1970 Lynx vee

qreshadow
Posts: 71
Joined: August 31st, 2008, 11:36 am

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by qreshadow »

"The question was posed at the National Tour, with the Division SSS in attendance starting with the Jr Karts. The decision was to allow it."

Just for your information, the SSS, Divisional or not, has no SCCA official standing in deciding whether a helmet camera is "legal" or not. Although he or she may participate in any discussion on the issue, competitor or vehicle safety gear does not come under a SSS's responsibility or authority.
FM4SOLO
Posts: 129
Joined: June 26th, 2006, 4:17 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by FM4SOLO »

I did not intend to start a fire, sorry. The ruling, I believe, was based on 3.3.3.B(1)
1) 1) All loose items, inside and outside the car, must be removed.
Hand held items, such as but not limited to, cameras and cell
phones are considered loose items.
and 3.3.3.B(3)
3) Any cameras, if installed, must be securely mounted to withstand
loads from driving maneuvers. The camera may be
installed either inside or on the outside of the car. In either
case, its mounting method and position must not interfere
with driving or pose an additional hazard to driver, passenger,
or course workers.
I was not a part of the discussion.
Charles
FM4SOLO
Posts: 129
Joined: June 26th, 2006, 4:17 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by FM4SOLO »

Total camera with mounting hardware weight checked at 5.5 ounces (certified postal scale), adhesive mount (no holes drilled/changes to the helmet integrity) tested to over 10 Lbs pull weight with no effect. Full movement of head/helmet tested with no interference with drivers body nor contact with any part of the vehicle, mounted outside the drivers field of vision. Seems to be within the letter and spirit of the rules. This was mounted to my son's helmet, if I even thought it would cause him a problem, I would not have let it happen.

Sorry for the thread hijack, but as a competitor, SSS, SSS Instructor, long time tech inspector (Divisional and National Tour), current Region Official (Asst RE) and past Solo Chair, this is important to me. The video from this type of mount is great for driver improvement and of superior value for giving potential new members a true driver experience.

If I missed a directive from the National Office, please correct me.
Charles
FM4SOLO
Posts: 129
Joined: June 26th, 2006, 4:17 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by FM4SOLO »

qreshadow wrote:"The question was posed at the National Tour, with the Division SSS in attendance starting with the Jr Karts. The decision was to allow it."

Just for your information, the SSS, Divisional or not, has no SCCA official standing in deciding whether a helmet camera is "legal" or not. Although he or she may participate in any discussion on the issue, competitor or vehicle safety gear does not come under a SSS's responsibility or authority.
I agree, SSS is specifically not responsible for this, but I am frequently called to discuss safety equipment issues as an experienced member ( a requirement to be a SSS).
Charles
Lynn
Posts: 592
Joined: June 24th, 2006, 11:15 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by Lynn »

I'll speak with Jan about it, but I think she was mistaken.

Why would anyone want extra weight attached to their helmet? If you do hit something, the extra weight is not going to be a good thing.
69 Beach Solo Vee, #65 FM

85 Lynx B Solo Vee

71 Zink C4 Solo Vee
FM4SOLO
Posts: 129
Joined: June 26th, 2006, 4:17 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by FM4SOLO »

5.5 ounces requires more than 4 g's to equal one pound of force. I think the decision is correct. We design courses to be non-impact off course excursions. If we are exceeding 4 g's impact for off course, the course design is the problem. I still think this falls well within the confines of Solo, safe for all but the most extreme circumstances, where a helmet cam is the least of the problems.
Charles
jaymzz

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by jaymzz »

At the last autocross it started raining really hard. I didn't have anything to cover up my vee with so it was rained on it for about two hours. From that I couldn't get it started so we pushed it up on the trailer. When I got home I didn't touch it until today running wise a few weeks later. I thought I would run it up and down the road with all the new safety gear on a couple times to make sure everything is adjusted right. Well it started right up but run horrible. I changed the gas and that didn't help, so I took the cap and rotor off and cleaned it and checked all the sparkplug wires and that didn't help either. A couple hours later and a bunch of cussing I thought to check all my jets. Sure enough there was a piece of garbage in one of them. Now it runs better but still not as good as I wish it did. I am getting really frustrated trying to get this thing running tip top. But enough of that. The hill climb is next week and I am so excited. The hill climbs are the whole reason I bought the vee in the first place. In preparation for it I bought some arm restraints, new helmet, and borrowed a Hans devise. (Thanks Safedrives!) I also learned I had to modify a couple things for the car to be safer for the next race.

