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Figured I would show some pictures and share details on a car I am building.
I bought a rolling chassis from a guy who started building a kit car, but never finished..
It is called a "locost 7".. Loosely based on a 1960's Lotus 7 or a current Caterham 7.
It should look "similar" to this when I get done.
When I bought the car, it had no engine, no transmission, and a poorly modified 1st Gen RX7 rear axle.
Here is a picture the day it came home....
I had already built a first gen RX7 with a turbo 13B engine... I decided to pull the entire drivetrain out of my RX7 and use it in the kit car.
Here is the old car and engine...
The engine is a stock 13B out of an 86 Turbo II. It has upgraded injectors, Stage 3 BNR turbo, and Haltech Engine Management, LMS harness and mercury direct ignition coils... as well as other goodies. The engine was tuned by Nelson at RRR in Santa Ana CA... The engine made 330 Horsepower!!
Now the car is "mostly together" and running.
The car in unbelievably fast with 330 HP and only weighing 1200-1300 pounds...
Soon to come will be paint and new wheels and tires... The current wheels and tires are horrible, but they move the car around...
This picture has the stock intercooler for testing. I am in the process of installing an aftermarket top mount intercooler and will install a WRX STI hood mounted scoop to feed air.
Fuel system includes a fuel cell with low pressure pump that feeds a swirl pot that feeds a walbro fuel pump to the engine....
Exhaust system includes a custom made downpipe and 36 inch long 3" Magnaflow muffler.
Thats an awesome project . The only thing I would be concerned about is burning out the magna flow muffler , I have burnt out about 3 of they're mufflers . You could cut the muffler open and repack it with coarse stainless steel wool ( you can buy it by the pound from Mc Master Carr website ) one pound would fill an oval muffler thats 18' long .
I will keep an eye on the burning out of my Magnaflow muffler.
Was your setup NA or turbo? Turbo seems to live a little longer because the turbo takes the "first hit" of the heat.
If and when the muffler gets burned out, I will rebuild like you mentioned.
I've actually built 2 chassis for the Locost. One was a "Book Frame", the other was a +4 frame. I never got further than the skeleton on those 2 attempts. To many projects, not enough time.
I plan to build one to completion this time though. I'm finishing up my sketches and models.
Do you have a build thread on LocostUSA? I'd like to see more.
I've actually built 2 chassis for the Locost. One was a "Book Frame", the other was a +4 frame. I never got further than the skeleton on those 2 attempts. To many projects, not enough time.
I plan to build one to completion this time though. I'm finishing up my sketches and models.
Do you have a build thread on LocostUSA? I'd like to see more.
Yes. I have one on Locost USA. Titled 330 HP rotary powered Locost.
Well I got the roadster running last year. I went through the roughly 14 steps to get the car registered in the state of California. The day that I got it street legal, my old FC turbo engine gave it up. It broke two Apex Seals just simply cruising down the road. When I tore the engine down it was completely shot. All the bearings were bad, center iron was leaking water, chrome flaked and housings scored, even the e-shaft was slightly out of round!!!
I put the car in the trailer and forgot about it for a while.... Then the motor got built.
I got Kyle from Mazdatrix to build my motor. Basically everything is new. The only parts I recycled was the rotors and the stationary gears.
1. New RX8 e-shaft
2. New rotor housings
3. New end housings and center housings.
4. New oil pump, all new bearings.
5. Balanced and side cut rotors.
6. Full turbo street porting.
7. Lightweight aluminum flywheel.
Items I already had
1. BNR turbo
2. Haltech Sprint RE
Now the car is together and running strong.... Real strong!!! Should be 350 plus HP with a car that weighs 1300 pounds.
Here are some pictures! Just got back from some canyon carving. I am still taking it easy on the engine. Trying to break it in nicely.
That has to be inanity to drive! Are some videos in order once the engine is done being broken in?
YES!!!! Insanity is a good word to describe it.
