I'm not making as much progress as I'd like, just too much going on with work, weekend meetings and finishing the racing season. Speaking of race season, we had our last race on sunday and I borrowed David's Cayman S again. It was surprisingly warm in Marina and we over heated the tires, slowing us down by over a second. I came in 2nd in class, but had I run in the correct class for the car I would have been 1st in pax by .3 seconds. I think I need to get a cayman s soon! The good news is that I am now officially the 2013 OSP class champion, and I finished 3rd in points overall for the year. Woohoo!
I've been doing some work on the dash, both digital and physical. I picked up an AIM MXL Pista dash after a great deal came up on it. I took over the dining room table and setup a test bench with the ms3x and the MXL Pista talking via can-bus. I was able to read everything but calculated gear and vss from the ms3x. I shot an email off to AIM but haven't heard anything back from them. The dash is very nice, but the back light is kinda dim, so I'm wondering how well I'll be able to see it in the car. Another concern is oil pressure and temp sensors. I'm not sure if I can add those to the ms3x then read them into the Pista, or if I have to just use the AIM sensors for the dash.
As for the actual dash in the car I started hacking up the foam and steel to clearance for the new dash using the template. I want to put the gas gauge and switches in the center, then put the fuse box and relays where the glove box was.
Using poster board and tape as a base I started doing a very poor job of fiberglassing. I mean it's really bad.
This is only the 2nd time I've used fiberglass so I'm learning quite a bit in the process. It is a bit of a pain to do outside and on your own, the wind didn't make it easier. I did try a few different types of cloth in different areas so I can see how it differs on a non-structural part. The goal is to be comfortable enough to do my splitter and radiator ducting soon.
It really does look awful but I'm going to do my best to clean it up and make it serviceable. It's a race car not a show queen, I just need it to hold gauges and hide wiring.
Moving on!
While I was hacking things up I decided I'd make whats left of the roll cage look presentable. I ground off the stubs for the door bars and the forward down bars. I shot it with a little paint afterwards and it's all pretty again. I still need to cut off the rear plates and trim the rear cage stays to meet the new raised floor in the back.
Another check box on the list was to test fit pedals and modify the shifter. The pedals are a tilton 3 pedal set I had lying around from a previous car, and they almost fit. the MCs push the pedals to far back if i try to fit it all in the footwell. If I try to mount it flush, the body/pan mating surface gets in the way. I've wanted this setup for a long time, because once you've driven with properly setup pedals that's all you want. I did find a reverse floor mount pedal set from OBP so I'll probably pickup one of those to test fit, and it should work with the standard tilton/wilwood MCs. With the move to triple MCs I'll probably re-plumb the brakes with -3 ptfe line, and use the same stuff for the clutch as well. Ironically, it should take longer to remove the old setup than putting in the new one.
As far as the shifter goes, it's an empi hurst knock-off and I've always loved the way it felt. Unfortunately, the vw reverse lock out was effectively 1-2 lock out on the subaru 5sp. I pulled it apart and modified it so the lock out can no longer work. I tried it in the car and all gears engage perfectly. I really want a bug-tech shifter (omg so bad) but I just can't justify $460 for one. I've started to cad up a similar design with an adjustable pivot and more stick height. That way you can adjust the throw to your liking and it puts the shift knob in a race friendly position. I've already had a couple design iterations (one of them was even on purpose!) and I'll put it up soon enough.
