LocostUSA.com

I'll be interested in hearing how they perform under more abusive conditions.



Possibly - time will tell. I'm not overly worried due to the car's weight and the amount it gets used. Plus replacement rotors are $19 per front and $18 per rear.

On that note, no one will argue cheap pads suck but rotors seem like a hard part to screw up. If these ones do not last I may try some more expensive rotors next for comparative purposes.

I've typically found a set of rotors to last about two sets of XP8 pads on most of the other cars I've run them on. Realistically, I find myself more concerned about pad wear (and replacement cost) on most of the cars I've tracked; unless the rotors are specialized (like my Evo - the rotors are both alloy and directional) the cost of rotors is typically far less than the cost of good track pads.

I like the sound of that. Fortunately these rotors are far from specialized.

The XP8s got their first real test this weekend; I went out to Akron for an autocross with a local club. The ~250 mile round trip wasn't as bad as I had expected. A folded towl on the seat added some additional padding and ear plugs and my full face helmet kept the wind and noise to a minimum. I wouldn't go as far as calling it civil but it was at least bearable.

The club runs some of their events at the former Geauga Lake Amusement Park parking lot. Areas of the lot are overgrown by grass and weeds, other areas are now a water hazard, but overall it was a fun event and the long course was a blast.

I bought a set of 250 lbs/in springs from Jack and this was also the first real test for those as well. The car had a little bit of steady state understeer I wanted to correct - stepping up from the 225 lbs/in springs previously on the car's rear seemed to be a good move.

Between the new brake pads and new rear springs the car's performance was noticeably different and moving in the right direction. With the old springs, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted in slaloms and the car wasn't going to swap ends (plow into the next cone - yes) but in steady state corners the speed was really limited. With the heavier springs the slaloms require a little more finesse but the understeer in all corners seems to be much less.

The first run started off well then went south very quickly - the stiffer rear springs did change the car:


Fortunately what I thought was a broken car was the sound of a bent driver's side cone catcher hitting the tire.

My last run ended up being my best:


As luck would have it my time between the start and the pointer cone where things went south was about 1 second faster on my first run versus my best complete run. Oh well - such is autocross. It was still fun.

For anyone keeping track here is my current spring set up (still no bars):
Front spring - 450 lbs/in
Front MR - 0.64
Front wheel rate - 184 lbs/in

Rear spring - 250 lbs/in
Rear MR - 0.82
Rear wheel rate - 168 lbs/in

Front weight % - 46%
Rear weight % - 54%

Front roll stiffness distribution % - 52.3%
Rear roll stiffness distribution % - 47.7%

Looks like alot of fun, I hope to be doing the same thing in a year. Geauga Lake is about 50 mins from my home.

What was the name of the club, and when are you going to be back?

Ahaha, yeah everyone's been there at least once. Putting a piece of scotch tape on the microphone will get rid of the wind-buffeting sound.

I always forget the tape...get too excited to go drive.

BTW while I was out there I ran into someone local who said he is helping you with the Midlana book (I've forgotten his name).




The club was NORA (http://noraracing.net/). Unfortunately due to the driving distance I probably won't be out again until next summer. I normally run with Steel Cities SCCA - they hold quite a few of their events at BeaveRun but its probably a ~2 hour drive for you.

I couldn't find it when I was looking for it but of course while I was randomly browsing RustBucket's build log I found the link: http://www.dwjenkins.plus.com/wing-stays.htm

Figured it was worth posting again for awareness.

The driving season is winding down and after a bit of a hiatus from the garage its time to start the winter project list.

I started bending the hoops and a few other Bambi deflector parts several weeks ago.

The first step was to make a master gauge to help determine where to start bends. I placed a piece of tape on some scrap tubing, aligned it with the edge of the die, and made the largest degree bend the die would allow.



For as much as I like 3D CAD programs for modelling cars, I usually end up drawing the pattern for hoops and other bent parts on paper since I do not have access to a large plotter. I typically omit the bend radii and just concentrate on the center lines. By placing the gauge on the paper, its possible to determine the bend location with some level of precision.

As I learned on the first shot at the windshield hoop, you need to pay attention to ensure the correct edge of the tape is aligned with the edge of the die (doh!...at least there was some straight pieces that could be chopped off and turned into something else).



I also found it useful to keep a piece of wood around to help with keeping all of the bends in the same plane. It was also very useful when doing the two 3D bends on the main hoop.




I chucked both hoops in the drill press and after a few cuts with the hole saw had two hoops that sat level to about 0.5 degrees - I'll take it.




After some aligning and a little help from some ratchet straps to hold things in place, its slowly starting to take shape.

Yo Andrew-
The cage is looking good! I like the show-and-tell on figuring out the bends and the trick with the wood to keep 'em all in one plane. Well done!!! I'm puzzled, however, by the tubes that seem to make a "floor" for the cage... Gonna snake 'em thru your existing frame? Or cut out sections and weld them to the outside frame rails? I'm sure I'm missing something you said... Enlighten me, O Wise Person!

How does that angle gauge work on a sloped floor? Do you pre-level the bender and drill press and then measure?

Tom

Probably best just to measure both arms of the angle.... rather than relying on anything being perfectly horizontal or vertical... but you could measure slope of your floor with it and deduct.

That's probably what he does. I had to build my assembly table with adjustable legs be cause my workshop was a patio in a previous life.

Tom

One other suggestion might be to use a (HF) digital angle finder. Most of them can be zero'ed out to calibrate for sloped floors. I use one for setting my table saw blade perpendicular to the table. And for setting wheel camber on the Locost of course. I have no perfectly flat surface for the car so I am unable to use the HF weighted angle finder.

Andrew, nice work!

BTW there's supposed to be some newfangled way of using wiimotes with bluetooth enabled devices as inclinometers.

Thanks for the compliments guys.

I think I'd be further ahead building in the middle of the backyard- its probably more level than the garage floor. I had to put a 3/4" thick piece of steel under the one corner of the table to make it level.

Its too much work to level the tools since i am always moving them. I normally find the angle from 0 for the bender or drill press and make a mental note (IE 2 degrees left of 0) and adjust from there. As luck would have it I got a HF digital angle finder for my birthday. No more memorizing - just zero and go. I would highly suggest having one around the shop for any Locoster.

JD- I'm going to make it integral to the chassis instead of a bolt on so the tunnel and some other tubing will be replaced by the cage. When its done most of the stuff from the pedals back will be new. Once a few more tubes in place the method behind the madness will be more evident (or maybe just the madness? )

Here are a few shots of what I'm going for: