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Thread: Fostek's R&D department

  1. #81
    Racer Decade Plus User mexicotait's Avatar

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    As for machining the bore tom
    I've seen a similar caliper being machined and the tool is placed on an arm and is done on a mill
    Hard to explain and as the tool arm was so thin I couldn't understand how the arm didn't vibrate
    Ill try and find the video

    Unfortunately the video I have seen is in Chinese
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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Looking great Tom. I see you are now on SBD's website as well.

    Are your callipers upside down ?

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul C View Post
    Looking great Tom. I see you are now on SBD's website as well.

    Are your callipers upside down ?

    Trust you to spot that...

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by FOSSIE View Post
    Trust you to spot that...
    What that your on SBD's site or the callipers?!

    More pics please Tom

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Not quite enough attention to detail going into this build for my liking.......................
    I fear understeer...

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Do you sell the light hubs??

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    Fostek's R&D department

    Excellet thread Tom, very very interesting indeed !!! :-)

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    excellent thread mate what color is the car because its a nice color

    MY MK1 ESCORT (Now turbo'd)

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Bump!

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Anything happening tom or are you still rushed off your feet with axles ?
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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Few bits and pieces guys, but nothing major. Technically it could go down on it's wheels now, but I still haven't got any wheels. It's more or less ready to go away for wiring loom now; just 1 or 2 odds and sods to sort out (like wheel speed sensors, for instance - haven't even looked at these yet and they'll need to be in place as they're an integral part of the car's electrickery)



    Biggest step forward was the rear dampers showing up; this meant we could lift the axle (this is a dummy/test axle) into place, along with some hubs and things so we can put wheels on. I ordered the dampers with some extra long hoses so the reservoirs could be mounted in the boot. This meant taking a holesaw to the boot floor; not my favourite job! Great solution though. The rest of the exhaust system is on, fitted a treat. Notice the tail pipe pointing at the ground in an attempt to "help" get the car through noise test!



    The front end is now together enough to get wheels on... Uprights, steering arms, hubs, bells, discs etc. Still waiting for caliper brackets, they will probably have to go on after the car's wired now. Not a problem, it doesn't need working brakes for wiring.



    Axle @ full droop.



    This is the compressor that supplies compressed air for the gearshift system. There's 2 systems built into the car; the first system (for long rallies, or should I say rallies with long sections between service) uses this compressor to fill an accumulator with compressed air, at a fairly low pressure. Compressor runs off the 12v car electrics = no limit to number of gearshifts. However, for short "sprint" type events (on a lot of rallies these days, you'll be doing 10 miles between services max) then we can ditch the compressor and charge the receiver to 300bar, along with an extra regulator to drop the 300bar to a workable pressure. This is the norm on sprint/hillclimb cars, but my theory is a single venue rally is no different to a series of sprints linked together. We can charge the bottle (or swap it for a fully charged bottle) in service.



    This bizarre looking manifold houses the various in/outlets from the air tank. There's 5 different threads in the manifold, and they're all different! Took some working out.



    I nearly forgot a catch tank for the engine bay. Fairly standard-issue alloy tank, although I wanted to use these push-fit fittings for the breather pipe.



    And this is why: the breather comes out the centre of the oil tank filler cap. To unscrew the cap would mean disconnecting the hose (or engineering a swivel of some sort) whereby these push-in fittings are "swivel elbows" anyway - you can unscrew the cap and the fitting stays still. Cool or what?



    That's it for today. Next update should see the car on the deck!

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Really coming together, nice to see some things being done a bit different from the norm.

    Love the airshift system but im not sure about the idea of a 300 bar 'bomb' on board though

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by Nelly View Post

    Love the airshift system but im not sure about the idea of a 300 bar 'bomb' on board though
    Agreed - please say you added a zero in error? I used to use Nitrous oxide on a bike shifter - 2.5lbs would last all year @ only 650psi / 45 bar!

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    loving the progress mate, would love to know where you got the hubs, legs, arms, suspension etc as i will need to start looking for my project and your help would be very much appreciated. thanks.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by Nelly View Post
    Really coming together, nice to see some things being done a bit different from the norm.

