Oh and I'm working on a fairing for the targa bar.

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Need to cut the top of that seat down. All of this concern about aero started with the Sparco seat. It's headrest is bigger than my pilot chute on my skydiving rig. I want the air to flow through the car. These are the patterns for cutting out the foam pieces that will be glassed over just like the foil.

Looking good so far! Make sure there is room behind the front wing for the air to escape behind the wing, or you won't get good airflow under the wing.

Another aero thing you can do if you're so inclined - put a fairing behind driver's head, mounted to the engine lid. I did this on my 914. If memory serves, I bought one intended for an airplane and modified it to suit.

I couldn't find a good pic with my car's headrest/fairing in place, but there are a few pics of my car in the thread below to give you an idea. The first pic shows the engine lid with the headrest/fairing sitting on top of the rollcage while I was working on the car.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...;hl=stownsen914

cool man

You know I expected someone to sound me about "Hold my beer" as I only drink Cazadores. And anyone that says I got this, hold my beer is usually about to do something really stupid. Well I think I was correct.

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and

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Now to do it in metal…

I do GOT this. whers that beer???

Are the wing mounts attaching underneath the wing? Maybe you could mount at the end plates?

I must have been confused, forgot what I had to say. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Really coming out much better than I thought it would. I'm planning on sandwiching a plate of aluminum (6" x 12") in between the Swansneck and the end caps about 3/8" above bottom of the wheels, about 2" off the ground. I can drill through the Swansneck, the plate and tap the end caps for adjusting the angle of attack of the wing. WOW!!!
For now it will be painted trim black.

Looking good! Will be looking forward to hearing how it works.

Got the pivot worked out this morning. Now I have the 2 templets that I need to finish them in aluminum.

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Is the support structure beefy enough to handle the lateral stress? ... Will it handle the recurring side-loads whipping through tight turns?


... 'asking for a friend'

Hey Mark, probably over thinking all of this but I don't believe that I am over building it. Hows Dianne?
I have said this before and probably will again. If I knew what I was doing I would never have started this project. It has been a really fun project though and not very expensive. I know that I don't think along the lines of the average person but I really don't mind…
I started all of this to add a little weight to the front of Carerror. Now it looks like I might be the recipient of the bonus of some Mystical Downforce. May The Downforce be with me. When I lower the front end I might have to raise the wing. Easy by just moving the bolt hole and the stop at the pivot down.

Off the wall, out of my mind, out in left field or just thinking out of the box????

Probably another month before I get to drive her.

More pics, the wing is setting 2 3/4" off the ground with an angle of attack at 10 degrees, 9" from the bumper. The end of the Swansneck has a hole in it that will bolt to the plug I will fill the square tube with. Back to making parts.
Swansneck, I guess I can call it anything I want. It's a Big Falcon Swansneck.

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Nice jack huh?

Dianne is doing fine - had a surprise birthday gig for her big 60th after I got back from AZ last fall. Rented a theater from the city and had a friend's band play - had a great time.

Glad to see you're keeping busy and goofing around on stuff in the garage - I'm doing the same, never gets boring. I'm currently converting the v-nose trailer into a multi-purpose toy-box of sorts.

Currently working on the 'bathroom'

Fold-down shower pan, 'deployed'

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Shower pan, 'stowed' ... so a car will still fit inside

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Have you thought about adding some gas-shocks or springs on the wing assembly? ... so it articulates with body roll?

Yes, but that was a secret cause I haven't got that far yet. Something from behind the wing up to just above the pivot. Going to cut out the brackets today. I plugged the box beam yesterday need to drill and tap it and I will be ready to do the end caps. Still have to do some more glass work on the wing to make it finished then I can mount this beautiful piece of mechanical artistry.

Carerror does not have much body roll to speak of but putting the wing that close to the ground it needs to be flexible.

Picture sucks but this is the progress on Carerror. Mock-up of the front wing is almost done. Not sure about the location of the pivot yet, my want to move it lower.

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Much better picture.

here ya go bro..

Plates... I was thinking that I could put a spring behind the bumper between the bumper and the valance and just pull the wing back down when bumped up. It would only show as a wire.

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So cool.

Joe,

I am not trying to be a negative-nancy but those brackets will need some serious reinforcement...it took me about a year to fine tune set-up. I see flexing (in every which way) wing struts often.

T

Thanks Tony, you are someone I would seriously like to impress. Everything I am doing here can be beefed up as it's all 1/4" and to tell the truth, if I wasn't doing this I would be board to death doing nothing.
Unless I go to Qualcomm I don't think the car will ever see the north side of 100. I am worried about flex on the rear wing but I haven't even started it yet.

