Project Nissan 300ZXTT Part One

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As we continued work on the roll cage, we added more tubes to triangulate the structure; breaking the cage down to a series of small triangles. The triangle is strong, stiff and minimalist, the most so of all structures. This makes the triangle an elegant form to use for a race car chassis giving the most strength for the least amount of weight. To help keep the weight down, the additional tubes are smaller in diameter and of thinner wall than the mandated by the rules main tubes.

 

 
Louie adds additional tubes and dimple die plates to the cages main structure. The cage relies heavily on triangulation for efficient stiffening.

 

 
The uninterrupted X door bar is very strong. These fully boxed dimple die gussets strengthen the siamesed juncture in the tubes
 
We made extensive use of thin dimpled gussets to spread the load and stiffen things without having to resort to thicker tubes and adding a lot of weight.
 
Our cage is almost completely tied into the unibody
 
Almost every major tube is literally now a part of the body
 
Some more of the triangulation in the back of the cage
 
We should not have any problem with torsional twist here

We also added a unique feature to the cage, an impact absorbing structure behind both door skins. The main part of the cage behind the doors uses an uninterrupted X design which is where the two door bars are formed with a shallow V and welded together to make an X, the center of which is reinforced with gussets. This is one of the strongest forms of door bars and makes a nearly impenetrable wall before the driver. In front of the uninterrupted X is a structure we call an impact attenuator. This structure is made of lighter gauge tubing and is designed to crush inward in a severe side impact, taking up a lot of the side loads that can injure or even kill a driver even if the cage withstands the blow.

 

 
We looked to cars from the German Touring Car series for inspiration on our cage design. DTM cars are the most sophisticated racing unibody sedans ever built.
 
Some of Louie’s detail work is evident even in the footwell of our cage
 
The gusseting extends up to the roof
 
The roof is completely sealed to the cage. This bar helps reinforce the cages huge span across the Z’s curving roofline.
 
We were worried that the Z’s long unsupported roofline would fair poorly in a rollover so we added a vertical tube to shore it up. Then we reinforced it with this beautiful swooping gusseted area.

To save weight we decided to make extensive use of composite parts. We replaced the hood, doors and rear hatch with fiberglass pieces from Escort. Escort is a well known Japanese tuning shop which had the quickest Import Drag 300ZX many years ago with their tube framed car which won a few Wally’s. Escorts parts in the typical JDM fashion fit perfectly. The doors themselves weigh only 11 lbs and save about 70 lbs apiece alone. To mount the rear hatch and save weight, Louie mounted the Escort hatch directly on the cage using specially fabricated hollow tabs. Interestingly enough, the Escort parts all use the stock latches and mounting hardware so they can easily bolt onto any Z32 although we don’t recommend using the doors without a cage.

In our next segment of Project Z we continue work on the body fabrication and get ready for some really trick suspension parts.

Sources

L-CON Fabrication

The best damn fabricator in town

www.L-CONracecars.com

(714) 572-4130

Performance Auto Body

Roof clip

1826 Oak St.

Torrance, Ca 90501

(310) 618-9617

Escort Racing

Composite doors, hood and hatches

www.escort-us.com

www.escort-jp.com

(626) 331-3715

Jim Wolf Technology

What Nissan project would be complete without them

www.jimwolftechnology.com

(619) 442-0680

MS Performance

Engine Assembly

msperformance@earthlink.net

(619) 441-3717

SPL Parts

Race Suspension parts and exotic Nissan JDM parts

http://www.splparts.com

(866) SPL-PART

Nitto Tire North America

NT01 Tires

www.nittotire.com

(800) 648-8652

Makin Industries

Volk GT-C wheels

www.mackinindustries.com

(562) 946-6820

Ground Control Inc.

Advanced Design Hi Tech Shock Absorbers, Springs, General Suspension Consulting

www.ground-control.com

(530) 677-8600

Z1 Motorsports

300ZX and 350 Z specialists

http://www.300zx.com

(770) 838-7777

Stillen

Aero kit and various parts

www.stillen.com
(714) 540 5566

 

Technosquare Inc.

Best Damned Garage in Town

http://www.technosquareinc.com

(310) 787-0847

Tien USA

Pillow ball mounts

http://www.tein.com

Sparco USA

Seats, seat hardware, harnesses, steering wheel, pedals

http://www.sparcousa.com

(800) 224-7223

Safecraft

Fire system

http://www.safecraft.com

(800) 400-2259

Sweet Mfg

Steering column, brackets, steering quick release

http://www.sweetmfg.biz

(269) 344-2086

Racer Wholesale

Window nets and hardware

http://www.racerwholesale.com

(800) 886-7223

Longacre

Main power cutoff switch

http://www.longacreracing.com

(800) 423-3110

 

 

 

 

 

 

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