    Love the airshift system but im not sure about the idea of a 300 bar 'bomb' on board though
    its not a bomb,its a rocket launcher,looks good tom,are you going to cover the compressor to soundproof it,will make a racket in the cabin

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by PeterM View Post
    loving the progress mate, would love to know where you got the hubs, legs, arms, suspension etc as i will need to start looking for my project and your help would be very much appreciated. thanks.
    Peter - just so happens I can help you with this - the man you need to speak with is a Mr J Edwards as in JEMS, Daventry, i think you know of him!? The front suspension kit is JEMS work, and the rear end 4-link geometry.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by katana View Post
    Agreed - please say you added a zero in error? I used to use Nitrous oxide on a bike shifter - 2.5lbs would last all year @ only 650psi / 45 bar!
    No, I did mean 300bar, as in 4500psi.

    Not withstanding any air leaks, the bottle will give approx 1200 - 1400 gearshifts on one fill, depending on actual working shift pressure, which is still TBC (won't know until we test it) This might come as a surprise, but even with a 6-speed clicky box and short ratios, you're very unlikely to average more than 25 gearshifts per mile - and that's on a very tight twisty stage. Most close-road type stages will see 18-20 shifts per mile max. So you can do some maths; that's a fair old milage from 1 fill.

    The bottle is a Mil-spec carbon/kevlar job, it's literally bulletproof (I should mention that the bottle I'm talking about charging to 300bar is not the one in the pictures, which is a paintball bottle - still 300bar mind). I'm not worried about the bottle rupturing in a crash; if the crash is big enough to rupture the tank (or indeed break off the HP reducer) then the air is the least of your worries.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by turbospud View Post
    its not a bomb,its a rocket launcher,looks good tom,are you going to cover the compressor to soundproof it,will make a racket in the cabin
    I was stunned how quiet it was actually! Obviously you can hear it in the workshop, but with the engine running and helmet on, you can't hear the compressor. Which, incidentally, makes it all the more important that there's some safety built-in and the digi dash will give me plenty early warning that the receiver pressure is dropping (i.e. compressor has failed) If you wait until the pressure is so low it won't change gear - you're proper screwed as there's no back up mechanical linkage to change gear!

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    I take it that the MBE is controlling all the gear actuators, as Steve uses on the Westfield sprint car? Should work well if so as its had plenty of development and seems very reliable.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul A View Post
    I take it that the MBE is controlling all the gear actuators, as Steve uses on the Westfield sprint car? Should work well if so as its had plenty of development and seems very reliable.
    Correct, the MBE controls the gearshift. There's actually only 1 actuator on this system. Most systems use a 2nd, smaller actuator to blip the throttle on downshifts but this system is running fly-by-wire throttle (also driven by the MBE) which takes care of the throttle blips, so no need for that extra actuator.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    The Engineering work going into this is amazing. Going to be awesome when its done.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quick update;

    One of the most important components in the gearshift system is the barrel position sensor. The original one, that comes with the gearbox, was really only meant to be used for driving the gear display, not a gear control unit, and so it's not too accurate... So we had to replace it with a better quality, more precise sensor. Naturally, it didn't fit, so some machining and head scratching was required (thanks to CossieMatt for this) The first attempt all looked nice, but on checking the sensor was working properly, I realised it was working the wrong way round - i.e. the voltage output from the sensor was decreasing when you moved up a gear, and vice versa.... So this was the 2nd attempt; same sensor but clockwise rather than anti-clockwise.



    all fitted



    And I said it would have wheels!


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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Looking fantastic Tom - hurry up and finish it!

  24. #104
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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Looking great Tom. I love the colour and the attention to detail is incredible. I think you are raising the bar for others to follow!!

    I hope you bring it down to Rally Day in September as this will have as much, if not more attention than Simon & Jons new car did last year.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Looks great Tom ,are the wheels going to clear your calipers ?

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by Toymex View Post
    Looks great Tom ,are the wheels going to clear your calipers ?
    The wheels in the picture won't clear - I've just robbed these off my dad's car to get this thing rolling (minus calipers). The wheels I've got in mind for it will clear, only just but they will clear.

