Project little reds

[BruceSwanson]

Clark-
Great post!! Looking forward to seeing the final install.
Bruce


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Bruce
1982 SC

[Jack Olsen]

One thought, from a guy who's very impressed with everything you've done. Have you confirmed that the rain gutter sealant stuff can resist the vibrations and heat that the backing plate will be subject to? I'd at least put the things on the grill to check.

[Clark Griswald]

I don't expect much flexing. These rear sheilds are bolted to the rear banana arm at the hub (zero flex) and carry only their own weight. And with the new shrouds welded in place, they have become much more rigid than the stock sheilds.

As for heat, that is a good thought. They will never contact the rotor or the caliper. They will be exposed to radiant heat off the rotor, but they will also be constantly cooled by the air stream.

I suppose the worst case for heat will be when the car is stopped, and the rotors are still hot. Then the shrouds may get pretty hot.

I will pop them in the oven before installing to test out heat tolerance.

[orbmedia]

Hey Clark, are you a tin knocker by trade or is this just something you picked up? Nice work.

[Doug Zielke]

Chuck,
Protect your lungs from zinc fumes created by the welding. Use a respirator pack rated for the job, and/or a fan near the workpiece.

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'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
The Blue Bomber's Website

[Clark Griswald]

The shrouds are complete, and the brakes have been re-assembled. The car is finally drivable after 2 weeks of down time.

I still need to build the intake ducts and route the hoses.

Here is a shot of the front brakes:



And with the wheel on:



Here is the rear brake:



And rear wheel:



The appearance is pretty good. Not quite up to big red monoblocks, but definitely sharper than stock. The big open spokes in the Cup wheels let you see the rotors and calipers easily. However the deep dish of these wheels works to obscured the brakes. They are set back pretty far. With standard Fuchs, they would right up against the wheel.

Here is the rear shroud, from the backside:



And another while on the ground:



You can see where the air hose will go.

And a shot of the front shroud, a little dark though:



Next step, air intake scoops and hoses. The rears will mount under the banana arm. The fronts will attach under the valence.

[Jack Olsen]

This is a Pelican tech article if ever I saw one. Great job, Clark.

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Jack Olsen
My Rennlist page • My Pelican Gallery page • My Porsche Owners Gallery page

[Bob Albo]

All I can say is WOW!

[targa88]

Totally impressed.
I would curious to know how much the material cost to fabricate; not to mention the labour. A template with the measurements would be really nice for a tech article. What size hoses (for the air intake) do you plan to use?

[Clark Griswald]

The price of materials for the ducting was pretty trivial. The most expensive thing was about $50 for the front air blocking plates. That was the only part I purchased the was pre-fabricated.

I didn't show a pic of these, but they reduce air bleed through the front hubs. Could have made my own, but the ones available looked well made and for $50 why not?

Between sheet metal, welding supplies and sealants I probably spent another $50.

The hoses and intake scoops might run another $40 or so.

Hours? Don't ask. You are looking at 3 weekends worth of work, and I am not done yet.

If you want to reproduce this, my advice would be to buy the cool brakes kit for the front. It is worth the $250 - $300 unless you just want to DIY. I like to DIY. Having done this, I now see ways to improve on the design for the fronts over the cool brakes kit, however on this first attempt I didn't get all the improvements in. Yes there may be a second attempt.

For the rears, I don't know of any kits available. And the rears definetly took the most work. Lots of sheet metal fabrication. So this one is not a question of spending the cash, if you want it you must build it.

The other parts (rotors, pads, caliper rebuild kits) these are just all off the shelf from pelican and others.

[Clark Griswald]

Finally got around to putting in the intake scoops. I had to take a breather because the passenger front scoop sits under the oil cooler, and I had to complete a detour project to create a shroud for the oil cooler before I put in the brake intakes.

For the scoops, I had a few objectives:

1) Bring in lots of fresh air
2) Be discrete. I don't want to mess with the appearance much.
3) Be cheap. The scoops hang down and will get torn off sooner or later and will need replacing.
4) Easy to make. See criteria 3.

After considerable thought, I located some plastic funnels that look like they are up to the task.

The material is easy to cut with razor knife and has a big honkin scoop funneling into a downspout sized backend.

Here is a picture of the rear intakes after some work with a knife.



The mobile 1 bottle gives an idea of scale. These are big ass funnels, and if they can drop into an air stream will bring plenty of cooling air.

The plan for the rear was to use the rear sway bar as a mounting point. It was a simple matter to cut some slots in the scoops to slip over the sway bar.

