Detroit Speed

It fit the first car very well, we were able to transfer it over to the new one. We really didn't do much to it for it all to line up.

Detroit Speed

Today marks 1 year since we started working on the Third Gen Test Car 2.0!

How about some more paint?!

tglennon11

iTrader: (2)

i really like the smoothed bumper, how did you guys do that? plastic filler?

M G Brewer

Before you guys go out and BUY a test car, just hit me up. You can use mine!

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

I used 3m bumper repair epoxy to fill in tge sections of my bumpers that I wanted smoothed out

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

Like Twin_turbo said most people use a flexible bumper epoxy. On mine I was weary of using that much so I used plastic cut to size to fill up most of the space and then the bumper epoxy. You can use an actual plastic welder but that's dicey if you haven't welded urethane competently before. I did mine two years ago and it's held fine so far. That's how I did all the emblems' spaces. I learned about it from SpikeZ's build thread way back in the day.

This is how I did it:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post5976194
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post5976194

tglennon11

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for all the info guys!

z28cop

Awesome build!

J. Chris Davis

iTrader: (1)

Looking great. Love that shade of blue!

Detroit Speed

We've been staying busy wet sanding over the past week. Our paint and body specialist Austin also cut and buffed a small section of the roof to sample the outcome of this awesome shade of blue!

BADNBLK

iTrader: (11)

Wow the pop on that blue is huge! Gonna look amazing in the light with all the high and low light angles these cars create!

3rdgenmaro

iTrader: (9)

Looks awesome. Cant wait to try and see the car in person sometime once its finished.

skinny z

It'll be interesting to watch it compete against the others in the Detroit Speed stable.
Better still if it outperformed them all.
Aside from the early 2nd gen Camaro, which I've always liked from day one of production, the 3rd gen is bound to be one of their better looking cars. It looks fast standing still.

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

Can you tell us what you did to fit the wheel/tire package?

Is that an eccentric on the A-arm?


What are the benefits of the torque box shown above and to the left of the tire?

rgauder

iTrader: (1)

Not sure if I'm correct, but they haven't mentioned modifying the lower control arm attachment point in the stock crossmember, so I would guess they made a washer with an offset hole in order to spread the clamping force of the control arm bolt out more efficiently.

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

If you don't know, why did you reply?

rgauder

iTrader: (1)

Sorry that somebody pissed in your cornflakes today.

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

Nice

LS6_IROC

This is an amazing build. excellent job Detroit speed.

Detroit Speed

What you are seeing is actually the stamping on the crossmember, it is not an eccentric.

We won't be running the factory power antenna, so our fabricator decided to close that out and punch flare for strength and looks.

Detroit Speed

The car has made it's way back up to our Test Car facility for assembly...

rgauder

iTrader: (1)

Can't wait to see this car out on the track.

J. Chris Davis

iTrader: (1)

That thing is going to be mean

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

What you are seeing is actually the stamping on the crossmember, it is not an eccentric.

We won't be running the factory power antenna, so our fabricator decided to close that out and punch flare for strength and looks.

Thanks for the reply.

dennisbernal91z

iTrader: (2)

Why is the under body white?

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

So you can see which way it flying down the track.

I think the answer is why spend a lot of money on paint that won't be seen.

rgauder

iTrader: (1)

Any pics of the complete installed heater/defrost system?

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

Why do race cars tend to have light gray or white structures. Easy to spot fluid leaks and cracks in the structure

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

Jay_rich

iTrader: (4)

I cant stop looking at this! I wish I had some fiberglassing skills, thats exactly what i wanted to do so i could run a proper splitter. I would assume the man hours into that would be pretty pricey.

Jay

Detroit Speed

Pieces of the puzzle coming along nicely...

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

The leaks was my reasoning too. I also did my interior in white, with just the front down bars and front top crossbar flat black. Makes things brighter to see in low light, and helps find that screw you just dropped since there isn't a dome light.

Plus pro-racecars are built from a 'body-in-white' because I think white is the cheapest color to paint.

Detroit Speed

You are all correct about the undercarriage color. Plus, dove gray looks pretty awesome!

Detroit Speed

Not at this time, we haven't begun the interior assembly.

StansFBM

I love the build...Question, is the DS solid steering shaft streetable? Also, curious what kind of steering box you are using.

