Vintage Road Race Ghia...

[cefolar]

I guess I don't visit the ShopTalkForum as much as I do TheSamba, but I was running a thread over there on the build of my Ghia Road Race car. I have talked to Frank (FJ) a couple of times and he has given some good advice on the build - and I'll take any other advice as the community as always is a wealth of information. I thought I would share some progress to date. I have all the pieces to put the transaxle back in and expect to get to that this weekend. I'll be running the short axles to use 205 Spec Miata Hoosiers all the way around - we'll see how that goes clearance wise. I hope to have it back rolling in the next month or so.

After paint:


Some homemade grills that will vent to brake cooling ducts:

Wilwood Brakes,dropped spindles, etc:

Sweet Mfg. collapsible column:

POR15 over everything that isn't blue:

The office - pedal cluster with Unique Parts clutch extension and HD roller with OMP pedal pads, Formula V shifter:

Mendeola super Kafer bar:

Momo wheel and dash coming together:

Dash wired and ready to install:

Mike from Rancho put something nice together, undisclosed gearing with Guard Transmission (GT) Torque Bias Differential:

[Steve Arndt]

What is your front brake and spindle setup?

[JWP]

What is your front brake and spindle setup?

Yeah what he said. I'm sure we'd all love to hear more about the build. Looks like a great car so far.

[cefolar]

What is your front brake and spindle setup?

Yeah what he said. I'm sure we'd all love to hear more about the build. Looks like a great car so far.

Glad to tell you more - the front spindles are CB drum brake drop spindles with EMPI caliper brackets. As luck would have it, everything lines up perfectly. Here is the bracket:


Here is the assembly before it went into the car - the beam is slightly narrowed (1" I beleive - it came with the car so it has been hard to tell) with adjusters. Urethane bushings and Bilstein gas shocks. The rotors are just drilled BJ rotors that have been black oxided. The calipers are Wilwood Dynalite 4 piston calipers.


Popped the dash in today - wired and ready to go. The switch panel from Moroso has built in circuit breakers so none of the circuits need seperate fusing.

[JWP]

What is your front brake and spindle setup?

Yeah what he said. I'm sure we'd all love to hear more about the build. Looks like a great car so far.

Glad to tell you more - the front spindles are CB drum brake drop spindles with EMPI caliper brackets. As luck would have it, everything lines up perfectly. Here is the bracket:


Here is the assembly before it went into the car - the beam is slightly narrowed (1" I beleive - it came with the car so it has been hard to tell) with adjusters. Urethane bushings and Bilstein gas shocks. The rotors are just drilled BJ rotors that have been black oxided. The calipers are Wilwood Dynalite 4 piston calipers.

I didn't get so lucky with my rotors/brackets, the rotor and bracket interfered, thus my 4 piston caliper write up in this forum.
Can I ask where you got your rotors and shocks?
Nice looking car so far if I hadn't said so.

[FJCamper]

Hi Cefolar,

This is one of the most beautiful builds I have ever seen.

So much so that I have to trot out one of the main racing philosophy dictums: "If you put it on the track you have to be ready to lose it."

That applies to cars and drivers, by the way.

Now, I cannot say enough about the level of care and prep you have. Be advised that the top crossmember of the Kafer bar may make fitting a high-torque starter a real adventure. It did on ours.

Also, I notice the brass vent on your transaxle. The factory vent is of course in the nose cone, and racing transaxles usually have this vent enlarged and the brass fitting located there. The reason for the nose cone vent has a purpose. Our gearboxes are splash lubricated, and a nose cone vent allows for accumulated heat and presssure to get out, but has the vital secondary reason of oil following the venting direction and lubricating the bearings toward the nose cone.

Savvy racing transaxle builders found that they had fewer bearing failures with better nose cone venting.

If it is of any consolation, way back, Porsche used to vent from atop the transaxle case, but it was in the old split-case days. There is a Porsche transaxle trick you can employ, which is a big heat vent atop the bell housing. The 356 tunnel-cases had a large rectangular vent cast there, facing rearwards. You can achieve the same effect with some drilled holes on each side of the bellhousing center. The heat vent purpose is to prolong flywheel and clutch life in racing.

And a final point. Your dash is a work of art, but I would personally recommend that it be flat black or some subdued and nonreflective color. Even unpolished aluminum works.

