University of SC Legends Autocross project tracking thread.

[tbevirt]

Havent really made an update in a while. Not a whole lot has changed. We went out to tune the carbs but as we let it get nice and warm it started to run fine. I think at some later point we will open up the carbs and clean the jets but for now it seems to run well enough for our first autocross though we may get new spark plugs first. We have the body getting painted now. Steve Fricker of St. Andrews Express Body Shop is doing it for us free. Hes really a good guy (I bought my current car from him) and if your in the Columbia area you should consider giving him your business. We also have purchased 3 15x6 steel wheels for our car, though we will need about 1" spacers and new studs to prevent suspension rubbing the tires.


This is one of the factory tires and wheels next to a 15" wheel with a Hoosier SM6 mounted.


Our super sweet Nissan steelie mounted up.












The above is the body prep work and then the freshly pained metal trip parts. We will also be cleaning the frame and bucket soon as the first time we drove it was in the mud and its now a total mess.

In other news our budget has moved passed shoe string. The club has no funds so we should probably start looking for sponsors haha. Any way all we need to run right now is a new axle castle nut, a new caliper, some longer studs and two 1" spacers, and one more 15" wheel. We all chip in a little and it works, everything is relatively cheap that we need.

The caliper we will be ordering monday or tuesday. The longer stud situation we are looking at a couple of options. My brother changed the studs on his Subaru recently, so we will see if his old studs will fit. If that doesnt work then we will see if miata studs fit, we have a good supply of those. If that fails then we will get cheap NAPA or Autozone ones. As for the last 15" we hope to scour Pull a Part again next week to find one more.

[justfreaky]

Looking and sounding like the body and paint are comming along.
Glad you found a sponsor for your paint! 

I still debate the 15" wheels. Not that they can't work... But you are going to change the ride heights and gearing.

Steve

[tbevirt]

Looking and sounding like the body and paint are comming along.
Glad you found a sponsor for your paint! 

I still debate the 15" wheels. Not that they can't work... But you are going to change the ride heights and gearing.

Steve

I was worried about OD on the 15"s at first, but now I don't feel so bad about them. The diameter difference is pretty small due to the shorter sidewalls on the 15" Hoosiers. On the other hand, the width is an issue. They rub the trailing arm at full lock. If we were looking to run on more than a regional level Id me more worried about it. The car will likely be running SCCA A-Mod class, and in our region no one has seen a legends car run autocross and we only have one or two A-Mod cars turn up a season. So we will mostly be running against each other. If we decide to compete on a larger scale then hopefully we will have the funding to buy 13" tires and run closer to a stock class. It will cost us $40 to get 4 15" wheels and tires will be free, so for now its kind of one of the few options.

[justfreaky]

Got a machine shop at school?
Perhaps they could machine you some spacers/ wheel adapters. 
I see the difference in tire heights. You might be able to make that work.
Grill and nerf bars look good!
I would replace spark plugs and still sync carbs.
Did you bump the idle up?

Steve

[tbevirt]

Got a machine shop at school?
Perhaps they could machine you some spacers/ wheel adapters. 
I see the difference in tire heights. You might be able to make that work.
Grill and nerf bars look good!
I would replace spark plugs and still sync carbs.
Did you bump the idle up?

Steve

We do have a meachine shop at school, though we have a lathe and 3 axis mill in this shop so I'm not sure what we couldn't make where the car is. I also have a friend in industry with a water jet, Ill probably just send him a CAD file and ask him to cut us two. It would have been awesome to find 0 offset wheels, but we couldn't do that at $10 a wheel.

We are replacing plugs for sure, and I fully intend for us to sync the carbs. Further more, Id like us to clean the jets and everything. After all it has been sitting for a while. The idle sped up as we let the motor warm up and then rev it out a bit when it was warm. We did also adjust up the idle a little. I think  jhidde has some video of the last time we ran it now that it has the higher smoother idle.

[justfreaky]

Do you still have your noise issue, or has it smoothed out since warming the car up and turning up the idle a bit?
Wish I had some of the resources you have available ! 

Steve

[tbevirt]

The sound has mostly gone a way. We are still waiting for our professor to find his carb sticks. If he cant, we may just build a set.

Right now the car is back from the painters, and we just machined a set of spacers for the wheels to help clearance. The only things we have before the autocross this weekend are new spark plugs and new studs for the wheels. The wheels are getting our used Hoosiers mounted soon as well.


Heres the spacer, looks like it will miss the suspension now but will still hit the collector. Not sure what to do about that.







This event we will make sound ok (103db). Later events I am worried about (could be as low as 92db if I remember correctly). For those we might cut a hole in the fender and turn the collector up and fap up a slip on muffler.

[justfreaky]

Paint turned out very nice!!!
Not sure what to tell you on the tire issue. I am still not keen on using the 15" wheels. Gotta do what you gotta do.
The spacers turned out nice. Kudos to the machine shop!

Muffler... Just find one that will work for the 92 db level and work with that.

Lookin' Good Guys!!!
Let us know how the first track tests go.

Steve

[amp racing]

that car looking real sharp...nice job..

joe

[VMS Motorsports]

I like the 15's.
I would think there should be less sidewall flex with all the turning done in autocross with the lower profile tire...no?
Can't wait to get the pic's with the VMS Motorsports stickers on it  

[justfreaky]

Jim,

According to the post, the tires and wheels clear the suspension, but hit the collector on the exhaust.

Steve

[tbevirt]

Jim,

According to the post, the tires and wheels clear the suspension, but hit the collector on the exhaust.

Steve

To be clear, we havent seen it rub with the 15s because we havent mounted them with the spacer. There are rub marks on the collector from the 13s though, so we assume that it will be as bad or worse with the 15s.

[justfreaky]

To be clear, we havent seen it rub with the 15s because we havent mounted them with the spacer. There are rub marks on the collector from the 13s though, so we assume that it will be as bad or worse with the 15s.
[/quote]

The 15" tires are a little taller than the 13" tires were. Unless your spacers move the wheel and tire out a fair distance, I wouild think that they would also rub on the collector. This will cause problems in tight turns.

Steve

[justfreaky]

Hi Guys,

Any updates for us?
I hope all is going well.

Steve

[jhidde]

Hi Guys,

Any updates for us?
I hope all is going well.

Steve

Things are starting to get hectic as we approach the end of the semester, so the updates may get a little sparse for a little while. Firstly, it poured rain the entire day, so our Hoosiers were already unhappy to begin with. However, things only got worse from there. Brakes went out (if we ever had them?) while our first driver was driving. We haven't gotten a chance to inspect the brakes since then, but I will be sure to post an update once we get back to the shop and take a look at them.