,
Team America World Time Attack – ARK Design’s BNR32 Skyline GT-R Part 6
By Mike Kojima and Eric Hsu
So much has happened on the car that it was a bit much to go over it all on one sitting so here is part 2 exactly one day later. We will take the story up where we left off before. Read More about Team America Here!
 |
| A few editions ago, Gary and David had started work on the rear bulkhead. Now things are getting closer and the bulkhead is formed. Gary did not have to beadroll it as the top flange makes the thing pretty darned stiff. It took some tricky work with a shrinker to make the curved flange. The intent is to have this stuff done in carbon later but it probably won’t get done in time. This aluminum is taking the place of a lot of heavy steel |
The aluminum paneled trunk coming closer to completion. The rules say the fuel cell has to be walled off from the rest of the car. In the future we are probably going to cut all of the unibody away here and have a tubular structure to support the back of the car like a pro drift car. This will probably save at least 50-70 lbs but we simply don’t have time right now to do this. 
A closer view of the sturdy fuel cell mounting. 
We wanted to move the fuel cell as far forward as possible to reduce the polar moment of inertia as well as to give the cell some more protection. Gary had to pocket the firewall to keep things legal. 
The fuel cell support structure. Next year this will all be tube framed out. We will attach the support structure for our rear diffuser to this. Also the exhaust will be run in this area. Wait and see what Gary has planned for the diffuser.