A dazzle pattern dash looks good on showcars or dragsters, but on a road racer, you want everything subdued so that nothing is glinting or competing for your eye's attention. Reflections are movement to the eye, and the eye must adjust focus to the dash when you look down at it, and readjust focus when you look back up.

Please don't take these observations as criticisms. You've built one of the most perfect race-ready Ghias I've ever seen. My observations are just details.

FJC

[cefolar]

Savvy racing transaxle builders found that they had fewer bearing failures with better nose cone venting.

Thanks Frank for the compliments on the car - I mentioned that exact point to Mike at Rancho using your guidance from one of our old emails we exchanged. He respectfully disagreed with that analysis - he said that most heat, especially with a TBD is actually built up in the center of the transaxle and all of his racing transaxles are vented from the center. Given the amount of transaxles they have built for performance and race cars (road race, baja, drag, etc.) I deferred to his expertise for the location of that vent.

Although I am somewhat distracted by shiny objects - engine turned aluminum has long been used as a dash material (Lola T70s, Allards and others). The flat black dash cap should keep down any glare. Although a hard core race car, I wanted to try to keep the vintage feel, although it doesn't make you go faster - looking cool is half the fun

[CPDoug]

I just got done reading the thread over on the samba and all I can say is your attention to detail is inspiring.
Very very nice so far.
It looks like you put heavy duty tie rods on correct?
Any particular reason you are using Bilstein shocks instead of Koni adjustables?

Just asking because I'm collecting parts for my build and wonder if the "adjustable" part of the Konis is worth it.

[cefolar]

It looks like you put heavy duty tie rods on correct?
Any particular reason you are using Bilstein shocks instead of Koni adjustables?

Thanks, I appreciate the compliments - I have built many a street rod, a drag vdub, and a few other road race Corvettes, paying attention to the details (especially in racing) is the name of the game. They are HD tie rods - I stayed with stock ends, I may switch to hiem joints at some point. We'll see how these hold up.

We run Bilsteins on our race Corvette and have always liked them. I messed around trying to fit QA1 fully adjustables, but couldn't get the right stroke length with the right ends. After about sending back about 4 pairs I finally gave up and just went with what I knew. I think if I recall the Koni's are only one way adjustable - I just didn't see that there was a ton of benefit. I'm sure some will disagree - but sometimes simple is better espeially when your not winning any money .

[JWP]

Can you share where you purchased the shocks and what series you have? So far I have only found Bilsteins at one place, eshocks.com.
Thanks
Jason

[CPDoug]

Can you share where you purchased the shocks and what series you have? So far I have only found Bilsteins at one place, eshocks.com.
Thanks
Jason

Believe it or not I found Bilstein, KYB, and Koni shocks listed at Summit Racing.

[FJCamper]

Hi Cefolar,

The shift lever and canvas (?) boot you have -- I really like that. Who sells those?

FJC

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I liked the mounting and location of the proportioning valve and its location plus the shift lever and its boot also. Very nicely done and a pleasure to look at and admire.

Lee

[JWP]

Can you share where you purchased the shocks and what series you have? So far I have only found Bilsteins at one place, eshocks.com.
Thanks
Jason

Believe it or not I found Bilstein, KYB, and Koni shocks listed at Summit Racing.

Yes, I've seen them there too. It looks to me for a swing axle ball joint car the HD version of the Bilstein are the only ones that are available as a matching front and rear set. Which I've found for 270 or so for a set of 4. I've found the Koni's for a little over 340 for a set of 4. The KYB's I can get at my local VW shop for about 150 for the set.

I was curious if the OP had a special set or if they were an off the shelf version from Bilstein.

[cefolar]

The shift lever and canvas (?) boot you have -- I really like that. Who sells those?

The shifter is a FV (Formula Vee) that was a special edition beetle in the 70s - you can find them on the Samba classifieds, eBay, etc. The shifter boot is nomex and if I recall I got it on eBay. Simpson, Racequip, Allstar all have versions of a nomex boot. I have not found another similar to mine (can't recall what brand it is) that has the aluminum bezel attached to the nomex. The bezel was nice in that I could just form it to the tunnel and screw it in. Can't remember where I got the knob (I know I rethreaded the shifter from metric to standard thread). Joes Racing has a similar styled knob which I actually like better, may swap it someday .