finally got out to the track again

[ba#97]

finally...autox edition! pics.

definitely the way to go if it's allowed. better steering feel and much more predictable.

What do you want to know about the battle boxes? definite must for the pm3l so you don't rip a box out if the car.

due to my roll cage, and I was going to take a look yesterday but we had to go new car shopping right after I got off work....(pics on the way later)...I'd have to take a look at where they welded the main hoop because I think it is where the inside reinforcement of the battle box would go. wouldn't this be enough to support that section anyways? i mean obviously welding up the rest of the bottom side which I will have done when I get my tie down points welded in.

 

[MadStang]

due to my roll cage, and I was going to take a look yesterday but we had to go new car shopping right after I got off work....(pics on the way later)...I'd have to take a look at where they welded the main hoop because I think it is where the inside reinforcement of the battle box would go. wouldn't this be enough to support that section anyways? i mean obviously welding up the rest of the bottom side which I will have done when I get my tie down points welded in.

Chances are your main hoop mounts to the floor board right ahead of the rear seat and then to the wheel well. BUT, if you do have the roll cage going directly to the torque box it'll help but not reinforce it as much as pinching 3 layers (the battle box on top and bottom with the car's sheetmetal in between) and welding them together. The more reinforcement you add to the box the better...

 

[ba#97]

what kind of cooling setups are you guys using? I autocrossed down at oakland stadium this weekend and well, rich called it the car overheated. I think it's the fan setup honestly on my car not being able to pull enough air through it. does anyone make a good duel fan setup? I kind of want to wire one on a switch and leave the other for normal operating temp, I didn't have any issues at thunderhill but the autocross environment had me overheating after our 6th run. I think it just had to do with not enough air through the radiator on course and then the short time frame in between runs not allowing the car to cool. the car has the new mishimoto setup with their single fan and shroud attached. kicks on at the same time stock did.

 

[MadStang]

I'm running stock, with distilled water... Don't have any cooling issues but that might have something to do with the e85. I'm not a fan of mishimoto products (no pun intended) but I have no advice to offer on fixing a cooling issue.

 

[ba#97]

I'm running stock, with distilled water... Don't have any cooling issues but that might have something to do with the e85. I'm not a fan of mishimoto products (no pun intended) but I have no advice to offer on fixing a cooling issue.

when I had a stock setup on the cobra for autocross I had no issues, I mainly switched it up for my track days because that is a whole different ball game but I didn't expect it to cause a cooling issue at an autox out of all places. I honestly think it was just cuz of the lack of air going through the rad on the runs and then not enough time to cool in between runs. I'm thinking of going back to a stock fan unless anyone has any other ideas like a dual fan setup. I do run water and water wetter as well and a 180 deg tstat.

 

[ba#97]

I will say this, this is the first time I've had this thing back to an autox course since it's been caged and wow, this car feels awesome. Idk what it is but I think this car just wants to autocross! I can't remember a moment when the cobra ever felt as composed and just fast as this car did. so...good signs all together. and after seeing you toss wide fenders on your car, I am seriously considering the same myself now.

 

[MadStang]

I will say this, this is the first time I've had this thing back to an autox course since it's been caged and wow, this car feels awesome. Idk what it is but I think this car just wants to autocross! I can't remember a moment when the cobra ever felt as composed and just fast as this car did. so...good signs all together. and after seeing you toss wide fenders on your car, I am seriously considering the same myself now.

Trust me once you start going fast in autocross it really becomes addicting haha. Once you try Hoosier A6's though... game over... it's like crack haha.

 

[ba#97]

Trust me once you start going fast in autocross it really becomes addicting haha. Once you try Hoosier A6's though... game over... it's like crack haha.

I mean I do enjoy open track quite a bit but I can definitely say I was reminded again of how much fun you can have autocrossing, especially when you have a good course setup, which we had in oakland for sure. If I decide to go with the wide fender setup than I will most likely bmp up to a6's at that point. this is the wide body setup I was considering....

I'm wondering if my car is still technically allowed in Street Mod or if it's just all out CP now due to the gutted interior and full cage.

 

[MadStang]

I mean I do enjoy open track quite a bit but I can definitely say I was reminded again of how much fun you can have autocrossing, especially when you have a good course setup, which we had in oakland for sure. If I decide to go with the wide fender setup than I will most likely bmp up to a6's at that point. this is the wide body setup I was considering....http://www.g-stream.com/wide body.html

I'm wondering if my car is still technically allowed in Street Mod or if it's just all out CP now due to the gutted interior and full cage.

You'd be in CP with a gutted interior. You must have everything in the interior retained from the seats forward (not including rear seats. so carpet, headliner, etc. also removal of sound deadener is illegal in SM. CP pretty much anything goes as long as you follow the few aerodynamics rules. no wings but a front and rear "spoilers" are okay.

By the way, link didn't work but I assume it's Dave martis' green AIX SN95. It definitely looks good but I'm much more of a fan of the raw racecar look of the flares lol.

