[ESPCamaro]

I bought an 88 Suzuki Samurai in October.
Should be a fun off-road truck.

Probably all I will do at first is a bunch of armor stuff-gas tank, t-case, rock sliders, cage. Swap to 5.14 gears with mini spool in the rear.
Re-do the brakes, new cheap shocks (may even skip this) and get the engine working flawlessly (since getting stranded in the woods would be REALLY bad.

I figure if it's something we like I'll get more radical with it.

AFAIK Sgarnett and Judd are the only ones here that are remotely interested in something like this.

[lt1aggie]

My roomate and I are swapping in his Briggs "5hp" engine in my go cart. It's got dry film lubricants and thermal barrier coating on the inside which allows it run extremely lean. It just about doubled the torque to 12 ft lbs on the dyno and increased the horsepower a few points back around 5 (only dynoed 3 at stock even though it was supposed to be 5). This along with the torque converter should allow the cart to wind up pretty well. Hopefully it will be in and running by Wednesday.

I know, I know, nothing fancy, but hey, we're poor college students.

[tjZ28]

My next goof-off project:
(IMG:http://www.norcal-ls1.com/multimedia/data/500/296BjoKPYG205oLYcevCRF2zNVIgRnL.jpg)
My plans are just get it running right and beat the ever loving snot outta it. If I can get it making enough power that it won't just be in everybody's way (it's a complete dog right now, but it's also running poorly on 6 year old gas) I'm thinking of RallyXing it. Oh, it's a '79 Subi 4wd Wagon for those that don't know. 1600cc flat foor and true 4wd (not AWD).

As for Samis, they can be LOTS of fun and will go so much further than you can imagine w/ some basic mods. Here's how I used to wheels (friend's rig, I was full-time spotter/right-hand-man)...
(IMG:http://www.norcal-ls1.com/multimedia/data/500/296samijimmy2.jpg)
We made it up the "famous" Tank Traps in Hollister Hills on probably the smallest tires ever: 30x10.5 SSRs. Mods are pretty basic: Spring Over, CJ Front Springs, 4" Lift Sami Rear Springs, 4:1 T-Case gears, Lincoln Locker in the back, still open in the front, "Revolver" Shackles and really, that's about it.

-TJ

[lt1aggie]

My next goof-off project:
(IMG:http://www.norcal-ls1.com/multimedia/data/500/296BjoKPYG205oLYcevCRF2zNVIgRnL.jpg)
My plans are just get it running right and beat the ever loving snot outta it. If I can get it making enough power that it won't just be in everybody's way (it's a complete dog right now, but it's also running poorly on 6 year old gas) I'm thinking of RallyXing it. Oh, it's a '79 Subi 4wd Wagon for those that don't know. 1600cc flat foor and true 4wd (not AWD).


-TJ

That looks hella fun! Good luck.

[CMC #37]

I haven't been to Holister Hills because we have the simulated Rubicon up here at Prairie City. I helped work on the sluicebox part with some Jeep clubs. One day I went out there with some folks from the Jeep club and got bored running the hill section forwards, did it backwards a few times....caught ^%$! with the hubby when I got home and mentioned that part! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Good lookin' Samurai TJ! I think Thunderhill may be running a rallycross school if you are interested in that, you should check with 'em. Looks fun!

[SuperCricket]

(IMG:http://teejaded.com/v-web/gallery/albums/album07/STA70012.sized.jpg)

This is the reason I haven't been on the boards this winter. Trying to get the new tow vehicle running so we can truck out to the Big Bend Open Road race in West Texas this April.

It's a 1978 Grumman Step van. 350/TH-400, headers, 14-bolt rear end, etc.

Oh and can't forget the tripple marine battery electrical system, 1,750 watt inverter and mini fridge.

[pknowles]

What're they gonna do with that lot - more housing in sprawling suburbia, I guess....

You guessed correctly. Bill Wilcom got something like $9-13 million for all that land that 75-80 was on. I grew up 4 miles from 75-80.

[ESPCamaro]

As for Samis, they can be LOTS of fun and will go so much further than you can imagine w/ some basic mods. Here's how I used to wheels (friend's rig, I was full-time spotter/right-hand-man)...

We made it up the "famous" Tank Traps in Hollister Hills on probably the smallest tires ever: 30x10.5 SSRs. Mods are pretty basic: Spring Over, CJ Front Springs, 4" Lift Sami Rear Springs, 4:1 T-Case gears, Lincoln Locker in the back, still open in the front, "Revolver" Shackles and really, that's about it.

-TJ

That's close to the plan I have for mine. I will probably skip the spring over and maybe just add some National lift springs, rears at all 4's. And revolver shackles.
And then trim, trim, trim. It's got 31x10.5's with just a shackle lift.

