Shoptalkforums.com

Well, actually it's the 5th time we've ran the car this year. We've also run the season opener from our Fresno region too. That event had only Jeff and I in XP.

But this event had a few more entries.

The good news for me, Brad in the Porsche did not attend this event. The bad news is that I couldn't grab 2nd place points in his absence.

A fairly quick course had the ghia running in 3rd gear in two places on track. But that wasn't enough to best an AE86 Corolla driven by Durk Edwards and a 74 Corolla driven by Fap Vo. These two took 1st and 2nd respectively.

I bested their co-drivers, as well as a couple newcomers in this event's 8 XP entries, to net another 3rd. Of note to me, besides a Miata that ran in class, was another one flying XP class banners but running out of group this time. This second one is Supercharged and I've seen it's past runs. It's VERY fast.

On a side note, I liked this track setup, so I made a second set of runs to gain more seat time. I was also just fooling around to get video footage. I don't have the vids up yet, but someone else caught some of my antics...

Man those pictures are great! Its motivating to see our Aircooled Road Racers tearing up the track.

Rock on!
Shane

I understand that your Ghia is coming apart at the seams. How about some pics of the problems & what your doing to keep it together.

I need to take some pics, but the car now features a full cage. I'm pretty happy at how it came out. I haven't taken it out and run it hard yet, but the difference in the car is stunning. The rattles and noises are completely gone, and the doors close with a VERY solid 'thunk'.

Unfortunately, the pics won't show much since I've already reinstalled all the carpets into the car. And since I've already done the work I can't show you just how many welds and panels were loose and torn. The most surprising ones to me were the vertical welds on the firewall that go from the bottom of the cargo area, up to the body. All the spot welds on both sides were split and you could see a bunch of daylight right through the seams.


At a glance, the cage simply looks like a basic 6 point that goes from the base of the 'A' pillars and reaches back to the firewall.
The real secret is whats under the carpet. At the 'A' pillars, I made the plate go all the way up to the dash. I then welded the door frame to the plate the whole way up. The bars are then welded to the plates at a few choice spots to really stiffen up the door jam.

The main hoop plates are the real trick. They actually go all the way back to the firewall. I noticed that all the spotwelds from the sides of the car and the wheel wells that were going rear seat mounting area, were all broken. So my plate covers the whole area, from the vertical panel that rises from the rocker panel, all the way past the wheel well and up to the hinge for the seat back.

From there they extend in about a 3" wide strip back to the firewall. Another plate goes up the firewall and extends over the wheel well. I used this plate to attach a bracket that goes down and achors the rear bumper brackets. (all the engine bay sheet metal was ripping and broken from the Prev. owners repairs) there is a vertical strip that follows the wheelwell also, that basically turns that whole thing into a "angle iron" plate.

The last bit that's hidden under the carpet is a bar that goes across the base of the firewall. It's mounted to the plates on either side and anchors the rear downtubes as well as two bars the go straight down and are welded to my solid tranny mount plate.

The only thing missing are bars that go to the front beam. Those are planned as soon as I get the coil-over shocks I'm planning on using. The bars will also up being used as their upper mounts.

I wouldn't have made the plates so involved if I was worried about the weight. I'm going to have to ballast the car up to 1950 lbs. anyway, so I went all out in making the car as strong as I could. I did keep my bars down to .095 wall, 1-1/2" in order to keep the weight low though.

I also took the oppurtunity to loose some jerry-rigged suspension work and installed some Sway-A-Way 30mm torsion bars. Should feel pretty different next time out!

Yeah the 30mm torsion bars will change the attitude and should give you more stick in the front since the inside tire lifts less. I love my 30mm bars.

Wow Charles I love your Ghia!

Please do post pictures of your reinforcments and the new bar when you get a chance. Cant wait to see them.

Nice job sir!