Good to hear!! All the best, and please, post pictures when you finally get out to the track with her! p.s. Be sure the crotch strap is properly mounted. The floor under the seat is not sturdy enough by itself to simply put a bolt through it, even with a large plate washer. You must either reinforce underneath, or find a way to attach it to something solid. That is why the preferred method if often a 6-point set up or fighter pilot arrangement that can be mounted to the bolts holding the seat down.
There is no way to mount the anti-sub belt to the floor - it is a fiberglass shell. What I did was bolt a channel between the front seat mounts, then bolt the belts to the channel (I'm using 6 point fighter pilot style belts). This is something you do not what to skimp on. BTW, do not go out on the track withouts a HANS device - ever!!! I see you do not have mounting points on your helmet. Hate to loose a fellow Fchatter over something that simple.
did some work over the past period -reupholstered the dash with some F40 like cloth. -decided on the brakes. I will use the 360 callipers with but with aftermarket disks. ( on the picture I put both the hispec and the 36 callipers on for comparison) With this I can stick to my 16" wheels ( of which I have several sets as i've a split rim fettish) For the handbrake I take a hydraulic one including a bias valve -Started with the rims. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
This looks like a very exciting project and I wish to offer you a word of caution regarding the rear stub axles. On the 308 if you track the car with modern tires the axles WILL break and need to be replaced as part of preventative maintenance. The axles were designed to handle 1970's level of lateral grip and modern tires generate cornering forces that go well beyond that. This is well documented on this site and I thought it wise to give you the heads up before finding out the expensive way.
oke! Thas some good advice, thank you. but (and this is a language thing) what exactly are stubb axles? (maybe you can show me a picture?)
The image below should clear things up. The break occurs where the thin axle flares up to the brake disc mount. The result is your rear wheel overtaking you just before a spin or impact with a barrier. Image Unavailable, Please Login
That's not oke! I'm building this car to try not be overtaken by anything But seriously, what would be the cure? Replacing them by new ones? Is it an age related issue? Or could I have them checked for cracks first? (we do have crack detection equipment at our plant) Or maybe an update ( QV?) version?
I can tell you that it is a design limitation and even the replacement axles I have seen do not address the problem; they merely copy the OEM design. The only solution I have ever seen is to life the parts. Starting with new ones and change them after say 10-15 track days is a pretty safe bet. I wish I could give you a cheaper answer but that is the best I have. Honestly it is better to address this now then when your 308 is at the panel beater (I'm doing my best to use all my British expressions).
You got me thinking. The last I would like to happen is to crash the car in some high speed cornering.. Although I had the bearings replaced recently I will pull the stub axles and have them magnafluxed. I suppose if there are no cracks now I could use them. Maybe I should considder a scheduled magnaflux test each year.
This is not an issue that is limited to the 308s. I have seen it happen with C5 Corvettes at the track, especially when the cars are drag raced. Here, you have upped the horsepower and torque on the car significantly. Not only does this require more stopping power, which you are addressing, but also it places more stress on other parts as well. Throw into that mix either slicks or higher adhesion tires, and you further increase the stress on the stub axles (sometime referred to as output shafts). As noted, they just are designed to take that much additional stress and will eventually fail. I've seen it happen with Corvettes that have been modded to significantly increase HP. It's not pretty when it happens. I know that on the Vettes, there are heavier duty output shafts available in the aftermarket. I have not seen them available for the 308s. Don't know if they exist. Makes sense to have them tested to be sure they are okay, but that is no guarantee that if you push the car hard on the track, they won't end up breaking on you. Just something to keep in mind and to check periodically for signs of possible failure, like cracking. And while we are at it, I second PAD's recommendation on the HANS device. And if Hans isn't available himself, just make sure you have his device. LOL
sorted out the brakes now. I will use the 360 callipers in combination with the disk-set of Superperformance. For both front and rear it will be the same setup. With these brakes I can still use my 16" wheels. It's a very tight fit, but a fit. As a handbrake ( the 360 has a seperate calliper for this) I will use a hydraulic in-line to the rears. With this i'm saving on the weight of additional calliper. And this hydraulic one should do a better job anyway. I will use a bias valve to tune the balance. I already have brackets made to put the callipers on the 308 and now i'm waiting for the reardisks to finalize this brake project. Pictures will follow soon. In the meantime i continued with making my own leightweight bodyparts. Now, the doors The OEM doors weigh over 35kg each... so there room for improvement. I allready made a mould earlier and just yesterday i made the first door skin. To reduce weight to the fullest i make them of two very thin layers of glass reinforced plastic seperated by honeycomb. To make all layers to bond properly I used a vaccuum bag and -pump. The weight of the outer layer of glass is 240g/m2, the inner is a very thin 80g/m2 ( to get a feeling: normal printing paper is also 80g/m2) The results are actuallly beyond my expectations ( bear in mind I never worked with honeycomb or for that matter I never worked with vaccuum before) The skin is ready now, it's indeed very stiff and ridgid but the total weight is less than 1,5 kg. I now estimate the total weight of the door without lexan glass, lock, windowtrim and hinges (alternative ones) to be around 2,5 Kg and the total door complete should be possible around 5kg. So for two doors that means a saving of over 60 kg. Wow! The picture shows the complete package of mould and product in the vaccuumbag. More pictures will follow Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
skin turned out to be nice, very stiff ndeed and very very leightweight! Next job: the inside part of the door that will have some kind of F40 looks. ps on the second picture it looks like it's to small for the doorgap. don't worry, it isnt but I put it in for the picture and it's leaning backward a bit) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
what a cool project. What did you do about the fuel pump-doesn't your carb system need to have fairly high fuel pressure potential to overcome rising boost pressure if it is a blow through system? PB
thanx, i love every minute of this project myself. It's just so nice to work on a performance increase for these old ones. Sadly nowadays most owners pamper them(which btw I understand completely) so there not much to compare with but the newer stuff, but i think will be in front on some of those on the track The turbo is not a blow through but a suck trough. I use the stock fuelpump. Actually i've made some scratch calculations on the weight to power ratio. I had the car weighted at the start of the project. It was 1410kg. Power on the dyno before the turbo was 218BHP (engine). Power after the turbo was 292 and the weight will be an aprox ( based on all the stuff i did already and some future work) about 1160kg So, weight to power was at start 6,47 kg/HP. After am done it will be 3,97 kg/hp Some improvement!
