My 200mph budget build

[turbotoaster]

ah yes i remember you now!

We all ran them side exits at one point, sounded great on boost.

I remember when i was a complete unknown in the r5 world until i went to pod for national day and won frog of the pod and started the giant front mount intercooler craze.....first ever run in the car at pod and first run was a 12.9....certainly got some stares after everyone telling me 12s are really hard to hit, they werent happy when i turned the boost up more in the afternoon and ran a 12.5 haha

 

[turbotoaster]

quick little update for anyone, decided to sort out my engine loom today as it looked a big mess being cable tied between the engine and rad.

First job was take out the rad and cooler, put the cooler to one side so people could see what i mean from my dodgy Paint drawings.

as has been mentioned with the spec r cooler about coming in from the top, full 3 inch access with no restrictions as you can see below, its common place all over the world but as usual seems to be ford owners are only just catching up, suppose its like twin scroll turbo/manifolds jap cars have been doing it since the 80s

put all the wiring loom back in its original position, had to cut and remove a lot of the plastic covering then retape all the loom, a lot of trial and error which took along time, but finally got everything back in, flipped the fusebox upside down and bent a couple of brackets to put it back in its origional position to save cuttign anymore wires, which then warren extended my radiator fan wires while i worked on a few other bits and bobs(putting a filter back on the second turbo as no room before with wires everywhere)

wiring all back in and covered with protection nicked from warrens weird ford collection of parts.

 

[turbotoaster]

As previously mentioned by myself and other people, a large factor with rotarys is the heat that they produce, this has been delt with to a extent with a larger radiator, bigger intercooler and dual oil coolers.

But the more heat you extract from the engine, the more heat you have to remove from the engine bay, hence the next task i came across was this.

i looked at a few aftermarket bonnets, looked at the aerodynamics of each and most importantly the drag factor involved.

after looking at them all and also bringing cost into the equation i came up with the perfect balance, this is a RE AD9 replica bonnet, theses are normal £1000 for a real one, this brand new cost £250

First thing to do was unwrap it, this took me about 15mins, i have never come across something so well wrapped in my life, at one point i was thinking it will never end, it had 10 layers of protection!

so i ended up with a big pile in the corner of the room

and this is what i was left with.

ok lets have a look at this properly to see what imperfections we can find

tiny bit of discolouration, but then thats why you paint it anyway.

tiny bit of top layer flaked away but paint sorts that.

small chip on the drivers furthest rear vent, its about 1cm in length

checked down the edges to find any major imperfections, luckily these are all on the underside of the bonnet, no chips but just a bit rough.

Came with i suppose can only be described as a 'super *****' raintray screwed underneath, im not sure if it was to protect the edges of the vents in transit or not, removed it as it will stop cooling.

once this was removed you can see a lot more of the mould, i think im gonna cut the raintray up and bolt it back on in its original position but with gaps where the vents are so its a bit neater.

And probably the most important part is the fitment!

Bolted it on and lowered it down for the first time with no adjustments to get an idea of whats happening

then spent a couple of mins doing a bit of adjustment, it seems the bolts for the hinges are maybe 1mm further apart than a stock bonnet so you have no movement there, only movement i had was at the front end, but ended up with this which doesnt look to bad, will look decent when ive put some bonnet catches and its painted!

here is a link to a full 5meg pixel imagine of the last one above so you can see it better, didnt want to include it as its huge, but you should be able look closer with it.
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3195/p20081019060001.jpg

from aero testing one thing i have noticed is that now because the air has 2 exits avaliable to it(before it was just the gearbox tunnel) the pipe from the intercooler to the throttle body is warmer as thats in the middle of a vent(hot air flows around it) so ill need to either incorpurate some shielding or wrap it to keep the heat out, even so it hasnt affected inlet temps in boost. Also i know get a lovely heat haze coming out of the vents in traffic.

