mild steel folded into a C-section. The top has been perforated and flared using a tool my brother made in a lathe.



I liked the flaring tool so much that I made a strut brace as well.



The steel sheet was welded on the tubes while tensioned, so once off the car the brace is actually slightly bowed. It straightens out when the mounting nuts are fastened.

The welds need a bit more grinding and some paint, though.



Radiator mounting was another thing I started working on. The Mk2 Golf radiator now rests at a slight angle. Most of the airflow from the radiator will be ducted out of the engine bay through a vented bonned. This should somewhat reduce front-end lift at speed.



The front end brace I made a looong time ago had to be modifed to accommodate for the inlet ducting from the bumper to the radiator.



On another note, I received this quite rare part from a fellow Toyota enthusiast - an actual, unused TRD water pump pulley! Won't run the standard belt, though.

[doggy]

Hmm nice project here One question - how does this flaring tool looks / work? Kinda intrested to see it

[firehawk]

I don't have a photo of the tool I used but it's pretty much the same as this;

[img name=]http://www.aeu86.org/files/fl/flaretool_154.jpg[/img]

Basically you just use a hole saw to cut a round hole to the sheet, place the tool on both sides and tighten the bolt down as hard as you can.