I figure if I hack away enough sheet metal that when I do a spring over w/yota axles, I should fit 35's or 36's. And hopefully it will be wide enough w/those axles to not be super top heavy.

[DanO]

Well.. this is one of the older cars but one of my fav's (the new one is under construction currently)


The design..
(IMG:http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5431/swfsae7zm.jpg)

And the only one i made that had underground roll centers... Worked nicely though.
(IMG:http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/5586/p10100211pl.jpg)
Yup.. thats a MoTeC M800.. can you say Wireless Telemetry!!
-F1 style automated shifting
- Modified block w/ dry sump
-1st place cooling design
-many other fun 'gadgets'
(IMG:http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/9021/p10100226ip.jpg)

Woo.. Carbon Fiber Seat!!
(IMG:http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/4435/picture1780sp.jpg)

In the process..
(IMG:http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/9260/00005395tx.jpg)

Stock Vs. Titanium... you pick..
(IMG:http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/821/awsomenessatanangle4as.jpg)

Just another day of Porting...
(IMG:http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5627/portingissomuchfun7wj.jpg)

This post has been edited by DanO: Jan 6 2006, 04:19 AM

[slowTA]

I wish NJIT had Formula instead of just the Baja. I think they did it around 2000 or so, I could go on for hours about the school and advisor...

Took us less than 4 months to build it, http://www.vilipend.com/~frrax/view_album....bumName=album36

[DanO]

I wish NJIT had Formula instead of just the Baja. I think they did it around 2000 or so, I could go on for hours about the school and advisor...

Took us less than 4 months to build it, http://www.vilipend.com/~frrax/view_album....bumName=album36

oh, trust me.. i know how you feel about the advisor.. We didnt even see ours more than 2x the entire year...

Seems to be a common theme for these competitions..

[DanO]

As for Samis, they can be LOTS of fun and will go so much further than you can imagine w/ some basic mods. Here's how I used to wheels (friend's rig, I was full-time spotter/right-hand-man)...
(IMG:http://www.norcal-ls1.com/multimedia/data/500/296samijimmy2.jpg)

Now THAT looks like fun.. and in a Suzuki as well!!! hahah

[SS2win]

sami's rule.. and man do I wish we had some hills here. I can only dream of hollister hills and rubicon, moab, etc... anyone out there need a linux admin / network engineer? I would seriously consider moving for some more serious wheeling... lol.

[NataSS Inc]

I recntly picked up a 97 volvo 850 T5. Absolutely love the little thing. It has lots of potential. Up until I got sick and had surgery I was tinkering with it. Put new samco turbo hoses in it, better clamps, and did a complete service to it.

I plan on putting in a trans cooler since its an auto and tossing in a manual boost controller and turbo timer. Its alot quicker than I thought it was going to be and it spooks the shit out of the little ricers. It deperately needs better suspension though. Its been a while since I have driven a car that I can actually feel the body roll around a corner. so I am looking at a set of bilstiens and eibachs to put on it.

the after market for these cars is about piss poor though. There is next to nothing available as far as bolt ons that will net you anything at the wheels. Tuning is another nightmare. Unless you go all out with a motech there isnt much you can do other than take it in the shorts for 400.00 and send it to someplace back east and HOPE they can flash a decent tune on it with your mod list you provide them. I am trying to get a mega squirt set up on my car but just havent had the time to tinker with it yet.

[ws6transam]

oh, trust me.. i know how you feel about the advisor.. We didnt even see ours more than 2x the entire year...

Seems to be a common theme for these competitions..

DanO.
what college are you attending with a FSAE team?

I was the SAE chapter secretary and FSAE electrical design group leader for the Michigan State team back in 1994 and 1995. Back then, we built our car in an old abandoned industrial freezer, and got our parts machined at the local community college. Then in 1995 the dean finally came on board when he saw us receive some five figure sponsorships from places like Ford and Eaton. That year Kawasaki also helped out by shipping us a complete Ninja ZX-6 for use as a powertrain. MSU then got in on the project and started a new student design center for MSU SAE in 1996. The new students started designing a new car, but the 1995 chassis got reused for '96. I wanted to buy that darned car so bad but the 1997 team scrapped it and left the carcass outside to rust.

So much for preservation of history! One of these days I ought to pop in and see what they are doing, it's only five miles from here. The FSAE teams are so much more professional looking than when we participated. However the dedication and emotional intensity are still the same.

[slowTA]

My school is full of political crap when it comes to SAE. Originally it was the the mechanical engineering building (where it should be) but the faculty didn't want to have anything to do with us. Then there was a SMALL fuel spill on the formula car and they kicked us out. We had Aero for a few years and the baja for at least 6 or 8 years. We were lucky since the civil engineering department had some extra space and their machinist is a rock crawler and mud drag racer.