Steven, Like what you did with the doors. Very cool. I can do that kind of thing but definitely appreciate the skill of someone who can. Definitely interested in that console that I PM'ed you about. Also would be interested in the old door locks if you are not using them. I assume they match the lock on the glovebox so you can see my obvious interest. Steve
while busy with the doors, the work on the brakes continues as well. I've decided to upgrade using the Superperformance disks and Ferrari 360 callipers. For the handbrake i'll use a hydraulic n-line one. I will fit a bias valve too of course. I had some brackets made and now the job is almost finished. as for weight: the new setup for the front is actually 2kg lighter than the stock disk and calliper. For the rear it's about the same but when I include the removal of the handbrake cable splitter thing under ther car I probably gain sme there too. some pictures again Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
"I've decided to upgrade using the Superperformance disks and Ferrari 360 callipers. For the handbrake i'll use a hydraulic n-line one. I will fit a bias valve too of course." Can you please explain this, and why you need a bias valve?
Superperformance (UK) has a nice upgrade for the frontbrakes of the 308. For the rear they don't. So I decided to buy the front and rear disks of this set and combine them with Ferrari 360 Callipers. The Ferrari 360 has separate callipers on the rears for the handbrake. These add weight and, maybe more important, I don't have them So by putting an hydraulic handbrake system in the line to the rear brakes a do have a handbrake that will work directly on the rear callipers but without the need for extra callipers. The 360 has obviously a more sophisticad system that will adjust the power to the rear according the needs. I will use a simple bias valve to adjust the rear brake power manually. My guess is that esspecially in the wet it will be nessecary to decrease rear braking. so with this valve I can adjust the balance between front and rear while driving.
Today was just another day at the...... workshop I finished the mould for the door surround. With this I will be able to pull a one piece part of the door surround. (or how do you guys call this??) Only thing left to do is to mould is a door-inside closure plate. This will be a bit like the F40. I will leave a big hole in the door just the grab the cable to open. I have the mould for this almost ready. I hope to get all parts ready to assemble end of the week (not much time this week to play) and than i will figure out how to make the new hinges fit. The picture is the mould of the surround. ( so the actuall part will be laminated using this mould) Image Unavailable, Please Login
Actually in the wet you can increase rear braking, relative to the front, because there is less nose dive when you can´t brake that hard in absolute terms. People on this board claim the 308 has a rear brake pressure limiter but I didn´t find one on mine, only the device that warns for different pressure in the 2 systems. So you bought 4 front discs from Superformance? They don´t list them seperately. I checked with our regulatuions for our annual inspection here in NL and it is not mentioned the handbrake or emergency brake should be a seperate part from the rest of the system so a hydraulic one instead of a pure mechanical one is ok, I know in the UK and other countries it would not be allowed and you have to find another solution, like the light alu handbrake caliper the www.compbrake.co.uk offers, I have a pair of those. Seems you did this brake upgrade really quick, took me months of testfitting and redoing! To bad your wheels hide the nice brakes hehe.
Yes I did. Actually twice While surfing the net I came to a kind of knowledge base for rajay turbo's and there it was stated that after an overhaul ( mine was overhauled by the previous owner after he removed the stuff from his car) for about the first half an hour of usage, smoke of oil was considdered normal. So I went for an hour drive and indeed after half an hour the amount of smoke became less and less. After the hour it was completely gone: YESSS! The second solution I found ( but before reading this after-overhaul-smoke-is-normal-article) I bought a new one..... Not bad after all, this particular rajay turbo will be hard to get in the future I guess having a spare could turn out smart.
