The start of the rebuild

Slowly things are moving along...very slowly. Life has been pretty busy, so the car has unfortunately taken a back seat to everything while I focus on other things. Hopefully now a bit of focus can be put back onto the race car and I can get it up and running!!

So the progress so far - A K20 has been purchased along with another gearbox that is in good condition. I think for now I will chuck that in and get it up and running, then while I am having a bit of fun in that I will purchase another engine that I will rebuild for forced induction and throw that in at a later stage.

Before I chuck in the engine though, I want to get the suspension sorted out. I am converting to 5x114 due to the massive amount of wheel choice I have in this stud pattern, especially in 17" which is what I will run. So while I do this, I will address everything and get it all 100%. So that means spherical bearings, and while browsing the net the other day I found FCS do a tubular front subframe. Not only will this save me about 20kg, but will allow for a lot more adjustment and replace everything in the front end with spherical bearings. Adjustment for camber was something that I was lacking before, so to get a bit more there would be awesome to get a bit more grip around the corners.

So hopefully I get that all sorted out in the next month or two, then get the engine in, sort out the brakes (thinking 6 pot Wilwoods at the front, and my current 4 pot Wilwoods to the rear), wire it all up and we are good to go.

Starting again

So I made the decision to tear the whole car down to the shell and start all over again. After driving it for a while I found several places I could do to save weight and make improvements to the car, plus there were some things that I was not happy with to begin with, so time to address all that now.

 

The B16a I was running has now been sold off, it was a great engine, loved to rev, and had plenty of power, but it is time to move onto something a bit more serious. So the basic plans are:

Under the bonnet:

• Engine will be a turbo'ed K20a with block built to 11.5cr, stronger conrods, and standard head all running on E85.
• Gearbox will be standard gears running a 1.5 way LSD.
• The fuel system will be stripped back, with a baffled tank installed meaning the fuel surge tank I am currently using can be removed. All new fuel lines will be used.
• All new custom wiring will be installed, tidying up what was a bit ugly previously and trying to keep everything clean and neat.
• Steering rack will be converted to manual as an actual manual rack is near impossible to find. This will help remove the constant leak I had previously too.

Handling & Aero:

• Aero will be looked at and reworked. New side skirts with more stiffness to them, new front splitter mounting system to remove the movement it had before, and a wider rear diffuser that stretches the whole width of the rear. To go with these a flat undertray will be made too.
• Fender flares to be installed to accommodate wider wheels & tyres to handle the extra power. Wheel widths will be increasing to about 10" at the front and 9" at the rear and wheel size may increase to 17"
• Brake system will be re-worked too. Larger front brakes to handle the extra power as at Sandown the current setup was struggling, and rears will be changed to something larger too. All new brake lines will be installed at this time too and brake booster removed.

Inside & Gear:

• Standard pedals will be removed and a pedal box installed with remote reservoirs, this means the current brake bias can be removed as it will be all integrated.
• Finally install the lexan windows and save some weight
• New race seats
• New safety gear, suit, helmet, HANS device

Hopefully this all adds up and will help strip some seconds off my lap times, I am pretty happy with the way the car handles atm, but with the wider wheels / tyres and better aero there is defiantly a lot of room for more grip, the power should double with this new setup, and with some weight saving I should be able to get the car down to about 800kg.

None of this will happen overly quickly, but in the next 6 months it should be up and running and ready to hit the track.