 

[turbotoaster]

bolted my braces on the diff and gearbox now, also ripped all my sequential look out from under the inlet plenum, since i wont be needing it in the future and just put the stock twins running sequential, hits 10psi at 4rpm, 18psi at 4700rpm(compared to 3000rpm before) which will be similar to what my big turbo will be like, defo different to drive now!!

quick update for the front, change of bumper and bonnet, keeping the stock bonnet and bumper in my shed though as ill use them on the run since less openings the better for aero purposes.

you can tell i could do with some sideskirts as the front is really aggressive compared to the rear and sides

got my seats coming next month, i know a lot of you guys were concerned about safety so you will be happy to know that these are fia approved race seats, ill also save 20kg off the shell which cant hurt!

then i can sort out some wheels and tyres, ill be running 18x10 which tyres that will effectively lengthen my diff ratio meaning i wont need to change the rear diff, saves a lot of hassle and money! also look a lot better!

 

[turbotoaster]

yeh, its a very complicated setup, to give you guys an idea of what it looks like, i give you, the rats nest!!

or in diagram form

and this is what i spent a few hours last week doing

as you can see, a lot less things to go wrong.

got myself a boost controller that plugs into the original ecu, so it saves me having an extra box of tricks on my dashboard

loads missing!!

 

[turbotoaster]

yep, most people either give up or spend £1000 for a tuner to spend a week trying to fix it.

when i come to fit my 2000cc injectors and frp, ill remove the rats nest chassis aswell, just didnt have any T pieces at the time for the left over vacuum hoses.

 

[turbotoaster]

yep, not the quietest of motors on tickover, will be interesting to see how loud it is when its running a straight pipe out the side directly behind the front wheel with no silencers, the neighbours love me already!

its not that bad driving it, but then i drive it to work and back like miss daisy, my mates cossie powered puma is much louder to drive but surprisingly a lot quieter at idle

 

[turbotoaster]

little update, had a lot of people look around my car in the last couple of weeks and it seems my car is very well known in the area so was getting a bit nervous, hence the purchase, plus being 6ft3 causes me issues with driving an rx7, as you cant move your legs properly when driving as your knees hit the steering wheel.

I changed my wheel from 370mm to 320mm to see if it helped and it did a little bit but then i was unable to see half my clocks, so after ordering a new set of bucket seats to lower me down and send me further back so im more comfortable i decided to get my hand in my pocket and buy a driftworks quick release.

I have to say the guys are spot on, everything i asked he got back to me straight away, even ordered it yesterday and it arrived today being sent by normal 1st class post...awesome.

i had a quick look on there to see if there was any guides to fitting one and since there wasnt i thought id stick some pics up to help anybody else who might want one for there trackcar

little box arrives this morning

open box to find goodies, also look at instructions that are in japanese........felt so jdm haha

[
original boss with wheel attached to give a reference of position from console

bolted onto wheel, had to use spacer that i had on the car as the bolts were so long and wasnt bothered about cutting them off, also you can see the 2 thin metal plates between them, thats for the horn, you can see them in the picture earlier

original boss to bolt to
[

bolted new part on with allen bolts suppied in the kit, i like how its not on a spline like motorsport ones because ive heard of the cars getting pinched with a set of molegrips!

wheel massively closer to me, i can actually see the clocks properly now!! also theres more room around my knees to heel/toe, no point being flat out and unable to see when to change gear when looking at the dash

you can see the difference the 60mm makes

will give another little update next saturday when my seats are in and pop up to the weighbridge to see what we have got the weight down to(should be 20kg off from seats) also been in contact with matt lewis about his lightweight battery setup so gonna order that from him in a couple of weeks and that will save 10kg

 

[turbotoaster]

thanks very much(tips hat)

 

[turbotoaster]

Wow, amazing project mate. Just spent a while reading all 17 pages, hehe. I was supposed to get an early night. Nice one, lol.

