NACA 66 Special A/BGS

[krusty]

Car should be here Thursday, info nlt Friday.   IIRC, Goodyear rated these to at least 300.   vic

[robfrey]

Made some progress with the cockpit area today. 16 gauge shoulder area containment.


Floor under the knee area,
16 gauge. "X" pattern is slots cut in with the waterjet so we could weld through to the X brace underneath. Welded and ground flush. We will arc our 36 grit coating on next before painting.

[robfrey]

We were also able to run the front suspension though it's range of travel.
Everything looks good and we see absolutely no bump steer with the naked eye.  We have not checked it with an indicator but it's close enough that a small amount of shim on the steering arm should fix it if there is any movement. It was also cool to have the steering hooked up and working. Sort of a milestone.
On the negative side, the front tires are too wide and the wheels were made 5/16 out of spec in regards to offset. Of course the wrong way that wheel spacers won't help.

[robfrey]

Last night we made some pretty good progress.
1) test fit the modified oil tank. Engine and trans were raised 3/4 " and created a clearance issue.
2) got at great start on design and manufacture of rear tranny mount.
3) built templates for interior side panels and modeled them in Solidworks. Making them from .062 steel would be a little tough on our shears so I just have them waterjet.

[robfrey]

Gauges,
Has there been any consensus on which is more visible on the salt, black or white faced gauges?

[Tman]

Gauges,
Has there been any consensus on which is more visible on the salt, black or white faced gauges?

Good question! I was wondering the same thing myself!

[streamliner]

Nice build!  I just saw this thread and can't help but think it's gotta go fast.  Here's a couple concepts from Alex Tremulis who you probably already know about.  The Uniroyal was prior to Goodyear's sponsorship of the Gyronaut, about 1964, and was planned for the wheel-driven record.  The Green Gyronaut was to help solve the energy crisis with more miles per gallon, about 1974.  It was built in 1980 for Subaru (Subaru Gyronaut X-100) and got 100mpg at 55mph.  Your concepts work.  The little cannard winglets up front were to help keep the nose down.  As Alex would say:  "Maybe the future has finally caught up with the past!" 

[streamliner]

Sorry, guys.  I didn't mean to bring up any bad blood with past posters (or propsters).  You're probably sick and tired of hearing "It looks like ...", and "They tried that...". 

You've got an outstanding build going and I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to seeing it go fast, whenever you're ready.  Best of luck! 

[robfrey]

Streamliner,
No offense taken.
I've never seen these pictures before.
Although our design is similar in layout, this design does not take advantage of natural laminar flow. Still, look what year this was. Very impressive for the time.

[robfrey]

Decided on black faced gauges along with the Fast Dash Logger.
For gauges, I plan on 2-1/16 oil pressure, water temp, oil temp, and maybe egt.
All gauges will be hooked to warning lights as I plan on being too busy to to spend much of my attention monitoring them.
Also, we will have a shift light and a flap light to tell us to remove flap angle.
The Fast Dash can be configured to compare flap angle to ground speed and will send a signal to the dash light.
My job as the driver is to hit up shift button when the yellow light (shift light) comes on and push the flap button when the blue light comes on. Both buttons will be on the steering wheel. I will have to hold the flap button until the light goes out. Because the output of the Fast Dash is PWM, I can program it to flicker before turning on or off completely. I could actually hook it up directly to the flap actuating motor but the rules (2.Q) say that that the computer can only control engine function.
Dash will be waterjet cut from .06 mild steel and welded permanently to chassis.

[SPARKY]

Rob,  What happens if you "buzz"   your eyeballs and them merge the two colors and you see GREEN

[wobblywalrus]

Rob, this year I put the one gauge I look at directly in the middle of the dash where it lines up with the center of the course.  It is as far away from me as I could get it.  This change reduced the distance my sight had to wander to see the gauge and it also reduced the change of focus needed to shift from the track to the gauge.  All this helped.

[robfrey]

Rob, this year I put the one gauge I look at directly in the middle of the dash where it lines up with the center of the course.  It is as far away from me as I could get it.  This change reduced the distance my sight had to wander to see the gauge and it also reduced the change of focus needed to shift from the track to the gauge.  All this helped.

What was the gauge?

[robfrey]

So far, everything is still on schedule for  starting to mount the body at the end of Oct.
Can't wait to see the shell on the chassis. I expect it to be about a month long process to mount all the pieces.

[Peter Jack]

Can't wait to see the shell on the chassis.

Rob, you're not the only one! 

Pete