TheDingo8MyBaby

Head and Neck Support

Are those green things half doors? I've never seen those before.

I absolutely agree. There is a natural tendency to put your arm down as the ground is coming towards you. That's why arm restraints are required in open cockpit (while window nets are required for closed cockpit) cars to keep these appendages from being crushed. The FIA roll bar is nice, but I also worry about whether your head would hit it in a rear end collision. Finally, it really is unsafe that we all (I'm guilty myself with the caterham harness) run around with these racing harnesses and do not have a HANS device. These racing harnesses give the illusion of safety. Seatbelts in passenger cars are designed to have some give to allow your body to decellerate at a rate similar to your head. Harnesses hold you in tight and don't have a lot of give - which leaves your head a dead weight with no restraint.

I think the toyota 4age is an excellent choice due to it's similarites with the oringal lotus twincam. You can pick up a 20V blacktop motor from Japan for under $1000. You'll get an 8200rpm redline, ITB's and 165 hp all with stock ecu reliability. The t50 transmission isn't bad, but it would be a lot more fun with a miata transmission.

Oops, I blew it. This is the section I meant to post. G.5: ANTI-SUBMARINE LEG STRAP MOUNTING G.5.1: The double leg straps of the six-point system may be attached to the floor - to a purpose built element of the cage - or to purpose built mounting points in the seat as provided by an approved seat manufacturer. G.5.2: A separate attachment point connection must be provided for each leg strap. G.5.3: Attachment points may use bolts, eye-bolts with snap-on connectors, or wrap mounts to roll cage, seat, or chassis points designed for the sub strap loads. G.5.4: Bolts and eye-bolts through the floor must be reinforced with backing plates provided by the harness manufacturer or large washers on the underside to spread loads. G.5.5: Wrap mounts to specific bars as part of the cage are allowed using only wrap mount hardware provided by the harness manufacturer following the manufacturers defined wrapping instructions. G.5.6: Formula belt and Hybrid belt anti-sub leg straps may share the lap belt mounting point in rearward mounting installations providing there is a direct unencumbered routing as outlined in the belt descriptions. http://www.scca.com/documents/Pro%20Racing/09-prr-appendix.pdf See appendix G. for figures and just about anything you want to know. I have heard of guys getting castrated by 5 points, but it was due to the belt being too far forward and not nearly tight enough. You definitely want them tight as possible - this holds true for all belts. The sub straps are meant to keep the lap belt from pulling upwards, so the less slop, the better the chances of you not submarining.

TEL: 03-3657-2260 FAX: 03-3657-2954 - Not sure if this will help. You can always try calling and see what happens. I cant seem to find an e-mail though. Looks like they're located in Tokyo and open 10AM to 7PM (closed thursday) according to the translator.

Hank, My racing seats have an oval hole approximately 1"x3" right infront of the crotch or about the middle of each seat. FYI: This is from the SCCA rule book on Lap Belt Mounting. J.4: LAP BELT MOUNTING J.4.1: The lap belts shall be mounted rearward of the pelvis, between two lines drawn at 60-degrees, and 80-degrees, below the horizontal (see Figure 1). J.4.2: The lap belts shall pass through the seat, without interference, to the attachment points, pulling in plane with the mounting hardware without any visible twisting or edge loading on adjusters or mounting brackets. Mounting points must be as close to the side of the seat and must not rub on any seat brackets, rough, or sharp edges. J.4.3: Lap belt mouting points must be integrated with the frame of the car or to specific welded mounting tabs on the roll cage. If mounting points are located on seat brackets, they must be certified by the bracket manufacturers specifically for such use. Mounting points created in the floor or transmission tunnel must be reinforced with backing plates of sufficient size to spread the load. J.4.4: Lap belts with bolt on connections must allow bracket to pivot either by use of a machined sleeve or by backing the lock nut off just enough so that bracket can pivot. This is critical to prevent loading of one edge. Eye bolts must be aligned properly so that the snap-on connector is not twisted or loaded at an angle that might load one edge of the webbing while the harness is being used. J.4.5: If bolt-in or snap-on mounts are used in conjunction with a 3-bar adjuster the complete wrap must be completed as detailed in Figure 9 and described in J.8 below

http://66.163.168.225/babelfish/translate_url_content?.intl=us&lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.technicalshophappy.com%2fsale%2f032s7.html Here's a 79 caterham...and has a twincam for 1,800,000 Yen (about $18000 which seems like a heck of a deal)

Racing is cheap, winning is expensive.