Getting ready to cut out the brackets. Let's see how the picture came out. Ordered a new camera this morning really need to make this easier.

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Showed this picture to my brother and he called them, "Horse head brackets." I really like it but you just can't see it on the Carerror. So it's lost in the translation. I didn't plan any of this, it just happens.
Love the swoopiness of the Swansneck and it sounds os much better than Horse head bracket.

Making up the templates except for the straight lines I did it all freehand and scribing. My work has come along way. We'll see when I go to bolt them in.

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Difficult, yes but unlike turbo charging a 914 it can be done.
The Brackets for the Swansneck now in aluminum. A lot of detail left to do but you got the point and I got the Force. Down Force.

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This has been fun and there is a lot of people watching.

Looking very nice ... One question - will there be load on the end plates with your design that requires them to be made from the 1/4" stuff?

No, it's just what I had laying around.

mock up

No longer in mock up. I have the pieces for the other side and this is what I am going to use. Now I have to make it all fit together.
More pictures tomorrow.

It's not engineered ... he's just winging it

Yeah what he said!!!
The first time I ever heard of an unsponsored racer they were called a privateer, lately I heard TC call them underfunded. My hole life is underfunded. I scrounge material where ever I can find it. All I needed for this project is the wheels and stuff for the fiberglass. It has been a really cool project and even though it isn't complete yet I believe it is going to make the car appear much more intimadating. Especially when I finish the fairing and the rear wing.

It's already scary black, so if you make it look even more intimidating, you're gonna have to classify it an AR-914, assault teener.

She is not going to stay black, at some point in time I would like to be able to put some color on her. Thomas and Dan wanted her flat black, I was thinking flat primer yellow. At this point I am thinking about a blue and orange. It seems my time estimates are much worse than Eions. You know, Island time, Elon time and Joe Sharp's time. The slowest.

OK so I got curious and asked Google. Looked up the information on a Piper cub and it can lift 14.2 pounds per square foot of wing area. I have 3.8 sf of foil for a grand total of 53 pounds of force. I'll weigh all of the parts and post it later. Right now some resin is drying and it will be a few hours before I can move it.
The foil weighed 7 lbs and the brackets weighed in at 11 and at this time there is no hardware. So roughly 20 pounds added to the front of the car. When I started this project I was thinking about 15 would be good.

It would be cool to have the ability to control the angle of attack from the cockpit

... kind of like when I could adjust the ignition timing's advance/retard settings on my '67 bus to find that 'sweet spot' (when heading over the Grapevine on the way up to the Kern River)

Damn Mark, I was just getting to the point that I could actually start fitting the brackets to Carerror. Maybe I can make it adjustable later, good idea though.
Pics from a new camera. No idea how this is going to come out. Last time I changed cameras the pics came out sideways.
Too Falcon big…
Changed cameras back

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Joe, go into the camera's menu and reduce the image file size - or save the image(s) on your computer and reduce the pixel size(s) in there

Thanks Mark, done in camera. I'll do a test pic in the morning.

Very cool project. Love the DIY aspects. I'm a total dumpster diver for parts too.

Team Underfunded!

Ummmm

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Trying a new camera out, so bear with me please.

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OK lets see how this came out.

I like it….

Cool. So are the 'hinges' there so you can fold the assembly up over the front trunk?

The hinge is to keep from doing damage to the car when the wing gets slammed by some drainage gutter or bump on course. The wing is only 2" off the ground and I have seen cars with their front wheels off the ground from uneven payment. This morning I got the spring worked out for the power to pull the wing back down when it gets bumped.
Latest picture.

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That's better.

I worked on the wires until I got board then I started to do the targa bar fairing. The wires are looking really good but at one time I got burned out working on them continually and haven't been able to work on them for months. I have some Fiberglass work to do also. So maybe by changing up the projects I'll be able to avoid burnout.

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So I have been working on the wire looms doing heat shrink and there is little reason to take pictures because as you progress the colors disappear. Got the license plate light wire done.

So, in essence, you're saying you had wiring issues that were 'looming' ?

Yes this is a Looming event. Only have under the dash to go. Already sorted into 3 groups and ready for heat shrinking.

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Hopefully I can finish this tomorrow.

Are you going to wrap the harness(es) in some of that corrugated split loom stuff ... or ?


I started on some electrical wiring stuff today too ... in the trailer though - the 120VAC part. Installed and wired up a small breaker box, transfer switch and a 3kW (RMS) power inverter. Will get the outlet boxes and Romex and run tomorrow, then on to the DC/solar stuff ...

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... also installed a slide-out A/C unit

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