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Part II
Everything is now back from the powder
coaters and it looks great. We are ready to begin assembly.
Notice the chassis stands. If you don't have a set of
roll
around chassis stands in your shop - you've gotta gett'em.
They're great.
One of our first steps in putting a
chassis together is putting in the floor pan. Being a simpleton, I
really enjoy seeing the contrast between the nice shiny aluminum floor
pan and the newly powder coated frame. There are a couple of things
that I really like about the way our floor pan goes in. The first is
the way it is mounted. Where many chassis manufacturers have a series
of tabs to hold the floor pan in place, The FOZ has an actual full
length mounting plate that it attaches to. The end result is that it
adds very little if any weight, yet it provides significantly more
support, this becomes even more important because in most mini
sprints, the floor pan also gets a battery mounted to it in some
fashion. The other thing that I like about mounting our floor pan is
that we use a uniform set of nuts and bolts to hold it in place.
These are available through the Racer’s Hardware section of our
website.
Rather than tabs for the floor pan like most chassis use, the FOZ
uses a thin plat that runs the length of the floor pan that provides
added support.
Once the floor pan is in place we
typically go ahead and bolt the pedals in place. The pedals are from
our FOZ Race Products division. The throttle pedal is identical to
the one that most sprint cars and midgets use—it is functional and
extremely lightweight. At this point we’ll go ahead and mount the
bell crank and linkages, even though we can’t hook the whole throttle
assembly up to a motor yet. We really like the bell crank set-up the
best. Most importantly it provides a little better throw in the
throttle pedal. Many of the set-ups we have seen (and used in the
past), result in a throttle pedal that could easily be replaced with
an on and off switch. The brake pedal / master cylinder set-up is
different than I have seen on most mini sprints, yet something that we
have had numerous comments on and even quite a few competitors convert
for use on their chassis. The pedal mounts on top rather than from
the back. The master cylinder also sits higher than the pedal, just
inside the cowling. The final component that we install near our
pedals are heel blocks. FOZ Race Products offers these products in
different heights which allow them to be fit to a driver’s individual
taste—believe me these go a long way to increase driver comfort. I
had always used blocks of wood, which are very functional—yet not as
lightweight and as professional looking as these heel blocks.
The pedals for our car are from the
FOZ Race Products division of
Speed Partz. They are functional and lightweight. Notice
also the heel
blocks-a must for driver comfort.
For our throttle pedal, we'll be using
a bell
crank (pictured in the top of the photograph) to provide a little
more throw in the throttle pedal.
The FOZ car's brake pedal is a little
different than most. The master cylinder mounts up high near the
steering box. We've had several people purchase the kit to
retro-fit an existing car.
We often go ahead and install the battery
box while we are at it. Batteries can be difficult things to mount.
When this car was designed, we also began manufacturing an aluminum
battery box to go with it. Everyone that saw the battery box wanted
one, so we started manufacturing them in different sizes through our
FOZ Race Products division. This battery box not only looks great,
but is lightweight and secure. It easily mounts to the floor pan of
any racing car. It features a heavy duty rubber strap that holds the
battery firmly in place. We took a really hard tumble at the
beginning of the 2005 season, and the battery didn’t budge. Although
we’ll wait until we wire the car up to put in the battery, we always
use an Odyssey battery. They are the only choice when it comes to
motorcycle powered race car applications.
We like this
battery box,
because it provides a strong solid mount that is easy to take in and
out and access.
The next step in our build was installing
the steering box. It’s pretty much the standard fair here—the
Schroeder mini sprint/TQ steering box. Schroeder is pretty much the
only name when it comes to our steering boxes. We’ve never had a
problem with quality or support. They have been great people to deal
with. We also top our steering box off with a Schroeder steering
wheel and push-on type quick-disconnect. I like the flat, 15”
steering wheel. It is big enough that it gives you a little added
leverage.
We use Schroeder steering boxes on all
of our cars.
The motorplate is the next piece of
hardware to be hung on the FOZ. There are a few manufacturers that
are using motorplates now. It might be just a few added pounds, but
we figure that it is only a marginal amount of weight and is well
worth the increased flexibility that it provides. In the Midwest
where we compete, there are opportunities to run an upright with
either a 1200cc or a 600cc engine. Although we primarily run 1200cc
shows, it is nice to have the flexibility to swap the motor out easily
and go run a 600cc show if you would like. The motorplate is fitted
with FOZ Racing Product universal motor mounts. These mounts are wide
enough to fit most manufacturers motors and can be shimmed down to the
exact required size. Unlike some other manufacturers’ mounts, the FOZ
Race Products mounts have an individual top and bottom bracket. This
allows the distance from top to bottom to be spaced differently
depending on the application—therefore you don’t need a different
mount for every application—I guess that’s why they are called
‘universal mounts’. (A word of caution,
there are a few applications that the FOZ universal mounts don’t work
on. Be sure to call and ask about your specific application before
ordering.)
