Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

[DadzMach]

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd create a fun thread to share my GT350 adventures. As time goes by, I'm hoping to update with videos, pictures and text as we find new roads, take road trips, install mods, and start driving on the track.

My wife and I both thought one of the really parts of our parents' lives was how they came of age in the height of the American car scene. Whether it was one them specifically or one of our family friends, we grew up listening to them recount cherished memories that included iconic American automobiles - Mustangs, Camaro's, Buicks, etc...in the form of road trips, fun roads, hot rod-ing, or racing their friends. A few of them, they still have these cars (my father, for example, still has his '71 Plymouth Road Runner and his '61 Ford Custom). We always thought it was so cool to see something so important to them be carried on through the family.

My wife and I decided we wanted to get our own special car and make tons of those cherished memories in it as well. After a year of searching and test driving, the GT350 was the easy choice. It took a year, but we finally picked it up in October '16.

We've had a few small adventures since then, but the first real one starts on Saturday as we drive it from Seattle, WA down Highway 101 to San Diego. For our delayed honeymoon, we are taking a 14 day Pacific Coast road trip. We are pretty excited. We'll be spending a few days each in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, LA/Santa Monica, and San Diego along with a few random days in between those areas. If any of you have any recommended driving roads, places to visit or want to meet up for beers/cruise, let me know. Would love to have local knowledge and meet some fellow members.

All around San Diego/Carlsbad area there are a lot of really smooth and pretty windy roads. Lots of areas around San Diego are fun to tear up.

 

[Biggsy]

AJ Hartman modular rear diffusor, Cortex Penske Coilovers

You may have said this already but going with AJ wing and splitter too?

Also I’m assuming Penske doubles ?

 

[honeybadger]

You may have said this already but going with AJ wing and splitter too?

Also I’m assuming Penske doubles ?

I have a pretty large and effective wood splitter right that I plan to re-use if I'm not able to build my own CF piece in time. I really want to make my own that replaces the belly pan as well - that will lose a good amount of weight.

Going to reuse my current wing for now as well. Not sure what I'll replace it with in the future - my buddy owns intelliaero and we've been talking about a c-pillar mounted version. DRS would be epic

Yep - doubles with remote reservoirs in the rear

 

[JustSomeGuy]

Saltlick : Great BBQ. Great Cocktails. Fantastic Service.

Saltlick is all you need to know.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

my buddy owns intelliaero and we've been talking about a c-pillar mounted version. DRS would be epic

Until it fails at the end of the longest straight.

 

[honeybadger]

Exploring mounting location ideas for the diff and trans coolers. First option is where the GT4 car puts - in the cavity left by the OEM fuel tank.

Second, I am playing around with putting them next to the fuel cell in the rear. Air flow looks to be plenty and it leaves the OEM fuel tank cavity open for the exhaust (i.e. side exit exhaust with extra room for mufflers if I am running a track with sound restrictions)

Thoughts?

 

[honeybadger]

So I've gotten the tub painted. Can FINALLY begin reassembly. Starting to get excited now!

While waiting for some parts to come in, I've begun messing around with the fender. While I'd love a GT3 fender, I am going to work something up on my own at least for now. Plan is to remove the existing vent I have and replace with a curved Race Louvers fender vent that goes ontop of the wheel arch. Then going to cut into the OEM vent and deepen. One of my goals with this is not to mess with outline of that iconic GT350 fender vent that's at the front of the swoosh. Really not a fan of how a lot of the existing solutions have approached this.

This should help get a lot more airflow out without really ruining the 350 body lines

 

[Inthehighdesert]

Going back to oem color or something new? My apologies if you said and I missed it.

 

[honeybadger]

Going back to oem color or something new? My apologies if you said and I missed it.

Car exterior will be painted white for easy future repair and color matching. But plan to wrap in a color very similar to Ruby. My guess is it will more or less look the same - just a lot meaner and with a good bit more aero

 

[honeybadger]

Things have been fairly quiet the last couple weeks juggling some family time and other stuff, but some progress has been made. Since the car is painted, I've started some minor re-assembly.

Got the dash back in along with the pedals/steering wheel. I still need to work on pedal plumbing and sheering shaft fabrication. Latter of which should be coming soon.

I've also installed a Watson rear-bumper support tow hook setup. I really liked pulling the car in backwards before, but the OEM rear bumper support was only held in with (2) bolts per side. There was some flex and that always made me nervous. This uses (4) per side and they tie into the frame rails. Should be perfect.

I also scored a nascar radiator off of ebay. This sucker is abut 20% bigger by volume than the Mishimoto I was using - while being 3in shorter. And with an attached oil cooler, it will also replace my FP350S oil cooler. Plan is to tilt forward and duct a la an FIA GT3-spec factory car.

Going to drop it off at a local shop this weekend to get some AN bungs welded on.

IT doesn't currently fit between the frame rails due to the placement of the lower hose, but plan is to tilt forward like this - just pushed further back. Will likely modify the k-member to fit it, but haven't gotten that far yet.

 

[JBG0137]

Will you be using the factory wiring harness or after market? I have removed all of my harnesses and thought about removing all the sound system wires and door harness…really interested to see which ave you took.

 

[honeybadger]

Will you be using the factory wiring harness or after market? I have removed all of my harnesses and thought about removing all the sound system wires and door harness…really interested to see which ave you took.

I have removed every piece of OEM wiring. Replacing with AIM PDM and Link ECU. Will re-use OEM engine harness, but the rest will be replaced with the Trailbrake.com PDM harness and Link ECU's flying looms (AIM PDM below). I haven't started wiring yet - waiting on the engine and trans so i can start placing things in the correct location

 

[WItoTX]

Where do you plan to mount the battery? And what are you running for a battery to power HB?

One other thing. Moving the fuel tank to behind the rear axle, how much do you think that changes your weight balance? Think it will throw off the car's balance, or get you closer to 50/50?

 

[honeybadger]

Where do you plan to mount the battery? And what are you running for a battery to power HB?

One other thing. Moving the fuel tank to behind the rear axle, how much do you think that changes your weight balance? Think it will throw off the car's balance, or get you closer to 50/50?

Antigravity ATX-20HD. Same battery I used for the last couple years. Mine has been solid and I've even used it for random tasks around the house - like running small 12v pumps and stuff. It's great.

RE: fuel tank, it will help with weight distribution and get me closer to 50/50. Downside is that it's behind the rear wheels, which will make lift off oversteer a bit more pronounced

 

[Lurker_350]

...........RE: fuel tank, it will help with weight distribution and get me closer to 50/50. Downside is that it's behind the rear wheels, which will make lift off oversteer a bit more pronounced

You mean it'll be like the offspring of a GT350 and 911 GT3! Sounds awesome. Always enjoy seeing the progress!