I cut my firewall down to the minimum height per SCCA rules. In doing this I also realized last night that I have to make a head rest. Here is when I was done welding it in. Took a long time making sure it was in the right spot though.
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Here it is painted and also to show how much of the firewall I cut off. I also had to rearrange a bunch of stuff on the firewall for it to be lower.
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Here is my headrest done. I had some materials left over from the seat and it worked out great for the headrest.
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My new quick camera mount. It was quick to build and will work great for the last few races of this year. I didn't want anything expensive because I plan on making a new body for it this winter and it wont be reusable. So I built it out of some conduit I had laying around. It is solid and shows a little of the side of the body and the front left wheel. I tried to make it so I could see the road and my hands but that didn't work out to hot. I also padded some of the bars. I am tired of getting so beat up at every race. I thought I broke my elbow at a race a couple months ago.
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And my new tires as soon as I can afford new wheels. They are about twice the size of what I am running now. I sure wish I could fit 13's on the vee with the disc brakes, but it isn't going to happen.
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DanRemmers
Posts: 293
Joined: June 24th, 2006, 7:21 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by DanRemmers »

Which disc brakes do you have?

Also about rain: I highly recommend making a cover. My vee came with a cover, and if I didn't have one, I'd spend a couple hundred $ to have one made. Besides the comfort factor (sitting in a pool of water is no fun), there are lots of things that can go wrong if they get wet.

Last year, I was at an autocross, sitting in my car all strapped in waiting to run, and the sky opened up. Monsoon type rain, lightning, the works. After about 10 minutes getting drenched, another driver wades over and tells me the event has been cancelled because of the lightning. So I pack up and go home. A month later, my shift linkage is rusted up, and my throttle is sticking. It turns out the throttle cable was fine, but my gas pedal hinge was rusted.

Bottom line--a little bit of water can cause many hours of heartache and pain.

If you're getting new bodywork soon, plan on making a cover for it. You should have some way to cover the carbs. A removable body piece just for the carbs would be great for rainy races. A tonneau cover works well for keeping the seat dry--snaps around the cockpit area can secure it. I don't have garage space, so I park my vee outside. My cover encloses everything except the wheels and axles.

For a pic of the cover, go to google maps, put in my address, and look at the street view -- 6201 Franconia Forest Ct, Alexandria, VA 22310
jaymzz

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by jaymzz »

I do plan on making a cover for the engine also, but time is an issue at the moment. I did learn to start bringing a tarp to the races with me from now on though until I do get a body made. :)
Edward Schubert
Posts: 110
Joined: September 10th, 2007, 5:06 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by Edward Schubert »

It looks like you have done a ton of great work on your car. A suggesstion would be to check how you have shoulder harness installed. They appear WAY to far apart. Schoth and others have a very good site giving you details on the distance they should be apart. You also need something to stop them from slipping further apart. If they are not closer together and contained there is a good possibilty they can slip off your shoulders if stressed.
Ed Schubert
Zink/Citation 18B
edschubert@live.com
757-692-1181
jaymzz

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by jaymzz »

Thank you I will check into that right now on the harnesses. I also forgot to answer about the disc brakes. The last owner told me they are a brembo kit and that super beetle pads will fit them. I have thought about switching back over to drum brakes just so I can run 13 inch wheels. In a couple of autocrosses I used wheel adaptors in the rear and was able to use 13 inch wheels and I really like the aceleration of them over the 15's but I was unable to fit 13's on the front even with shaving the calipers down. Plus for the hill I don't like the thought of running wheel adaptors.
DanRemmers
Posts: 293
Joined: June 24th, 2006, 7:21 pm

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by DanRemmers »

How long is the hill climb? For autocross, drum brakes work great. If the hill climb has lots of hard braking and a long run, the disc brakes will handle the heat much better.

Talk to some FST car builders, or Jim at SR Racing. I'm pretty sure they use 13" wheels and disc brakes.
77fmod
Posts: 324
Joined: July 27th, 2006, 10:20 am

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by 77fmod »

Don't know if you have it running correctly, but here are a couple of suggestions. First is it cranking okay? If not check your grounds. Second, water can get into the bowls of carbs even with the filters on. Since it is heavier than fuel it will hang around the bottom of the bowl. Lastly, you might check the wiring to the coil as some corrosion may have occured. In fact, that much water on it could have added corrosion to almost any exposed electrical connections.
Good luck. Let us know what you find.
jaymzz

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by jaymzz »

Today before even trying to start it up I checked the valves, checked all wire connectors for corrosion, cleaned the fuel filter, took the tops off of the carbs and checked for water and checked all the jets again. All is clean and clear and it started right up and sounds like it is running great. I sure hope so because I won't have time Friday at the hill to mess with it. Thanks everyone for all your input. Any and all input is appreciated.
jaymzz

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by jaymzz »

Well just got home from the hillclimb. I have some great news and some bad news. Great news is that I was able to get 6 official runs out of it and 5 un official runs last friday when I got there. The car run awesome all weekend without any problems until about half way through my last run up the hill. I blew another axle seal. :( I am at the point with the tranny to take it to a builder and have them set up the rear end for me. But other than that the gearing was right on for the hill and the power I have was perfect also. The only drawback is my tires. I feel that if I had better and wider tires I could have shaved a huge amount of time off of my runs. I was able to set the Bmod record also. :D My best run was a 2.32 for a 2.2 mile hill. I am very glad now that I bought the vee for hillclimbs. This winter I need to redo my hoop for the hills so I am safer and build a good body for it. Last year in my evo my best was a 2.39 so the vee is faster and better for the hills. The bad news is my car was a little to rough to get any video. The video camera recorded about 3 seconds of my first run and shut off. I think the car is to rough riding and also vibrates to much for the camera, so I am going to look into a hero camera or whatever they are called. When I am not so tired and people put up some pictures I will post them up. I think a couple people got some short video clips of me passing by also. I can't wait to see those.
jaymzz

