Matt's 1970 'Trans-Am' Cuda

[mygasser]

we do pre made window slider kits at work https://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_i ... s_id=23999
neil.

[autofetish]

Amazing !!!

[Pete]

we do pre made window slider kits at work https://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_i ... s_id=23999
neil.

Very good, a great company!!!

[Matt]

My mate Gary bought his corner scales round.

We jacked and levelled each corner of the trailer to give a nice flat surface. No, the back wheel is not touching those chocks !!

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Results on the scales were quite interesting. Overall weight of the car was around 1400Kg with half a tank of fuel - a bit lighter than we were expecting.

Diagonal weights were 686kg and 715.5 Kg

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THen I got in the car and we measured again

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diagonal weights now 742.5 / 752 . Close enough for me, so we didn't adjust anything !


Also, Front/Rear weight distribution was surprisingly good at around 54% / 46%

[Matt]

Getting the 1970 livery done :

The wrappers did a great job on the bonnet and tail stripes:

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For the rest of the stickers, I found a good side shot of the car online and did a lot of measuring and scaling

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A mate of mine runs a promotional stand company, so he does a lot of vinyl transfers. I sent him the images and specs - he ended up re-drawing them all from scratch to get the detail right.

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Then lots more measuring to get the postioning right. Spraying soapy water onto the car lets you apply the sticker then move it about a bit. Once it's in the right place you can slide the water out to the sticker edges with a rigid plastic squeegee

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[mygasser]

That looks very cool

[Matt]

Right , back to the exhaust.

I took the car up the strip very gently at the Nats, having only ever driven it onto the trailer previously.

Turn out the exhaust hammers on the floorpan under acceleration - it was always going to be borderline. Given that the joins are only tacked together I though I'd leave it at just the one run.

However the car drives straight, goes in all the gears , doesn't vibrate, and stops. So a good start !.


So the exhaust needs restraint at the side exits , and I also need to get the noise level down from 105db to below 100 to meet restrictions at most race tracks.

I've had some bullet glasspacks on the shelf for some time. I was intending to fit them next to the fuel tank on the Charger to address an exhaust drone, but I reckon they'll fit next to the propshaft on the Cuda with a bit of offset on each end. Yes I know the offsets aren't very flow-friendly but maybe they'll help with the silencing....

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Fortunately the whole exhaust will drop off as one piece. So easy compared with rear exit.

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[Matt]

With the exhaust tacked together the noise level is now around 99db/ 4500rpm. I reckon once the joins are properly welded, and the car's moved away from the buildings, this might come down a touch further.

If it's still borderline at the track, I'll just have to stuff a couple of these inserts up the tailpipes and live with any power loss (which let's face it is probably going to be marginal) , until I can re-think the whole system.

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[autofetish]

That system is sooo cool


Madder than mine

[Matt]

Took the car for very quick blast up the road last night.

1)Even with the sidepipes restrained the exhaust still hits the floorpan somewhere in that area. At least the exhaust is fully welded now though , so it's not going to fall off.

The (new) engine mounts look too soft to me, as the engine moves about a *lot* even at idle (which is a bit lumpy).
a)The mounts must be contributing to the exhaust problem.
b)Also now that I've restrained the sidepipes, the header flanges etc will be stressed if the engine rocks too much.
c)My next door neighbour (who's a retired engineer and has lots of motorsport experience in rallying) made the point (after much grinning and excitement at the brief road test) that despite the fact that the water pump pulley has about 3/4" clearance to the rad, this could possibly be marginal if the engine/box moves forward much under hard braking.

So I've ordered some Poly-Loc mounts (blimey how much !?! ) from Mancini which should hopefully get here pronto, and reduce movement in all directions to minimal levels. It was either that or weld up some solid mounts, but I'm not ready for that just yet.


2) Noise.
Tested with the new exhaust at 101 dB / 4500 rpm . After the brief trip up the road this had reduced to, startlingly , 93 db. After a break I started the car up again and it was back to 101. My neighbour says that cars can test much quieter with the exhaust hot. More research needed.

3) I've got an actual race booked in now in early September, so lots to do. Track day at Castle Combe a week Friday for testing.

[RobTwin]

Amazing Matt

[Cannonball]

lovely job matt.. whats with the small lock up ??/ you still got the other man cave ???

[Derek]

whats with the small lock up ??/

That's probaly his spares department.

[Adam]

Fantastic! Love this story Matt. Thanks for sharing

[Matt]

Hi Dunc,

That's my garage at home - at some point I'll move all that junk off the drive and get it surfaced !

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Sold the lockup in Wembley a few years ago but I'm renting a barn at the farm over the road, which is where most of the other junk lives now.