1,600 pounds and LS power!! Brunton M-spec

[subtlez28]

I've been a bit neglectful of my build thread. Sadly, I am not yet racing the car, but I have made some progress of late.

One day, for inspiration I slapped on the hood and some of my magnetic racing numbers (that will be of no use to me on the fiberglass and aluminum skin).

The bad news is the classic hood, does not clear the pushrod suspension...

A racer friend of mine came up from Chicago to align the car with me. So down from the tables!

This one is fuzzy, because I took it quickly with my cell phone. He was more than a little nervous about me stepping back for a photo op at this point!

Down safe and sound, time for a fun (giant wheel-stand) photo!


Got it aligned, but... I chose the middle height points for the control arms. With the oil pan being the low point... I could not run over a 2x4 laid flat with my 23" race tires... Doh, one step forward, two steps back seems my pace...

So, I had to take the whole suspension off and go to the highest (lowest pick up points - still not very high) settings. Now I need another alignment....



I was inspired by having my number on the car, so I had the side panels vinyl wrapped and added the 228 placards and "AR" for my class (A-Race).


Then I installed the side pipes and see they are a little close for comfort to the vinyl. I bent out the passenger side as it had even less clearance. Time will tell. I'll keep a fire extinguisher handy when I start her up! May need some heat wrap. Open for suggestion here.

As you can see, we also started the wiring. Since I decided to keep the air intake on the shelf, my battery placement was compromised. I wanted it under hood to avoid extra safety equipment. The solve was to recess it into the shelf, and actually bolt it to the passenger side of the trans tunnel. I used an Odyssey battery and their aluminum box. I suggest you go direct with them, they were a pleasure to deal with and give a great direct price!
http://www.odysseybatteries.com/main...ccessories.htm
I'll get a pic of that up when I finish up the wiring.

I went with Speedhut's new CAN-bus style controls that pick up signal from the ECU, eliminating the need for extra sending units. I also ponied up for the GPS speedo. It has all kinds of cool toys like 1/4 mile times, 0-60, etc and will not be effected by differing street and track tire sizes. I chose to have the fuel gauge in the speedo. This should be cool watching one go rapidly down, while the other climbs! You can fully customize your set up. I went yellow. Hey, they look good on a Ferrari, and more importantly should be easy to see.

The blue tape was to protect the dash panel, but may have to stay. I dig the contrast!

Another friend of mine, who happens to be both a car nut and engineer has been invaluable with the electrical. Starting from scratch with just a painless T-bucket kit was a bit overwhelming.

So, as per past practice, another issue bit me. We added the radiator and struggled a lot to build hoses to fit the tight chassis. After paying for a bunch of AN stuff that would not clear, we ended up with heavy duty industrial hydraulic type stuff. The local industrial hose shop was a huge help. We filled it up with Evans water-less coolant. I come back from a few days of vacation and find some coolant on the floor. Just a couple drips mind you, but more than I would expect with all new parts... There was a pin hole near the welds on the tabs.


After I quite sobbing, I tried epoxying it. However, not wanting to take 2 steps back, I tried to do it in place with out draining the coolant. That didn't work. The coolant made it's way through the epoxy and formed a new pin hole... twice! Today we drained the coolant, wire wheeled off the epoxy (Quick Steel) and re-did it without coolant. That seems to be holding. Wish me luck!