996 mono's (blacks)

As you may know, my red porsche calipers are not the best there is. Also, I'm not satisfied with wheel spacers which I needed to use to fit 16" wheels. Current setup is machined Alfa Romeo 166 V6 discs (310x28) and 996 porsche GT3 rear calipers. Yes rear, so technically they are porsche 996 monoblocks, however I cannot call them so, because true 996 monoblocks are 996 NA front calipers :). I have them also, however was reluctant to fit, because it requires master brake cylinder replacement. Red setup is fine, fade resistant, however it does require to have hard foot. And I don't have one :(. To improve my speeds at the track, I need to focus on driving, not on braking. So black brake upgrade is under way. Also redrilled volvo S60 disks (305x28 directionaly vented BTW) will be used. This should fit 16" wheel without spacers (or with tiny one, not 2.5cm, like it is now).First measured all the distances, cut some templates from cardboard. Everything fits ok:
Then ordered batch of carriers at local machine shop. Design has some minor flaws (due to dramatic increases in machining price, I was forced to change initial design a bit), however virtual testing on computer shows, that those design flaws should not affect service of the carrier. BTW, this is for racing use only, not for everyday street application (lowest FOS is around 4, for street you may need something around 10)Test mount on my rusty spare suspension leg. Fits like it should:Volvo disk fits ok, however after it is getting some surface rust, temperature expansion - it will scratch suspension leg. Notice line of rust on the brake disk. That's scratching on the bearing play. Leg will need some modification (shaving few mm) at one place, which looks some manufacturing option - place for thead when using larger brakes. Also lower ball joint is too close to the disc. Compromises, compromises... Hope I will solve them.

Will see how it will perform overall. First painting, then master cyl. replacement to 20v one, and after that I hope I will have real racing brakes ;).

Update for November

Like always, when the air gets cold, I'm getting sick. This year is no exception. Car is left alone in the garage, and I'm fighting with microworld :(.

So there are news for November:Got broken camera as a gift. Managed to fix it a bit, and now I have something slightly better pictures than mobile phone. Can make photos of dark areas (with flash), etc. Cool! :).

Also, taking pictures with flash, and high resolution - reveals all the imperfections, rust, etc. Which are even not noticeable when looking live. So you will see all crap and mistakes I've made. That's not so cool ;).Here are few samples:

Just enjoying the car, and wasting time in garage :)

It has become tradition, that there are no major updates. Just some small things which I post here. Have been in few events (training sessions), like always - loads of fun, and very weak results. Car is fast, driver is slow :). And nothing changes.

Some materials are starting to gather around motor mounts project:Time will show, what will be the result.

No more visible updates. At last driver seat now is on the slider rails, and I can adjust it's position. That was very desired, and I can now enter and exit the car, without hitting a roll cage with my leg. That's good.

Mounts theme continued

Have heard comments about 034efi solid motorsport engine mounts from very respected person. It was more like horror story, not the comments. Excessive vibrations, bolts loosing tension under vibration , etc. Nylon theme is suspended a bit.
Also had a chat with rally guys. They told me, that load's of ppl are using old 4x4 VAZ engine mounts for rally. Which are silly cheap - about 3$ each. Went to local parts store, and bought some. They are damn too small:You can clearly see, that those 4x4 mounts are solid rubber. Russian made things sometimes last very very well, no matter how crude they are made :). The problem is, that the thread is using M10x1.25 pitch (normal mounts use conventional M10, which is 1.5). Also mount heigh, if I want to put it in the old "cup", is almost twice shorter than needed. Will need to think some strong and elegant solution (it will turn to be weak and horrible to make - as usual :D).

Also manged to change toe settings a bit on the front. Don't know if it's related, the car responded with better turn in to the corners, however horrible vibrations on the steering appeared. Maybe I have tightened wheel incorrectly. I hope so.

Cumulative update for september :)

Progress is going very slowly (like it used to be). Only things, that are seen for experienced eye are changing a bit ;). Like patching and fixing things, that were made not so good and in the hurry or inexpierence.

Further steps in my motor mount construction. Tried to fill empty motor mount with nylon. Main focus was to fill the edge, where nylon can get grip with the alloy part. First it looked okay:
After some home brew machining - it is not looking so good:
Will try to improve construction a bit. But it will be later.

Also there were some tries with new brake setup. 996 caliper fits volvo disks - very nicely:
But who will make caliper carriers. Now I'm trying to master CAD software, just to draw something for guys, who work with metal...

Main job, which I was forced to do was to rearrange fusebox a bit. It was purelly unsafe. Now it is much more safer from electrical point of view (in insulation terms of battery power terminals 30, which can bring fire immediattely after it touches roll cage...). It is still hanging on tie straps, however making some more solid fixings would take too much time and would improve result only by a fraction. White straps will be replaced by stronger black ones which were bought after doing this photo ;). I can even put cover on relays. One thing, that whole construction still is in very uncomfortable position regarding left leg. There is enough room for the operating clutch pedal, but it's tight fit:

Anatomy of the engine mount

With uprated engine torque, I have a problem with engine movement. So it is time to think about some uprated engine mounts. There are few options, some more, some less expensive, but I would like to figure out some proprietary construction of my own ;).
First analysis needs to be done of what we have stock. I have taken old and teared away hydraulic engine mount:Cut top of it, to see what is inside. Quite complicated internals:Dismantled middle part:Nice pot to fill it with something (nylon? polyurethane?). Will think about it:
Burned remaining rubber with propane torch, however no pictures. It is interesting what would happen if to fill this area with polyester epoxy and glass fiber. Will it crack? We will see ;).

Some photos from 2008.07.26 event

Haven't mentioned that I was attending per4m day on 26 of July. Event was run on old airfield. I
have done G-meter run and some auto-x (fast slalom) runs.

G-meter showed 0-100 5.4s, 1/4 13.8s. Not bad (with stock ECU).

Could not run high boost due to high ambient temperatures (black car, heat soak, etc.) and my chineese made clutch :(. Of course none of photographers was not interested in taking pictures of my tired old car, but luckily shiny 350z was always nearby, so ppl took photos of both cars :D. Here they are (no onboard footage yet, still struggling to get it out from DVR):
Photos - (C) by Duskin