Does this mean all Black or Black fenders/nose? Ian's car has the black fenders/nose. EDIT: I forgot Mondo, EviLRome0 and Kiwi Birkin (and that's just off the top of my head) I also remember there was a westfield on jalopnik that was all black too (with the exception of some moss). I found a few with a google image search "black caterham" http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3A*&um=1&sa=1&q=black+caterham&aq=f&oq= I think the reason black (and most dark colors for that matter) are not used is people tend to see brighter colors well. Another reason is that lsis cars are generally fiberglass and black does not hide imperfections well.

While I'll agree aluminum isn't as strong a steel, it is stronger per unit weight. (keep in mind this is aluminum alloy we're taking about here, not just Al). This is why you see it used in aircraft structure, etc. Not all trailers are created equal, so it's not an easy apples to apples comparison. If you're trying to tow with a smaller tow vehicle, weight is a concern and I wouldn't discount the aluminum trailers. The one I've towed with was about 1/2 the weight of other steel trailers I've used. Also, it's likely a legal thing regarding brakes. The electric brakes generally require a lot less maintenance. Get a good brake controller like a prodigy that will servo the brakes based on G loading.

The ad still shows up for me. That trailer is not nearly big enough. I highly doubt that trailer can take 3000 lbs. You always want to go overkill. For your 7, you probably want at least 6.5 x 14. You will probably want to mount the slicks at the track anyway to avoid flat spotting. A single 2000lb axle should be fine and will be a lot lighter since you're towing with a jetta wagon. You may want to look into aluminum as they're a lot lighter and don't rust like the steel ones do (though they're significantly more expensive).

Actually, the limit will comes from the iner tie rods hitting the rack. Manufacturers usually cut a few extra teeth in the rack so that it doesn't marr the gear. You may be able to add a lock washer or two between the inner tie rod and the rack to gain some steering angle. You just want to make sure the ID of the lock washer fits on the thread and the OD isn't bigger than the steering rack OD. On my corolla it's 14mm lockwashers.

No affiliation, but wish I could afford this... http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/cto/1181031856.html

http://aleegold.com/trojanmagnumxl.jpg (Yeah right)

I've never been a huge fan of completely black wheels. It looks like the car is on steelies at first glance. That being said, something with a black face and a polished lip should look nice

Explaining torque steer as an effect of unequal length drive shafts is only part of the picture. Torque steer is also present in equal length shafts. It is a result of the offset of the point in which a the car steers (determined through kingpin inclination) and the center of the contact patch of the tire. When tractive force is applied it will try to pull the contact patch forward causing the wheel to rotating about the steering axis. You can reduce this by adding more inclination to the kingpin which will decrease the offset between the center of the contact patch and the steering axis. The trade-off between this is that if you add to much inclination, it will load more force on the body causing instability. A rwd car shouldn't stuffer from torque steer nearly as bad as fwd car (at least not in a straight line) because the drive wheels do not steer the car. Things start to get even more complicated when you're talking about acceleration during cornering.

Kitcat - as our crossflows have flat tappets, it's very important to run an oil with zinc phosphate (ZDDP). I run valvoline racing VR1 5w-50 "not street legal" because it has ample ZDDP. You can also run diesel oil, which as oilteq said has around 1200ppm ZDDP, but it may be hard to find in a 50 wt. Oilteq - interesting article. I also believe we're seeing fewer dispersants in todays engines due to things like gapless rings. It would be interesting to see the fuel economy on a few honda accords after 300,000 miles running 20 wt motor oil. The thinner viscosity oil doesn't apear to be hurting Honda's reliability. MNlotus - buy a oil filter wrench. They should have various types that will fit your filter at the local autopoarts stores. Oil filters only need to be hand hight. I hate it when people crank down on them.

I would argue that it depends if you're racing or not. I think the nice thing about having horsepower is you don't get left in the straights on the track. I would also argue that it also depends on what tires you're running and whether you have a LSD, but mostly the LSD. Speaking of which, anyone know where I can get one for a live axle?

Why not just make up something that will protect the rear wings from cones? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v121/TheDingo8MyBaby/SANY0354.jpg The exhaust on the other side does a pretty good job of protecting the rear wing.

I think the worst I've seen is someone popping the hood on someone else's car at the track. When they got up to speed next session out, the hood flew back cracking the CF hood, windsheild and damaging the roof.

Agreed with shiva. Try to stay away from those cheap stainless ones from china. They're no good.

I see 14 lbs on diamond's website. http://www.diamondracingwheels.com/ministock.html

V2 Competetion Drag wheels -13x8 +20 - 11 lbs. Lenso VPD - 13x7.5 +25 - 8.5 lbs.

If only I could get my converse all stars nomex lined...