1-7-09 TA-X Update

Sorry guys. It has been hectic here. Having nearly a week off between Christmas and New Years holidays and then inventory…. anyway…

With the help of Shane and Shaun, we have been able to get quite a bit of weight off the chassis. The running total of weight removed is 153 pounds in the boxes and ? pounds in the vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately, some of that weight is going to go back in (trunk floor, rear seat area floor and lower core support) but it will “net” a loss in weight.

Justin has been working on getting the cage in the car. Planning and fabricating the cage is not going as quickly as we had wanted. We are trying very hard to keep the cage to a minimum while maximizing driver protection and chassis rigidity. We are being very creative with the cage as you will soon see. Keep in mind that we need to incorporate a support for the steering column, mounts for the seat, a mount for the pedal box, and mounts for the fuel cell into the cage structure. We have had several changes in our design that have been taking up a lot of Justin’s time but will be worth it in the end.

Justin and I modified the subframes to help correct suspension geometry that is changed with a lowered stance. These both came out very nice. I had to reinstall the rear suspension and make some modifications to the frame rails to get full suspension travel. I am pretty happy with the end result. A 295-35-18 tire will now tuck all the way up till the top of the wheel is even with the top of the wheel well.

I spent a bit of time trying to decide what to do with the rear doors. Doing the normal “gut and cut” is just not going to work for this car. I wanted to do pin on rear doors but I just couldn’t find a good way to modify the stock rears that was tasteful. We ended up ordering new rear door skins from Mitsu and I already have one pinned in place. I am pretty pleased with the looks. The door skins are 8 lbs each so this will be a significant weight savings. I wish we could do the same for the front doors..

The TA-X chassis just chilling on the lift in the fab area…

A little interdepartmental meeting…

Progress of the roll cage build…

Modified rear subframe

Rear suspension mock up…

Ivan and Shaun mocking up the rear door

Justin welds on the tabs that hold the door skin in place

Shaun prepping the chassis for the roll cage

More progress of the roll cage, the seat is jut there for mock up purposes an will actually by mounted way back, behind the b pillar.

Justin working away on the cage.