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Cage Time!

With the car being so low I knew I needed to have some form of protection from other vehicles. While the tall front cage is probably safer I like the look of the low front hoop and the “cocoon” it creates.

I wanted to have a low front hoop but side protection. There are some NASA cars running this type of cage and I really liked it. The strength it adds to the frame is a huge factor as well. Cage is built to SCCA Spec using 1.75″ DOM Tubing.

The front hoop mirrors the scuttle almost perfectly. The lower sections are attached via two points to the chassis and provides really strong side impact protection.

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Suspension pieces

One critical piece of the project is the suspension. Depending on how much you know on the subject it could either be overly simplistic or incredibly complex.

Factors like dynamic toe, camber,caster and anti squat are all geometry concerns. Additionally spring rates and dampening round out the subject.

Front lower control arm

Initially I had the shocks set to a radical angle of 45 degrees. That was great in terms of fitment but required crazy spring rates since only half of it would be effective. I later built new mounts that moved the top of the shock out by 6″ and reduced the angle to something in the 20 degree range.

Original inboard upper shock mounting location
Mock up of how the anti roll bar will fit
End result.

We placed the vehicle on a laser mounted alignment rack when finished. The dimensions were absolutely amazing. The variation and setback differences were less than a production car typically exhibits.  I couldn’t be happier with the suspension! It is absolutely fantastic with 300F and 450R springs

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Stage 2 of Chassis Build and starting on suspension

Here the chassis is starting to take solid shape. You can see a formed transmission tunnel and both pedal box areas.  I would later come back and redo the steering column mount to avoid it hitting the scuttle

Transmission and engine test fit. The car is literally built around the engine and transmission. Optimizing around the engines height and shifter location.

Here you can see the first step in aligning the rear of the chassis using a laser level to set toe and camber.

Yes – Chassis can fly! Here I remove it from the build table (I built that table so I could drive the front of a car under it) and started on the suspension.