Here's an example of the motorplate with
universal
mounting brackets. This example is set up for a GSXR 1000.
Once the steering box, master cylinder and
motor plate are in place the cowl can be fitted up. If you know
exactly where items on your dash will be mounted, you can go ahead and
fit your switches, guages, etc. up at this point. I was pretty happy
with the way we had everything mounted in the FOZ car that we ran the
prior two season, so I’ll be keeping everything status quo. We run an
Autometer Ultra-nite water temperature gauge and switches for the
ignition and fuel pump.
If you’re wondering why I don’t mention
mounting a tachometer, it is because I have saved my Mychron TG Log
from my last car for use on this car. I’ll have to admit, I’ve gotten
really attached to this little unit. It is capable of much more than
I use it for, which is just basically for RPMs and lap times. It can
also do a temperature (water, exhaust or whatever you would like),
throttle position and wheel speed. But, this is all probably
information that I would rather nobody else see since it would confirm
what a big chicken I really am. For me the beauty of the MyChron is
that it records my RPMs throughout the entire evening of racing. I
can easily go back at the end of the session and look at my highest
RPM for a session right from the cockpit. However, if I am really
looking to dig and figure out more about my gearing, I can download
the information to a lap top and it will plot the RPMs for every milli-second
of the entire session. Once you get used to looking at the graph that
it plots, you can really see exactly what RPMs you are turning at
specific points on the track. The best thing about the MyChron is
that it doesn’t really requires very little to be mounted. I just
tie-wrap the display to my rock guard where it is easily visible from
the cockpit.
The
AIM TG Log
is our tachometer. It does much more than just record RPMs.
There are three components to the TG Log which are pictures above and
include the display, the black box and the eye that allows you to
record lap times.
For more, read our TG Log story.
Since we’re focused on the cockpit, we’ll
go ahead and cover the rock guard—even though it typically is one of
the last items we hang on the car. There is definitely a theme here,
but we use a FOZ Products rock guard. This is another item that was
developed a few years back, just because you couldn’t find them. This
rock guard was designed just for use on mini sprints, modified
midgets, tqs and full midgets. We had seen enough cars that were
forced to use a full-size sprint guard or fabricate something from a
oven shelf or shopping cart side that we decided to create a purpose
built rock guard. This rock guard is powder coated black to cut down
on glare.
Although we normally wait until the end
to attach the rock
guard, we'll at least mention it here - since we are focusing on
the cockpit.
The final step in this section is
finishing up the cockpit with a seat. Opening my new seat was one of
those Christmas like moments. For the past few years I have really
wanted a full containment seat, but couldn’t separate with the bucks
to get it done. Speed Partz is now a distributor for Ultra-shield
racing seats. Ultra-shield has one of the coolest and best of all,
most economically priced full containment seats on the market. I hate
to admit it, but I was expecting a budget seat because of its price—I
was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the product I pulled from
the box. It is a substantial seat and easily compares to the quality
of the Kirkey lightweight deluxe I had been running in my old car. I
was afraid I would loose the seat before it ever made it into the
car. The most difficult part about installing the seat was getting it
in before someone wondered into the shop and purchased it. Our first
batch of seats that came in the door seemed like they disappeared
instantly.
Opening my new
Ultrashield
full containment seat was like Christmas morning. This is a
really nice seat - at a great price.
The new seat bolted in easily and is
really comfortable.
Our cars always get Crow seatbelts. We
find the quality and affordability of these belts make them the only
choice. We like the Crow sprint and midget seat belts. They
are fixed on one side, and have the adjustment (pull down) on one
side. This is much better for us, since we always struggled tighten
the right side of the lap belt. With this set-up you get the right
side adjusted and then alls you need to worry about is pulling the
left side down when you are buckling into the car. We also always get
the sternum latch option. It’s just a little added security.
With the cockpit of the car now in pretty
good shape, we’ll turn our next edition to getting the axles into the
car. Stay tuned!
We don't want to get to far ahead in
the story, but stay tuned - we'll be using some really
cool new products that just hit the
shelves at Speed Partz.
| Part
I | Part II | Part III |
For more information on several of the products listed above, be sure
to read our more in-depth technical articles:
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