Two Shakes the S10

[fissionspeed]

more thrash as May looms

Currently working on a dash. Not as good as I'd like it to be but it'll do. I had the notches for the bars going sideways, was quite proud of it when a friend said "how are you gonna get it out with the windshield in?" so now the sides have gaps. Oops. Might cover those if time permits.





Parachute mounts I had laser cut. The rectangle hole is sized so they can auto-fixture to 30 degrees on a piece of square tube.



3D printed TPU lower radiator mount pads. These will be mounted to steel tabs on the core support. Upper mounts to come.





go go go!!

[fissionspeed]

Well, a lot has been done! I won't bore you with the details, mostly because I don't want to type them all. I've changed jobs twice since March but me and the boys have been absolutely wailing on this thing regardless. Long story short it's almost ready. Needs windows and wiring and whatever the tech inspectors say I missed. But it's coming very soon. Even if it's on the holley base tune this thing is running this year (he said for the 3rd consecutive year in a row).

Most importantly, we've started rattle canning it. We have a very cool warbird theme we're cooking up. It's the only way we could think of to make GM Pewter cool  8-)

[fissionspeed]

It runs, it drives, it kinda sucks! But it kinda rules too. At the minimum it will leave the start line. We will be there in May. Just don't expect it to go fast 

PS if I'd known how hard it is to move around in an SFI-20 suit I'd have started doing some cardio definitely need to practice bailing out over the next two weeks.

[fissionspeed]

Rookie meet complete! We did it 

It went 140 something, I forgot to grab my time slip so we'll have to wait for results to be posted. We'll likely stay in unblown fuel for the remainder of the season while we finish up some noncritical things (air dam, tonneau, etc) and get some much needed seat time.

I was very happy about 140+ on a base map and pump gas. The plan was always to run turbo but now I'm wondering what's possible with E85 and some spray 

[MRK]

Rookie meet complete! We did it 

It went 140 something, I forgot to grab my time slip so we'll have to wait for results to be posted. We'll likely stay in unblown fuel for the remainder of the season while we finish up some noncritical things (air dam, tonneau, etc) and get some much needed seat time.

I was very happy about 140+ on a base map and pump gas. The plan was always to run turbo but now I'm wondering what's possible with E85 and some spray 

Well done! Tell us about your experience on the dirt. How did the wind affect you? What was the course like? What about the rookie orientation and procedures? How did they treat you at inspection and registration?
I'm sure your experience could help others!

[fissionspeed]

Well done! Tell us about your experience on the dirt. How did the wind affect you? What was the course like? What about the rookie orientation and procedures? How did they treat you at inspection and registration?
I'm sure your experience could help others!

Well, the wind on day one was a trip! Being that it was my first trip out, I was pedaling pretty much all the way, and I couldn't tell whether I had built the car wrong or whether the wind was blowing me off course or what gear I was in or anything. I was just focusing on making it through the lights and pulling my chute.

Rookie orientation was nothing if not thorough! I've been coming out to the dirt for several years so at this point I'd heard it all before, but I still caught myself wondering what I was going to forget to do right. Fortunately the important bits are repeated several times.

Inspection was a breeze, but I also agonized over the rule book while building the car. They did point out a couple things we should consider adjusting by the next meet. To anyone in the future reading this and thinking about building a car, join a club and start talking with them! Send photos to car tech before making big decisions. Some of these rules are hard to understand if you've never done this before. The two guys who inspected my car were amazing and were giving me great bonus advice the whole time. The inspectors just want you to be safe and go fast, and that was clear the whole time.

There is a fair amount of procedure and ceremony to all of this but there are many many people who will tell you exactly what you need to know, and that's honestly the only way we got all this done and survived our first meet! Love being a part of SCTA.

PS: we went 141.008

[1leg]

I saw you out there. It was crazy windy Saturday!

[MRK]

Well done! Tell us about your experience on the dirt. How did the wind affect you? What was the course like? What about the rookie orientation and procedures? How did they treat you at inspection and registration?
I'm sure your experience could help others!

Well, the wind on day one was a trip! Being that it was my first trip out, I was pedaling pretty much all the way, and I couldn't tell whether I had built the car wrong or whether the wind was blowing me off course or what gear I was in or anything. I was just focusing on making it through the lights and pulling my chute.

Rookie orientation was nothing if not thorough! I've been coming out to the dirt for several years so at this point I'd heard it all before, but I still caught myself wondering what I was going to forget to do right. Fortunately the important bits are repeated several times.

Inspection was a breeze, but I also agonized over the rule book while building the car. They did point out a couple things we should consider adjusting by the next meet. To anyone in the future reading this and thinking about building a car, join a club and start talking with them! Send photos to car tech before making big decisions. Some of these rules are hard to understand if you've never done this before. The two guys who inspected my car were amazing and were giving me great bonus advice the whole time. The inspectors just want you to be safe and go fast, and that was clear the whole time.

