127 replies to this topic

[Tonie Pettersson]

Background

 

Me and my littlebrother went see Liz  in December 2013 to pick up a black 2.2 NA. We had a really interesting trip home to Sweden, roughly 1300miles and storm/snow/rain in every country we passed through...

Luckily we came home in one piece, and so the car.

In 2014 I just changed some ball joints and switched to new brake parts. Took the car to the track to learn how to drive a rwd mid-engine car (last project was a nova with C20XE so a little different in driving style).

Absolutely loved the little thing, a very rewarding car to drive.

 

So a spec on the car when I bought it

• Spax suspension
• Turbo wheels
• Turbo spoiler
• Pipercross exhaust

Other then that, pretty much standard.

 

 

Upgrades

 

Even though I love the car as it is I will of course modify it to serve my purpose even better, and the car will mostly be a track toy.

So during this winter I have started with some of the mod's that are (in my eyes ) necessary.

 

First of we had the bicycle tires in front that needed to be replaced. Ended up with TD's in 7x16 front and 8x17 rear

 

Replaced the OEM toe links with Elise Shop

 

Had to replace the coolant tank and made a cover in CF

 

At the moment I am doing a suspension refresh so bought the full kit from sl

 

Some surface treatment on the wishbones

 

A must have for the VX220/Speedster, a diffuser! Matteo21 is the supplier

 

Bought a hardtop, I believe it's a Jonnyboy. Going to paint it black of course.

 

Always been a sucker for the tubby ears so these are waiting to be fitted

 

China rad, brakes hoses, refresh kit for the rear caliper

[Tonie Pettersson]

Engine

 

Don´t feel I have the need for more power, have to learn to drive it on the limit first. The only mod here is the 2.4 manifold I'm going to fit.

 

 

Side projects

 

Half the fun of this hobby is to construct so I have a couple of things I am doing at the moment.

 

Planning to upgrade the brakes a bit, not in diameter but try to reduce some weight. AP-rotors Ø290mm floating of course .

Drawing mode on

 

Haven't had the time to finish these yet but hope I can do it soon

 

 

The next thing is to make some new uprights with a more track oriented spec

 

Centre hub is moved 17.5mm

Allowing more camber ~3°

Lighter

Aluminium 7075

 

So back to Solidworks. I started with making a "copy" of EP's GT-hub which I did some simulation on. Tried with some different load points to see how it reacted.

 

I was pretty much finished with the construction of the upright and ready to start up the milling machine but then I stumbled upon these!

A lot more fun to construct, even though it took a couple of versions before I was completely satisfied.

Since I had a solid of the EP-upright I could compare the stress data from that part to my "Nitron" upright. Took some time and fiddling around with radius, adding/removing material and such but in the end it turned out good.

Edited by Tonie Pettersson, 14 January 2015 - 01:50 PM.

[Tonie Pettersson]

So the first days of the Christmasholiday I spent in a milling machine. The result

 

 

 

 

Just waiting for them to be hard anodized then I can move on and make the lower mount for the ball joint.

 

So that´s pretty much up to date, I´ll try to keep you updated if there is any interest.

[Mopeytitan]

WOW!! Really looking forward to this. Love the milling work! I take it you do that for a living?

[chris_uk]

your going to make a lot of money selling these.

[Nev]

Indeed.

[The Batman]

Metal porn!!

[myles]

List?!

[ukcat]

Hi What treatment did you use for the wishbone coating ?

[Gedi]

You really need to sell me a pair of those!

[techieboy]

Oooh, Solidworks skills. What you really need to do is to prepare for the future, when you'll fit the inevitable Saab B207 engine, and model a (and better yet machine two ) replacement internal crank trigger wheel in the correct pattern for the Z22SE ECU. I could test one of them for you in the meantime.

[FLD]

Hi
What treatment did you use for the wishbone coating ?

Looks like zinc plate and passivate.

