The Project Pad

Haha, damn crack pipe!

Awesome! You've done some nice work. Keep it up.

Why have you bothered keeping the frame rails? Seems it would be as easy by now to just chop them off and make the whole lot tubular?

Also, aren't the tiny tie rods on the A4 rack going to give you some very odd bump-steer effects? You'll have gorilla-arms from driving that thing with no power after a while! I tried it once when the belt fell off - never again! At least you're mostly just going in straight lines

yeah.... about that. lots of people keep asking me that.

its typical me, ADHD, Shiny-itis, whatever. when i start something like this, i always tend to go 200% + what i originally planned.

had i REALLY thought about it, i would have chopped it right up to the subframe mounting points. but i already had the tube bought and bent, welded on, THEN decided to do the towers too. so, oh well. is what it is. maybe next year. nah not really. well, actually, it can be done pretty easily. inner-sleeve the verticals on the front rise, chop the frame horns, and then have a new piece bent up for it. weld it up and VIOLA. like i said, maybe next year (as he goes out to look at that more indepth and plan.....)

feeling pretty good after the spinal shot yesterday, decided to move some stuff out to the shed, clear some room, organize a little bit, and work on the car. and i didnt like the angle of the front bar on the driver side, so after i put the back bar in i chopped it up and fixed it to be MORE BETTER to my view. it was more looks than anything, the issue was i didnt un-bend that angle a little before i put it in like i did each other one. and it just looked off to me. 87% of people would have missed it, especially with stuff mounted on it too. but, me being me.... it didnt fly.

almost forgot, Mikki. i already have no power steering and no power/vacuum brakes. everything is manual. it dont gotta steer much.

and why would the A4 rack be different in this car if it is fine in an A4? honest question, BTW.

Attention Defeicet Disorder

Aaron, you seriously need to get a few cans of flat black and try to see if you can get rid of some of the shiny.......at this rate the only thing left that will still be audi is going to be the front rings and they are chrome so watch out!! It does look good however. Back must be feeling a bit better?

BTW. Just noticed. Your front left tire is mounted backwards. Front right is correct so maybe it belongs on the rear right but those BFG Sports are Directional.
(Edit) Of course, I just realized you probably only use those to roll the car around on since you run slicks at the track, right? Anyhow, just thought I'd mention it.

Glad your feeling better.

speeding-g60 wrote:and why would the A4 rack be different in this car if it is fine in an A4? honest question, BTW.

Suspension design...

The CQ has mac-strut with the steering arm halfway up. The top of the strut doesn't move laterally, so steering arm doesn't much either - all the lateral movement is confined to the bottom on the control arm. The rack has very long tie rods which pivot in the middle to minimise the lateral movement of the ends as they move up and down with the steering - the arc they move in because of their length is large in diameter and therefore effectively their length doesn't change much.

The A4 though has the funky virtual double wishbone setup, with the steering arm right at the top. Because the top of the strut moves in an arc with the upper control arms, the steering arm also moves in an arc (unlike the CQ). The rack has little short t-rex arm tie rods (only about 6" long) which pivot right at the outer ends so that the ends move in quite a tight arc to match the arc of the upper control arms.

For comparison, look at the Corrado (or any A-platform car). That has the steering arm down at the bottom with the hub and so it moves in the same arc as the bottom control arm. The steering rack is at the same height, and the tie rods are the same length as the control arm to make sure the ends move in the same arc as the hub.


The effect that I think you will get from an A4 rack on a CQ is that because the arcs of the steering arm on the strut and the joints on the end of the rack are so different as the suspension moves up and down you are going to get significant changes in toe (aka bump steer). That would be horrid on a track or street car, but I don't know how much it would affect a drag car. You seem to have quite a bit of vertical movement in the front end from the vids I've seen so what you will probably see is from static settings to launch you will get a load of toe out as the front comes up.


The A4 type rack seems to have far more power assistance than conventional racks. The steering arms on the strut are very short (only about 4") so the steering is incredibly heavy without assistance, to the point of being undriveable, whereas in something like a Corrado or CQ its just a bit heavier. Now that probably won't matter so much in the CQ since your steering arms are much longer so you have a better effective ratio. The bump steer is more of an issue IMO.

:cheers:

fair enough. all of that makes sense to me. glad you told me now instead of later today LOL.

i guess i will look at my Rabbit rack or a MK3 rack i have in the shed. those both were set up with Mac strut setups. and yes i understand about them having the arms low on the strut. hot rods use these same style racks and work fine. i was actually drooling over a couple (chassis) at the shop when i was getting some tubing bent, noticing the similarity to the A4 rack.

when i have this car aligned, it is with me in it, and the front end lifted about 1.5" int the air, to be as close as i can tell to how it runs down the track. and, it has great tracking with zero torque steer. it does go pretty straight. i have it aligned after every time i do anything to the front end. if i change the height, even if i remove a strut, i still have it re-aligned.

Cool. Thought it was worth mentioning

and, if it dont work great, there is going to be PLENTY of room to do something different

did some more work on the driver side. tied in the tower to the new uprights, put the cross bar in, and put a cover on it, just like the other side.

and i looked at my rabbits rack today. maybe i will pull it out and play around with it. imma grab the MK3 rack tomorrow from the shop, as well.











and a lil stupidness.


Link to video

Looking great man!

What bell-housing is that? I know you have an 01E in the car, but that looks different then the 01E 6speeds I've seen.

thanks.

its just a standard B5 S4 trans case with dogbox internals done.

now this thing is looking like a drag car.. do you use the b5 steering rack upside down? with the struts flipped wont the steering be backwards?

or does the b5 work backwards?

B5 works from the back. no flipping it around.