- 2 years ago
The Drift ’Cuda is back! Project #fishtail
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00:00 This time on Hot Rod Garage, we're back on the East Coast for something really special.
00:04 We've got my Cuda and it's time for a drift party.
00:07 What did you get me into this time, buddy?
00:14 It's going to be big fun.
00:15 So we're here in my shop outside of Philadelphia and we've got my Fishtail Cuda here.
00:42 Now if you remember, this is the 1970 Cuda we built as a drift muscle car for the SEMA
00:46 show last year.
00:47 It was a ton of work.
00:49 We did it in a very short amount of time and it was a monster undertaking.
00:51 This thing has lots and lots of late nights in it.
00:54 It came out awesome and I love this car, but it's not exactly track ready.
00:59 We drove it once before on the track and it handled alright, but I want this thing to
01:02 be like an over the top, fun, controllable, easy to slide, tractable drift car.
01:06 And it's just not quite there yet, so we've got some suspension tuning to do this thing.
01:10 I saw that footage, you were like hugging the door.
01:12 Yep, trying to hold myself in.
01:13 We're also going to put some seats and some proper harnesses into this thing too.
01:18 Springs?
01:19 On the suspension side, yeah, the springs are too soft.
01:21 A steering rack?
01:22 The rack, it's got some bumps here, we didn't quite get the rack where we wanted it to.
01:26 And we have a box of sway bars.
01:27 And we're going to put some sway bars in this thing.
01:30 So we're going to show you all along the way about how each one of those components affects
01:33 the way the car handles.
01:34 We're going to turn this thing into like one sweet track machine.
01:38 One of the main reasons we came here to Pennsylvania is because we're in the shadow of one of the
01:41 best drift tracks anywhere in the world, English Town Raceway Park.
01:45 It's my home track, it's where I cut my teeth drifting years and years ago.
01:47 And the owner has agreed to give us the keys for a day and let us take this thing out when
01:51 we're done and have an absolute blast with it.
01:53 You got the keys to the kingdom.
01:54 I do.
01:55 Let's go then.
01:56 Let's do it.
01:57 Try to look cool out the window a little bit.
02:06 A little less spastic.
02:07 Tony, is this what it's like to be you all the time?
02:10 That's it man.
02:11 Make kind of like a cool devil make hair face.
02:14 Wait.
02:15 That's it.
02:16 Before we can start on those suspension upgrades, we had to dig into the car, yank the transmission
02:39 out because at the track last time I was driving it, the car stopped disengaging the clutch
02:43 altogether and it was basically undriveable.
02:45 We had to push on the trailer and it's been sitting ever since.
02:48 So we yanked it apart and as you can see, the throw bearing casing is cracked basically
02:52 all the way around.
02:53 It wouldn't hold fluid, it was pumping right out of there.
02:55 We're going to throw a new one in there, toss this trans back in and then start on those
02:59 upgrades.
03:00 Do you see in there?
03:01 Don't fight it.
03:02 Don't fight it.
03:03 I've been fighting it my whole life.
03:04 Cheese and rice.
03:19 What's that taste like?
03:22 Uh, pork.
03:25 All right, that's it.
03:31 Real quick, repair is out of the way and now we can start on these suspension upgrades.
03:35 One of the issues that you can run into when you're designing your own suspension is something
03:38 called bump steer.
03:40 Bump steer is when the car steers itself as the suspension goes up and down in its travel.
03:44 It's a major problem and it can affect handling in a very negative way.
03:48 We had a bit of that with the Cuda.
03:49 We got this rack that we thought was going to be the right length, but we could not put
03:52 it in the position where we wanted it to.
03:54 So we reached out to our buddies at Flaming River who make racks in any custom length
03:57 you could imagine.
03:58 They sent us over a rack that's two inches shorter and this should alleviate that problem
04:02 for us.
04:03 Ready to put it in?
04:04 Yeah.
04:05 Let's do it.
04:06 Okay, according to Tony, all the bump steer problems are solved.
04:15 So while I'm slapping this in, here's Tony with your Lincoln Tech Tip to tell you exactly
04:18 how we did it.
04:22 Welcome back to another Lincoln Tech Tip.
04:23 Today we're going to talk about bump steer and why it is so bad.
04:27 Bump steer is when your wheels turn in and out or tow in and out as your car moves up
04:31 and down as it would going over bumps.
04:33 Now you can imagine that at the very least, a car that turns and steers without you turning
04:38 the wheel is a very bad idea, but on the racetrack it can be downright dangerous.
04:42 The main factors that contribute to bump steer are your upper and lower control arm, ball
04:46 joint and pivot points and where they are in relationship to where your steering rack
04:49 is mounted as well as rack length and tie rod length.
04:54 There is one more important point you'll need to know and that is instant center.
04:57 Instant center is an imaginary point where straight lines drawn along your upper and
05:01 lower control arms intersect.
05:03 To achieve zero bump steer, you'll need to position your steering rack so that the outer
05:06 tie rod end will intersect with line one.
05:09 The inner tie rod must intersect line two and the tie rod angle must intersect with
05:13 the instant center of lines three and four.