I run boost by gear controlled by the Haltech to "try" to tame it. 1st and 2nd gear regulated to 6 psi boost, 3rd gear on is adjustable to whatever you want. This worked well with the old FC engine.
Before the "boost by gear" was implemented. 1st gear was completely useless.... Spinning tires until you hit the rev limiter...shift then hit boost and the car is trying to go sideways at 50-60 mph... Shift to 3rd and hang on!!
Right now it is programmed for 6 pounds boost always while the engine is breaking in.
I have the same fuel cell on my CMC Locost, even had to add the surge tank because it would fuel starve so easily.
looks great by the way!
I have traction issues with just an NA 13B at 150HP. I can't imagine 350hp...
It can be a handful! I am actually amazed how well it does hook up. I have considered getting some Mickey Thompson Street Radials to help more with traction.
I know what you mean about the surge tank. I had to do the same thing.
MT ET Street Radials are very sloppy floppy tires. They can make normal driving scary, I would never try them on my car for auto-x.
I was actually really surprised at how well my Maxxis RC-1 hooked up in a straight line- especially for a tire that I loved for their responsive carcass.
I think it might be due to the street tire like tread compound that comes into operating temps 140F instead of 160F like NT01, R888 and RA1.
DOT-Rs I have tried in order of how well they hook for straight line acceleration.
MT ET Street DR
Maxxis RC-1
Toyo RA1 (little wobbly tread blocks soak up shock loading, heat up fast and dig down to clean pavement)
Nitto NT-01 (soft sidewall soaks up some shock loading, decent traction cold, much better warmed)
Toyo R888 (decent traction cold, much better warmed)
Hankook Z221 TD (well, they have tread pattern)
BFG R1S
Kumho V710
The bottom 3 really drop off hard when heat cycled out.
I salute you and your enthusiasm. Hard for me to imagine a 1300 pound car with even 200 HP, let alone 350 plus!!!
I would love to see some 1/4 mile times if you could get it to hook quickly!!
Thanks for sharing
Rich
I will take it to the track someday. What I am afraid of is if I get too much traction that I will start breaking things.
The car has a fairly fragile drivetrain with a lot of HP. Luckily it weighs nothing, so the components should hold up if I don't abuse her.
Its got a 1st gen GSL rear in it. A first gen FB transmission freshly rebuilt with Miata internals. Dave Lemon (Owner Mazdatrix) built the transmission. He said the Miata internals are more robust.
Now I know folks will say "why don't you put a turbo II trans in it". Wont fit...PERIOD! Even the FB transmission was a squeeze in there.
So, still racking up the miles on the Roadster. I have put about 600 miles on it in less than a month. Still keeping the boost at 6 pounds max and keeping revs down. Once I hit about 1000 miles on the rebuild I will take the engine up to 7000 RPM, but will keep the boost at 6 for a while.
Nelson at RRR tuned the old stock engine with my Haltech Sprint RE. We were keeping the boost to 12 pounds max because I was running out of injector. Before I was running 550 primaries and 720 GSL-SE secondaries.
Now I bought RC Engineering 1000 injectors. I have not installed them yet, but will put my old 720's as primary and move the 1000's to secondary. I will then get Nelson to re-tune again.
The 720/1000 combo should give me enough fuel "I think" for 12-14 pounds of boost on this ported engine.
I think you might do well to heat wrap the exhaust and hot-side IC pipe where they cross each other.
Car looks awesome! Vids?
The picture is a little deceiving. There is about a 2-3" gap between the exhaust pipe and the intercooler pipe. It is also exposed to all the air going by at speed. I have run trended intake air temperature (with Haltech) and this is not an issue.
However I just bought a heat shield for the muffler and will wrap the pipes with heat wrap. This is mainly for protection from the hot pipes.
I need to buy / borrow a gopro camera to get some vids. When I do vids with my iphone in a suction cup mount, they are horrible.
10-17-15, 01:37 AM
