Autox tank

Going to take the tank to the Windy City Miata Autocross at Tire Rack in South Bend Indiana tomorrow.  We just swapped in a replacement motor and what a great opportunity to shake it down. This will also be a test run to see if a Battlescooter (ruckus) and a tank get along in a trailer together. Planning to take 3 scoots to the South Carolina Lemons in Sept

Jeez, whats my problem

Well happy belated 2nd race day to Panzer Racing. In all the chaos I forgot to post about our upcoming second outing.

The venue is the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet IL.


here we are getting tech inspected

...and BS inspected

...and ready to race

It was a beautiful day for racing, and our first driver was eager

Videos to come soon, however..
while we suffered a few needless pitstops to repair a radiator hose that had decomposed and tore extremely easily...we placed 16th out of 78 or so racers!! Also we had the 2nd fastest lap time of the weekend!!!

We have learned alot about endurance racing and feel we have an honest shot at top ten at our next outing, which hopefully will be in September.

Stay tuned for videos

VIDEO!

Race Day Debut

Well, here she is ready to go.

Team Panzer Racing

It's the little things

Race day is nearly here, working on some more details..

the trunk wells were rusted out completely, so we decided the easiest thing to do to seal up our trunk (for aero reasons) is to do a Great Stuff patch job.

New Tires and wheels! Glad this is called a safety item as 3/4 of the old ones were bent and 2 tires had broken cords 

the new tires are an inch shorter than our stockers..top speed may be an issue :(

Lemons says that seat backs have to be reinforced if there is an flex in it

we welded in the spline shaft for the steering wheel removal .

Our master disconnect and other switches. Notice the wiper switch relocated off the column to avoid the dreaded panic wipers so often seen on the track.

the cockpit complete with padding

We added a target aquisition system to the hood and some proper military looking bumpers

Tommorrow is the final day to prep the car! Stay tuned!!

Details, Details

We are getting closer and lots of details to be worked out.

The stock exhaust had some very special patching with that aluminum tape for HVAC guys. It didn't work. We had to replace a section and while we were at it we cut flanges to allow for easier trackside repairs.

Hoping for faster fill ups we drilled out the little flapper thingy in the filler neck

installing the seat

setting the toe

The stock steering wheel proved too large to be able to get out of the car quickly so we added a smaller wheel with quick release. We went with a Longacre Kart wheel and splined release.  

We have been putting off installing  the doorbars to make access easier while working on things, but now is the time.

Electrifying

Time to get the car running again. As this car was a theft recovery it had some ponderous wiring. Below is the ignition setup. The yellow wire is the key...

Thinning out the electrical to nothing but the necessary..

The stock shifter had been mutilated by the PO when they hacked off the shift levers threads,so we had to improvise. We took an unused stock knob from a Miata and threaded the shift lever acccordingly. The good news is that the Miata shift pattern was the same as the Tanks except for lacking a 6th gear. We also cleaned and greased everything in the shift linkage and cleaned up the shift lever to look shiny and clean.

..and then put the motor back in. The tube on the roof is a sneak peak at things to come!

Tanks!

Our theme for this car is a Tank. So let's make it look like one. We were going to apply a spraypaint camo job until one of our team members reminded me that I had just painted my Jeep Army Green.

Mike (one of the henchmen on the team) did some graphic designing on xbox and came up with a look for us.

So lets get a painting!

 

now to add some decoration

Mods

To simplify things and improve steering feel we are doing a power steering delete. we needed to let the fluid in the steerng rack recirculate as the wheel is turned and didn't like the idea of a hose and clamps joining the two sides (visions of causing a multi-car pileup give us the chills). So we drew-up a part and then made it.

Forgot to get a pic of  the block installed, but it goes where the hoses attach to the steering rack.
While we are at it, lets get rid of that old rubber guibo and make the steering more direct.

guibo already removed

the guibo went where the bolts and spacers are now.

After inspecting all of the brake lines, we decided that everything had to be replaced. We ordered up some new line form Ferderal Hill. Notice the old line below and the fluid next to it. that is seeping from a rusted out brake line that started leaking once we touched it. 

Lemons requires that all holes in the firewall be patched with metal. Notice the first patch in the upper left. Couple hundred dollar cars usually need plenty of this kind of patching

We are going to need our stock gauge cluster, and as the dashboard is ripped out we'll need a way to mount it. Also the cluster will need to be moderately weatherproof.

Speed from lightness

the door before...

....and after. Alot of lightness can be seen.

So long Sunroof! Hard to believe it weighed 27lbs

We ordered a cage from Autopower. Showed up as a skid of tubes which need to be notched and fitted. Sounds easier than than it was.

this is the entirety of the instructions

these floors won't be much to mount the front of the cage to. They'll need to be rebuilt.