Nine Fourteen Sex, The on going story of Love and Lust for a Machine. Options

[914 Ranch]

I must apologize for my lack of progress here as I have been trying to recover from a back problem. I have been able to do some small stuff but I have not been able to get under the car so I have cleared a space on the patio and I can get the car jacked up there. She is overdue for an oil change and at the same time I can hook up the oil cooler lines. Pull the muffler and check out the path of the diffuser. The nice thing about having the Arduino board on board is the ability to use biometric sensors, I can put them anywhere. Having the sensors in the car will probably burst my bubble but it will be interesting
Thank all y'all
Trying to get back on track
Joe

[stownsen914]

Back problems suck, get better soon Joe

[914 Ranch]

Thanks Scott, I'm trying to not do anything that involves bending over. So not much progress on the car. Right now I need to get some fuel so I can bring her out of the trailer. One of her needs is an oil change, while I'm in there I'll start looking at what it's going to take to get the diffuser started. I've got a pretty good idea what's going to be needed and how to assemble it. New mufflers, straight megaphones with Supper Traps. Can't wait, need to get the car up on the stands.

[914 Ranch]

I've been thinking about the diffuser so I stole some stuff off of a drawing that I have no idea who drew. But it gave me the information that I needed. I will get the actual dimensions when I get under the car.



I'm surprised how well that came out.

[914 Ranch]

I needed a light box to make the drawing. I put a piece of plexiglass between the table and the desk and then added a light.



It almost evolved into a 2' x 4' fluorescent ceiling style fixture but I managed to reel myself back in when I saw the piece of plexi. I hardly ever practice the KISS system

[914 Ranch]

Before I can cut any metal for the diffuser I need accurate measurements and to get them I have to get the car back up on the stands. I'm at the point where I can move the car to the patio. I've had her there before, so no big deal. Somehow things never go as I thought they would.

[stownsen914]

Joe - cool you're building a diffuser. Are you anticipating it being a functional one, or more of a bodywork thing?

I put one on the 914 racecar a few years ago, and went kinda whole hog about it. Lots of work.

[914 Ranch]

Thanks Scott, I have been doing a lot of reading and studying on the tube. I believe that it will function better than the wing. I'm hoping to eliminate the wing at the same time reducing drag under the car. That's the only reason I am making the effort. So aluminum from front to rear. The most interesting thing that I found was from the Chaparral museum site on Jim Halls Indy car, most innovative it had the nicest under tray. I'm not ready to try to skirt the edges of the bottom yet. At this time I'm going use the long seam as my perimeter for now stopping at the engine bay. Won't know what I'm doing at the front of the car till I get there.
65,000 viewers WOW!!!!

[914 Ranch]

What the fuck Joe, get with the program. A thousand viewers between my post's. Well I'm doing stuff like trying to find some latches for the diffuser really the name of the company that makes them is Professional Awesome Racing. Neat latches, they also have some adjustable splitter support rods that are compressible. I have also been researching Duzs fasteners. I had used some on a dune buggy years ago but I needed to bring me up to date. Building the flat bottom isn't going to be easy as it will require a lot of reaching to get the fasteners in the center of the car. The flat bottom is about to get started and I have a handle on the diffuser.



My approach is to anchor the spring to the bottom side of the raised sections of the floor.

[stownsen914]

Finally saw your response. So you are flat bottoming the car front to back? This is pretty much what you need to smooth out all the protrusions under there, otherwise the diffuser won't have a good stream of air to do its thing.

Agreed the underbody can do as much (or more) than a wing if done well.

I haven't worked on the 914 in a few years as I've been tied up with other projects, but I'd like to do some data acquisition to see what the aero is really doing. I got some ride height sensors that could be used to infer download. In my dreams I'd love to do CFD if/when it becomes more available to the masses.

If you're up for some more reading, consider Racecar Aerodynamics by Joseph Katz. I found it really helpful when I was planning my underbody aero.

[914 Ranch]

Thanks again Scott, one more time you are making me think deeper than I thought was possible. I'll have a copy of Joe Katz book next week. I've been thinking about the under tray for weeks now and I'm surprised at some of the things I can see right in front of me. Both the GT4 and my '15 Chevy 2500HD have flaps in front of the rear tires. The skirts on Chaparral's Indy car came down the sides and turned in, in front of the rear tires.
In my dreams I would like to have the chassis raked to at least an inch at the firewall. Aft of that it looks pretty clean back to the collectors, which is the lowest part of the car. Still gathering materials but I'm always doing something to occupy myself and seek gratification somewhere. Currently doing some repairs on the rear wing.



I'm repairing it because of the depth of adjustability. The rear wing has 4 positions, with the flap straight, in the middle and all the way up and the wing removed. Balancing the car should be fun.

[914 Ranch]

Repairs on the rear wing are completed, put in a new hinge and it works much better than the old one. Also reglued the frame (formers to the skin) trying to get some of the rigidity back. It's all good now. Still need to install and tune the servo for the Gurney flap. While doing all this I splashed some alcohol on the wing and when I went to wipe it up it took the paint down to the primer. So I'm done with duplicolor, I had a hard time getting colors from them. I was under the impression that duplicolor had all the necessary products to give me a complete paint job under one label. Now I'm looking at Eastwood.

[914 Ranch]

Installed the servo for the Gurney flap with a new servo cover and linkage wire. The new hinge works great.

[914 Ranch]

The rear wing is back on the car it really looks good and I'm working so hard to make it obsolete. My heart tells me that it will look cleaner running without the wings.

[stownsen914]

Joe - one of the things the Katz book emphasizes is how the wings help activate underbody aero. So they work together. Particularly a well placed rear wing. Similar to how a flap on a two stage wing operates.

[914 Ranch]

Once again Thanks Scott, I have to that I am sorry because I didn't get to order Katz's book because I spent too much money over at Professional Awesome for the brackets that want to use. These are trick. I was looking for them for about 10 months. They only had 3 latches so I bought them all.

[914 Ranch]

I use most of my brain time fantasizing about teeners. If I didn't the car would look like NICE 914. I would be board and frustrated. I get a lot of gratification from the results of my efforts just from seeing what the fuck I just did. Yep, I said it.
I have been trying to get to the diffuser as that's the first part of the under tray. It goes on top of the one in front of it for over lap. The hardware I picked up is Awesome. Just playing with it makes me smile.

[914 Ranch]

Picture of a line drawing. I started it trying to clean up some details on the diffuser.

[914 Ranch]

I used a stretcher to get the shape of the diffuser from the strakes pattern. Now I have the shape of the diffuser in aluminum. I'll need 8, one for each strake. All the same shape the difference will only show up in the length of the front edge. I'm going to leave the top and front edge long so I can finish them up during installation.

[914 Ranch]

I was very uncomfortable when I was taking this picture but it's only ok.



This is a good pattern the only difference will be the length of the front end, that will cause the curvature of the rear. The diffuser will be 22" x 48" and I believe 8 strakes. The 22" gives me an inch at each end and the 48" fits between the tires.
Oh and 68,000 viewers. WOW....