S197 SLA Suspension System from Cortex

[ArizonaBOSS]

I guess my point is just take the whole door off before you put the car in the trailer. Rigged up some stuff to get mine hanging on the wall of the trailer when not on the car, and it secures on the car with some 5/16" pip pins after knocking out the factory hinge pins at the front (idea courtesy of Rockwells)

 

[Fabman]

I guess my point is just take the whole door off before you put the car in the trailer. Rigged up some stuff to get mine hanging on the wall of the trailer when not on the car, and it secures on the car with some 5/16" pip pins after knocking out the factory hinge pins at the front (idea courtesy of Rockwells)

That's not a horrible idea.

 

[DaveW]

Holy hell, you guys drive your cars into the trailer? I wasn't aware that one needed a special permit to buy and operate a $250 HF Wireless winch I tie down to the t-hook holes in the subframe, so i put the straps on first, hang them over the splitter to keep tension on them, hook the winch rope to the front tow hook and pull the car in.

Bonus for @Fabman, you can use it to winch that toolbox up into the trailer first.

DaveW

 

[Fabman]

Holy hell, you guys drive your cars into the trailer? I wasn't aware that one needed a special permit to buy and operate a $250 HF Wireless winch I tie down to the t-hook holes in the subframe, so i put the straps on first, hang them over the splitter to keep tension on them, hook the winch rope to the front tow hook and pull the car in.

Bonus for @Fabman, you can use it to winch that toolbox up into the trailer first.

DaveW

We have a winch....never used it once.

 

[Fabman]

Holy hell, you guys drive your cars into the trailer? I wasn't aware that one needed a special permit to buy and operate a $250 HF Wireless winch I tie down to the t-hook holes in the subframe, so i put the straps on first, hang them over the splitter to keep tension on them, hook the winch rope to the front tow hook and pull the car in.

Bonus for @Fabman, you can use it to winch that toolbox up into the trailer first.

DaveW

My car is WIDE.....it barely fits between the wheel wells. Like 1/2" clearance on each side.
Trying to pull it up with a winch would be tough to keep from crashing the carbon splitter. Someone would have to walk up with the car holding the steering wheel anyway so might as well just be in the car.
Besides, once the tool box is in the trailer you can't run the cable out to the car because the toolbox is in the way....I've looked at all this already and its just easier to drive it in.

 

[DaveW]

Not that any method is wrong, nor that we would ever be at the same event because geography for you to see it yourself, but I will try to take a photo or video next time I load. My car has 3/4 inch on each side and I have an entire tire shop and rolling speed shop in the front of my trailer and make the winch work. Rope goes right under all that stuff which is on wheels just like a toolbox. And wireless remote so you walk next to it and tweak steering until it's lined up.

All out of necessity, because autocross is silly, but it's cheap, so I do a lot of weekends and need the loading to be efficient and quick.

Way easier (for me)than twisting my back or knee climbing out of the car inside the trailer. I also usually load alone so I would be likely to drive the car into the fender of the trailer without a spotter.

If you ever try it though, invest in a synthetic rope for the winch. The wire ropes are a nightmare spooling and unspooling all the time with varied load and tangle into a solid mass of disaster.

 

[Fabman]

Not that any method is wrong, nor that we would ever be at the same event because geography for you to see it yourself, but I will try to take a photo or video next time I load. My car has 3/4 inch on each side and I have an entire tire shop and rolling speed shop in the front of my trailer and make the winch work. Rope goes right under all that stuff which is on wheels just like a toolbox. And wireless remote so you walk next to it and tweak steering until it's lined up.

All out of necessity, because autocross is silly, but it's cheap, so I do a lot of weekends and need the loading to be efficient and quick.

Way easier (for me)than twisting my back or knee climbing out of the car inside the trailer. I also usually load alone so I would be likely to drive the car into the fender of the trailer without a spotter.

If you ever try it though, invest in a synthetic rope for the winch. The wire ropes are a nightmare spooling and unspooling all the time with varied load and tangle into a solid mass of disaster.

Video!

 

[JDee]

Not that any method is wrong, nor that we would ever be at the same event because geography for you to see it yourself, but I will try to take a photo or video next time I load. My car has 3/4 inch on each side and I have an entire tire shop and rolling speed shop in the front of my trailer and make the winch work. Rope goes right under all that stuff which is on wheels just like a toolbox. And wireless remote so you walk next to it and tweak steering until it's lined up.

All out of necessity, because autocross is silly, but it's cheap, so I do a lot of weekends and need the loading to be efficient and quick.

Way easier (for me)than twisting my back or knee climbing out of the car inside the trailer. I also usually load alone so I would be likely to drive the car into the fender of the trailer without a spotter.

If you ever try it though, invest in a synthetic rope for the winch. The wire ropes are a nightmare spooling and unspooling all the time with varied load and tangle into a solid mass of disaster.

You also can get flat strap winches and in my experience they are even better. The strap winds onto the winch flat so there's no chance of any foul ups.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Just a odd thought, If you are not using a winch, maybe you could use it to get out of the car?

