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Part II - The Cockpit

Everything is now back from the powder coaters and it looks great.  We are ready to begin assembly.  Notice the chassis stands.  If you don't have a set of roll around chassis stands in your shop - you've gotta gett'em.  They're great.

One of our first steps in putting a chassis together is putting in the floor pan.  Being a simpleton, I really enjoy seeing the contrast between the nice shiny aluminum floor pan and the newly powder coated frame.  There are a couple of things that I really like about the way our floor pan goes in.  The first is the way it is mounted.  Where many chassis manufacturers have a series of tabs to hold the floor pan in place, The FOZ has an actual full length mounting plate that it attaches to.  The end result is that it adds very little if any weight, yet it provides significantly more support, this becomes even more important because in most mini sprints, the floor pan also gets a battery mounted to it in some fashion.  The other thing that I like about mounting our floor pan is that we use a uniform set of nuts and bolts to hold it in place.  These are available through the Racer’s Hardware section of our website.

Rather than tabs for the floor pan like most chassis use, the FOZ uses a thin plat that runs the length of the floor pan that provides added support. 

Once the floor pan is in place we typically go ahead and bolt the pedals in place.  The pedals are from our FOZ Race Products division.  The throttle pedal is identical to the one that most sprint cars and midgets use—it is functional and extremely lightweight.  At this point we’ll go ahead and mount the bell crank and linkages, even though we can’t hook the whole throttle assembly up to a motor yet.  We really like the bell crank set-up the best.  Most importantly it provides a little better throw in the throttle pedal.  Many of the set-ups we have seen (and used in the past), result in a throttle pedal that could easily be replaced with an on and off switch.  The brake pedal / master cylinder set-up is different than I have seen on most mini sprints, yet something that we have had numerous comments on and even quite a few competitors convert for use on their chassis.  The pedal mounts on top rather than from the back.  The master cylinder also sits higher than the pedal, just inside the cowling.  The final component that we install near our pedals are heel blocks.  FOZ Race Products offers these products in different heights which allow them to be fit to a driver’s individual taste—believe me these go a long way to increase driver comfort.  I had always used blocks of wood, which are very functional—yet not as lightweight and as professional looking as these heel blocks.

The pedals for our car are from the FOZ Race Products division of Speed Partz.  They are functional and lightweight.  Notice also the heel blocks-a must for driver comfort.

For our throttle pedal, we'll be using a bell crank (pictured in the top of the photograph) to provide a little more throw in the throttle pedal.

The FOZ car's brake pedal is a little different than most.  The master cylinder mounts up high near the steering box.  We've had several people purchase the kit to retro-fit an existing car.

We often go ahead and install the battery box while we are at it.  Batteries can be difficult things to mount.  When this car was designed, we also began manufacturing an aluminum battery box to go with it.  Everyone that saw the battery box wanted one, so we started manufacturing them in different sizes through our FOZ Race Products division.  This battery box not only looks great, but is lightweight and secure.  It easily mounts to the floor pan of any racing car.  It features a heavy duty rubber strap that holds the battery firmly in  place.  We took a really hard tumble at the beginning of the 2005 season, and the battery didn’t budge.  Although we’ll wait until we wire the car up to put in the battery, we always use an Odyssey battery.  They are the only choice when it comes to motorcycle powered race car applications.

We like this battery box, because it provides a strong solid mount that is easy to take in and out and access.

The next step in our build was installing the steering box.  It’s pretty much the standard fair here—the Schroeder mini sprint/TQ steering box.  Schroeder is pretty much the only name when it comes to our steering boxes.  We’ve never had a problem with quality or support.  They have been great people to deal with.  We also top our steering box off with a Schroeder steering wheel and push-on type quick-disconnect.  I like the flat, 15” steering wheel.  It is big enough that it gives you a little added leverage.

We use Schroeder steering boxes on all of our cars.

The motorplate is the next piece of hardware to be hung on the FOZ.  There are a few manufacturers that are using motorplates now.  It might be just a few added pounds, but we figure that it is only a marginal amount of weight and is well worth the increased flexibility that it provides.  In the Midwest where we compete, there are opportunities to run an upright with either a 1200cc or a 600cc engine.  Although we primarily run 1200cc shows, it is nice to have the flexibility to swap the motor out easily and go run a 600cc show if you would like.  The motorplate is fitted with FOZ Racing Product universal motor mounts.  These mounts are wide enough to fit most manufacturers motors and can be shimmed down to the exact required size.  Unlike some other manufacturers’ mounts, the FOZ Race Products mounts have an individual top and bottom bracket.  This allows the distance from top to bottom to be spaced differently depending on the application—therefore you don’t need a different mount for every application—I guess that’s why they are called ‘universal mounts’.  (A word of caution, there are a few applications that the FOZ universal mounts don’t work on.  Be sure to call and ask about your specific application before ordering.)

