DIYAutoTune.com's land speed racer 240SX

We're building a 240SX for land speed racing, and I wanted to start a build thread here after taking a look at the Advertiser Playground thread. Jerry (FoundSoul) is a regular at Bonneville Speed Week, and we've finally committed to building a salt flats car of our own. You can see more pictures of the car at the above link.

After comparing coefficients of drag and frontal area, and what cars had plenty of room for crazy engine swaps, we decided to go with an S13 240SX fastback. We found a rust free one on Craigslist for cheap:

Right now the car is at Fat Cat Fabrication where it will be getting a roll cage and straight axle rear suspension, and have the chassis seam welded. Some pictures of how the car sits now:

I'll see if I can post some regular updates.

This should be fun.

Theres a reason most people in that conversation pointed to you guys as an example of "doing it right". Looking forward to updates!

Nice. Land speed racing is an oddball form of racing, and the different solutions required are always interesting to see.

I can't wait to see what happens with this one

I love the sound of this. Good luck!

Needs more LS1?

Awesome!

Do you guys have a class in mind?

I had not thought about suspensions on land speed cars before. Obviously, you don't need an IRS because you're not doing anything twisty. OTOH, solid rear axles have a reputation as being heavy.

Is the solid axle the preferred choice because of durability?

Solid axles maintain static camber no matter what!

I believe they're going a smaller displacement n/a motor if i remember the discussion awhile back about this...

Matt, this still true? I remember we had some oddball engines being thrown around a year back...

@92CelicaHalfTrac - In the end, we decided to go with something a bit more mainstream, a Toyota 2JZ-GE. This one will be naturally aspirated to start with.

The biggest reason for a solid axle? No CV joints to sap power. It's also easier to find one that'll take big horsepower numbers if we go turbo later.

I need to dig up that thread.... i seem to remember i suggested that.

Javelin wrote: Needs more LS1?

For a salt flats car? RB26DETT

Where can I find me one that clean? Iz been lookin'.

Other reasons for the solid axle, less parts to break. Spools are cheap and make sure the wheels turn at the same speed. With carefully selected parts and and properly built, we can reduce loss in the drivetrain as much as possible. It also gives us a huge selection of rear end ratios to choose from.

Weight isn't much of an issue on the salt, in fact often it's needed to keep the car on the ground and maintain traction at speed. The last year I crewed for Gary Hart we were hitting mid 240's, then put nearly 500lbs of ballast in the car as it was a little squirrely up top, and after that he one-handed it to 249mph before a turbo came apart.

That said, we're running a smaller 10-bolt solid axle for now to minimize losses with the low power motor. Everything in the drivetrain is about minimizing losses. It's going to be hard to make power with this 3.0 N/A motor though we'll do our best. But it makes minimizing losses that much more important. When we go 2JZ boosted down the road, it's all Ford 9" and brute force.

We'll step into this in stages, with the NA 2JZ as a great starting point and giving up a record we're likely able to reach in the first year or two. Then down the road we've got some other plans for that motor and might take it back..... Then longer term, a boosted 2JZ will drop right in. Call it the 5-10 year plan ;).

We should have more pics of how the chassis is coming along later today or tomorrow, I gotta run back up to Fat Cat and check it out.

In reply to Keith:

It's definitely a unique form of racing, and a unique environment to do it in. Have you made it out that way before? I seem to recall a beast of a Miata that went out there some years ago that I think you guys had either built or helped out with?

It's a bug that'll bite ya for sure. And for most of the racers, it's about as 'Grassroots' as it gets. There are some big budget teams with large corporate sponsorship, but many are just good ole boys and their toys. We're somewhere on the lower end of the middle, with small company sponsorship, but as a company full of DIYers/Grassroots car guys we'll still have our head on the ground and not in the clouds.

We'd love for you or anyone to come out and hang if you liked. It's a laid back just plain fun event. Nothing like it.

FoundSoul wrote: Other reasons for the solid axle, less parts to break. Spools are cheap and make sure the wheels turn at the same speed. With carefully selected parts and and properly built, we can reduce loss in the drivetrain as much as possible. It also gives us a huge selection of rear end ratios to choose from.

All good reasons.

FoundSoul wrote: Weight isn't much of an issue on the salt, in fact often it's needed to keep the car on the ground and maintain traction at speed.

I've heard that before. I know that when SoCal built their ecotech-powered roadster, they drove it to the salt, then swapped the radiator out for a BIG water tank to keep the front planted so they could steer.

Land speed racing is awesome....

I'm so excited for ECTA moving to Ohio for this summer.

yes...will you guys be ready to RACE BY APRIL???

Would love to meet you guys and see the car!

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Land speed racing is awesome.... I'm so excited for ECTA moving to Ohio for this summer.

plus thirteenty bazillion....super pumped!

Guys - If you need a hand, give a shout. If you needs some crew for the voyage, I'd love to tag along if the details work out. Bonneville is a bucket lister for me.

April.... in theory land, yes. And we'll be going up to Ohio to shake the car down at an ECTA meet or two. Then to Bonneville in August. This is of course if the money is there, and if I get my butt in gear and start ordering parts so my chassis guy can finish his part so we can start ours. Better go do that now ;).

And Dave.... sounds like fun....

DILYSI Dave wrote: Guys - If you need a hand, give a shout. If you needs some crew for the voyage, I'd love to tag along if the details work out. Bonneville is a bucket lister for me.

That. Kind of...

Free flights start in May.

Keep me updated on post-April plans.

This is starting to sound like a party!

Not to go too far off topic, but can someone post a link to the rules where I can find the classes, prep required, etc. I've searched around and I feel like this must be the most poorly documented form of amateur racing out there.

Bonneville is on my bucket list as well. I just want to run something there, but god damn it feels like figuring out how is the biggest hurdle.