Detroit Speed

With the removal of the rag joint in our Steering Shaft Kit, you can certainly feel less vibration in the steering. This would be ideal for a street application.

As far as the steering box, this is our DSE 600 Steering Gear that has been re-built with a 10:1 ratio. The frame rail has been modified to allow for a 4th fastener on the box.

rgauder

iTrader: (1)

Cool, I'll be waiting then.

Beater79TA

I don't see why the DS steering shaft would be any less streetable than the Astro and Jeep steering shafts people have been using for years. It appears to be a very similar design in terms of u-joint ends and improves on the design with a damper mid shaft.

I am also going to assume they are using one of their own steering boxes. They don't list them for 3rdgens but do have them for earlier cars.

Beater79TA

Curious as to the selection of a 10:1 ratio. I've been researching a new box for our car and was going to go with a 12:1 so it wouldn't be too twitchy on the road course. Is this a concern at 10:1 or is the expectation that it will be fine for autocross and road course laps with this ratio?

StansFBM

Thanks for that info...steering system is on my short list and I'll look into a steering box upgrade options.

Detroit Speed

Being that this car will be used in both Autocross and road course, we'd prefer having the fastest steering response possible. We've run the same ratio in our rack & pinion test cars in the past.

Beater79TA

How streetable do you expect the ratio to be? I know most of the DSE cars don't see thousands of miles of street driving every year but do see enough to be concerned about this. Our car has the same tire size (315 square), but does see a few thousand miles of street driving every year which causes some concern on a 10:1 ratio. I'm also assuming you'll be using a 13 inch or smaller steering wheel in the car.

I'm also curious as to what the first expected event is for the car. I'd love to see it in person. NSRA Lousiville in early August might be too soon for it. LSFest and FBody Nationals are both in September as is Cruisin the Smokies in Pigeon Forge.

Detroit Speed

We don't have any concerns for the 10:1 on the street. We do plan to street drive this car as much as possible and compete in events that include a road rally. We will be running the DSE Edition MPI GT1 steering wheel in this car which is 13".

We have not yet determined the car's first event.

Beater79TA

Hopefully it makes it at least one of the August - September events. But there's quite a bit of assembly and shakedown to do before then.

Assuming the DSE team has cars at NSRA Louisville again this year, I plan on asking about the steering wheel. It looks awesome in the photos and writeup but I kind of want the driver to get her hands on it to see how it feels before buying one. She spends too many hours behind the wheel to use one that isn't comfortable.

As for the ratio, I know how hard the DSE team drives the cars so I'll have to reconsider the ratio now. At least I haven't placed the order yet. I was thinking 12:1 to retain street manners but if you don't expect any issues with street or track manners, I have to give more thought to 10:1.

rgauder

iTrader: (1)

Too lazy to do any math, but they mentioned a 13" wheel with that 10:1 box. I think the stock wheel is about 14.5" with the 12.7:1 box.

I guess with the 10:1 box, it would be the same as having a 16.5" steering wheel, therefore requiring quite a bit less steering input for the same result.

Beater79TA

My actual concern about a 10:1 ratio was based on research into the steering ratios used by actual race cars such as Indy and F1. That research showed the ratios on those to be very different than a production car to account for the speed of the vehicle when initiating a turn. It was also based on input from other manufacturers as to what they considered to low a ratio for a street car that ran some autocross and road course days.

The end result of switching to a 10:1 ratio with a 13 inch steering wheel will be a reduction in steering wheel motion from 2.5 turns to about 1.75 or possibly less turns of the steering wheel to take the car to full lock. If you know the box is that quick to turn in, there will likely be no issues. Issues will arise when drivers not expecting the car to turn that quickly try to drive it and don't react appropriately when the car turns much quicker than expected. This could lead to problems on the street in normal driving if they aren't used to it. It might also lead to issues with "panic" turns on the street when the unexpected happens and you need to get out of the way. Hence the question about were they concerned about streetability.

Detroit Speed

Matt is making it difficult to keep up with the progress! Check it out...

BADNBLK

iTrader: (11)

WOW!!!

J. Chris Davis

iTrader: (1)

Making lots of progress!

Detroit Speed

I was out of the shop yesterday, so your updates are coming in just a day late...