Really Should Stop Modifying my Daily Driver into a Track Car

[Fusion Works]

Its not 10 hours, bet its about half that if you drive fast.

 

[Dusterbd13]

Amazing build, How do you like the autopower cage? Do you still have plenty of room behind the driver seat to recline and street the car comfortably? Im planning on ordered the autopower even though I dont like how small the foot/plates are.

It has enough room for me to get comfortable, but not lay out.
It does NOT tuck tight to any roof or side panel.
The foot plates are too small in my opinion, and land in a very flimsy section of floor. Not the way I would build one from scratch, but I didn't build this from scratch.

Fusionworks: sold the mutant project. For better or worse, I realized I'd never get it finished and on track. Still waiting for the guy to finish the remaining money and pick it up though.

Question: isn't 10 degrees of caster quite a lot? What's the thoughts/purpose there? Coming from rwd, where 4-5 is as much as I ever see, im genuinely curious.

 

[Fusion Works]

It has enough room for me to get comfortable, but not lay out.
It does NOT tuck tight to any roof or side panel.
The foot plates are too small in my opinion, and land in a very flimsy section of floor. Not the way I would build one from scratch, but I didn't build this from scratch.

Fusionworks: sold the mutant project. For better or worse, I realized I'd never get it finished and on track. Still waiting for the guy to finish the remaining money and pick it up though.

Question: isn't 10 degrees of caster quite a lot? What's the thoughts/purpose there? Coming from rwd, where 4-5 is as much as I ever see, im genuinely curious.

You are coming from a street car perspective. Most non European cars use less than 5 deg of caster. I am still trying to figure out the draw backs beyond stiffer steering, (which is nice at 130mph). From a race car stand point caster is free camber gain, better self stabilization, etc. You will see 12-20deg of caster in most race cars. For a strut car we have no camber gain and our braking and traction is severely limited by the amount of negative camber needed to keep the contact patch flat when you have no camber gain like a dual a-arm car. So you use positive caster so you gain more negative camber in a turn to help cut down on the amount of negative caster you have to run if you have next to no or worse positive camber gain. Running less negative camber means you have a flatter contact patch for braking.

 

[Fusion Works]

Some pics of the race car parts when I pulled it off today to continue the development.


Yes the brake ducts are ghetto rigged for the moment. Part of the upgrade will be some attachment points for those like I have on my other arms. I am probably going to zinc plate the hardware and powder coat the arms. I kinda want to change the rear attachment point to something aluminum with a bigger bearing but these aren't necessarily a problem as I have them designed. I also want to add a threaded socket for the inner pivot point so camber adjustment is less of a pain in the ass.

I also picked up a rear beam to begin construction of my new up rear suspension. 2026 will be interesting for sure.

 

[Fusion Works]

What is going on here?

 

[daloonie]

I'm just saying IRS is a massive undertaking.

 

[Fusion Works]

"We don't need no stinking IRS".

 

[Fusion Works]

SRZ BZNS. Track records will be set.

 

[Fusion Works]

Raising the mounting face for the rear axle. This will let me lower the car without the axle going over center. Plus I can dial in 4deg of negative camber, then tailor the rest with shims. I am machining new mounting flanges out of .500in steel plate instead of the OEM plate, which is less than .375. This should get more stiffness and I can really shave a bunch of weight out with the mill.

 

[Fusion Works]

Almost finished machining the rear hub mounting flanges. Unfortunately they are 100g heavier than stock but they are 49% thicker, so I shouldn't be so mad. Might take some more material off before I weld them in place. I suspect I am over thinking the actual stiffness requirements of the face plate itself. I suspect the more critical components will be the mounting bracketry that holds it to the beam. I am going to have to cut all the OEM brackets off to get a better connection with the new hub mounts. Not to bad of a mill built in 1969. More parts in process now.

Should have the front suspension ready for mock up tomorrow. Have to make new lower ball joint pins and strut housings.

 

[Fusion Works]

Built the new rear beam. I can get the car low while still maintaining the OEM type measurements while still lowering the the car. I am technically still within the OEM window for ride height measurement in the rear. (not sure if it matters), but the OEM put a dimension here for a reason). This past weekend I ran the car at the track, but I was below the OEM spec. I had the rear to low. Ran out of spring perch height, but I have installed some longer ones today, so I should be able to raise it from now on.
I built the jig with -4.25deg of camber, but when installed on the car, I am between -2.75 and -3.25. So I need to figure out why there is a disparity in my design and reality. Yes I can just (and will) add some camber shims on the rear. Also built it with zero toe instead of toe in. Can change that with shims to correct or adjust as needed.

 

[Fusion Works]

Currently (and this past weekend), the ride heights as measure to the fender well openings was 23.5in front and 22.5 rear. The car is currently 4-4.5in to the "frame rail" under the driver's feet. In previous "street" trim (mostly stock ride height, cuz struts) I could slide a 6in block under that point easily. She is low now. Could lower it more in the front, but would need to build a new beam to go lower. I didn't touch the fender liners either. I taped the outside edge of the rear liners to make sure it didn't get caught on the tire and rip out. I figure there could be another .500in or more worth of lowering by removing the liners completely on a race car.

