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PRTs new SVT track car...

Cage wall thickness is a big one that can bite you. Using the wrong wall thickness on one tube can make it necessary to redo the entire cage before the car can be legal to race.

The other side of the same coin, is if you don't build to maximize the rules in whatever series you intend to race, then the car will likely never be competitive, regardless of how good a driver you are.

But, then again, wtf do I know about building race cars . . .
 
I see what you mean....

As i've said most everything i'm doing is able to be un-done, so when the time comes, i can re-buld to suit the racing i'll be doing.

If you've got any other tips, pass them on please. :)

~Josh
 
Judging by your progress on your SVT I believe its safe to say you know nothing about building any cars. Removing the grill doesn't mean you "built a race car!" as you like to claim :)
 
Well considering your buliding basicly a roll bar setup, if you did any door to door type racing a full cage with door bars would than be needed. But since its just an open track/auto cross fun day car at this point. It will be fine. Its always fun tearing shiz apart though :laugh:
 
Steeda... said:
Removing the grill doesn't mean you "built a race car!" as you like to claim :)
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I don't remove the grills, the drivers do that out on the race track.



Josh,

No dig intended, just trying to save you a lot of frustration later . . . The contours don't have a good rule package in any series currently that I'm aware of, so it's going to be very hard to make the car competitive as it is.

On your cage design; i've never been a fan of bolt-in, but if you have to do it that way, make sure you make back up plates and sandwich the body where you bolt through. And copying cage designs is a good idea, just make sure you are copying the best available. Look at some of the Koni Challenge ST 4-dr cars for some good examples. The Kensai Racing Acura TSX's come to mind, as do the Turner motorsport 330ci's.
 
Rara said:
No dig intended, just trying to save you a lot of frustration later . . .
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None taken

I understand where you're coming from and at the moment, bolt in is really my best option. I'll be utilizing existing bolting locations and reinforcing where needed. The half cage will be a 6-pt bolt in design fitted between the b-pillars and extending back from there. It should be a nice looking peace and provide a lot of additional chassis stiffness as well as some added safety.

~Josh
 
Don't expect a bolt-in design, especially a rear only to add anywhere near the stiffness that a full welded in cage would provide. . .

I really would love to build a CSVT race car myself, but I just can't come up with a good enough justification for it to do it all the way. I can't come up with a scenario where it makes sense other than as an open-track event toy; In which case, doing it all to the nth degree doesn't make much sense . . .
 
Rara said:
Don't expect a bolt-in design, especially a rear only to add anywhere near the stiffness that a full welded in cage would provide. . .
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I dont...

Rara said:
I really would love to build a CSVT race car myself, but I just can't come up with a good enough justification for it to do it all the way. I can't come up with a scenario where it makes sense other than as an open-track event toy; In which case, doing it all to the nth degree doesn't make much sense . . .
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I'm doing this for two reasons:

My Black SVT was built to be my track fun car, and my SE was to be my daily driver. In the middle of building my SVT i totaled my SE....so i had a retardedly harsh daily driver(untill i picked up my Festiva) and didn't want to soften the car up as i loved the way it handled on the track.

Now i still love to take my SVT out for cruising, but the harshness on the street makes it almost irritating to drive(i noticed it much less when i was driving it 400 miles a week), and it's certainly not a cruising car.

This Silver car was free and has a salvage title. So why not build a track only fun car and go as all out on it as i can? I'm going to revert the black car to be a comfortable, but still nimble cruiser that i can take out of nice days and car shows to promote PRT.

As I've stated the car is being built for a bottom line of ZERO dollars...i can't maintain that budget and do all the things I'd like to, so I'm doing the best i can with what i have.

I have the option to have the best of both worlds...a comfortable more show oriented SVT for cruising and a track-only whore...why should i not do it?
 
Pole120 said:
I have the option to have the best of both worlds...a comfortable more show oriented SVT for cruising and a track-only whore...why should i not do it?
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I didn't mean to imply anything about your project; you are in a totally different situation from me, and have different ultimate goals than I would. i was merely venting my frustration that there just plain isn't any good racing classes where an CSVT can really be competitive. Focus is a totally different story though; NASA recently started up a Spec Focus class, and SCCA rules have the focus decently competitive in SSC. Some friends of mine are building a spec focus car right now . . . I'm super jealous, lol. Though they did try to convince me to donate my built-up MTX to the cause, lol.
 
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