 

[ba#97]

I'm kind of on the fence with the maier racing flares they have for the sn95 cars, they look good but it almost looks too round for me, maybe just cuz they have it on a cobra with no splitter or anything. hm....and yeah it was the aix car, would the louvers in the fenders be allowed in cp I wonder? I definitely need some more motor if my car is to compete with the cp cars out here, we have a lot of nationals worthy guys up here in norcal....include rick maier himself. and frank stagnaro. so I'd have a lot of tough competition up here. do you know of any other good wide fender setups made for our cars?

 

[MadStang]

I'm kind of on the fence with the maier racing flares they have for the sn95 cars, they look good but it almost looks too round for me, maybe just cuz they have it on a cobra with no splitter or anything. hm....and yeah it was the aix car, would the louvers in the fenders be allowed in cp I wonder? I definitely need some more motor if my car is to compete with the cp cars out here, we have a lot of nationals worthy guys up here in norcal....include rick maier himself. and frank stagnaro. so I'd have a lot of tough competition up here. do you know of any other good wide fender setups made for our cars?

yeah I had to chop mine up to make them look better. I don't know why they make the flares wider than the actual width of the bumper, it looks cheesy. general rule of thumb for any autocross class is if it's not mentioned in the rules, assume it's not legal, so I don't think the vents are legal. but if they are part of the fender I don't think they can be argued as illegal.

I wouldn't be scared of maier or stagnaro, on any given autocross you can win, just build the driver and the car and you'll have the chance!

 

[ba#97]

yeah I had to chop mine up to make them look better. I don't know why they make the flares wider than the actual width of the bumper, it looks cheesy. general rule of thumb for any autocross class is if it's not mentioned in the rules, assume it's not legal, so I don't think the vents are legal. but if they are part of the fender I don't think they can be argued as illegal.

I wouldn't be scared of maier or stagnaro, on any given autocross you can win, just build the driver and the car and you'll have the chance!

I just read the rules for cp and I believe vents and louvers are legal luckily, it says something in regards to adding weight if you go more than a 16x10in wheel though. which makes me wonder, cuz I would want to go with a 17x10 at the very least to fit breaks in em'....a lot of those guys go way wider than that too in that class. all this being said it will take me quite some time to even have my car built to a finished CP competitive car, so maybe I can make that my overall goal for the future and keep working towards it. gives me time to work on my driving abilities, sadly the car really doesn't fit into anything else but I honestly think I can set it up for street mod easily with a center console and carpet. though the doors are cut out for the door bars in the car. so I wonder if that would be protested? due to being in the Air Force they insisted my car be fully caged before I go racing so that is my reasoning for the full cage and therefore the doors being cutout. hm. i'd rather build a street mod car than a cp car anyways I feel like....lol.

 

[ba#97]

honestly I really like the way the maier setup looks on the new edges, obviously yours looks great modified but I feel like the fenders for the 94-98's is way off when it comes to their setup.

 

[ba#97]

finally...autox edition! pics.

Just a few pics from Oakland on Saturday. Car overheated sadly before I could get my last run in and see what I really had in it. It was doing awesome till then though.
My buddy in the car here with me riding passenger in driving instruction mode.





Favorite pic.

 

[MadStang]

I just read the rules for cp and I believe vents and louvers are legal luckily, it says something in regards to adding weight if you go more than a 16x10in wheel though. which makes me wonder, cuz I would want to go with a 17x10 at the very least to fit breaks in em'....a lot of those guys go way wider than that too in that class. all this being said it will take me quite some time to even have my car built to a finished CP competitive car, so maybe I can make that my overall goal for the future and keep working towards it. gives me time to work on my driving abilities, sadly the car really doesn't fit into anything else but I honestly think I can set it up for street mod easily with a center console and carpet. though the doors are cut out for the door bars in the car. so I wonder if that would be protested? due to being in the Air Force they insisted my car be fully caged before I go racing so that is my reasoning for the full cage and therefore the doors being cutout. hm. i'd rather build a street mod car than a cp car anyways I feel like....lol.

the weight penalty is 50lbs total for having wheels larger than 16x10. wider wheels are a better benefit than being able to drop 50lbs of weight IMO. You'd be legal for street mod with gutted doors ONLY because your safety equipment (i.e. roll cage door bars) required clearancing to facilitate fitment. BUT, again though, no sound deadening is going to get you protested at the first major event.

 

[ba#97]

the weight penalty is 50lbs total for having wheels larger than 16x10. wider wheels are a better benefit than being able to drop 50lbs of weight IMO. You'd be legal for street mod with gutted doors ONLY because your safety equipment (i.e. roll cage door bars) required clearancing to facilitate fitment. BUT, again though, no sound deadening is going to get you protested at the first major event.

the sound deadening hasn't been removed in my car if you're talking about all the tar in there, as for the sound deadening with the carpet...I can easily toss that back in if I were to install carpet again to go SM. but as I said, making a competitive car in either of those classes is going to be a uphill road so at least I'm at a good starting point right now with this car and can keep going out and getting more seat time.