We roll the car through the door and bolt on the new wheels. The slight change in offset helps fit the tires a little more into the wheel wells. Daryle at Kodiak Motorsports has also managed to move the rim a little further from the brake caliper, so rubbing is no longer a concern. The only part he was unable to do is keep the wheel thin enough to allow us to use our stock wheel studs.

The stock stud is a press fit. 12 mm, 1.25 pitch .564 knurl 1 5/8 under head length. A longer version turns out to be a very hard piece to find. We end up ordering a racing stud ½ inch 20 pitch with .580 knurl 3 " under head length from American Racing Products.

Next we weight the car. The car is 1,467 Lbs. This gives us hope that we will be able to bring the final car weight in under 3200 lbs.

We lift one of the 160 lbs motor into the car. We sit it on a block of wood and look at how it will fit.

There are always compromises in designing a race car. We want the motor as low as possible for better handling. We would like the differentials as low as possible for the same reason, but that would mean that the drive shaft angle from differential to motor would not be straight (the motor has a wider diameter than the diff). This also means that the half shaft angle from differential to wheel would be extreme. More angle creates friction in the driveline and costs power.

We decide on some modifications to the motor to allow us to mount it lower. We also decide to build a new rear suspension support to allow the diffs to be mounted higher.