[rr97cmaross]

I decided, after watching some in-car video and seeing a bunch of flex between the a-pillar and a-pillar downtube, that it was time to put a cage in the car that was "proper" and would be something I wouldn't rip out again. This being the 3rd rebuild of it, I had some serious learning points from the first two times and wanted to implement ALOT of changes. With that being said, my goals were:
1. Enhance safety
2. Enhance torsional and longitudinal stiffness
3. Build the car in a way which would fit rule sets to keep my idea of a "play toy"
4. Attempt to build a tube frame within the factory sheet metal without doing a full conversion.

With that in mind, I'd always liked the idea of creating a truss structure since it seemed to offer the solutions to #'s 1 & 2, and seemed to more closely mimick a full tube framed car. I figured if I could get the design and stiffness out of the tube structure, I could get rid of alot of the factory sheet metal and get the cars weight down. I had played around with many different designs (modeled on FEA software) and found one which I really liked but ran into problems with packaging.

The solution came from some pictures I found of some of Alans work. He built a cage in a Black camaro which was just what I was looking for. Many thanks to Alan, his great work, and willingness to post pictures and help everyone out as he was a huge help in this build.

On to the pics (some of these were taken with a phone, apologies)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/IMG00082.jpg)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/IMG00083.jpg)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/IMG00085.jpg)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/P1010004.jpg)

[rr97cmaross]

And finally at the track a week ago at buttonwillow (what a crappy weekend rain and cold!)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/VP2_3784.jpg)

Initial impressions: Car is rock steady and much easier to drive. With that said, now the work begins to get the car balanced again. The wilwood brake setup took some learning to get used to. My left foot has now found a home on the brake pedal "pumping it up" after a series of turns as the knockback is rediculous in the rear. It really takes some leg to get the thing to stop also and I havent decided on whether I'll drop master cylinder sizes yet or not. The first few times around got pretty eventful in the braking zones and forced a steep learning curve as I got a first hand lesson on getting the rear pistons back out where they will work again!