[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)

[StanIROCZ]

Nice job!

Seeing the whole build in 1 post made me think that you built the car in a weekend but I know thats not true. There's a lot of work that you have there, and you're right, that is a lot like Alan's Black Camaro. Some people might be interested in seeing what you did for your pedal set-up, do you have more pics? What size MC's are you using and what calipers do you have? I have 7/8" MC's with C5 brakes front & rear and the pedal is very stiff. So stiff that I can't lock them up on the street with Carbotech XP8's up front and stock in the rear. I just swapped to XP10's and I'm hoping that heat generated on track will make this a non issue.

[rr97cmaross]

Nice job!

Seeing the whole build in 1 post made me think that you built the car in a weekend but I know thats not true. There's a lot of work that you have there, and you're right, that is a lot like Alan's Black Camaro. Some people might be interested in seeing what you did for your pedal set-up, do you have more pics? What size MC's are you using and what calipers do you have? I have 7/8" MC's with C5 brakes front & rear and the pedal is very stiff. So stiff that I can't lock them up on the street with Carbotech XP8's up front and stock in the rear. I just swapped to XP10's and I'm hoping that heat generated on track will make this a non issue.

Thanks Austin! Again, a huge thanks to Alan for the pictures he put on his website and the quick service on the steering. It was actually a month long thrash to get it done with about a year's worth of prep. I don't have more pics of the pedal setup at this time, but I'll be unloading the car this weekend and will post some. For a quick word picture I used the stock brake booster opening/bolt holes and formed a frame out of square tube extending back and welded to the "dash bar" to mount the pedals. More to follow...........

As far as the master cylinders, I went with a 7/8 front and 1" rear with stoptech 4 piston front calipers (42/38mm) and stock rear calipers for a 97. I'm using hawk DTC 60's in the front with hawk black in the rear. I need a good weekend at the track to sort out the brakes. It was cold and damp with only 2 sessions with a dry track and it wasn't until the last few laps that I felt I was getting close on the bias and amount of pedal pressure needed. I'm really excited to get it back out and really dig in to them as I was a big fan of the feel (minus the knockback).