Any idea when you might be able to attempt this?

well im sorting out seats next saturday, then i need to change the rims and tyres as my wheels are corroded and my tyres are shot so thats november/december wages used.

ill be going over to 18x10 et35 with 265 front and 285 rear, this will give me decent grip for the power and also change my rear ratio to save trying to change the diff

need £1000 to finish my big single turbo setup, then its just a case of saving some money for racegas and off the dyno we go.

Id like to run it in feb when its still cold to keep my temps down, but it just depends if i come across any issues in the meantime

I love the bonnet, makes it Dodge Viper-esque!

it does seem to help with cooling, you can see the heat coming out of it when at a standstill, ill be taking it and the standard bonnet for the run to see which works best

 

[turbotoaster]

ok guys, next update, things are coming along slowly, not as fast as id like but when you have been made redundant 4 times in 2years it becomes a hard slog!


My next update is what ive been saving for the last couple of months, to save some weight, my safety and also improve my driving position.

First up it was time to sort out the battery, ive basically took the big stock battery and box and bolted it into the boot just under the strut brace.

This has been fine and theres been no movement but its heavy and you can hear the liquid sloshing around, also in the event of a crash theres a chance that it could fly forward and kill someone.

So i decided to get myself a little battery and box.

Upon having a look around being the tight fisted guy i am came across the solution on ebay(where else)

got the 20ah battery for £50

and the box for £20

so took out my old battery/box and weighed it, came to 17kg

and replaced it with the new battery and box, came to 5.4kg which saved me 11.6kg!!

Now i feel a bit safer incase of an accident plus saving weight is never a bad thing.

Next thing was to sort out a pair of seats.

The biggest issue i have had is being tall, im 6ft3, now thats not a monster in the normal world, but in the rx7 world its not great.

This is when i started talking to jon at atomicrex, well what can i say about the bloke, one of the nicest guys ive met in a while, always happy to talk about anything and makes time for you even if he doesnt know or not if you will buy from him.

After deciding to go down and see him after looking at his seat rails online we found that they just wont work for someone my height.

But thats not an issue, jon decides to have a custom set made for me, which im over the moon with.

The issue was that with the standard rails he does im about 60mm to close to the dash, which means i cant move my legs or see any clocks.

After chatting about it for while he comes up with the solution and gets them made, this was about a month ago, but due to my work problems i was unable to get back down there to do a proper fitting.....until saturday just(yay)


Jon opens his shop just for me and we spend the day fitting them, i really appriecated all his help because he was meant to be going gliding but instead put this customer first.

Passanger seat when in fine, took a few tweaks to get it sitting correct and we realised that because i still have full sound deadening and carpet you have to bolt seats in the correct order else you run out of room.

After that we move onto the drivers side, this unfortunately became an issue, due to me modifiing the stock seat so that it goes back as far as possible it decided today of all days it was gonna lock up and not go forward to give me access to the rear bolts.

So out came the angle grinder much to jon amusement as i cut a perfectly mint stock seat into 24 different pieces before finally getting access to the rear bolts!!

Anyway because of my height this side is now using his new 'lanky bugger' seat mounts, or as jon nicely put 'extended'

These rails have 3 adjustments for peoples height and in my opinion are set at:

6ft-6ft2
6ft2-6ft4
6ft4-6ft6

we first tried it at 6ft4-6ft6 setting and i could just about reach the pedals and the seat was pretty much set vertical, to let you know how close it is between the back of the seat and the car, there was 3mm.
When trying to recline the seat back to lower the head height slightly we found that the rear of the seat would touch the sound deadening there......if you are 6ft4-6ft6 and want more reclining then you will need to remove the little bit of deadening there which would take 5mins.

but because im only 6ft3 we moved the seat one position forward and dropped the back of the seat down 1 peg.........this was perfect, i was comfortable and could finally see all of my rev counter, also i was sitting further back than my old modified stock seat so my knees were nowhere near the steering wheel,he has some of these rails in stock if you are interested in information or buying them, im sure he will post some pics of them for everyone to see.

