Anglin's Racer Build and History

Turbopit · Post by **Turbopit** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:11 pm

I've owned multiple XR4Ti's since you first started working ont he CF bars.

Post by **anglin** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:59 pm

Turbopit wrote:I've owned multiple XR4Ti's since you first started working ont he CF bars.

Shutup!

I originally purchased the carbon tubes in late 2005. If you do a little calendar math, you'll come to the conclusion that I've had these carbon tubes for 27 months and I'm just now wrapping the project up. I feel a little less pathetic when I consider how much time I spent gone (15 months or much more than half of the time I have "owned" them).

I'm getting close!

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:35 pm

Could be worse... You could have purchased an oddball project car in April of 2003, and it's still in "project" status, nearly five years later.....

Mike McCreight · Post by **Mike McCreight** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:25 pm

ZING!

whitelx · Post by **whitelx** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:17 am

DPDISXR4Ti wrote:Could be worse... You could have purchased an oddball project car in April of 2003, and it's still in "project" status, nearly five years later.....

that describes my XR perfectly, but I got mine in 2002.

Post by **John Brennan** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:33 am

...er.... 1998. Them young'uns is expensive!

From the pix, it appears that these will just be straight-across, tower-to-tower bars. Any plans or provision for triangulation to the shell or elsewhere, in order to fully realize the structural stiffness they are capable of providing?

Post by **anglin** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:40 pm

John Brennan wrote:From the pix, it appears that these will just be straight-across, tower-to-tower bars. Any plans or provision for triangulation to the shell or elsewhere, in order to fully realize the structural stiffness they are capable of providing?

Like most of the stuff that Grayson and I develop, it exists in the form that it is in because it fits within the set of rules that we live under. So, no, there aren't any plans to make a triangulated version of the carbon shock tower brace or triangulation attachments. I wonder if there would be a market for such a thing since a lot of folks already don't like the perception of losing space in the hatch to put one of these in. If someone is willing to give up even more space for the sake of triangulation, they might also be in the market for a complete roll cage. Who knows.

whitelx · Post by **whitelx** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:46 pm

anglin wrote:
John Brennan wrote:From the pix, it appears that these will just be straight-across, tower-to-tower bars. Any plans or provision for triangulation to the shell or elsewhere, in order to fully realize the structural stiffness they are capable of providing?
Like most of the stuff that Grayson and I develop, it exists in the form that it is in because it fits within the set of rules that we live under. So, no, there aren't any plans to make a triangulated version of the carbon shock tower brace or triangulation attachments. I wonder if there would be a market for such a thing since a lot of folks already don't like the perception of losing space in the hatch to put one of these in. If someone is willing to give up even more space for the sake of triangulation, they might also be in the market for a complete roll cage. Who knows.

I'd like a triangulated brace, but i don't want to go as far as a roll cage since I still want to drive it on the street. i don't want to get hassled too much by the CHP, so i prefer to keep the modifications out of sight. I don't care about losing space since I have a truck to haul the big stuff.

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:47 pm

anglin wrote:If someone is willing to give up even more space for the sake of triangulation, they might also be in the market for a complete roll cage. Who knows.

Who says you need to give up cargo space when stiffening up the rear-end?

yottabit · Post by **yottabit** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:56 pm

Hah!!

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:13 pm

i have a truck for cargo space. i can fit full tool set, 4 wheels and tires, a passenger, and a bunch of stuff in my merkur, regardless

Post by **John Brennan** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:15 am

Good answers! The gang's in good form.

It seems to me that a triangulated brace all in the same plane as the single bar wouldn't lose you much more space than that single bar (flush, as it were, behind the back seat), but then, um... rules are rules...

Too many rules for me.

Post by **anglin** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:25 pm

John Brennan wrote:It seems to me that a triangulated brace all in the same plane as the single bar wouldn't lose you much more space than that single bar (flush, as it were, behind the back seat)

I see what you are saying. A design like Godfrey's setup:

http://www.merkurtech.com/merkurtech/in ... race01.jpg

For some reason I wasn't thinking that way, even though that's the most obvious way to triangulate.

I spent some time in the garage yesterday working on the spacers and doing some epoxy work to get a feel for the epoxy I'm using. I got to run my mill yesterday and make some metal chips for the first time since the first half of 2006. That made me happy. It took me a while to get a prototype that I liked for the spacer. I ended up making about half of the batch of spacers. I'm doing the other half today. The six spacers in the back are about to go from boring to kickass.

The spacers serve three purposes. They increase the bearing area on the shock tower to cut down on local deformation of the sheet metal. They offset the brace from the shock tower so you can tighten the jam nut while they are installed. And they allow for deflection of the rod end if it needs it (note that the bolt in the picture is just a test bolt, not the final selection).

Post by **anglin** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:38 pm

Just as a wrap up to the carbon fiber shock tower brace story, Chris Maskell sent me pics of his after he installed it in his project car. Mmmm...

mtnXRti · Post by **mtnXRti** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:01 pm

Sickness!!!!!!!!!!!!!