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by jaymzz »

An update. I am hoping to have it ready for a race in a few weeks, but not sure if it is going to happen due to money. :( I wish I knew why it keeps eating axle seals. The rotor keeps coming loose no matter how tight I get it. Any ideas?
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Here is my bent pushrods. At the last autocross the bar I welded my front engine mount to broke and the engine fell onto the shifter rod. From that it was leaking really bad and making some extra noises.
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Here is the breather flange I was having problems with. Notice how short it is compared to the new one. The new one has barbs on it to keep the line from coming off again.
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Jaymzz
Posts: 3
Joined: June 17th, 2013, 11:57 am

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by Jaymzz »

Thank you Allen for helping me get back on the forums. :)
Hey all sorry it has been so long. I have had a very rough last few years. After reading this thread it makes me very sad of the current condition of the vee after all the hard work I did. I am planning on re building it this winter and wondering if there is anyone that has switched over to IRS with the Linx chassis? I am tying to figure out if I want to make a new chassis from scratch or update the chassis I already have. The vee along with all my other cars have sat for about three years in a very damp garage and I am now trying to get back into racing but with a lot of work ahead of me to be able to with the vee. Short story is it sat in the shed and the roof started leaking on it a couple years ago. :(
FV80
Site Admin
Posts: 1195
Joined: June 27th, 2006, 9:07 am

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by FV80 »

James,
I just glanced down this thread, but noticed that you have NOT provided ANY information about where you are. If you go to your profile and add your state and town, it's quite possible that someone (or several) vee guys might be close by to help. I strongly suggest you do this, as few of us have the resources to travel hundreds of miles to help.. especially if we don't know where we're headed..., but often we would be happy to be "involved" with someone that actually has a CAR and wants to RACE :mrgreen: .

Steve, FV80
near Atlanta (Athens vicinity)
The Racer's Wedge and now a Vortech, FV80
Jaymzz
Posts: 3
Joined: June 17th, 2013, 11:57 am

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by Jaymzz »

Thank you for pointing that out for me. Forgot all about that. :oops:

Well an update to what I was doing a few years back. I was tired of breaking axle's and seals so bought another car. It is a 1983 formula 440 and I learned really quick that I don't like the clutch setup and two strokes. I was going to get the vee going again but had some major life changes happen. :cry:

I bought this car wrecked pretty bad and had to replace most of the front end. Here it is all done and ready to race.
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Here is the new suspension I made for it. Sad thing is I blew the axle in the vee at the hillclimb and bought this car with two weeks to get ready for my biggest race of the year.
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Here was my first hillclimb with this car. I placed 6'th best time of the weekend overall but could have done much better with a different sprocket. I learned at that hillclimb that the last owner put in an autocross sprocket so I could only get to 98mph on the straight stretch. I was at that speed about 20 feet in to that section so had a very long boring section on that hill.
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I am so excited to get the vee going again but it is going to take a ton of parts and money. It still runs great just has tranny issues and some other issues now from sitting. :cry: I dug it out a few weeks ago and started to convert it over to IRS but am not happy about how I was doing it. Been researching IRS on other formula cars and got a plan just need the funds for it now, but debating if I want to start over with a new chassis or try to use what I have. I gave the orange car to my son for when he is old enough. Someone on the f500 forums gave me a set of takeoff tires so I am going to race it until I get the vee going again. Here is where I left off on the vee a few weeks ago. A friend gave me the transmission from his sandrail but the way it was setup in the car for suspension wasn't to my liking at all for a race car.
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Rickydel
Posts: 199
Joined: July 5th, 2006, 11:09 am

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by Rickydel »

Not knowing what kind of research you've done already, I'm going to point out something you may already know.
Replacing the swing axle rear with the IRS will require many more bits of suspension to support the hubs.
If the hubs are not supported properly, the c-v joints will fail in a short amount of time.
On a swing axle, the axle tubes are an integral part of the suspension. The axle just happens to run through it.
Switching to an IRS eliminates that important, integral part. If you reference a formula ford rear suspension, you will see what sort of mods will need to be done.

I have a quick question for you. In an earlier post, you mentioned "blowing" an axle. What actually blew? The only type of axle failure I've ever seen, is a bent one after a shunt.
Jaymzz
Posts: 3
Joined: June 17th, 2013, 11:57 am

Re: 1970 Lynx vee

Post by Jaymzz »

I was going through axle seals and bearings like crazy with the swing axle. I replaced everything but the housing on one side and at the last hillclimb I did the bearing welded itself to the axle and snapped. That was my last straw for the swing axle.
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