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Originally posted by JWiley:
Greg, it seems to me that it would be a real challenge to get a forward brace thru the firewall to the shock tower; is that what you did? If not, can you simply bolt thru the firewall at any convenient location with a plate welded to the end of the brace, while welding (or bolting) the other end to the cage? I'm thinking along the lines of fabricating a completely bolt-on brace (similar to the bolt-in cages like AutoPower ans IO Port), but don't know if that would be legal in LP. Any pictures you could e-mail of your installation would be a big help.
I just added a simple horizontal tube from my front down tube to my firewall. Similar to (but not as extreme) as the photos in the 'Tech Center' roll cage photos in this website. Honda's are much different than Spridgets so I can't offer a suggestion on your car other than to take a look at what other spridgets are doing or have done, down in your area.
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I've already have a fuel cell in a steel can, but it has a FuelSafe "Sportsman" poly inner liner, which my local Tech guy says is inadequate; it must be a ballistic inner liner, which is an expensive pain, and, I think, unnecessary. Any ideas here?
Are you referring to the bladder? I would think that a bladder legal for IT would be legal for prod (or perhaps in your case not legal for prod and not really legal for IT??) Most of the cells I have seen from ATL or Fuel Safe indicate 'approved' for SCCA. They don't differentiate between the classes. If your cell is not approved for SCCA, it's not legal for IT. I wouldn't think the bladder would be that expensive to upgrade, certainly less than a complete cell. $200-$300??
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I have a rather old Tech Bulletin outlining LP HP specs for the Spridget; is the min. weight still 1535 lbs.? I could get way under this by getting rid of all the mandated removeable stuff.
Don't know, don't have mine handy.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The scattershield is a new one on me. I can't recall ever seeing a production Spridget with plate welded around the tunnel--is this something new? </font>
It has been a requirement going back as far as when my dad raced a bugeye in the late 70's. It doesn't have to be fancy. A square plate 6" x 6" bolted to the side of the tranny tunnel will suffice, either inside the car or underneath the car. Again, take a peak down in the foot well of a spridget in your area to see what is common.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">One last thing: I fear running slicks due to the greatly increased cornering loads that will be put on the weak stock Spridget suspension components. Double bearing hubs (legal?) would fix the back end, but what about the front? I saw some kind of strange additional "extra arm" support piece attatched to the stock lever-arm shocks on a neat LP HP Spridget in Savannah last year, but don't think that is legal, nor is substituting MGB Shocks. </font>
The MGB shocks are legal. You can run any shock as long as it is the same type i.e. lever arm, strut, etc. You are allowed to beef up the control arms. You cannot move the pick-up points like the full prep cars. Racing slicks have a completely different feel compared to DOT radials. I have run Hoosiers on a friends spridget, and Avons on my car. I found the Avons to be a good 'trainer' tire to get used to slicks. They don't have quite the grip as a Hoosier, lasted pretty well, and were very light (4lbs lighter than Hoosiers!) I wouldn't worry about the extra stress compared to a 8" sticky soft Hoosier or Goodyear. From what I gather, the weakness on spridgets besides the rear bearings is front spindles, based on a recent conversation on the prod web site. Sounds like these are weak regardless of what tire you run. I would check with the spridget guys in your area to find out what they are doing.
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I currently have a message in to the Comp Board regarding the logic of some of the required changes, like the cell and additional cage braces. I'm all for safety, but by inference we must then consider a legal IT car to be "unsafe", which I don't for one minute believe, I'm sure they will fall all over themselves to accommodate me in the next FastTrack. Does anyone know if there is an archive of Tech Bulletins accessible on the SCCA website?
Thanks again,
James Wilet
ITC Midget #72/Atlanta Region
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I agree to some extent. In other words, how does the car know it is safe when it wears IT stickers but unsafe when it where HP stickers http://Forum.ImprovedTouring.com/it/smile.gif The implied reasoning is that the prod cars ARE capable of going much faster than their IT equivelants. I remember all the yelling and screaming that occurred when the prod cars had to add fuel cells and full 8-point cages. That's just the way it is. I don't know about archives other than SCCA fastrack on the SCCA website for monthly updates. I would spend the $25 for a GCR before building any racecar, or at least borrow a friends. I suspect you could get last years book from somebody for free and use it as a starting point, but you really need to get a current GCR.
[This message has been edited by Greg Gauper (edited March 04, 2004).]