The 510 Realm

it's like an alarm clock- wooo wooo!!

for all those who don't know.... http://www.ebaumsworld.com/bubbrubb.html

Installed some camber/castor plates that I made as a machine shop project. I decided to make them so they mounted to the top of the strut tower to give me a little more travel. To reinforce the mounting holes I used the stock top hat plate with the bubber isolator cut out. I then welded nuts to this so that the mounting bolts come in from the top, making it easy to adjust castor on the fly. There are a few mistakes that I made, mainly making the center slot to big. I also would have liked to have pocketed out the underside, so that the bering carier sits up inside the plate, just to give a little more travel. I will do this on the next set that I make, as we are going to have a new toy in the shop soon, a nice Bridgeport mill .

How much travel now/before? Stock length zx tubes?

Duke that third picture of your car squatting is the SHIT!!! I love it.

Thanks coiloverkid. I just did another autocross, and with some of the suspension tweaks that I made since shasta, it was going good. My fastest time was ~3 seconds off ttod (lotus 7 clone with v8 and avon race slicks) on a really fast (3 gear in some sections, with some cars reaching 70+ mph) 50 second course. In my class (4 cylinder street tire) I was half a second off my friend running a Lotus Elise, so I was really happy, considering that it was just my third autocross, and I had one of the less powerful cars out there, I was really happy with how it went. I can't wait till next season. Hopefully the suspension will be close to fully sorted by then, and the car won't be so damn ugly. Here are some pics.

Pictures = Teh Sexness. Elise is just an overrated MR-S.

I took a little ride in the Elise...I want one. Pure sports car, nothing more nothing less. I'm hoping that next season with new suspension I will be able to match or beat his time though.

what wheels are those duke? can I get a side view?

He's got a few pics on the first page...konig rewinds?

Yep, Rewinds...I have heard that they aren't making them anymore though.

They are producing replicas called Fast Forward.

Well, the car has been pretty stagnant for the last few months, just searving as my ugly daily driver. For some reason I can find the motivation to work on it when the weather is bad. I did manage to replace all the rust in the floors and paint them with POR-15, its not pretty, but its sealed and thats the last time that I want to do that.

So on to what I have been working on. When I got the car it had a Autopower roll bar in it and frankly, I didn't like the design. It doesn't tie into the very strong points on the car and has little triangulation for stiffness. Also, I wanted to take a crack at building a cage (well, more of a roll bar as there aren't door bars or A pillar bars...this is my DD after all) so I got all the tubing and have spent the past few days going at it. I am almost done and will post some pics tomorrow of how it turned out. Oh yeah, and if you want to learn how to TIG weld upside down, laying on your back, pushing the pedal with your elbow, and welding backwards, build a cage.

Also I modified my gas tank to avoid fuel starvation issues with low fuel levels. I made a sump the sticks down a few inches below the tank so I can get every last drop of fuel out of it, and I can run with low fuel in my tank while autocrossing.

Pics tomorrow.

Here's the roll bar. I'm really happy with it, especially cause its my first attempt at anything like this. I used 1 3/4" .095 tubing for the whole thing. I triangulated the whole thing for max stiffness.

Main hoop attachment point.

Rear attachment point.

TIG welds are so pretty!

I also modified the gas tank to fit around the rear strut brace and added a sump.

I'd love some feedback on what people think of the design.

That's good, that will work "well" ( pun intended)

Is there a bearing plate on the shock tower, or are the tubes welded directly to it? Other than that it looks really good. Nice clean welds, design looks good.
As for the tank, good idea.