 

Love those uprights, been contemplating something similar myself (just getting started with SW).  I ended up too worried about the strength (I can't do the stress analysis yet).  Top work, can I get a copy of the drawing file to w4nk over examine?

[siztenboots]

do you have some more detail about how the bottom ball joint threads in to the ally?

 

I know the Nitrons used titanium spindles

 

[Exmantaa]

I see a load plate bolted at the bottom.   (The Nirons have problems with that lower joint)

 

What material are these milled from? These things get pretty hefty loaded in a car.

And how much lower are these compared to stock? 20mm or so?

 

@ Techie; you need an internal B207-Z22SEtriggerwheel?

Edited by Exmantaa, 14 January 2015 - 05:24 PM.

[Tonie Pettersson]

WOW!! Really looking forward to this. Love the milling work! I take it you do that for a living?

 

Yeah correct.

 

Hi
What treatment did you use for the wishbone coating ?

 

Chemical nickel with teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene).

 

Oooh, Solidworks skills.

What you really need to do is to prepare for the future, when you'll fit the inevitable Saab B207 engine, and model a (and better yet machine two ) replacement internal crank trigger wheel in the correct pattern for the Z22SE ECU. I could test one of them for you in the meantime.

 

I´ll contact you as soon as I need some more power

 

 

Hi
What treatment did you use for the wishbone coating ?

Looks like zinc plate and passivate.

 

Love those uprights, been contemplating something similar myself (just getting started with SW).  I ended up too worried about the strength (I can't do the stress analysis yet).  Top work, can I get a copy of the drawing file to w4nk over examine?

 

 

I want to test them first and run them for a while before I let go of the solids/drawings.

 

do you have some more detail about how the bottom ball joint threads in to the ally?

 

I know the Nitrons used titanium spindles

 

 

As Exmantaa noticed below there is a plate for the ball joint bolted to the upright. Nitron had (from what I´ve read) problem with the titanium part ripping out of the ally. I´m not a big fan of loading a thread in both axial and radial direction so I "stole" EP's version.

The plate is bolted with 4 M10x30mm, and there is Helicoil in the upright.

The thing that sticks up from the mount plate will take the axial load

 

I see a load plate bolted at the bottom.   (The Nirons have problems with that lower joint)

 

What material are these milled from? These things get pretty hefty loaded in a car.

And how much lower are these compared to stock? 20mm or so?

 

@ Techie; you need an internal B207-Z22SEtriggerwheel?

 

The material is 7075-T6 and then hard-anodized. They are lowered 17.5mm.
 

[Tonie Pettersson]

Regarding making some more uprights.

My intention is to make a smaller batch in the future but I can´t really say when. I want to test them properly before making more of them.

I´ll keep you guys updated, I also have to start constructing the rear ones so could use a couple of extra hours on the day .

[wizzard8]

do you have any Information regarding the weight savings vs oem?

[Exmantaa]

17,5mm is a tad more than the EP track-Elise versions (16mm), which is a good thing as most VX's run bigger wheels up that gives more wishbone angle.

 

(The EP race version is 40mm higher, but too much for my road/track car. A 20mm version would nice... )

[Tonie Pettersson]

do you have any Information regarding the weight savings vs oem?

From memory (dont have access to the files atm) OEM weighs ~2.5kg and these ~1.4kg.

17,5mm is a tad more than the EP track-Elise versions (16mm), which is a good thing as most VX's run bigger wheels up that gives more wishbone angle.   (The EP race version is 40mm higher, but too much for my road/track car. A 20mm version would nice... )

I would really like to see how the 40mm is constructed, I'm impressed of how much they managed to move the hub. The 40mm is also with a bigger bearing right? I felt 17.5mm was a good compromise, if I moved the hub more I started to interfere on the other elements that is attached to the upright.

[fezzasus]

Regarding making some more uprights.

My intention is to make a smaller batch in the future but I can´t really say when. I want to test them properly before making more of them.

I´ll keep you guys updated, I also have to start constructing the rear ones so could use a couple of extra hours on the day .