Here is a picture of the rear that shows how the air hose will route:



The arrow points to the slot for the sway bar. The scoop hangs right in the airstream under the car and should pull in plenty of air.

The hose is one I had in garage and is just for illustration purposes. I am ordering some new hose to finish this off.

Here is a shot from the front underside showing the rear intakes hanging down:




You can see they are definetly in the air stream. Question is are they too vulnerable. Time will tell.

I also need to find a way to hold the scoops open. The plastic wants to squeeze in the center. Truth is even squeezed in like this these scoops are gonna pull mass quantities of air, but I'd like to see them held open.

Now to the front.

Here are the front scoops ready to install:



These are fabricated from the same plastic stock as the rears. They needed a bit more cutting to conform to the valence panel. And I painted them black to make them less visible. The rears can't be seen unless you are under the car. But the fronts will stick down under the valence panel.

The paint is for vinyl. I don't think it is going to hold up and am now looking for better solutions.

Here is the passenger front installed.



The intake has notches cut that engage the lower lip of the valence panel. This fixes the front height. Then I added the long bolts to provide a mount for the back portion.

Someone made an earlier post about bolting some large washers to the skids to reinforce them. I thought that was a good idea, then just extended the bolts out to give a good platform to mount and protect the intake scoops.

Again the hose is just for illustration. The real hoses are coming.

Here is the driver side intake showing the actual opening:



The intakes drop down about 1.25 inches below the valence. They take advantage of the high pressure zone at the lower edge of the valence bring in a lot of air.

These front intake scoops should be a big improvement over the cool-brakes intakes (which mount to the A arms). My design has a bigger intake and hangs right out front in the high pressure zone. Plus if you look at the cool-brakes intake, it is overly constricted where the funnel meets the air hose.

Here is the front all done:



The intakes are inconspicuous, yet hang right down in the air stream. They are no lower than the skid bar in the center and should be well protected.

Notice the passenger side has a grill on the valence. The driver side has the driving light. I am taking votes on which looks best.

Here is another shot from the front:



Next up will be to attach the air hoses. The big challenge to this will be maintaining ground clearance and staying out of the way of tires/heat exchangers.


[This message has been edited by Clark Griswald (edited 09-09-2001).]

[ChrisBennet]

Originally posted by Clark Griswald:
The price of materials for the ducting was pretty trivial. The most expensive thing was about $50 for the front air blocking plates. That was the only part I purchased the was pre-fabricated.

Wow, you're an artist! I was surprised you bought the blockoff plates instead of making them. (Are you _sure_ you're cheap?) Seriously though, making the blockoff plates would have been the easiest & quickest part of the whole project. Probably not enough of a challange for you..

[Periokid]

Chuck,

Thanks for all of the info.

I have just completed the little red upgrade minus the air ducts on my 88.



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David

1988 911 Carrera Coupe
Leonoff Net

[Clark Griswald]

Here is the latest.

I put the hoses on, and took it out to Streets of Willow last weekend. If you haven't been, the Streets are very tough on brakes.

Here is a couple shots of the rears all done with hoses routed.





The rears came out just great. The hoses routed fine and the ground clearance is good. The hose is a 3 inch rubber jacketed wire core. This holds the shape, handles water, and will remain flexible. With the monster scoops and 3 inch hose, plenty of air is blasting the rear rotors.

On the other hand... The fronts are proving more difficult. Trying to route hoses from the valence to the rotors just doesn't work well. I ended up supporting the hose by attaching to the A arm tube that contains the tbar. This just doesn't provide enough ground clearance. I could have used smaller 2.25 inch hoses, but that still wouldn't give enough clearance. I think the only way to get the hoses from the valence to the rotor is to cut holes through the trunk sheet metal. I am just not prepared to do that to Sparky.

I did put the front hoses on for the visit to The Streets, but I need a more permanent solution.

The results -

- The pedal is rock solid.
- Very responsive, the pedal effort is significantly lower than before. The car stops with control and confidence.
- No problems with fade.
- Rear cooling setup worked great.
- Front cooling setup needs re-engineering. An off track excursion at The Streets has already worn the front hoses.
- Appearence is sharp.
- Ferrodos give a good bit of brake dust. It cleans up easy but accumulates fast.
- Minor squeeling. Not a problem for me.
- Brakes are fine cold and hot.

I can recommend every step I took, except one. If I did it again, I would buy the front break cooling kit. I need to re-engineer the setup at the front and it will probably look more like the available kits catching the air off the A arm. Hell, I might even buy one of the kits.