05:16 The tie rod could be located in an alternate location and still achieve zero bump steer.
05:21 You could place the outer tie rod anywhere on line one as long as the inner tie rod landed
05:26 on line two and the tie rod angle intersected with the instant center.
05:30 If all these conditions are met, your car should have zero bump steer which is ideal.
05:35 Okay, that was pretty intense, but now we all know everything about bump steer, let's
05:40 get back to the Cuda.
05:41 Lincoln Tech can teach you how to have a career working with cars.
05:45 See LincolnTech.edu.
05:46 So, one thing essential to a good performing car, a good handling car, sway bars.
06:00 Now with the SEMA crunch and sort of thrash build that we did with this car, we didn't
06:04 get those on the car the first time and the Cuda didn't exactly handle how I wanted it
06:08 to.
06:09 So, we're going to install what people refer to usually as like a NASCAR or a circle track
06:12 style bar.
06:13 It's a straight round bar that rotates inside of a tube and there are plate ends that you
06:18 can cut and weld to sort of attach to your suspension arms.
06:22 The cool thing about this setup is that once everything is bolted into your car and set
06:26 up, you can change roll stiffness by just ordering a different bar, sliding it in and
06:31 attaching it to the arms.
06:32 It takes about five minutes and these things come in like an infinitely variable spring
06:35 range.
06:36 Okay, so I'm taking off these QA1 450 rated springs.
06:40 The car sat a little bit too low and didn't have any travel and putting it on the 550's
06:45 Tony?
06:46 Yes, sir.
06:47 So, the QA1 550 springs.
06:50 This should make it so that the car is not bottoming out.
06:52 A little firmer in the front, a little less dive when you put on the brakes like Tony
06:56 ever hits the brakes and all around work good.
07:00 So lucky, cut out a couple of templates so that we'll be able to weld these little gussets
07:04 on and then weld this to the sway bar housing, weld the sway bar housing into the subframe
07:10 of the Cuda.
07:11 The dudes from ESAB sent over this Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 60i.
07:17 It should handle this 3/16 plate no problem.
07:30 So after I cut these rough pieces out with the plasma cutter, took it over to my 12 inch
07:36 disc grinder, came over here, tack welded everything together and now I have four pieces
07:39 connected that will wind up being exactly the same and then I'll drill all the way through
07:44 them with our 1 3/4 inch hole saw and that will accept the tube that holds the sway bar,
07:49 weld these into the subframe and now we've got our sway bar mounted.
07:56 We've got everything mocked up and in place and it seems to fit great.
07:59 So what we're going to do is tack those brackets that I made onto the sway bar tube, pull the
08:03 whole thing out, I will weld it all the way around, make sure it's one piece forever.
08:08 We'll bring it back in and we'll weld it to the subframe exactly where it needs to be
08:11 and then it's on to sway bar arms.
08:13 One piece forever?
08:14 One piece forever dude.
08:15 Forever and ever.
08:16 That's my band name, one piece forever.
08:18 Nice.
08:19 Not really nice but cool.
08:21 Well, not really cool but alright.
08:24 You still talking?
08:25 I like it when the weld sounds like bacon.
08:28 We're going to start working on these arms.
08:47 Now ideally we want this to travel back about 6 inches and then we're going to try to put
08:52 about a 40 degree or 35 degree bend on these things so they can come out and grab the control
08:57 arm but make sure that they're still flat and inside the frame rail here so there's
09:01 no chance of tire clearance at max angle.
09:04 Lucky claims you can bend these things on our tubing bender.
09:07 I've seen it bend in a press with a lot of heat before but he says it can be done so
09:11 let's find out.
09:28 Cool that actually happened huh?
09:30 That's a lot.
09:31 Oh yeah, we're totally...
09:34 This is good.
09:36 That worked.
09:37 Not actually a lot of drama.
09:39 Pretty sweet.
09:43 So I whipped up a little bracket to hold Tony's power steering cooler which is pretty cool.
09:47 I don't have one of those.
09:48 Cooler, cool, get it?
09:50 So I hooked up some hoses, bolted up some lines, I'm going to paint it black, put it
09:54 back and then we're going to be good to go.
10:01 There's a couple things we need TIG welded on the fish tail cuda to get it on the track.
10:05 I'm not a great TIG welder but we brought in a specialist.
10:08 We brought in the TIG.
10:09 Some say he once welded a bead from Pennsylvania clear to the Mississippi River.
10:14 People have said he could survive in an all argon environment.
10:17 He's so good this guy once welded a bale of cotton to a bale of hay.
10:21 He is the TIG.
10:22 Alright let's go, let's get this started.
10:23 We've got this way marked.
10:53 We're in now.
10:54 We made some basic mounts on the control arms.
10:56 Lucky drilled and threaded holes in the actual sway bar arm.
10:59 So all we have to do is put this thing on the ground.
11:01 We'll even out the tension here.
11:03 Set the right height.
11:04 Set the right height and then we will be good to go.
11:06 Where are we going to go?
11:08 The track.
11:09 Where you're going to ride in this car.
11:12 Oh yeah, good times.
