Do I Need Heater & Defrost for HPDE & Occasional Street Car?

[bulletpruf]

Fellas -

 

Building a 71 Javelin for HPDE's; may graduate to American Iron at some point. The car will be street legal, at least for now, so will retain functional wipers, lights, signals, horn, etc.

 

Anyway, I'm taking it in to the shop to have a cage and subframe connectors installed and it's time to figure out the dash configuration. Figure I have two basic options -

 

1. Stock dashpad and frame, but aftermarket gauges installed. Retain blower motor, heater core, defroster, etc.

 

2. Completely fabricated dash, no blower motor, no heater core, defrost ducts still moving air to the windshield, but not assisted by a fan. See: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=19651&hilit=defrost

 

Other considerations -

 

-I have a few other street cars, so this one will not see a lot of street duty.

 

-I would like for this car to be as light as possible, so would like to get rid of anything that I don't absolutely need.

 

-I like the looks of a nicely done fabricated dash.

 

-Dash pad, frame, etc, are already out. Wiring is a mess (thanks to previous owner).

 

-I don't want to be kicking myself for removing all this hardware once the car is done.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

[subaru927]

do you ever need the heater or full defroster at the track events you run? if not, and you can avoid running it on the street in situations where they would be necessary, I don't see a reason you couldn't get rid of those parts if you really plan on doing wheel-to-wheel with that car. however, I do not have experience with a car prepped to that level, so maybe there is something I am missing.

[bulletpruf]

do you ever need the heater or full defroster at the track events you run? if not, and you can avoid running it on the street in situations where they would be necessary, I don't see a reason you couldn't get rid of those parts if you really plan on doing wheel-to-wheel with that car. however, I do not have experience with a car prepped to that level, so maybe there is something I am missing.

 

I'm a newbie/rookie/cherry with no track experience, so not sure if I need defroster at track events. From the searches that I have done, it sounds like plenty of folks get by without one.

 

Scott

[dbright007]

Don't overbuild or overstrip till you know exactly where you will end up. Stuff changes. Just one mans opinion.

 

I might reply different if you said you were building a dedicated car to trailer in for racing. But yes, heat and defrost come in handy at times. Will be at Road Atlanta this weekend and the 'real feel' morning temps are going to be 15-20 degrees. Spring always brings lot of wet events too and defrost helps there too.

[Aardwolf]

Where do you live? Around here in WI the spring/fall events are cold so I elected to keep the heater core and make a custom box around it. I left the blower and put in a manual switch for it. I just ran tubing up from the core to the windshield. There are plenty of rain events here to and it helps for those. I had a '71 Jav in high school!

[bulletpruf]

Where do you live? Around here in WI the spring/fall events are cold so I elected to keep the heater core and make a custom box around it. I left the blower and put in a manual switch for it. I just ran tubing up from the core to the windshield. There are plenty of rain events here to and it helps for those. I had a '71 Jav in high school!

 

I'm in Northern VA now, but I'm military and moving in summer 2011. Looks like I'm headed south, but could be one of several different installations.

 

This is my first "Humpster" (71-74 Jav), but it's growing on me. Originally was a loaded car with 401, A/C, P/S, PDB, luggage rack, etc, etc. Super clean car with 33k original miles from California. Plan is to have it looking something like the Woods/Revson 1971 car when I'm done.

 

Here's the before picture (yes, the luggage rack is gone; replaced by spoiler) -

 

Here's what I'd like for it to look like when done -

 

[DWNSHFT]

There are many times I used the heater in my dedicated race car, and that was while racing in Arizona and California. Yes for defrosting, yes for general warmth. I also used it as an auxiliary cooler when the car ran too hot. Finally, on cold winter mornings on the grid, workers would crowd around my car to warm themselves up. It is always good to be on good terms with the course workers!

 

We all know the most important part of performance driving is vision. Defrosting is enough of a reason all by itself to keep at least some sort of heater/defroster setup.

 

 

David

[Gian Bowles]

personaly, I do not like any hot fluids going into the cockpit just for safety sake on any track car. If there is any leaks. There will be almost no visablity as well as hot stuff spraying around the cockpit.

 

Just a thought. Race cars are put to extrems. So if anything can go wrong it very well could and while you at full speed!

 

With a stock (full ) dash, most leaks are contained some what and mostly only show up on the windsheild. Not on you.

 

As for fogging/defrosting, Putting on Antifog will help as well as air moving across the windsheild (blower with no heater core).

 

As far as driving on the street. Heaters are very nice. But here in central and so cal, I drove my race car on the street for a two years with out a heater (not my daily driver) and it wasn't to bad.

 

Hope that will help, if only a little

[sscguy]

Depending on how far South you go, you'll still appreciate the heater for winter and early spring events. You're talking about maybe 40lbs at the most that you get rid of (in a currently non-competitive environment!), compared to what you could be sacrificing (visibility, comfort, etc.). My vote is to keep it.

 

<--- Built his last car from a bare shell, made sure the cage fit around the heater.

[Cobra4B]

I ditched the heater core in my Z06 but kept the blower motor/box/vent assembly in place. At RA this past weekend it was cold, but not so cold that I needed a heater in the car. The race on Saturday was in the rain and I know a few drivers w/o any kind of defroster/blower had to call it quits.

[kbrew8991]

that heater & defrost came in real handy during that rain race Cobra4b is talking about... I couldn't have run the race without it quite honestly. 30-40* + rain... uggg

[asifnyc]

if the heater/ducting is all still in the car and it's going to be a street car (you're going to drive to the track and back) I would leave it. My Javelin doesn't have any heat/defrost. it hasn't been an issue on track (haven't run in the rain though). But the windshield is often fogged up it the morning and it can be a COLD drive to the track...

 

as for the dash, for my full race Javelin I'm going full fabricated (out of aluminum). I pretty much finished making the template last night and I'm picking up the aluminum on Friday. should have pics by early next week. I've got the template mocked up in the car and I think it looks good. again though, if you want to keep it street I'd stick with the stock dash pad. Just modify your gauge panel like I did and load with whatever gauges you want...

[bulletpruf]

Think I'm going to get rid of the heater but adapt a stock car type blower motor to the stock defrost ducts.

 

Pretty sure the stock dash is going bye-bye.

 

Thanks,

 

Scott