There is a fair amount of procedure and ceremony to all of this but there are many many people who will tell you exactly what you need to know, and that's honestly the only way we got all this done and survived our first meet! Love being a part of SCTA.

PS: we went 141.008

Thanks for sharing your experience! This is great stuff and will help future racers learn more about the nuances of racing with the SCTA. See you in June!

[fissionspeed]

Second weekend out was a tough one but we managed to put a bow on it. We were excited to try out our new "home depot aero" that we just finished putting on.

Run 1: new PR at ~142. We broke the push bar (again) so the rest of the weekend is no push truck

Run 2: Blistering hot. Track starting to go away. 135 or something.

Overnight, we decide to try raising the shift points since we're falling on our face when the car hits 3rd. With 308 gears in the rear we probably need about twice the horsepower.

Run 3: I forgot to change the global rev limiter so I never make it out of second gear    but I don't pull the chute and we manage to fix it and get back in line pretty quick

Run 4: We get a tailwind and the car revs up great! New PR at 147.158.

We need more weight in the rear so I don't have to baby it as much, and mo powah.

Trying to talk myself into running Bonneville but it's a trek!

[tallguy]

Thank you for all these postings.  Since life is short (and Bonneville also keeps getting
shorter), I suggest you plan to race there.  If nothing else, it could provide you with
some nice memories.  Good luck to you.

[MRK]

If you haven't experienced Speedweek, I too suggest you plan a trip to the Great White Dyno. As a Bonneville rookie, you'll have a great time out on the short course. You'll most likely have Nick Arias acting as Chief Starter on that course and he really enjoys working with the rookie drivers. Besides the racing, Speedweek is a gathering of the tribes. It's like Burning Man for gearheads! If you don't want to make the haul in one day, there are a few different places to overnight all depending on which way to decide to go up. Being from the IE, I'll guess you go up through Las Vegas, take the route that brings you in on 318 to 6 into Ely. Tons of BLM land on the way that you can overnight on.

[fissionspeed]

I have been successfully convinced to go to Speed Week. I guess we'll see you on the salt!

I've ordered a spare set of wheels and a set of 24 inch tires to shorten up the gearing a little. Hopefully that'll let us keep it on mile 2 and not get too hot. I do have a big radiator and trans cooler but probably best not to get anything glowing hot when there's half a season at el mirage left.

Still not sure what speed I should be expecting. All the calculators I've used say about 170 but that's taking a wild guess for coefficient of drag. We're not sure how slippery the truck really is. Personally I'd be ecstatic if we went that fast with no power adder.

Current project is a fiberglass airdam and splitter. The design isn't really scientific, just tapering in from the outer profile of the bumper to allow a splitter. More taper at the front than at the sides. Again, no science here, but it's what the OEMs do so they probably know why.

For anyone searching for this far into the future, assuming AI hasn't fully gatekept free information, the way I got the profile of the bumper was this:

1. Place a sheet of cardboard under the bumper
2. Use a plumb bob to get your XY points
3. Take a picture (as far away as reasonable, to avoid lens error)
4. Plug the picture into university of Tennessee's WebPlotDigitizer to digitize it
5. Take those points and put them into your CAD program. This is less than trivial in OnShape but it can be done with a plugin

From there I 3D printed a buck that will be used to make a fiberglass mold, and from that mold, the air dam.

I can't paint anything without getting a fingerprint on it so lord knows how I'll do with fiberglass and gelcoat but I'm hoping for the best 

[fissionspeed]

Making the air dam didn't exactly go as planned.

I spent a week doing bodywork, primer, mold release wax, and gelcoat work on the 3D printed buck, all of which went remarkably well for a first timer. However, I foolishly tried to do the first layer of the mold in one pass instead of working in sections. The failed layup had to be peeled which meant I was now a week behind, with no time to ship more gelcoat.

Therefore a strategic pivot was in order. On the advice of my composites guy, I decided to quickly rewax the buck and pull the part directly from it, rather than make a mold and pull from that. The surface profile is "wrong" by 3/16 of an inch, but I was hoping it would work out in the end.

And it did! It's not the fancy gelcoated class A finish I was hoping for, but I think it looks very grassroots and fits the vibe of the truck very well. The laser cut splitter bolted right up, with some persuasion.

We do not have time to paint it 

See you on the salt baby!!!

[1leg]

What day are you leaving? I should be on the road Friday at 4am

[fissionspeed]

What day are you leaving? I should be on the road Friday at 4am

I'm hoping to be rolling out no later than 10AM Thursday.