Heel toe pads and race jack Q’s

Got a couple of track equipment items I need help on

Item 1. Does the rubber pad part of the 350Z brake and clutch pad come off of the metal part?? I am putting other sized pads on my Z so I can heel toe easier for my particular foot/leg design. Can I slip the rubber inserts off the metal pads so I can bolt on the new pads through the holes in the metal part of the pads? The throttle pad has open holes, but brake and clutch do not. Or, do I have to drill holes in the rubber inserts on the brake and clutch pads? The duct tape is wearing out from my pad test installation.

Item 2. Just Curious about onboard electric jack systems?? I look with great envy at the European and Australian race car crews when the cars roll into the pits, the driver hits the electric jack system button and 3 or 4 little jacks pop down to put the car off the ground for quick service. I have searched and searched to find a supplier for such system. Does anybody know of a supplier for these systems?? Not ready to buy, but the most time consumptive and dangerous thing I do with my Z is jack it up in marginal locations during Track days to change wheels, tires, adjust control arms, and switch brake pads, etc. I keep thinking this is a feature wasted on drivers with pit crews. What about all of us 1 person track teams?? It would seem this instant-jack system would be great for us! It would add some weight, but it sure would be safer and faster. It might even help justify a 600hp twin turbo kit to compensate for the weight of “Safe Jacks”. This, all in the name of “safety”! Anybody got any info on these systems? Anybody got one?? Why don’t we see them on more race cars?? Too heavy? Too expensive?

Got some info??

 

The jacking system is not going to be very cost effective.

The onboard jacks that you see on race cars are pneumatic. The air supply comes from an on-car airtank, rare, or from a line attached by the pit crew. I last looked into a system about 4 years ago so pricing might have changed a little. Each of the jacks was ~$1k. A car of our weight and design would most likey need 4. Plus the cost of engineering and fabricating mounts.

I'm sure a google search would turn up some more current pricing info but I'd be suprised if they had gotten any cheaper.

 

As for the pedals, I ended up drilling through my brake pedal because they weren't perforated like the gas pedal. I could not remove the rubber grippy thingies, so I just ended up drilling through them as well.

Pneumatic jacks would be a great convenience, but the fact that they aren't even available in higher end sports cars seems to indicate that they wouldn't be cost effective. Unless the lift mechanism also locks the suspension, I think our street cars would require a lot more travel to get the tires off the ground. The race cars that I've seen don't seem to have the wheels hang down so low after jacking.

 

I found it easier to pop the gas pedal off and attach a sheet aluminum pedal extension.
It works pretty well, and I didn't have to mess with the rubber on the brake pedal.

 

I did some recent research into a pneumatic jack system for my GT3 Z. The price has come down some- you can get a full system (with four jacks) for $2K from HPR (Irv Hoerr's outfit). But it's one thing to fit this to a tubeframe chassis, another to put it into a tub car. Think of adding quite a few $$$ into the equation for fabrication, as each of the jacks would have to have tabs welded into the car (not to mention the HOLES you'd have to cut into the bottom of the chassis). As UnderPressure said, it's not a very cost effective way to lift a car at the track (although no one denies the "ooh-ah" factor). I'm not even going to spring for them on my racecar!

 

Thanks everybody for the great advice. It was just what the mechanic ordered.

Based on your counsel it appears that I will;

1. Drill out a couple of holes in the rubber nubs to mount my brake and clutch pads

and

2. Continue to gaze with desire at the pnuematic jacks on the big boys race cars and be content with my little hand pump jack for my recreation Z.

Thanks again for the help.

TOMZZ

 

I've installed an in-car jacking system before and it wasn't easy, but not that bad either... just time consuming. It's almost more of a pain in the butt to carry a nitrogen tank with you everywhere just so you can use the jack, than using a standard floor jack.

The systems I've used/seen only go up a few inches.. around 6 or so. In addition, all the cars using in-car jacks have little or no droop travel on the suspension, so when the car is raised even an inch, the tires come off the ground. Any factory built Porsche Super Cup car will have these, so go to a local PCA or open track day and you might find one.. all the 993s and 996s have them.

I would not suggest using an in-car system for working on your car however, unless it's changing wheels or bleeding brakes. 1. You won't get the car high enough to do anything serious. 2. They aren't that strong. Sure you lift the whole car, but they tend to lose pressure.. sometimes if you leave the car for 15-20 minutes it will start lowering back down. Sometimes the jacks stick in position, or when you lower the car they won't retract all the way.

Anytime we've had to do real work on a car, the air jacks are used to raise the car high enough so we can fit a floor jack underneath. Great thing to have if you change tires a lot, but that's about it.