Are you planning on having the car redi coated as well? How much do you have estimated so far in the dipping, coating, and painting?

 

love this sort of build. This is what it is all about.

Andrew Brilliant is doing some work for me if no one has put you in contact with him, PM me and I will.

 

Thanks! I am a big fan of Andrew's work, but his service is probably out of my price range, especially after all the $$ that it's going to take to accomplish the basics of this build. It would be interesting, though, to get his opinion/input on the aero package I'm putting together with DHP Composites. I am of course going to borrow/steal ideas heavily from Cyber Evo, Nemo Evo, and the GSC Imprezza.

 

For tonight's project I started thinking about steering column needs for the race car. As I have an Evo IX with ACD I need to keep a Steering Angle Sensor to send an output to the ACD controller. I wanted to run a custom lightweight aluminum column/mount setup but found it would be very difficult (and $$$) to come up with a solution for the SAS.

My next-best idea was to deconstruct the OEM steering column and see how much weight I could remove while keeping the necessary SAS components. As this will be a race-only car I don't need the blinker, light, horn, airbag or windshield washer controls . . .

The stock column including Keys wheel WorksBell tilt hub weighs in at 16.5#.

I removed the steering wheel, then the QD/tilt, then the hub that bolts to the splined steering shaft. On the backside of the hub you can see machined indentations to that mate up with protrusions on the Steering Angle Sensor:


And on the SAS you can see the protrusions that "clock" it in the right location relative to the hub:


I then removed the SAS, light and WW stalks, and the rest of the plastic housing. On the back of the plastic housing is another rotary switch labeled ABS. I imagine the output from this is used as part of the EBD mapping on cars with ABS. I don't know for sure if it is this or the front SAS, or both that are used by the ACD controller. More research to do. . .


The steering shaft at this point (bare except for the stock mounting/tilt bracketry weighed in at 7.75#. I then proceeded to cut off all the heavy OEM mounting/tilt bracketry:


The shaft now was at 5# including the outer bearing collar. This is removed by removing a C-clip/snap ring from the front, then tapping the press-fit shaft until it slides out the back.The bare steering shaft now is now down to 3.75#



When it's all said and done and I keep only what's necessary I think I should be able to have the full steering assembly (shaft, SAS, spacer, QD, wheel) come in under 10 pounds. . . not too bad. Of course not as pro-looking as an anodised billet aluminum steering shaft/mount

 

The stock blinker/light control assembly is surprisingly light and modular. It would be fairly easy to adapt to a custom steering column.

This might be helpful for others following here.
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/10540981-post244.html

As far as the manual shows, the ACD and ABS both use these signals.

I don't think aluminum is allowed in steering columns by NASA and SCCA?

 

Andrew is cheaper than you think.... even cheaper if you split costs on a common design.

I have a rear diffuser from David (DHP) that has just shipped here too. Up to Andrew if we use it or total redesign of the bottom of the car and rear end.

 

Well the car has been out at the roll cage shop for a couple months. Almost done, then I can start the LONG process of putting it all back together again with all the sweet go-fast parts I have planned. For the cage I am using Thompson Racing Fabrication in Milan, MI. Ryan has been great to work with! He certainly does what's needed to make sure the customer is happy with the end result (as well as looking out for the safety of the driver).

I changed the design of the cage partway through the install. Ryan had to cut out a couple tubes and re-do some of the work, but he didn't complain and just said "Whatever you want done, just let me know." After checking out the wild EVO of UMS Tuning while I was in Phoenix for the Modified Magazine Street Car Shootout I worked with Ryan to completely redesign the driver's door bars. It will end up being a modified "NASCAR-style" bar setup. I will have more on that in a week or so when it is finished. For now I will just throw in some crappy cell-phone pics of the work-in-progress:

 

Great build bro, even cooler that you are doing a lot of work on your own!

 

OK, here are some pics of the cage installed by Ryan at Thompson Racing Fabrication in Milan, MI. TRF is mainly a rally car shop, but decided to try something new with my Time Attack build. Ryan and I collaborated on the design with some idea from each of us being used in the final structure.

Originally I wanted a NASCAR-style door bar on the driver side to allow my fat a$$ easier ingress and egress of the vehicle, similar to this:



But after talking with Ryan about failure modes and where the bends of the NASCAR bar would end up in a hard side impact I changed my mind. Here is a pic showing where the bend near the B-pillar would go in a side impact:



And here is a picture of that exact thing happening after a bad crash:



So, I decided to modify my plans. Ryan wanted to do a standard X side bar setup as shown here:



But a couple weeks ago I was at UMS Tuning down in the Phoenix area driving and supporting the Bruzewski EVO in the Modified Magazine Ultimate Streetcar Shootout. I had the opportunity to check out the UMS Tuning Unlimited Class T/A EVO and took a LOT of notes. Once I got back to MI I called up Ryan and had him change the door bars to this new design:



Here is approximately where the seat will be. You can see the door bars, B-pillar, head gussets, and the main hoop all serve together to protect the driver compartment. You can also see how the impact load will be dispersed away from me. (sorry if my MSPaint skillz fail compared to other's AutoCAD skillz):



And finally here are some more pics of the rest of the finished cage:









I will add more detailed pictures after I get the car back this weekend. . .

 

Very nice! I thought those guys were Rally guys when you mentioned the name of the shop.

Interesting concept for the door bars. What are you going to do for the doors to work? I also assume you are planning on running a pedal box with being back so far?

I can't wait to see your car when its done.

 

We do more Rally work than otherwise, but that's likely just due to my roots in that motorsport. Above all else, I am a fabricator, with superb welding skills, very strong background in mechanics, and engineering. Ultimately, a motorhead. I love a challenge, and seeing projects come to fruition others might have turned away. We've worked on just about every kind of car, for every kind of motorsport, there are no limitations here!

 

Holy cage batman! Can't wait to see this thing dipped and repainted...

 

Lovn' the cage also!

 

Good stuff. UMS Tony's car is wild.

 

Here is the body on the rotisserie before work:


In the process of getting the body ready for paint. In the first picture you see the top (passenger side) floorpan with the undercoating removed with a wire wheel and dremel after powerwashing. The lower (drivers side) floor pan has been stripped only using a pressure washer (the strongest industrial unit I could rent from Home Depot):


Undercoating residue after powerwashing with the strongest industrial powerwasher I could rent:


Front fenderwell showing the "ear" and the 3-layer sheetmetal rib that I massaged. The ear was cut off and then the two layers pounded together and seam welded. The 3-layer rib is spot welded together from the factory. I used a good old BFH to flatten it down. Later down the road I may smooth it over with body filler before priming and painting. Not sure yet. . .


Ear pounded together before welding:


Lower seam pounded flat:


This was done for aerodynamics purposes to help the air evacuate the wheel well unfettered by the random flanges and tabs behind the wheel. I may even chop and contour the body a bit to create a more contoured area here, but not sure yet. . .

Rear wheel well after powerwashing, before wire wheel:


Rear wheel well after wire wheel to remove undercoating residue:


Entire chassis after undercoating removal by hand. Every inch was sprayed with a super high power pressure washer (way back in January), then the roll cage installed, then the remainder of the undercoating residue removed by hand with a large wire wheel on a 4.5" grinder, then with a final finishing with a wire wheel on a small dremel tool. The trunk floor was not touched as it will be cut out for the rear mounted radiator setup down the road. . .