For 2 years we had 2 baja teams, I was on the second team both years and captain for the second. Everytime we had contact with the advisor he had something negative to tell us. Like 'you should have gone to see student council for $500 by now' or 'you don't have enough money to order anything'. But get this.. some department of the school gave both teams $2,000 each, but we couldn't touch it untill we raised our own 2 grand. We couldn't start building until February because of this. No wonder we couldn't compete because we had NO time for testing. Broken transmission the day we left, the another 3 times in Ohio.

All the time he was under pressure from the dean to get good results at the competition... FINALLY. But the advisor can't stand up for himself and figured it would be best to kill off the second team. He made EVERYTHING difficult for us. We had to use my dad's truck to tow a rental trailer out there. We had 1 room for 6 people.

The whole time we're being told how the civil bridge contest participants had their own rooms, got a school vehicle to tote the bridge around, yada yada yada.

All in all it's a great opportunity but depressing at the same time. The second team's captain for the first year wouldn't listen to anyone because he rode dirt bikes and was the most stuborn person you would ever want to meet. We also built the car in his dad's garage because there was tension between him and the other team... should have been our first clue things were going to suck. So when I was captain we decided to pull him off of the e-mail list and cut up the car.

Now the car I built last year is halfway dissassembled and someone kicked the side panel in. The old cars just don't last or go to a good home. It is a shame, but I'm not that interested in playing in the dirt to do anything with the Baja.

[ws6transam]

That's really too bad.
When I joined SAE in late 1993 there were only five of us that were actually student members. Then in 1994 we grew to twelve students witha budget of $5000. Then, after the "old guard"graduated, we decided to make a real go of it and proposed a budget of $65,000. We attended all of the high school orientation classes, and brought our cars into the school to show them off. We made up trifold brochures and handed them to any student we could grab. Then, when September came, we posted our meeting times all over the engineering building. That year we got the largest membership increase in the nation, and went from twelve to fifty students in one leap. It was tough, but then we recruited the college of business for marketing students and brought them in as members. We recruited TV video production students to help us make a two-minute promotional video. In the end, we got MSU to dollar match our fundraising up to $10,000 and within two weeks, Ford responded by sending us $10,000 to spend on the project. Kawasaki sent us a whole motorcycle. Ciba Geigy sent us composites. Autoair Composites let us use their autoclaves. Someone sent us upright castings. Someone else donated all our Chromoly tubing. Ford let us use their proprietary intake analysis software.

It all started out of pure enthusiasm by five or six students, and if you aren't getting anywhere with your advisor, ask him what's wrong. If that doesnt work, go talk to the dean. Keep asking for resources. At one point, we needed machine time at the machine shop and MSU didnt have any available for us to use. So, we approached Lansing Community College about using their shop. Once we had their permission, we approached the dean of MSU's mech. engineering program, and told him that because MSU didnt have any machine shop for student engineering projects, we were forced to make LCC an official sponsor of the MSU car. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Heh, that didnt sit too well and the next school year we found ourselves with a student run machine shop!

[slowTA]

That's the way is should be done. We started by trying to join the first team and they were pretty uptight about making the team too big. The new team, when I was captain, started off that way but we had to concentrate on building at this point. After that we were combined with the first team and their uptight attitudes.

Before the advisor really pissed me off in a series of e-mails I said I would work on the swing arm as my senior project. Now that the design is done I don't even care if they use it or not. I finally got some kind of credit for all my work on the baja, I just want to graduate and concentrate on the autocrosser.

I swear almost anything would piss off this advisor, my co-captain someone in the ME department for money and said that the IE made parts for us, dean gave us something, alumni tossed in a few hundred, and 2 days later he wasn't captain anymore and I was ordered to get someone else to represent the team for his meeting. Well I was working full time and he didn't even respond to my e-mail asking for another meeting time so I could attend.

The sad part is that he is one of the better professors at the school and after taking a class with him you would think he'd be the best SAE advisor. Guess that shows how bad the rest of the professors are.

[Blainefab]

Just finished the cage on this 2004 STi :

(IMG:http://members.cruzio.com/~ablaine/sticage1.jpg)

(IMG:http://members.cruzio.com/~ablaine/sticage2.jpg)

(IMG:http://members.cruzio.com/~ablaine/sticage3.jpg)

[slowTA]

WOW... there has to be more driver's room now than stock! So when are you moving to the other coast to do my simple 4 pt?

[Teutonic Speedra...]

WOW... there has to be more driver's room now than stock! So when are you moving to the other coast to do my simple 4 pt?

Yeah....Blainefab East Coast! I'd be having you build me a cage. Instead I have to try and talk my buddy into doing it. I know it's not going to be high on his list although I know he is more than capable.