Here's an example of the motorplate with universal mounting brackets.  This example is set up for a GSXR 1000.

Once the steering box, master cylinder and motor plate are in place the cowl can be fitted up.  If you know exactly where items on your dash will be mounted, you can go ahead and fit your switches, guages, etc. up at this point.  I was pretty happy with the way we had everything mounted in the FOZ car that we ran the prior two season, so I’ll be keeping everything status quo.  We run an Autometer Ultra-nite water temperature gauge and switches for the ignition and fuel pump. 

If you’re wondering why I don’t mention mounting a tachometer, it is because I have saved my Mychron TG Log from my last car for use on this car.  I’ll have to admit, I’ve gotten really attached to this little unit.  It is capable of much more than I use it for, which is just basically for RPMs and lap times.  It can also do a temperature (water, exhaust or whatever you would like), throttle position and wheel speed.  But, this is all probably information that I would rather nobody else see since it would confirm what a big chicken I really am.  For me the beauty of the MyChron is that it records my RPMs throughout the entire evening of racing.  I can easily go back at the end of the session and look at my highest RPM for a session right from the cockpit.  However, if I am really looking to dig and figure out more about my gearing, I can download the information to a lap top and it will plot the RPMs for every milli-second of the entire session.  Once you get used to looking at the graph that it plots, you can really see exactly what RPMs you are turning at specific points on the track.  The best thing about the MyChron is that it doesn’t really requires very little to be mounted.  I just tie-wrap the display to my rock guard where it is easily visible from the cockpit.

The AIM TG Log is our tachometer.  It does much more than just record RPMs.  There are three components to the TG Log which are pictures above and include the display, the black box and the eye that allows you to record lap times.   For more, read our TG Log story.

Since we’re focused on the cockpit, we’ll go ahead and cover the rock guard—even though it typically is one of the last items we hang on the car.  There is definitely a theme here, but we use a FOZ Products rock guard.  This is another item that was developed a few years back, just because you couldn’t find them.  This rock guard was designed just for use on mini sprints, modified midgets, tqs and full midgets.  We had seen enough cars that were forced to use a full-size sprint guard or fabricate something from a oven shelf or shopping cart side that we decided to create a purpose built rock guard.  This rock guard is powder coated black to cut down on glare.

Although we normally wait until the end to attach the rock guard, we'll at least mention it here - since we are focusing on the cockpit.

The final step in this section is finishing up the cockpit with a seat.  Opening my new seat was one of those Christmas like moments.  For the past few years I have really wanted a full containment seat, but couldn’t separate with the bucks to get it done.  Speed Partz is now a distributor for Ultra-shield racing seats.  Ultra-shield has one of the coolest and best of all, most economically priced full containment seats on the market.  I hate to admit it, but I was expecting a budget seat because of its price—I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the product I pulled from the box.  It is a substantial seat and easily compares to the quality of the Kirkey lightweight deluxe I had been running in my old car.  I was afraid I would loose the seat before it ever made it into the car.  The most difficult part about installing the seat was getting it in before someone wondered into the shop and purchased it.  Our first batch of seats that came in the door seemed like they disappeared instantly. 

Opening my new Ultrashield full containment seat was like Christmas morning.  This is a really nice seat - at a great price. 

The new seat bolted in easily and is really comfortable.

Our cars always get Crow seatbelts.  We find the quality and affordability of these belts make them the only choice.  We like the Crow sprint and midget seat belts.  They are fixed on one side, and have the adjustment (pull down) on one side.  This is much better for us, since we always struggled tighten the right side of the lap belt.  With this set-up you get the right side adjusted and then alls you need to worry about is pulling the left side down when you are buckling into the car.  We also always get the sternum latch option.  It’s just a little added security. 

With the cockpit of the car now in pretty good shape, we’ll turn our next edition to getting the axles into the car.  Stay tuned!

We don't want to get to far ahead in the story, but stay tuned - we'll be using some really cool new products that just hit the shelves at Speed Partz.

| Part I |

For more information on FOZ Mini Sprints,  visit www.fozracecars.com or call 513.874.2034.

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