The seats im running are corbeau pro series 3 carbon/kevlar in stock size.....and im 15st and 34in waist for reference if anyone needs seats, they fit but they are very much the limit interms of size which full interior.

This first image shows you my new battery/box fitted, the 2 threaded holes that are on the chassis from factory are used to hold the box in place.
You can also see how ive reclined the seat further back to give it more of a GT feel for comfort and to bring my eyeline lower in the car compared to the passenger seat which is a stock atomicrex rail

This one shows in the middle position how much further the seat goes back than the stock seat, also the recline aswell, i may int he future recline the passenger one slightly if i get many complaints.

Quick picture of how it looks from the outside

So overall im very happy with the setup and would recommend it for any tall or even short guys if you choose the right rail, i drove 3hrs back from jons and felt fine when i got out.

Hope this helps with anyones decisions in the future, if you want to know costs etc ill with be happy to tell you

 

[turbotoaster]

cheers, ill make sure i update the thread when i get the next set of parts

 

[turbotoaster]

well little update for you guys.

the good thing about the rx7 is that even though the rx7 comes with 2 fuel rails, the primary rail(the one that is used for idle/cruising) can be easily modified to take larger injectors.

the rx7 comes with 2x550cc injectors in the primary rail and 2x850cc injectors in the secondary rail.

the secondary rail is operated when the primary injectors reach a certain level of duty(normally 40%)

Now ive fitted a set of 850cc secondary injectors into the primary rail.

this takes my total fuel capacity to 4x850=3400cc from the 2800cc you get from factory.

this means i have enough fuel for 430bhp which will keep me going as i collect more parts.

anyway an update to keep it moving until i get paid.

I managed to get a great deal on a new secondary fuel rail, now im gonna be running 2x2200cc injectors and as these are top feed and not side feed like the stock ones then a new rail is needed.

Normally these are around £120 but a bit of hunting got one for £80 brand new!!!

Box comes so feel excited.

new shiny rail, fully anodised in red(to match the car) with nice little bit of engraving.
compare that to a really crappy £150 one that leaks from america and its a bargain.

You can just see the holes at the end of the rails for the injectors and the threaded connections for the fuel lines to bolt to(currently covered in tape for protection)

because the injectors are different shape than the stock ones you fit these sleeves to the injectors so you get a tight seal, hence it came with these, notice the little rubber rings to help seal

well thats it for now.

at the end of the month ive decided to buy my 2 fuel pumps, fuel tank and fuel pressure regulator, trying to get the main boxes ticked now!

 

[turbotoaster]

Gel battery so completely fine.

pretty much what he said

hopefully more updates on the 27th of the month

 

[turbotoaster]

hey guys, i was involved in an accident

sorting their insurance out now, so no need to panic.

in the meantime ive been sorting things out as the car will be written off.

ive managed to aquire a new shell to transfer everything over into.

the shell is an ex race shell that raced in the GT championship so has a little bit of history and is very strong.

here are a few pics.

as you can see its pretty extensive.

will be painting the entire shell white including cage.

so it will look exactly like this only all white(same rear arches)

because the boot has a flat panel in place of the wheel well ill be running a square fuel tank made by the same guy i bought the shell from, this will have 2 an10 fittings(one for each fuel 044)

the shell will also have fitted to it wider front and rear GRP arches and as the items are transferred from one shell to the other everything will get a good clean and any bushes will be replaced with poly

least then i know ill be nice and safe on my top speed run as the cage is fully fia/msa approved.

the 10k budget im afraid is out of the window but at least no one can now say im not taking safety as a priority

 

[turbotoaster]

well whats left, ill have to get another intercooler, rad and lights.

will need new wheels as the chassis is wider, probably 10in wide on the front and 12inch wide on the rear

ive got an old bonnet and bumper in my back garden so ill use those for a while until i have the funds in the future to change them, but i was gonna run them anyway on the top speed run so ill just leave them on till then.

on a positive note, the car will now only way around 980-1000kg which will make it a lot faster than before

 

[turbotoaster]

Awwww shame about the crash, glad you're OK though.

