Out with the old...in with the new...Britain's Racecar Development, Subaru Engine, Lotus Suspension! Time to go racing! Options

[Britain Smith]

Hey, I totally forgot to show you guys the new Where2Race Motorsports T-shirt. Check it out, these turned out awesome.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1311834202.1.jpg)

Get your hands on one today, $18 shipped to your door. I only have a limited supply of Large and X-Large at the moment. Drop me a message at info@where2race.com for details.

-Britain

[Britain Smith]

I want to give you guys a quick update as I prepare for the SCCA Nationals in Lincoln.

At the Packwood NT, we continued to struggle with lack of rear grip. Although I have tried several adjustments, springs, sway bars, etc., I just can't get the balance like I want it. If I compensate for the rear grip, then the car suffers from understeer. If I adjust that out, I have trouble keeping the rear end under control. Either way, the current set-up was just not working.

Therefore, short of completely changing the suspension to something from the 21st century (that is coming soon), I decided to take my tire contingency winnings and get a set of Hoosier Radials. For reference, my old set-up was 23.0x9.5x15 cantilever fronts and 22.0x10.0x16 rears, both bias ply in R35B compound. My new set-up are 23.0x10.0x15 R25B fronts and 23.5x12x16 R75 rears. The thought here is that the softer fronts will allow them to heat up faster and provide good front grip and the rears will last longer and provide more mechanical grip from the wider width.

In order to fit the larger wheel tires properly, I was forced to rebuild the rear wheels. I first disassembled the 3-piece wheels.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313821970.1.jpg)

Unfortunately the older wheel barrels were not BBS and where actually welded together at the seam. I therefore had to source 5" inner halves and 7" outer halves to make this work.

Here are the wheels assembled. Gotta love the "dish"

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313821970.2.jpg)

Now I was able to mount them to the car and see exactly how far they were going to extend past the fenders.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313821970.3.jpg)

For the fender profile, I decided to follow the profile of the tire instead of maintaining the fender profile. Here is my quick and dirty wheel profiling tool.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313821971.4.jpg)

The first cut was actually the hardest part. This isn't the best picture of the procedure that I used because I actually created a pattern out of hardboard as a reference while I cut.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313821971.5.jpg)

Here is the approximate location of the rear tire, there is about 2" or clearance all around.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313821971.6.jpg)

The 12" tires extend out about 1.5", hence the reason to cut the rear fenders.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313821971.7.jpg)

[Britain Smith]

The next day I was able to finally get the new tires mounted. They look awesome.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313822400.1.jpg)

With them mounted on the car, you can compare the size of the 12" to the older 10" wheel.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313822400.2.jpg)

Check out the "dish"

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313822400.3.jpg)

Here is a great picture of my daughter that JP had posted in the paddock.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313822400.4.jpg)

And mounted on the car...so sexy!

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313822401.5.jpg)

Final shot with the car on the ground and all the new sponsor stickers added.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1313822401.6.jpg)

I then took the car to get the alignment changed from a Bias Ply set-up (i.e. minimal camber) to a Radial set-up (i.e. maximum camber). We were able to get about 2.6degrees of camber all around and the toes just about where I wanted it. We have now ran into the issue that all the suspension adjustments are maxed out and I can't adjust them any more if I wanted to. The rear has no shims left and the front is using a set of Wevo CamberKing plates that have the shock mount offset inboard. If I want further adjustment then I will have to go a different route with the suspension.

I will get some more pictures of the car in action this weekend in Packwood. This will be my only test & tune opportunity before I leave for Lincoln next Sat.

-Britain

[JRust]

Holy crapola that is alot of wheel & tire back there. Your a skinny dude but you sure have a fat ass (IMG:style_emoticons/default/evilgrin.gif) . Seriously though those really are wide. Hopefully it will help with your rear end issues. At least until the suspension fixes for next year. I look forward to the packwood pics & to hear how it feels with this new setup (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[DBCooper]

She's a cutie. Daddy's girl too, I'd suspect.

Why do you need all that power, anyway? Couldn't you get grip back by just dialing back on the boost? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

Slippery slope. And really cool stuff.

[J P Stein]

A new test for the 901 trans. It's gotta be gettin' close to its point of maximum abuse. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[jmill]

A new test for the 901 trans. It's gotta be gettin' close to its point of maximum abuse. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

I was thinking the same thing. That's a whole lot of tire back there. Keeping my fingers crossed your light enough for the 901 to handle it.

[BMXerror]

Looking awesome as usual, Britain! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif) Can't wait to see it in person next week. Go get 'em!
Mark D.
P.S. Are you running the Pro finale?

[Britain Smith]

Thanks guys...new set-up feels great. Just gotta drive it harder with the extra grip.

Not attending the ProSolo Finale.

-Britain

[Rod]

Christ that looks mean!!

