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[URY914]

Jereon,
I see your point and have seen many, many 914s with large diameter bars coming down from the top of the main to the top of the front hoop. It is my feeling that for my car which is only an autox car, that two long bars on each side is not needed. One of the main goals is to keep it light and keep the weight as low as possible to the ground for a lower center of gavatiy. (I even cut the floor out and lowered the battery by an inch.) It may not be stiffest design but like all designs it is a compromise of all the main goals I was trying to achieve. If you were to make a scale of stiffness with perfect being 100, my car may be 95 but it was done at a much lower weight. As it is an autox car, I won't have the loads on the car that a road racer would experance going into a long sweeping corner at 120mph.

I've been taking pictures of 914 roll cages for years and they are all the same and are all differnent at the same time. And everyone will tell you thier way was the best for them.
Thanks for the discussion,
Paul

[Jeroen]

Paul,

You might like to read these two threads as well...

thread 1
thread 2

cheers,

Jeroen

[Mike T]

All right! A dedicated autocrosser! I like what you've done so far, going down your own path. I look forward to seeing futher developments.


A few questions:

What organization and class are you building the car for?

What engine are you running?

What tires/wheels are you going to end up with?

Mike T

[URY914]

I run in PCA and SCCA, in SCCA it is a DP.

1.7, CW crank, big valve heads, 44 Webers, Crane Cam, etc, etc, etc...

Those are 15 x 7 Revolutions with a 5" backspace and in the rear I run them with a 1/4 spacer.

[Mike T]

Those are 15 x 7 Revolutions with a 5" backspace and in the rear I run them with a 1/4 spacer.

Race rubber or DOT?

Mike T

[J P Stein]

I really have to get ulf weighed. My WAG puts it close to my class (SCCA FP) minumum of 2100 lbs.
If it's too heavy, I'll use Paul's car as an inspiration.....humm, no sawzall smiley ? This is unacceptable. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

The tires look like V racers to me. Not badly worn, either.
Light cars are fairly easy on those tires. I have prolly 60 passes on mine and they're about half gone.

[brant]

JP,

do get it weighed and share..
I'm trying to collect some 6cylinder weights for a baseline and comparison..

I've heard it is very difficult to get a metal (no fiberglass panels allowed for me) bodied -6 to: 2000 lbs, and would love to see what others have been able to accomplish.

brant

[Brad Roberts]

Good luck Brant.

Our 3.0 factory 914/6 narrow body car with full cage weighs 2300lbs.

All steel. Its a tank.

B

[URY914]

The tires are DOT Victor Racers 225/50/15. They are a year old had have about 40 runs on them.
JP, you're right, with a light car you get very little wear on them. I'll replace these with slicks when the time comes.
Paul

[J P Stein]

Hey Mike (T), other than you avitar teaser, there seems to be a lack of pics of your car.

As a founding member of the splinter groupe, CMM Operating 914 Drivin' Coneheads, I deem this unacceptable.

[brant]

Brad,

I said 2000 lbs was my GOAL. It may not be a realistic one.. but hey.. you gotta have goals..

working against me is: an aluminum block (67S) motor, and a twin front oil cooler set up.

working for me is a whole lot of lightening tricks, hundreds of holes drilled into non structural areas, and 15 years of careful notes and fabrication tricks I've been compiling for this car...

I've already pulled the wiring loom, dash structure, headlight structure, cut out all welded in nuts, cut out hinge nuts, etc... etc...

we'll see, but I gotta have goals..
what weights have other people gotten with metal 6cylinder race cars?

brant

[Mike T]

I don't have many good pics of my car in computer format. I lost access to a scanner and a good digital camera when I lost my job in October. Here's a bigger version of the Avatar.

Mike T

[Mike T]

This picture is at the 2000 SCCA NeDivs with the old paint scheme. Tires are 23x9-15 Goodyear Eagle slicks in 210 compound. They work well and are cheap. I buy them used from a guy in Wisconsin. Front wheels are 15"x7" Centerline and rear are 15"x8" widened from the stock 1975 steel wheel. The car weighs 1775 lbs as it is now and except for the flares, cowl fairing and bumper is still all steel. I figure with fiberglass lids, doors, a bit more trimming and replacing those heavy rear wheels I can get down to 1680. 1775 may seem heavy but consider the Chevy V6 and cooling system adds weight over the -4 that I took out.

Mike T

[Tony C]

Hey Guys, I agree with Jeroen. You really do not need to do a full X for the door bars in this application. The structural stiffness compared to the weight gained is not worth it. Although we are talking about "only" 15lbs.

-Tony (anyone have that human cloning down yet, I need a twin for the next few weeks, waaaaay to much work!)

[Jeroen]

Tony,

If you figure out the cloning part, will you PLEASE lemme know (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

cheers,

Jeroen

[Brad Roberts]

All this work on 914's, maybe we should help out the Raleons with cloning ?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pain30.gif)

[URY914]

The tubing I'm using for the X bars in the doors is one piece of 1.5" by .095 wall DOM from the main hoop at about the top of the door to the bottom of the front hoop where it meets the longitunal. Then the second tube is a 1" by .095 from the top of the front hoop to the bottom of the main hoop. So this is probably less than 10 pounds total.

The main hoop and the tube from the top of the main to the middle of the front hoop is 1.75"x .125", the front hoop is 1.5" x .095", the tubes going from the top of the front to the shock towers is 1" x .095, the small diaginals from the middle of the front hoop to the shock towers is .75" x ?, and the bar from the middle of the front hoop across the passenger side to the main hoop is 1" x .095".
Paul