I thought I would just put an update in here. I finished sanding and fiberglassing on the rear body panel of the 23T car yesterday. I decided to take it with me to work and finish it on up from here. I can spend some time right after work and get it painted this week. Then we will be all done with the 23T and it will be ready to sell. I am just not getting enough done on it when I go to the race shop. I seem to get distracted by the new toy and the progress Scott has been making on it.
We have been getting tons of calls on the 23T car. There seems to be plenty of interest. I have talked to a guy from Canada yesterday who seems pretty interested in getting it. Scott has a couple of guys who act like they are ready when we are also. I think when we decide it is ready to sell, it won't be here long. I have to say I sure will miss it. It is a great car.
While I have been working on the body Scott has been ordering tabs and brackets, handles etc for the new Coupe. As I have said before are just going over everything from front to back on it. Scott built a new fire system. We are now using the cross-over style. This is where if I ever had to pull the fire bottles, my lever is attached directly to one bottle, then a crossover tube {steel braided line} is run from the 1st bottle to the 2nd one. The charge from the 1st bottle sets off the 2nd one. This system makes it so you don't have to have mechanical linkage run to both tanks. It is a simpler and cleaner set-up,
We put the trans back in, and started measuring for the shifter mount. Since the engine is 3" further forward, we have to make a mount that puts the shifter back in a location where I can reach it again. Since this car is a semi-lay down chassis, the shifter has to come 4.5-inches back towards me to be in the same location for me. So we had to order some tubing to fab that.
We have been working on the throttle pedal also. It is as complete as we can get it until the super charger and fuel injector are in place so we can check the exact throw we need. The original throttle pedal had the pivot mount in about the center. It felt like it was rocking rather than pushing a pedal. So we made the new one about 75% above the pivot, and 25% on the bottom side of the pivot. It feels much better to me this way. We are moving the throttle controller down by the pedal rather than out by the injector. It will do a few things for us. It keeps it out of the way of the mag and valve cover, it makes the engine look a little more period correct. Since the body flips up, we have easy access to it that we didn't on the 23T car. We considered not using it, but it really is a good tool for launching that we elected to keep it.
Yesterday we located and tabbed the mounts for my fresh air system. This is the bottle that attaches to my helmet. When I turn it on, if forces breathable air into the helmet. It keeps the fumes out, and also keeps it from fogging up the visor. We also decided where to put the battery, and how to mount it. In the same area we located the overflow tank for the Lencodrive. This tank doesn't need drained, it is more like a catch-can that the fluid can expand into, and then drain back into the trans as required. The last thing Scott and I got done before I left was to create and mount the 2-rear parachutes. Ours are the air activated style, so we had to revise the mount to clear the air cylinders and drill the holes in the body.
The thing most people who don't work on this kind of car, is every change you make has to be carefully planned. I change here, effects 8-other things down the line. If the chutes weren't in the correct place the air cylinders will hit the puke tank for the oil system, if you move the puke tank to clear the air cylinders, then the battery location changes, which means that the Lencodrive overflow tank won't fit. The whole car has to fit together so everything is in it place, and a place for everything.
That was the first modification to the body itself. So I guess we are officially working on the new car now!
Rapid