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by FOSSIE View Post
    The wheels in the picture won't clear - I've just robbed these off my dad's car to get this thing rolling (minus calipers). The wheels I've got in mind for it will clear, only just but they will clear.
    Thats good news it would be a shame if you couldn't make them work

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Quote Originally Posted by Toymex View Post
    Thats good news it would be a shame if you couldn't make them work
    Oh they will work! Most of the front end is designed around these calipers, I can't not use them! Most likely scenario at the moment is that we make our own wheels, or, buy some F3 wheels, but that'd mean using centre-lock hubs instead of 4-stud.... Shame

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Just found this thread, stunning work Tom, you should be really proud of this

    www.gulfpetrolheads.com

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Well I had a spare few minutes last night and given the car has, at last, got some wheels on, I couldn't resist dropping it on the corner weight scales just to see if all this effort and money has been worth it....

    The result was pretty much what I'd been hoping for:



    There's still plenty kit to go in the car yet, I've added up as much as I can, weighed the doors, bonnet, boot, loom, sump guard, seats etc, I reckon (give or take) there's 100kgs of equipment still to go in before we can get a true reading.

    So the next big engineering challenge is safely mounting 100kgs of ballast!!

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Wow that`s really light. 720 kg is the race weight my escort need so pretty close to yours

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Wow that's bloody light, nice

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    That's a great weight Tom - no guilt having breakfast on the day of an event now

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Top effort that mate, building them light is hard work.
    At least the ballast can go where you want it, low down and balancing the corners

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Well the car is due to go away for the wiring loom later this week. I've already missed the first 2 deadlines, so this time I was determined not to let the deadline slip...

    It's really just been a case of getting the last few bits and pieces are hardware in place, well anything that's got anything to do with the car's wiring anyway.

    The pneumatics for the gearshift system are all now in place. We've had it running on the bench, all seems OK, but until it's connected (and driven) by the ECU then I can't say how effective it is. I forgot to get a picture of the manifold internals before it went together... Basically, that brass hex-shape fitting in the end of the bottle has a dip-stick (aka debris-tube) in one end that pokes down inside the bottle. This separates the warm air coming from the compressor, swirling it around the bottle and dumping moisture, allowing the cool(er) air to exit... This just means that when the system is working hard, you won't get warm air from the compressor by-passing the accumulator and straight to the valves. May be a bit over-kill but the theory is nice. Anyway here's the system in place. The box around the air system doubles up as a nice shelf for the ECU. There will be a front on this box, which will double-up as a footrest, but I'm leaving it off for now to give access for wiring/setting up.



    Mounted the front damper reservoirs on some big cable-tie saddles. Simple enough looking job but actually harder than it looks, you want to allow free movement in both directions of the banjo. That sensor (cable tied to the damper hose) is the inlet air temp sensor; haven't decided where that's going yet so it's in the "too hard box" for today.



    Here's the view from driver's seat. The whole steering wheel/joystick assembly is a mock-up for now, no point spending too much time on it until we've driven the car and review the driving position and general ergonomics of it all. The joystick is just hung on some gash tube for the moment; eventually it'll have a proper bracket but no point doing that until we confirm where it needs to go. I suspect it'll need to be a bit lower, and a bit further forward than it currently is.



    The clutch pedal is in bits whilst I fit the various sensors which initiate the launch control and some other stuff. That should have been done today but apparently it's a bank holiday or something and nowhere is open (need some fluid to bleed the system first)

    Oh and I mounted the horn too, not very exciting, but one of those "suppose I'd better fit one" jobs; nice little PIAA slimline thing off eBay that's slotted down behind the front panel next to headlight bowl, out the way.

    Getting there!

  36. #116
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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Do love an old car with some clever modern bits

    www.gulfpetrolheads.com

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    ANy updates Tom?

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    nice car :-)

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Taking a mk2 to the next level wicked car, if you need more cooling on them front brakes you could turn the bells round, build spec is extremely top notch wicked car

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    Re: Fostek's R&D department

    Hi chaps.
    Sorry for the lack of updates but due to the major changes at Fostek we haven't had time to update this thread or do much to the car.
    The workshop is now sold so I had to get the car mobile to rehouse it ... and before you start shouting, YES it's on 15" wheels but that is only for rolling it about. It will have 13" wheels on when we find the right ones.Click image for larger version Name:	Sept.2014..3 small.jpg Views:	759 Size:	53.9 KB ID:	71834Click image for larger version Name:	Sept.2014..6 small.jpg Views:	758 Size:	69.4 KB ID:	71835

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