Pedal boxes, the plumbing for brake systems, and nearly every facet of this project is real race car work. Any failures here are failures in your braking system. Do you want to trust your braking system to some random person who has welded a few times? Do you trust your life to your own fabrication and welding skills? To your own hardline making skills? I have nearly zero fabrication skills and no welding skills. I’ve made one or two hard lines in my life. Instead of DIY, I chose Tommy Taylor at Bluemaxxx, which is not far from my house. He has been building race cars for a very, very long time.
You probably remember when we put the X-Pad into this car. It was a great seat. But it was coming to the end of its FIA certification life, and needed to be replaced. The GT-Pad is a bit larger of a seat. I am a bigger guy these days, and not in an unhealthy sense. My professional life changed and I travel less for work, which means I’ve been much more regular in the gym, and I’ve gotten thicker and wider because of it. The X-Pad was becoming a challenge to fit in once the 6-point harness was on.
Cabin space is not exactly at a premium inside the SC300, so the much wider and beefier GT-Pad was going to fit easily. Except for the fact that we fabricated the seat mount for the X-Pad and the wider GT-Pad couldn’t fit inside the side-mounts even when pushed all the way out.
But that actually wasn’t the end of the world because of the pedal box.
What?
No, that’s not a pedal box. It’s a harness cross-bar for the roll cage. But why am I taking a picture of it? Because it’s not the original cross-bar. The new pedals are closer to the steering wheel than the OEM pedals. This is because the floor slopes up as it connects to the firewall, and you can’t install the pedal box in the sloped area without chopping it out and boxing it and doing all kinds of weird things.
Ultimately, the pedals were placed further back (closer to the center) of the car. Since the pedals were further back, that meant that I needed to be further back. Which meant the seat needed to be further back. And the X-Pad was already close to the cage. The GT-Pad didn’t fit at all even in the original location, so something had to give. And that something was the harness bar for the cage. Tommy chopped out the old one and bent up a new one and installed it, and then made new seat mounting for the GT-Pad. We test fit me in the car several times before finalizing everything.
7 comments
Hi,
Continental who own Teves make a MK100 motor sport ABS system. It’s been around for about 2y now so you can buy new. It also comes with user adjustable software unlike the BOSCH M5
I had found the Continental system when I was poking around. The main challenges with a system like that are things like the dealer network, people’s familiarity with the systems, etc. Bosch has a huge booth at PRI every year. I’ve never seen Continental/Teves. Ed Senf, who is my tuner, is also my Bosch dealer. I don’t know any Continental dealers, and Ed had never seen one of those systems.
Just last week, another system was also announced/introduced: Delta ABS.
Where do you plan on racing this thing? Is it for time attack?
The car is currently built to be compatible with NASA’s SuperTouring ruleset. With its current power-to-weight ratio, it fits into ST2.
I ran one #GRIDLIFE TT with it back at NCM in 2021, I think. I would have run a Global Time Attack at Road Atlanta, but they had a Yokohama tire requirement, and I didn’t want to purchase tires just for that one event, although I think they’ve relaxed that requirement.
Hi Erik,
Great read.
Glad to see you and the car back.
Looking forward to the next update
Glad to be back!
Your documentation and insight into this build has been very valuable in my own SC300 build. I appreciate every one and part 36 was worth the wait.