With the clutch gone, the usefulness of the car as a test vehicle fell off pretty quickly. About the same time, SpeekWeek 2011 rolled around and got me thinking about the stalled build again, and I decided it was time to make some progress. We pulled the car out of storage, yanked the transmission (which was transplanted into our production manager Elaine’s S14 in place of the stock auto), yanked the motor and put it up for sale (SOLD!), and then went kamikaze on the interior, gutting the chassis to the bone.
Forklifts make for pretty awesome engine hoists….
Interior is pretty much fully gutted at this point, with the exception of the sound deadener which I decided to pull out when prepping to do the cage and chassis work.
We will be doing a ton of work to the car over the next two months including:
- Full roll cage (TIG welded) with floor bracing, extra structure (funny car style) around the driver, mounting seat brackets to the roll cage, mounts for window net and right side harness, gusseted as shown in rule book and tying in front strut towers.
- 3 link rear suspension tied into the roll cage, mounting and installation of a soid rear axle with panhard bar. This would include all tubing, rod ends, and mounting hardware.
- Full cage around fuel cell. This will include cutting out trunk area, fitting fuel cell and fabricating the cage around the fuel cell. Also includes firewall to separate the fuel cell from the passenger compartment.
- Aluminum dash panel. This would include fabrication of the dash, mounting to cage and quarter turn fasteners to remove it from the car.
- Lexan windows. Front window, rear window, side window,corner glass.
- Factory hood mounted on an ample number of quarter-turns. (as in, ample number considering the 250mph this car might one day see).
- Fabrication of the undertray assembly and the parachute mounting structure (including push bar)
Car is due back to use by the end of the year, 12/31/2011.