11:20 So having a one of a kind muscle drift car is awesome but it's no good if every time
11:25 you take a turn the car throws you clean out of it.
11:27 That's why I hit up my buddies at HMS Motorsports.
11:30 They're a racing and safety shop.
11:32 They do seats, harnesses, suits, helmets.
11:35 Everything you need to keep you planted in the car so you can focus on driving and having
11:39 fun.
11:40 They sent over a pair of Cobra Suzuka Pro seats.
11:42 Now these are racing seats with high bolsters and will obviously keep me confined where
11:45 I need to be but they also have a ton of padding in case I want to take this thing on a long
11:48 ride.
11:49 So the last time I drove this thing I was all over the car, half fallen out.
11:52 I'm excited to put these in and try it out with a proper pair of seats and harnesses.
11:57 [Music]
12:01 [Music]
12:05 [Music]
12:08 [Music]
12:17 [Music]
12:28 [Music]
12:31 So we decided to put the stock passenger seat back in the Cuda for the track tomorrow.
12:42 One of my goals is to get Lucky to ride along in this car and he's going to fight me tooth
12:46 and nail.
12:47 And sitting in the driver's seat it fits awesome but it's on the small side and I don't want
12:50 to give him any excuses to keep him out of this car.
12:53 [Music]
12:56 [Music]
12:58 So after three long days in the shop upgrading the sway bars, steering, spring rates on this
13:06 thing it should handle way, way better.
13:08 And now it's time to test all that stuff out.
13:10 We're here at what I consider like the drift mecca of America, English Town Raceway Park.
13:15 They have the longest running drift events.
13:17 Some of my buddies came out, you'll probably see them running around.
13:19 We're going to take the Fishtail Cuda out, hit the track and see how it does.
13:23 Are you ready?
13:24 I got to take this one.
13:25 Come on.
13:26 I'm going to take this car.
13:27 Yeah, hold on.
13:28 Just one quick ride.
13:29 Like a test drive.
13:30 You're good.
13:31 I left the big seat in and no?
13:33 Come on.
13:34 I'll pass.
13:35 Thanks.
13:36 Just for a minute.
13:37 Thanks.
13:38 Just for a second.
13:39 High five buddy.
13:40 America wants you in there.
13:41 Negative.
13:42 Come on.
13:43 Have a good time.
13:44 This guy.
13:45 Alright, let's go.
13:46 Here we go.
13:47 You sure?
13:48 One last chance.
13:49 [Music]
13:50 Back in my Fishtail Cuda.
13:52 We took this car to the track once and it immediately rod knocked the brand new 6.4
13:56 crate hemi which was the worst.
13:59 So we went back and said why did this happen?
14:01 It looked like the oil pickup was too high in the pan.
14:04 It was too far forward in the pan.
14:06 There wasn't much baffling so we lowered it, moved it back, baffled it, added a large oil
14:09 cooler and an AccuSump.
14:12 So hopefully this thing will have oil pressure everywhere.
14:14 I put a big fat dummy oil pressure gauge in front of me.
14:17 [Music]
14:46 Alright.
14:47 Let's see what this thing will do.
14:50 We still don't have the steering angle in the car that we want but it seems to run nice.
14:56 Alright, here we go.
14:58 This car is loud.
15:07 Alright, we're going to take it easy.
15:14 See how she feels.
15:16 [Music]
15:44 Hey, this thing kind of works.
15:47 Woo!
15:48 It feels insane to be drifting this Cuda around.
15:53 Man, because I'm like instantly comfortable on this track drifting but at the same time
15:58 I'm like oh this is your dream car.
16:00 Don't do anything stupid.
16:02 Also I don't really know how well it works yet.
16:07 [Music]
16:20 Ah, too much.
16:22 Too much, getting greedy.
16:24 [Music]
16:54 Man, this thing is good.
16:58 [Music]
17:27 [Music]
17:37 [Music]
17:57 [Music]
18:07 [Music]
18:17 [Music]
18:27 [Music]
18:37 [Music]
18:59 Man, that was awesome, right?
19:01 Yeah, I saw a lot of smoke, I smelled a lot of rubber and nobody got hurt.
19:05 How did you feel about your ride?
19:06 I felt great, the AC was on, I was comfortable.
19:08 Sitting in the van, the production van?
19:10 Yeah.
19:11 That was very cool.
19:12 You're an adventurous guy.
19:13 I'll tell you what.
19:14 Anyway, we had a great time here.
19:16 Really stoked we got to come out to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, my sort of hometown and do this episode.
19:21 Thanks for watching, that's it for this one.
19:24 Don't forget to check us out on social media between episodes.
19:26 We're Hot Rod Garage Show on Facebook and Instagram.
19:29 I'm Tangelo96.
19:31 I'm Mobile Tech Lucky.
19:32 We'll see you guys next time.
19:35 You going to stay or what?
19:36 No, pizza dude.
19:37 You got some pizza?
19:38 Pizza.
19:39 You got some real pizza?
19:40 Go, pizza.
19:41 [Music]
19:45 [Music]
19:59 [Music]
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