Dry Lakes Racers Australia

Yeehaa!
I know the feeling.
4 inch grinders can change the world. Or at least your part of it. Good on you. Your hooked now Max.
Salt fever has only begun to bite.
GAZ

Cheers Gaz, Its been one of those things ive wanted to do for years and im excited i found some suckers to help me get there. Belly tank is the ultimate dream.

Anyways the chop progressed a bit more today. i honestly thought the back was going to be the hardest but it appears joining the roof back together is. The body of the terraplane is kind of boat shaped front to back, so sliding the roof sections forwards and back wards as well as going down the 3 inches has left me with a lot of head scratching. ended up having to split the front half through the middle as well. Its all kind of back together now but not 100%. I need a bit more hammer and dolly experience as there are a couple spots that need a slight bit of stretching. My brother is a bit more of an expert than me so we may call on him when he has time.

lot of time goes into these, glad im not building a show car. Everyone always goes on about how thick the steel is in old cars. Well it is in some places but when they press these curved bits out the get as thin as 0.6 on parts.

And we had a couple blow-ins as well today so we kept them out of the beer fridge and put them to work filling in all the holes in the firewall. Cheers Adam and Clive.

That is a fantastic amount of work in such a short period. The lines look great. Yes the hammer and dolly work is a killer. I had zero experience when I started and I admit to using a bit of bog on the roof. Remember 'weight is your friend' on the salt. That is my excuse anyway. Good idea with the firewall. better to do it now rather than later. Keep the perforations in that area to a minimum. Never know, you might be running a blown and inject big block one day!
Keep up the good work and wield that whip on the boys. You cant be too hard on them, they are still smiling!
GAZ

You boys keep up this pace and quality of work and you'll be odds-on favourite to win my inaugural "Track 2 Starter's Favourite Car Award".

Cheers
Dave

This is our motor as of right now. Its been in my grandfathers old HG Holden, had a brief stint in an altered drag car and i thought it best to pull it apart and give it a good go over before its committed to the Hudson. Its just your run of the mill small block chev. So far all is looking good and can see a few more little things to be done to gain another hp or 2. So when im not at johns shed this is my other job on the list. Plan to get it dynoed at a mates shop prior to the big day, we may have a couple different cams to choose from and manifolds. Another time consuming job on the horizon is the custom headers.

Compared to a roof chop headers are a breeze.
Great progress. I'll buy you a beer at Lake G if you make it.

Chris,
I agree. I think building the extractors was one of the most rewarding parts of the Shaguar project. Get your diameters and runner lengths right, buy the right size bends and tube, take a deep breathe and go for it!
GAZ

Well, still carrying on with the roof chop, just about sick of it now.We started the cage today, feel free to put your 2 bobs worth in. You can see the large plates we are bolting directly to the chassis. we decided just to cut holes through the floor and well make some cover plates later to fill in. Well thats the plan anyway. Our cage will go under the seat as well, so i think it will be quite a safe design. Our thoughts are even if it were to break away from the chassis we would still be safe.

Johns back seat drivers

cheers!!

Also got a bit of work done on the heads last night
Cheers Ill be there for that beer Chris, Gaz you gonna be there too?

With bells on!
Put some thought into the cage re taxi bar, head restraint, door intrusion, larry bar, harness mounts etc. The rule book is not very clear on gussets but you will need them from the main hoop to the taxi bar at least. You will probably need to get the column, wheel, gear stick, clutch/brake pedals in so you can determine seat position especially if different size blokes/girls will be driving. After that the head restraint and window /door net needs to be thought about. Great job so far.
GAZ

just lookin at ya signature, Terraplaning shouldn't that read "Terror planning"

Hey I'm enjoying watchin the build, lookin forward to seein this thing makin a noise on the salt

Yea were still working on the team name, but Terror certainly has popped up a few times.

Having the day off today, but worked a full shift yesterday, might do a bit more on Saturday and then that"s it for a few more weeks. The basic outline of the cage is in and the seat has been positioned. Starting to think about the window net now, also we have worked out we definitely need a removable steering wheel.

As always i post these pics with the hope that anyone looking will speak up or question anything that looks like we may have trouble passing tech inspection. Much easier to sort it out in the workshop.

Plenty more welding to go yet

Cheers

You will need a taxi bar behind the seat to not only attach the harness to (ideally no more than 2" above or below the shoulder height/seat hole) but also to brace the back of the seat against.
You look to be a long way from the gear stick and necessary controls??
I think you will definitely need diagonals in the hoop because of the bends low down near the floor. In a roll over I think that will be weakest point.
Just my opinion.
GAZ