No, this is not a ‘Woman’s Day’ article on how to lose ten pounds by walking from the back of the parking lot or by folding your laundry while jumping in place. I’m talking about putting your race car on a diet. A car’s acceleration potential is measured by its Weight-to-Power ratio, or how many [...]
A lot of older cars used throttle linkages instead of throttle cables. My 1971 Datsun 240Z was one of them. Linkage systems are usually quite robust and hold up to decades of abuse. Unfortunately in the 196os and ’70s, they started using plastic pieces, usually the end caps, that sometimes break down, especially when frequently [...]
I’ve never been a believer of the Harley crowd’s moto “Loud Pipes Save Lives”. All that loud pipes do is get restrictions put in place. Next month I’m going to a track day event at Laguna Seca Raceway in Salinas, CA, just outside Monterey. LSR has a very strict db (decibel) limit due to its [...]
photos 1, 2 I was lucky to have a set of blueprints to start this project with, instead of having to draw up a template myself. A good friend and fellow 240Z racer is a bridge engineer, and he provided me with this schematic. Supplies and costs: 24″x24″ sheet of .025″ 5052 anodized aluminum [...]
My project this weekend is to build an airbox for my race car. I’m going to take pictures during the build and present it in the next post. So lets talk about why I’m doing this project. The purpose of an airbox on a race car is to aid in providing denser, cooler, and higher [...]
You didn’t sleep through highschool geometry class, now did ya? You’re gonna need some of those math skills now if you really want to understand your race car’s steering and suspension. To understand the real nitty-gritty details of how they work, you better go back and get your Engineering degree. But with a little patience, [...]
“Are there any racing series for the financially challenged, hardcore budget racer?” Yes, I can think of two, but I’m sure there are more. Both of these series are relatively new, and are quickly gaining traction. 24 Hours of LeMons is half circus, half endurance stockcar racing, and is now nation-wide. It is hard to [...]
All we need is big, stiff springs and big, thick rollbars to go racing, right? Only if our tracks were as flat as a pool table. Every bump or irregularity in the track upsets our cornering race car to some degree, so we need to have suspension compliancy as well as stiffness. And there is [...]