The Red Drift ///Machine - 2026 NASA TT4 adventures

[Bry5on]

Excited for the future projects! Except the carbon side skirts. Those seem like a big waste of time unless they’re done with/after the flat floor.

[bigjae46]

Excited for the future projects! Except the carbon side skirts. Those seem like a big waste of time unless they’re done with/after the flat floor.

Yes, the carbon side skits are to partly offset the added weight from the flat floor and a potential attachment point. I was planning the flat floor and then saw a car with a recently installed flat floor burn down at NASA. This is forcing a rethink. I know I don't want to do a partial floor with an exhaust cut out. I've been brainstorming an idea to build a heat shield around the exhaust and force air between the exhaust and heatshield. This paired with swaintech coating the first two exhaust sections could control heat well enough so it reduces the heat which reaches the fuel lines and transmission which means less shielding around the fuel lines and less cooling capacity for the transmission and to a lesser extent the diff.

I also might go full carbon exterior. I have a lead on a rusty roller chassis with good side panels. Then all I would need to do is the rear bumper.

[Bry5on]

Flat floor with a ducted heat shield section in the center sounds like the move. You could add a couple naca ducts to bring air in and over the exhaust without adding much of a penalty to the flat floor (actually may even help!)

[bigjae46]

Flat floor with a ducted heat shield section in the center sounds like the move. You could add a couple naca ducts to bring air in and over the exhaust without adding much of a penalty to the flat floor (actually may even help!)

That's one option. I need to tilt and duct the radiator / oil cooler first, see how that affects the static pressure under the hood. May want to force air from the engine bay over the exhaust. Have the heat shield act as a duct to guide air down the exhaust.

[Bry5on]

That's one option. I need to tilt and duct the radiator / oil cooler first, see how that affects the static pressure under the hood. May want to force air from the engine bay over the exhaust. Have the heat shield act as a duct to guide air down the exhaust.

Sounds like a spicy cabin for the driver

[bigjae46]

I made some replacement plates for the kevlar front bumper reinforcement bar - forgot to take pics. Also ran out of adhesive and forgot to take pics. I run a bolt through the left side in addition to the bolt from the factory on the right side. I think this will help the whole assembly survive a couple of tows. I am considering using strut mount nuts to hold the rebar onto the frame rail. More thread engagement and easier to install. I think these plates can be used to repair kevlar rebars with damaged aluminum plates and also create a spot for splitter mounting. More to follow on this.

The front bumper is a success! It is finally on the car after 3 failed attempts at making a mold and the mounting complications. Not finished, still have some details to work on. Fitment is pretty good, just need to make an adjustment on the left side latch pin. I think I am going to just glue on the center grill and also need to install a gasket around the left fog light opening to seal off the duct.

The one complication I did not foresee is the splitter height needs to be more precise since carbon is far less forgiving than plastic. The front splitter needs to be lower. While I have height adjustments at the two primary mounts, the outer mounts don't since they are eBay box lid struts. Also, need longer front support struts. Currently brainstorming how to add adjustability with the shocks. I want to keep some sort of shock in place, they have done a great job of being a firm mount while allowing some upward forgiveness when scraping. The upside is I get to trim more carbon off which I'll be a couple more ounces lighter! Lol

Once I lower the splitter, the bumper will be very easily removable. Hopefully I can still load the car onto my trailer using race ramps with the splitter on. The splitter takes less than 5 min to take off and pin it back on for transport. It is still a chore I'd like to avoid at the end of a long hot weekend.




Thinking of a new name since it is only about 33% red.


With it being around 100 degrees outside...close enough for now. Someday I'll order a TT4 decal...



Forgot to snap a pic of my new compression molded carbon fiber floor mount seat adaptors. 29 layers of carbon, 6 layers of kevlar - 3/8' thick solid carbon/kevlar.

My current carbon mounts were vacuum infused in 2 halves and bonded together to a similar thickness using mostly unidirectional layers. Learning has occurred and decided to use a 2 pc compression mold which creates more compaction than vacuum infusion. This achieves a better higher fiber:resin ratio which results in a stronger, stiffer, and lighter part.

2.6lbs for the inner and outer mount. I think it will be slightly more than what's in the car but the new mounts are also a little thicker (6 more fabric layers).



My spare fenders are done. Really odd how one side is .6lb heavier than the other. I measured three times. Both sides are similar in stiffness. I did mess up and had the bag tape come undone - didn't clean off the release agent from underneath - so I temporarily lost vacuum. Not sure which side it was but it shouldn't have resulted in that much more weight. Both sides used a similar amount of epoxy. First time I've been that off on a left-right or like part. That's one thing I've been fairly consistent at.