 

[Fabman]

Just a odd thought, If you are not using a winch, maybe you could use it to get out of the car?

Yes, like a skyhook....interesting.

 

[Fabman]

But seriously, this is fastest this way, I drive outta the shop and right up the ramp and my son ties the car down and I climb out. Done.
It would take way longer with a winch. I have loops welded to the bottom of the car so he just clicks the snap hooks on and boom, done.
Solid straps on the back set the depth into the trailer so the wing just clears the tailgate/ramp and ratchets on the front tighten things down.
Takes like 3 minutes.

 

[DaveW]

Finally got the shocks. Some sort of miscommunication about canister hose length, Cortex asked me how long and I said 4 inches longer than the S197 MCS struts which turned into 500mm length which is 650mm SHORTER than S197 struts. I am kind of done with Cortex, but I talked directly to MCS about getting correct hoses which (I would pay for) and the lead time - as usual with my dealings with MCS, service is excellent and they can turn them in a week for me, but....
I test fit the shock this AM and if I mount it hose up, I can put the can in the back part of the fender well in the air gap between the fender and frame. I can make a rock/cone protection shield for it and can adjust by just turning the wheels. Long term, I wanted to get them out of the engine bay anyway because heat, even with all the venting it is crazy hot/heat soak in there with all the sitting we do at autox. And with the struts, I could adjust all the things under the hood, but now I will have to jack the car up to do rebound anyway, so reaching into the fender is not a big deal. If I don't like it, I can send them for longer hoses in the off season.


I realize this is a bit of a "how long is a rope" type question, but @Fabman @ArizonaBOSS how much droop travel do you have? Attached photo is at full droop and measures 1.5" from my desired ride height. Seems like I was closer to 2" with the struts, but I forgot to measure.



Thanks in advance for any info.

Dave

 

[Fabman]

Finally got the shocks. Some sort of miscommunication about canister hose length, Cortex asked me how long and I said 4 inches longer than the S197 MCS struts which turned into 500mm length which is 650mm SHORTER than S197 struts. I am kind of done with Cortex, but I talked directly to MCS about getting correct hoses which (I would pay for) and the lead time - as usual with my dealings with MCS, service is excellent and they can turn them in a week for me, but....
I test fit the shock this AM and if I mount it hose up, I can put the can in the back part of the fender well in the air gap between the fender and frame. I can make a rock/cone protection shield for it and can adjust by just turning the wheels. Long term, I wanted to get them out of the engine bay anyway because heat, even with all the venting it is crazy hot/heat soak in there with all the sitting we do at autox. And with the struts, I could adjust all the things under the hood, but now I will have to jack the car up to do rebound anyway, so reaching into the fender is not a big deal. If I don't like it, I can send them for longer hoses in the off season.
View attachment 100994

I realize this is a bit of a "how long is a rope" type question, but @Fabman @ArizonaBOSS how much droop travel do you have? Attached photo is at full droop and measures 1.5" from my desired ride height. Seems like I was closer to 2" with the struts, but I forgot to measure.

View attachment 100993

Thanks in advance for any info.

Dave

I’m not at the shop so best I can do at the moment is this comparison.

 

[DaveW]

Thank you. I think I need more...I have plenty of space in bump before bottoming the shock, so I might look at lowering the upper mount.

I am pretty happy that I paid almost $4k for what are essentially the wrong shocks on top of almost 5 figured for the system itself that I have to now re-engineer.

DaveW

 

[Fabman]

Thank you. I think I need more...I have plenty of space in bump before bottoming the shock, so I might look at lowering the upper mount.

I am pretty happy that I paid almost $4k for what are essentially the wrong shocks on top of almost 5 figured for the system itself that I have to now re-engineer.

DaveW

Just run the front end 1/2” lower. If you need to you can use the middle hole on the lowers (that’s where I am) to get the front lower and keep the LCA angles where you want. I would caution against re engineering anything until you’ve worked with what is already there….2” is a lot of droop. Think you need all that?

 

[SVTMatt]

I added Cortex's SLA to my S197. Looks great and looking forward to getting it out on track. My last step is braking cooling. Looking for ideas to mount brake ducts (I have 2) to the Radial X Spindle. Any suggestions or pictures?

 

[Fabman]

I added Cortex's SLA to my S197. Looks great and looking forward to getting it out on track. My last step is braking cooling. Looking for ideas to mount brake ducts (I have 2) to the Radial X Spindle. Any suggestions or pictures?

View attachment 102131

Cortex has made some in the past, might want to check with them.

 

[Fabman]

Thank you. I think I need more...I have plenty of space in bump before bottoming the shock, so I might look at lowering the upper mount.

I am pretty happy that I paid almost $4k for what are essentially the wrong shocks on top of almost 5 figured for the system itself that I have to now re-engineer.

DaveW

Dave, give me your eye to eye shock measurement at ride height and full droop and we can compare it to my JRI shocks. I don’t think I have any more droop than what you are getting but we can find out.