Running -4.75 front camber, +12 deg of caster, .125 toe our in the front. -2.75- -3.25 rear camber and zero rear toe. Car felt good, still a bit pushy but I don't have enough spring for the rear. Am Currently running 650lb front springs and 600lb rears. I put 100lbs worth of rubbers in the rear springs and the car went 1 sec faster. Also have a 1in rear sway bar.

 

[Fusion Works]

Unfortunately the weekend wasn't a great success (even though I was comfortable with the car). Hung a tire off and bent the shit out of a wheel coming back onto the track over the curbing. You can see the difference in the "entry" side of the curbing vs the "exit" side. Huge difference in size of them. It bent the wheel and pushed it into the lower ball joint extension pins. This caused a leak through the wheel. Went out the next session and came back in with 13.5psi hot. Destroyed that tire as well. Bummer, but those tires have 23 date codes so they were done anyways. Gonna get a set up of CRS V2s for the coming Time Trial season. Gonna have to get another wheel also. Probably get another set of wheels all together. The Hexagram doesn't have any clearance without a 4mm spacer. My Rota Recces have all kinds of clearance for my brakes. Kinda want to put some Team Dynamics on it, but need to know if clearance is good enough without spacers.



The murderer.

 

[Fusion Works]

Finally got some pics from the TT at Talledega Gran Prix.

Limping back to the paddock after a wee bit of agricultural work. Probably should have bled the brakes before this weekend, but we ain't got time for all that,

 

[daloonie]

You should ask for reasonable compensation from Talladega, for your time moonlighting as a lawn mower!

Good thing the fist has a strong chin.

 

[Fusion Works]

I am glad the grass was mostly freshly mowed. HAHA. Could have been picking grass out of the wiper blades. Was sad about the curb though. Two Konigs murdered.

 

[Fusion Works]

Forgot to add some detail from Barber and AMP. Both more top level tracks compared to TGPR, plus I am more familiar with Barber than TGPR now since that surface had gone down hill so much. Car is better than it ever has been, in turn 2 and 5 at Barber the car always felt like it was fighting me in those long slow speed turns. Like the car never wanted to rotate through the turns. Now it feels much freer, I am not fighting to get it to turn.

Maxxis VR1s vs the new Nankang CRS. Notice the wear is significantly better with the CRS. The tread isn't getting beat to death nearly as bad. The new setup is working well.



Current setup is 650lb front springs, 700lb rear springs, -4.25deg camber front, .125 toe out, 12deg of caster, -3.25 rear camber and zero toe. The Aero is working very well. Front splitter is 2.75in off the deck and the ride height is probably the lowest of any actual Fiesta Track car. I am about 6.00in max at the main frame reinforcement in the front and slightlight higher in the rear at the flush point on the rockers. (I kinda picked some "arbitrary" points".)

I made some rear spring perches that can pivot to help straighten out spring angle on the rear trailing arm.


Since I got it back from the track I have been "daily" driving the car, its so absurd. Its also AMAZING how well this car rides with the race spring setup. I just put the street seat back in after tiring of crawling into the car over the race seat with the race harness. Will be pulling the suspension off shortly to clean up all the bare metal and coat everything for weather protection. Probably going to do a 300/250 spring rate for my street setup. Should be good.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Forgot to add some detail from Barber and AMP. Both more top level tracks compared to TGPR, plus I am more familiar with Barber than TGPR now since that surface had gone down hill so much. Car is better than it ever has been, in turn 2 and 5 at Barber the car always felt like it was fighting me in those long slow speed turns. Like the car never wanted to rotate through the turns. Now it feels much freer, I am not fighting to get it to turn.

Maxxis VR1s vs the new Nankang CRS. Notice the wear is significantly better with the CRS. The tread isn't getting beat to death nearly as bad. The new setup is working well.
View attachment 70382
View attachment 70383

Current setup is 650lb front springs, 700lb rear springs, -4.25deg camber front, .125 toe out, 12deg of caster, -3.25 rear camber and zero toe. The Aero is working very well. Front splitter is 2.75in off the deck and the ride height is probably the lowest of any actual Fiesta Track car. I am about 6.00in max at the main frame reinforcement in the front and slightlight higher in the rear at the flush point on the rockers. (I kinda picked some "arbitrary" points".)

I made some rear spring perches that can pivot to help straighten out spring angle on the rear trailing arm.
View attachment 70384 View attachment 70385 View attachment 70386

Since I got it back from the track I have been "daily" driving the car, its so absurd. Its also AMAZING how well this car rides with the race spring setup. I just put the street seat back in after tiring of crawling into the car over the race seat with the race harness. Will be pulling the suspension off shortly to clean up all the bare metal and coat everything for weather protection. Probably going to do a 300/250 spring rate for my street setup. Should be good.

Those rear perches are dope - I settled for 100lb tenders on the lower rear. You’ll like the 300/250 for the street - I ended settling finally on 300/275 after a fair amount of spring swapping and experimenting with tenders. Works great on the track as well (non-aero of course)

 

[Fusion Works]

I thought about tenders and I have some, but the amount the spring bends at ride height has always bothered me.

With the spring rates mentioned above I only have to buy one set instead of two. HAHA. I have a bunch of 250s here, but after riding with the 650/700s the car is so nice to drive. Have you ever had any concerns about your rear spring combo popping out under droop or some weird driveway/parking lot transition? I am currently running a rear droop strap to contain my 6in springs.