OK, short intermission to run LeMons and win a judges choice award.

Yup, the guitar is fully functional and shoots flames about 4'.

Back in the shop, this happened last night:

She's in. Next up, figuring out the cooling system. We have a nice new Afco radiator with -16AN fittings and a Davies Craig water pump. If that setup sounds pretty familiar, it's because we're mirroring what I did with the RX7, only the radiator is different. Ordering more parts!

Pitter patter, lets get at 'er.

That engine won't cool itself

This will allow us to figure out routing for the coolant lines and where to mount the Davies Craig electric water pump. We'll be scooping air from below and venting it through the hood.

That bumper is long gone now too. We'll make a functional one.

Is that an old rear beam for the bumper?

Yes.

A friendly photographer shared some photos from a special track/autocross day at the new track in Canaan NH.

Meanwhile, back in ze shoppe.

Oil cooler mount/crash structure. I could be accused of over building in some cases..

And then we plumb it

And we mount the carb for the full effect.

The rest of the cooling system will be tackled next. The radiator is at my fabricator specialist AKA guy who can tig weld, for some modifications. We're also making aluminum hard lines to run under the car.

After that, it's wiring and fuel system. Then exhaust, which may be the biggest challenge of them all.

Not all is quiet on the RX7 front. I received a very special package today...

Four 2-foot sections of lovely CNC hot wire cut foam with my own profile based on a STOL aircraft design. Now I need to order up some carbon fiber fabric and some more vacuum bagging supplies.

Very cool! I love everything in this thread....

bad-friggin-ass, both projects are quite cool!

Good news everyone! My new atl fuel cell, which has been holding things up on the RX7, was delivered!

Bad news everyone!

I'm in Dallas on business and can't start mocking things up.

FirstWorldProblems

Thar she blows. Now I can start mocking up the rear sub assembly.

The RX7 is getting ready for a road trip to a shop to get some more metal burned into her. I hate farming out jobs, but I have limited time and when looking to join a new race group I think it's always a good idea to have a person who knows their ins and outs looking at the car.

Peter Apogolou at http://autosportfab.com/ will be handling the task. He's a great fabricator and really knows how to get speed out of a car, so I'm really looking forward to working with him on this. He was already involved in some of the fabrication of the cooling system.

To-Do list: • Rear frame for fuel cell, radiator and wing support mounting

• Rear bumper tow points

• Front bumper tow points

• Front splitter support system

• Extend cage through firewall to front strut towers

• Flemke, Earnhardt and Corellis (45 deg joins in front frame rails and down tubes) bars added to cage

• Diagonal bar added to roof of cage

• Pin style Jacking points

I'm really excited to see what he comes up with, and I know there will be some "While I'm in there" stuff as well. All part of the fun!

So it begins. I dropped the car off at CT Autosport on Sunday and had an hour-long consultation about my goals. Peter, the owner, is really good at ensuring expectations line up with budget and reality of packaging, and we were able to choose priorities.

Each day since, he has reached out with photos and further discussion. I've never had such a good experience with a shop. Simple stuff first and the more complicated rear sub-assembly for the fuel cell, radiator and wing mounts comes next.

New money shot with the 15 gallon cell

Looking good!

I'll have to re-route the exhaust, but that was in the plans anyway as I add a second muffler to the mix.

OK so I have a bit of a dilemma. The new rear substructure is awesome, very safe, and provides mounting points for a rear diffuser and my wing. It doesn't leave much space for my massive C&R radiator.

Here's the radiator for reference. It came off a NASCAR Sprint Cup Car. Likely overkill.

Here's the space I have left now.

With the goal being placing what weight I have as low as possible, the big boy simply won't work. On the shelf he goes! After a beer and some beard scratching, I broke out the tape measure. directly on top of the cell is a no-go, but the sides are wide open. Looks like a 22"x13" space. Get out my Googles and BOOM, Scirocco drag radiators are pretty much that size.

Looks like I'll be switching to a dual radiator setup with each rad getting fed from a side scoop on the rear hatch.

Meanwhile, the Beetle got some loving. Jeff hopped on the job of wiring the ignition and I confabled up a radiator mount and ducting.

We've got more parts coming in the next couple days, including the fuel cell and some important fittings for the coolant system. We could be running before Valentines day if I can keep on task and don't hit any major hiccups.

Awesome, I was just wondering about that thing!

Yeah it's a slow process. I don't work on it without Jeff since it's his car and I'm trying to teach him some basic fabrication skills. We've covered basic welding and plumbing. He's a commercial electrician, so there's not much to teach there beyond race car theory and planning.

Looking for feedback on quality rear adjustable shocks for the RX7.

Don't worry about budget.

Beetle update! We're getting serious about plumbing.

OOoooOOOOOO Fancy!

Cleverfrog wrote: OOoooOOOOOO Fancy!

My words exactly!