Gas Coupe Gussets

[dw230]

Thanks for jumping thru the hoops Jerry.

Good job,
DW

[FoundSoul]

Thank you DW!


Nathan, forgot to respond this earlier:

your cage looks over built so far.  what kind of car is it, what motor and fuel do you plan on running and how fast do you plan on going?  one concern i have is that your main hoop seems quite a bit away from the inside of the body shell.  i mention this because your body must be completely inside the outer plane of the cage so having it be many inches away from the inside of the body shell may mean that you're giving up inches of your own room.  you say you're not small guy.  does that mean you're tall or 'wide' or both?  either way, make sure that when you're seated and fully equipped with a fire suit, helmet and hans that no part of you sticks out beyond the cage.  no arm or shoulder sticking out over that diagonal door bar.  

Car is a 1991 Nissan 240sx.  Current F/GC record is 167mph, and current F/BGC record is 207mph.  After flirting with building an N/A engine and going for the F/GC first I changed course and I'm going boosted, on gasoline, in F/BGC.  

Motor is a Toyota Inline 6 - 2JZGTE

Me-- I'm semi-athletic built, sometimes more semi than athletic.  6' 1" and 230lbs, a little gut but not 'wide'.  

I'll go sit in the car again tomorrow and ensure we don't have a problem here.  It is a full containment seat though and the seat is inside the outer plane of the cage completely, I'm nearly 100% sure, but will verify tomorrow.

Here look,  there I am now!  (actually that was a few years ago, added 10 or 15lbs since then maybe to get to that 230....)

[Kiwi Paul]

Jerry, if Nathan is flat out doing Rookie Orientation it is likely Adam Rogers and perhaps even myself might be looking at your car when you get to Speed Week....That being said, the only place that I can see in your pictures that might need an additional gusset is at the junction of the drivers side halo bar and the main hoop. I would run it forward on the halo and up the corner of the main hoop. Bear in mind also that you are doing the right thing by getting Steve`s input on all your work here. We really would like you to be able to fly through Tech and run your car........We all are here to help, but Steve is the one to make those Emails count. Make sure you put all correspondence in your log book, too....

[FoundSoul]

Thanks Paul -- I think that confirms I understood Steve properly.

Log book... can I get one of those before the event?  Or should I just hang onto this correspondence and put it in the log book when I get one at the event?

[Tman]

Thanks Paul -- I think that confirms I understood Steve properly.

Log book... can I get one of those before the event?  Or should I just hang onto this correspondence and put it in the log book when I get one at the event?

I picked mine up last year since I was gettting info piling up and I am still building my car.

[dw230]

Jerry,

Contact JoAnn in the office for a log book. Many people pick theirs up while waiting in the tech lines. You will need photos of the car before modifications. You may be beyond the OEM configuration by now so photos of a like model will do.

DW

[Seldom Seen Slim]

And when you've got your brand new logbook -- please fill out the inside first page before you get into the tech line.  That first page has stuff that's permanent for the vehicle -- things like model and year (of the original donor car), VIN, and so on.  It's there to (sorta) identify that the car and the logbook go together (that you're not trying to slip someone else's book through 'cause, for maybe instance, you've been tagged with infractions that need to be addressed before the next race event - and you didn't do 'em).  The logbook will come complete with a numbered chassis sticker to place on a permanent item in the car (something that's not possible to change, like you might an engine, for instance).  Try a spot on the cage, maybe.  The inspectors will want to see that sticker and compare it to the number that's on your logbook - another way that they identify the vehicle as belonging to the book.

Back to my original rant:  Way too any times I've been inspecting and had someone arrive without page being filled out.  Then it's either way for him/her to fill it out, making everyone wait -- or kick her/him out of line to go fill in the paperwork and then return for insp.  Do it ahead of time and the inspectors will be happy(er).

[FoundSoul]

Will do guys, thanks!   I think happy tech inspectors sounds like a good thing....   

[NathanStewart]

Car is a 1991 Nissan 240sx.  Current F/GC record is 167mph, and current F/BGC record is 207mph.  After flirting with building an N/A engine and going for the F/GC first I changed course and I'm going boosted, on gasoline, in F/BGC.  

Motor is a Toyota Inline 6 - 2JZGTE

Yeah, S13's are small.  We have one here at the shop that I've been spending a lot of time with and yeah, it's not a big car.  S13 + 2JZ sounds like an awesome combo.  I witnessed first hand the jap JUN Supra (which was a street car) showing up in '99 or '00 and going 240mph.  Assuming you're going to go nuts with this 2JZ, you're basically building a potential 250mph car.  Going overboard on the cage is definitely a good idea.

Me-- I'm semi-athletic built, sometimes more semi than athletic.  6' 1" and 230lbs, a little gut but not 'wide'.  

I'll go sit in the car again tomorrow and ensure we don't have a problem here.  It is a full containment seat though and the seat is inside the outer plane of the cage completely, I'm nearly 100% sure, but will verify tomorrow.

Make sure the top of your helmet isn't above the top of the cage and make sure you left arm/shoulder aren't outside the plane of the cage.  One thing that a lot of folks miss is the requirement to have the door net release mounted inside the outer plane of the cage.

[FoundSoul]

I just got back from the fab shop.  We installed the seat and I climbed in.  My shoulder is completely inside the inside plane of the cage, much less the outside.  BUT, part of the supporting structure of the seat (Kirkey full containment) around the shoulders goes a bit beyond the outer plane (is that a problem).  The inside of the seat is inside or at the inner plane, but the outside of the square tube that's wrapped around the shoulders on that seat is outside the outer plane.  If the rule is 'my SHOULDERS must be inside the outer plane' then I should be fine.  That said, we're adding another bar to move that 'outer plane' further out, so that the outer edge of the seat is inside the outer plane too.  It'll run horizontally from the vertical bar to the left of my head, with a kink it in going back around to the main hoop.  As close as it can be run to the door.  We both really liked the addition...

Additionally, we're going a bit gusset crazy at this point.  It's not hard to add them now, to better to have more than is needed than to come up short in any way.

Thanks for the comment on the window net, that was actually my 'homework' for today.   I've got to go dig that section up in the rulebook as we'll be adding that soon, and the reminder to keep the release inside the outer plane is helpful! 

[dw230]

See, therein lies the issue of the rulebook vrs. real life.

If you are not completely contained we may have an problem.

Nathan?

DW

[FoundSoul]

Particularly with the addition of the bar at eye level to the left of my head, I'll be completely, 100%, inside the outside plane of the cage.  I already was, just a piece of the (super bulky) seat was not.  It will be now. 

If there was a problem-- I suppose I could use a different seat (not a full containment seat) that fit easier in the drivers compartment, but I was trying to maximize safety by stuffing the full containment seat with a funny car style 'cage within a cage' around it in the drivers bay. 

I don't think we'll have a problem though as the latest changes appear as though they should keep even the extreme edge of this bulky seat inside that outer plane of the cage.  I'm going to swing by today again, this time with my Helmet and neck restraint (Hybrid Pro) to do a little more fitment testing.

[NathanStewart]

Nathan?

Reading what Jerry first described with the seat being outside the cage sounds bad.  His proposed fix for this sounds good.  Without seeing it it's hard to say what's really good or bad.  They say pictures are worth a thousand words or in other words pics would be helpful.

[FoundSoul]

I was up there again today and we further discussed our gameplan.  We'll have all of that big bulky seat inside the outer plane of the cage.

I'll take pics next week and post up.

[Kiwi Paul]

Look forward to seeing pics, Jerry. Looking really good thus far....