Great work Britain, I can't image how hard that first cut was!!

[get off my lawn]

YPAF, even if it's JP's ole sheetbox ;-)

[BKLA]

He's in Lincoln NE this week for Nationals...

Wish him Luck!!!

[Britain Smith]

Well...you win some and you lose some.

The experience at the 2011 SCCA Solo Nationals was an interesting one. First off, the drive was very long...we made it 18hrs to Cheyenne, WY the first day and crashed at my brothers place and then another 6.5hrs the second day. Next time I might give myself a bit more time to make the drive to make it less painful.

Anyway, we when arrive we were overwhelmed at the size of the place. The paddock area alone was 0.7miles long. There were great looking cars and towing rigs everywhere. I was pitted next to Leeds Gullicks 914 and Jacksons 914 was a few rows over...kinda cool.

So we started off on Monday running the practice course. Car is running great despite the higher altitude (~3500ft), thank god for modern day fuel injection and a turbocharger. However, right away we starting picking up more and more understeer at the tires heated up. We went back to increase the rear spring rate and try it again and are still struggling with an on-throttle push that made the car very undrivable. That evening we made further changes like moving all the ballast plus some (50lbs) to the front trunk of the car and putting the front sway bar on full soft. All of this made small incremental improvements but made for a difficult weekend.

My conclusion on what happen is that once the rear tires got some heat in them they were very grippy on the concrete in the hot conditions and were overwhelming the front tires. We were unable to experience these types of conditions locally in Packwood due to the lower grip surface.

Here is a video of my runs on both the West course and the East course. You can clearly see how bad I was struggling with the car which is why my times were so off the pace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA7kQjCvp2s

[r_towle]

Wow, I got tired just watching that run...its one long slalom.

Maybe you need more tire up front, or less in the rear.

Rich

[Britain Smith]

Now...we must move on and further the development of the car. One thing that was pretty obvious at Nationals is that the 40+ year old Porsche suspension has some serious shortcomings when compared to modern cars. Therefore, I have decided to go down the path of converting the chassis to a double a-arm set-up and I am starting with Lotus components.

Just before I left for Nationals, I was able to locate a wrecked Lotus in Utah and it worked out perfectly to swing by on the way back from Lincoln.

I was able to get the front and rear suspension parts from. I was also able to source the both subframes. The rear unbolts from the car and the front required a little sawzall action.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419236.1.jpg)

Here are all the components I sourced from the wrecked Lotus. The passenger front upper control arm and the passenger rear lower control arms are bent and new ones will need to be sourced.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419237.2.jpg)

Passenger rear components. This arm is actually bent and will be replaced
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419237.3.jpg)

Front passenger components. Everything check out here...still need to get the proper 14mm star bit to remove the broken wheel center from the hub. Check out the broken shock.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419237.4.jpg)

Front driver side components. Everything here checked out fine.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419237.5.jpg)

Driver side rear...all good here as well.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419237.6.jpg)

This is the front subframe assembly after about 3 hours of trimming with the combination plasma cutter, sawzall, cut-off wheel. That is the scrap pile in the back I must say that Lotus engineers did a great job in packaging on these cars. All the pick-up points appears to be intact and should be good for mock-up.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419237.7.jpg)

All excess material trimmed around each suspension pick-up point in order to aid in bolting and unbolting the components during mock-up.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419237.8.jpg)

All the components cleaned up and laid out. Having a little issue removing the rusted bolts holding the rotors on the hubs, I will tackle that again later.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net-364-1315419238.9.jpg)

This project will start off a little slower than my engine conversion because I have lot of measuring and mocking up to do. In addition, the car will attend a few more local events before getting torn apart for the winter.

Stay tuned,
-Britain

[Britain Smith]

Wow, I got tired just watching that run...its one long slalom.

Maybe you need more tire up front, or less in the rear.

Rich

More tire in front is the proper response (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The 10" rear tires were not enough to hold down the power of the engine...which is why I went to wider rear tires.

The front suspension suffers from too much scrub if I go wider with the current set-up...hence the need for double a-arm set-up.

-Britain

[BKLA]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chowtime.gif)

More, better, faster.... Oh Yea!

[maf914]

Do you intend to use the front bulkhead assembly from the Lotus? If so, how do you intend to attach it to the 914 tub?

Wild project! Like JP has said in the past, that is one slippery slope! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Good luck with this and thanks for sharing. This is a great thread. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[Britain Smith]

Do you intend to use the front bulkhead assembly from the Lotus? If so, how do you intend to attach it to the 914 tub?

Wild project! Like JP has said in the past, that is one slippery slope! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Good luck with this and thanks for sharing. This is a great thread. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

Nope, that bulkhead assembly is just for mock-up purposes. I will fabricate my own to fit the chassis.

-Britain

[Andyrew]

Awesome! Progress is good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)