Well today was quite successful. I was able to check a few bits and pieces and got a good start on the rollcage.
First job of the day was to see if converting the rear brakes to 4-piston Brembo was doable. Some initial cross-referencing of brake rotor key dimensions highlighted that the brake rotors I've used on the front may well fit the rear.
It's quite a beefy upright that Mazda use on the multi-link rear end!
....and the rotor fits perfectly.
Next was to see how the 4-piston Brembo interacts with the upright. It appears that the caliper bracket will just be a suitably sized rectangular block of T6061 with 4 tapped holes.
The final check was the clearance between the caliper and the RPF1 wheel. Clearance was on par with what I've got on the front.
At this stage upgrading the rear brakes isn't a high priority as I will need to sort out a hydraulic handbrake arrangement to work with it. We'll see what happens over the next 5 few months.
Next on the list was to also trial fit an Autoexe chassis bracing kit for the NC. I won't be using it on this car as my intention is to flat sheet the underbody, however I wanted to look at what they did and why. If my exhaust and PPF wasn't sooo big it would've fitted much better.
. Looks pretty cool too!
..it would want to, IIRC it retails for over $1,500!
Last an most important part of the day was to get the roll cage underway. After a couple of main hoop variations...mainly in width between the vertical legs...I finally got the geometry right. The key was to have the main hoop fit as close to the inside of the hard top, but still have enough clearance to allow the hardtop to slide rearward for the rear brackets to disconnect from the frankstein bolts.
RH main hoop foot plate ready for welding out.
LH rear leg foot plate ready for welding out.
The RH main hoop foot plate welded out and the main hoop tacked in place.
RH rear leg fott plate stitched in place. It will be fully welded out after the Tien Flex's are removed
.
Main hoop tacked in position. The seats are in their rearmost positions.
....and with the hard top on.
Hopefully tomorrow goes as well as today. Now that the main hoop is in its final positon, I can adjust the key dimensions in the solidworks model and have all the straight members required in the main hoop and rear sections laser cut over the next week or so.
Cheers,
Danny