What COM folks are building...

[Brendan]

Brendan: Is that the IQ3 dash? I've been thinking about upgrading to the IQ3 from the G2x... How do you like it ?

-j

Yes, that is the IQ3 Logger Dash. Based on specs, support, and install - so far so good. But, I haven't powered it up yet so this spring will be it's maiden voyage. Come find me at an event after I get everything running, and I'll be able to tell you better.



- Brendan

[6PAK72]

Let's see - I LOVE the BMW, LOVE the Lotus. Really quality work.

This winter seems to be all about seats.

We are rebuilding the seats in the TR6 right down to the frames. I pulled them apart and found snapped metal, so this weekend welded in replacement steel, applied rust neutralizer and sprayed the first coat of paint.

All the parts were OEM, so the padding was pretty nasty and basically crumbled into the seat covers when I stripped them. So, new webbing, springs and padding goes in, along with all the new little hardware bits. For instance, I had no idea that the seats had a pin on the inboard side that allowed you to snap the tonneau cover to the seat to prevent it from flapping in the wind - a problem I traditionally solved with duct tape...

While the seats are out, we're replacing the wheel cover vinyl trim sections and re-mounting the harness mounting points, and replacing the heater core - UGH!

It's slow and tedious work, but pretty fulfilling - you can see progress.


The Miata got Momo's before the end of the season last year, and I've got them pulled out to tweak the seat angles for a bit more comfort and space. While the seats are out I finally get to mount the 6th-point harness parts!

Next, the Momo steering wheel and the data system goes in. The new hardtop is on, the hood pins are installed, and we just picked up a set of S6's on 15" OEM wheels to go with the Nitto's and RA-1's.

Car goes up for tuning and EMS in about 2 weeks, then I'll install the rest of the gauges.

Looking forward to Monticello for sure.

[agrabau]

Brendan, the BMW is looking great man. Keep up the good work.

[fact5racer]

Brendan, what are your plans for that GX2 unit that you took out?

[zip4zat]

I am returning to COM this season with a 2005 Nissan 350Z track version that I bought from DWW. Will be running n ST1

Nice Gary, It'll be great to see you back! should be fun this year!

[Brendan]

Brendan, what are your plans for that GX2 unit that you took out?

Gary - That was jeffw who was considering upgrading from the GX2 to IQ3, I started out with the IQ3.

[WillM]

Brendan - nice work! Car looks great. I'd be interested to know how the MegaSquirt works for you.

[Brendan]

Brendan, the BMW is looking great man. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Alex. I may want to bring it up to your shop late winter / early spring for a couple random things I don't trust myself with (read: Welding), so you may get a chance to see a more finished product then.

Brendan - nice work! Car looks great. I'd be interested to know how the MegaSquirt works for you.

Thanks Will. I'm trying to teach myself what I'm doing with the Megasquirt now - This is my first aftermarket ems / tuning experience. I don't have any more wires to connect that I know of, so now it's just getting myself comfortable that I can get it configured to the point where I can get the car started without blowing something up - keeping my fingers crossed, and the fire extinguisher handy

- Brendan

[Kai Noeske]

Not building anything, but the 'rolla's new little sister will need a bit of preparation for next season - new driver belts, put the new vinyl numbers on (and the little German flag), flush the brakes, cleanup etc ...





Photos from the delivery night, daytime shots soon...

[horizenjob]

Man, you guys are making so much progress... Spring must be on the way. I am going to have to figure out what to do about my bent radius rod. I found another one in a pile somewhere, but it is 3/4" instead of 5/8". Surprising how much smaller that looks. It would only be about half as strong in bending. Buckling loads are different though, probably. For bending their stiffness goes by the 4th power of scale. Maybe need to look up Euler's stuff on columns, but that was a little painful last time. Maybe next month...

[horizenjob]

Well just keeping you posted on the drama and the excitement of preparing a formula car for the upcoming season. I had to use that internet thing and found that for steel tubes with a slenderness ratio of less then 40, you can safely use the compression strength of the material to calculate the buckling loads. So the smaller diameter tube is ok on that count. It is smaller though, so just by size it would have %85 strength of the other radius rod. The cross section would be about 1/8" square, so it should be good for maybe 5000 lbs.

Actually that would be about the same as a 1" hardwood dowel. Maybe that would look classy? I'm tempted, but I don't think that rod ends have the right type of threads for wood.

[breakaway500]

Slenderness ratio? What on earth are you doing? I don't think wood is a good idea for any part of a race car..

[brucesallen]

wood is excellent for the bottom pan when your car has one inch clearance. Mine is teak and about worn away after five years--- and all the steel is intact.

[horizenjob]

Slenderness ratio? What on earth are you doing?

Just trying to figure out how to fix the piece we busted at the last event. We put a good size bend in one of those long trailing arms for the rear suspension. I would make an identical piece, but then noticed this other one lying around, but it's a smaller diameter. If you want to know if it's strong enough, I thought I'd try a little math and see. So "slenderness ratio" ( there might be a better phrase, but I think this might be right ), is how long it is compared to it's width. For the strength of a column this is very important. A column that is very slender will fail much sooner then the compressive strength because it will be unstable and buckle easily.

My ulterior motive is trying to whip up enthusiasm for formula cars by showing how very exciting it can be! You guys get to prostrate yourselves under your cars and get grit in your faces and fluids and stuff ( and I am talking cars here, just to be clear ). It's a struggle though, when I came in from practice my brakes weren't even warm to the touch. This car is just strong as an anvil..

I was worried about that rod because of the force of 106 raging cute little Shetland ponies that I let loose on that thing. There is no mercy here, I really let it have it. If this car is parked in a puddle and the tires are cold it can actually scuff the rubber! At least with those 10 year old slicks...

I was surprised the wood checked out to be strong enough, I didn't actually expect that.

I think Bruce is holding out on you guys, his car is faster then mine and he must slave countless hours on it. He probably strips the varnish on his teak and redoes it every winter. That part about greasing the car's shadow is just to hammer home to the competition how high that bar is - if they want to go out and try to keep up. You guys with fenders on your cars wouldn't even know what to do with newt fur oil...

[horizenjob]

Sorry Bruce, maybe I shouldn't even have mentioned the newts. How are yours doing? Mine have been cold in the garage and are complaining I haven't even been out to see them this winter...