Been looking forward to seeing the monster £10k 200mpg wagon!

£15k budget perhaps?

probably 15k is doable, its gonna cost about 5k to get the shell up to spec that i want so we will see.

im gonna fit a lot of new parts to the shell as its cheaper than ripping old parts off the shell.

ie no abs, just a pedal box setup, make up a new loom instead of stripping down the original which will take forever

2mpg, 200mph

3000cc in 30secs, traveling 1.6miles.......so 2.4mpg actually

*Cough*Still in budget?*cough*

ermm maybe one or two pennies over, just dont tell the girlfriend!

Woa, so the red one is wrecked? Oh no!

Glad someone asked the battery question. Was also going to ask about how the budget was holding out, but looks like the project just took on another level

the red ones chassis rail looks like a stepped on banana, the strut top has actually moved back 10mm!

hopefully gonna get paid out by insurance soon so will see how much i have to play with, that will decide on how far the project will go

is the new lid wide arch?

yes, 60mm wider per side, you 12cm wider at the rear overall and the front will be 5cm wider overall

 

[turbotoaster]

i know you were, just thought id throw in some random info

 

[turbotoaster]

i did write up a much longer post(took me an hour) but as i was about to click post my laptop blue screened so im afraid this post will be a lot shorter

i havent updated this thread in a while because i have been waiting on doors to be made as im trying to get the car to 9xxkg

there will be a big update when the car comes back from paint but as of this second everyone will have to be patient, im hoping for it to be going to paint within the next couple of weeks as the holidays have slowed it down slightly.

but trust me when i say it will be worth it, this thing is gonna be an absolute monster, maybe ill be having a play with you scooby when its done.

ive worked out the cost and ill be able to go from 400bhp to 700bhp for about £1300 so that will be the goal once its back and ive put a few miles on the chassis.....plus ive got a date with 200mph, watched worlds fastest indian last night to keep me motivated.

but for reference ill let you know what ive done while ive been twiddling my thumbs

bought some bits and bobs


uprated pillowball bushes

billet manual steering rack.
only weighs 5kg, so will save me 8.5kg over stock system
the manual rack was to speed up the travel, so instead of 3 turns lock to lock the manual rack is 2.25 turns

Front anti-roll bar kit with wide mounts
should keep it cornering nice and flat and i can adjust them to the type of track im on...maybe stiffer for track and softer for road

Pedal box with adjustable bias
moved the accelarator slightly closer to the brake for better heal toe, but to be fair with size 13 feet i dont think its gonna make that much difference

resevoirs

full kit minus lines

Tailgate inc lexan rear screen, should save me close to 15kg over stock

GRP Dash
since im not running any heaters, i wont need any vents and bits behind the dash so this simplifys everything and makes it neater.

GRP doors, these are the things that took months to get and held everything up, but then ill be saving 20kg a side with these, so having them means theres no weight penalty for my beefy cage.
they actually have carbon inserts in the window frame to stop them flexing at high speed.

GRP bonnet, this is currently unfinished as you can see in the pic, we are going to be opening up the centre vent much larger but we are waiting until the radiator is in to work out ducting size before cutting

also you can see my chin spoiler which should provide some downforce and my modified front bumper, ive opened the oil cooler holes up into where the indicators are because im going to be running a massive single oil cooler instead of 2 small ones.

big single oil cooler

powerflex bushes throughout, should keep everything nice and stiff

new radiator and rad after the last set ended up with a few dents

that will have to keep you guys going for a while as with me being 150miles from the car i cant get loads of pics of updates everyday

 

[turbotoaster]

this is looking properly awesome now, budget must have increased significantly?

understatement of the year im afraid mate, working in a minimum wage job and renting a place makes this currently the bain of my exsistance, if this crash hadnt happen the car would have been finished and id have cracked my 200mph back in march

still ive got a shed to get me to work and back so this can the thing that when i take it a track day will make all the 9-5s worth while