So when do you start the SAS project on this car?

F'ing WOW. Just WOW.
Most impressive sir.
May I suggest www.harddog.com for some rollbar inspiration as well. I'll more than likely go their way for some protection on the Miata.. Gotta' love their slogan, "It keeps the pavement off your head.."

Again, WOW.

Nice rollbars.

Yep, my car will get a full cage. I'm thinking about doing a T bar style w/ the front hoop forming the windshield frame.

quote:

Originally posted by mattman555:
Hey Datz... heres a good idea for a roll bar for you speedster.. Yumi!

I have always liked that type of seat cover, too. Be careful, though. There can be a lot of hidden expense with those.

The project looks awesome, Datz. Going with the new shocks to have identical springs is reason enough. How much clearance does the suspension offer when fully bottomed. don't forget to soften the tires slightly to simulate tire compression caused by a G-out.
That doesn't require an answer. I am just sharing my thoughts.
I hope to see it one day.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92se:
You sure your shocks will work upside down like that?

According to others that have used these shocks, they work fine in either orientation. At $20 each, I'll take my chances.

quote:

Originally posted by Reserector:

The project looks awesome, Datz. Going with the new shocks to have identical springs is reason enough. How much clearance does the suspension offer when fully bottomed. don't forget to soften the tires slightly to simulate tire compression caused by a G-out.
That doesn't require an answer. I am just sharing my thoughts.
I hope to see it one day.

Yep, getting the same springs side to side is worth getting new shocks. These things run me about $20 each off Ebay, so I can afford to go through a few of them to find the right ones. I figure I can sell these to other Locost builders for what Ive paid.

The suspension ride height is fully adjustable independant of the shock travel. That is one of the cool things about the pushrod setup. Not only can I set the spring preload and dampening rate, I can also change the length of the pushrod to raise or lower the car without altering the shock.

Right now, the wheel has about 5" of travel in total, which translates to about 2" of travel at the shock. The suspension is quite stiff. If I stand on the frontend, I can bounce it about 1/2", which seems about right for this car. It'd probably drop another 2" or so before bottoming out. Wouuld require a pretty big impact to do that though.

I hadn't thought about the pushrod length. That is too cool! You can dial in the preload, then adjust ride height. Not to mention adjustable damping on the shock shaft. You can modify the progressive rate by making new rockers. It just doesn't get any better than that.

very cool, I have the harddog roll bar on my miata. Fits great.

Yesterday, I got the new 2005 R6 shocks in place in the frontend and got the whole frontend supported by the suspension.

I did a spring rate test to check the rate at the wheels. Standing on the frontend, with my 200lb, it drops 1/2", which equates to a 200lb/in rate at each wheel. This seems about perfect!

I started work on finishing up the rear suspension and related parts. The rear differential mount that I'd previously done, I wasnt happy with, so I pulled it out and went to work redoing it using some polyurethane leaf spring bushings, which should be a little more suited to the shock loads that it'll see.

Also managed to get the fuel cell mounting brackets welded in place and drilled to mount the cell.

I'll take some photos and get them posted up today if possible. All in all a productive day.

quote:

Originally posted by datz510:
Standing on the frontend, with my 200lb, it drops 1/2", which equates to a 200lb/in rate at each wheel. This seems about perfect!

I'm no genius, but wouldn't this equate into : 400lb/in., since you're 200lbs, and it only droppeded ONE-HALF of an inch??? Lemme know. Keep up the good work. Later...

quote:

Originally posted by KDawg:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by datz510:I'm no genius, but wouldn't this equate into : 400lb/in., since you're 200lbs, and it only droppeded ONE-HALF of an inch??? Lemme know. Keep up the good work. Later...

but 2 wheels dropped that much.

Yeah... both wheels were on the ground up front. Standing on the front to calculate the wheel rate would result in 1/2 my weight = 100lb added to the weight on each wheel. 100lb dropping 1/2" means 200lb per inch wheel rate.

The shocks themselves are somewhere around 450-500 lb/in, but the linkage provides a rate reduction.

How about som pics?

Ok!! Pics!!

Found a cool sticker in the garage that begged to go on the fuel cell:


The new rear toe adjuster tubes came in today (I had to use the old ones to make the upper A arms for the front suspension):


Here you can see the fuel cell mount as well as a bit of one of the diff mount bushings (in front of the fuel cell). I'll get better pics of the diff mount when its done.


Here is how the front of the car is sitting. It is sitting on the suspension in this photo:


Its looking mean!


New 14" steel adjuster tubes for the pushrods. Right now I just have some scrap conduit working as the pushrods to roll it around the garage.


Shiny new 2005 Yamaha R6 shocks!


Here is the new and improved layout up front with the newer shocks. I really like how these turned out.