It has been in the works for quite awhile now, and I've posted a lot of questions but finally have some time while I watch the Saint's/49'ers game to post up a build thread. I've been posting some upates on Speedhunters, but work has progressed slowly through 2011 so I didn't update very much.

I am building the car for both Time Attack/Solo Sprint, as well as the ICSCC Sport Touring rules, which is based around a 1:10 power to weight ratio.

The chassis I started with was a pretty tired 1988 GX base, had no sunroof which gave me more headroom, and less weight up top.

 

Car was stored on top of a storage container for a year before I found it. Picked it up for $200 and brought it home.



Had some sweet seat covers



And stickers



Also picked up a donor car, for suspension, 5 lug, S5 engine, and some other bits.

I had just had laser eye surgery when I needed to tear apart the S5, and pull the S4 engine, so I asked the local Rotary boys to come and help, and they had the car apart in an hour or so and helped me pull the other engine in exchange for a few free parts.

 

Spent a bunch of time tearing into the car and stripping it down to the bare shell.







Once it was stripped down it was time to repair the bit of rust it had and get the roll cage in.

 

Got the interior stripped down, used dry ice to help freeze the stick sound deadening out and a heat gun to scrape the rest out.

Once that was done, was time to stitch weld the chassis.



Had to strip out all the seam sealer which is a bitch of a job, but with a chassis over 20 years old, worth it IMO.

 

Went out to my friend Colin's shop and we built ourselves a hydraulic tubing bender and started on the cage. The bender was hooked up to his forklift, so you could use the forklift controls to control the bender, pretty slick actually.

 

Cage turned out pretty well. Used 1.75" 0.095" wall DOM, but looking back I may have used 1.625" next time.





Being 6'4" I need all the headroom I could get, so the cage was tucked up as far as possible





Also made sure the A-pillar bars were in line with my line of sight with the a-pillars, giving me the best outward visibility.



Nascar style bars on the drivers side





X-bars on the passenger side

 

Gutted and lightened the doors, made my own brackets for the stock inner door handles.



Bought some bolt-through dimple dies and made myself some gussets for the cage since the rules for my class allow any points of attachment for the cages.





Gutted my hatch too. Needs lexan next.

 

Build myself some basic rotisserie stands so I could rotate the car and access the bottom easily to clean it up and stitch weld it.







Then Dave (docholiday) helped me clean up the bottom of the car and remove 22 years of gunk.



Also built a custom strut brace, but will re-make it out of aluminum.

 

Flyin Miata helped me re-build my steering rack and de-power it. This is the S5 rack so its the perfect ratio for de-powering.



Realized I was still too tall with my Sabelt Taurus seat, so docholiday built me a drop box and we welded it in.



Not bad for a tall dude...

 

Got my balance bar and dual MC's for the brake adjustment system.



Dave/docholiday helping me get the pedal box modified so I can run the dual MC setup.



Made a new mounting hole from guidance from a few of you guys, helping the pedal ratio for better brake feel with the manual brakes.

 

Our cat Juicy in my test seat...

Picked up a set of 17x8 BBS RS's in decent shape. Bought some new lips for them so time to rebuilt the wheels. Had to bake them first (wife loved that part)



Get them apart...



Re-painted the centers and get them back together.



Lookin good!

 

Awesome looking Pettit Trak-Pro Race spec coilovers. Can't wait to get these mounted.



Got my daughter to paint my side mirrors.



Yep, they are pink.



AWR 2 piece rotors



AWR brake ducts



Got the bottom sealed up



Momo dished wheel.

 

Trimmed the dash to fit with the cage and dyed it black.



Painted a few of the suspension members



JDM TII trans and Mazdatrix short shifter with an extension I made.

 

Looks great! Takes a patient man to do all that stitch welding.

Is that cat a Savannah?

 

Dave and I machined some upper diff mounts.



And we got the car fully sealed up with epoxy primer.



The cat is a bengal, and she is rad. She attacks our 95lb doberman all the time.

 

Also did a few concept renders to see how I thought it would look when I'm done. Have some new fender designs, and a different front bumper/headlight treatment now. If I get some time I'll update them.


















Also decided on going black. Every vehicle I've owned/own is black... even the Fiat 500 I will be restoring will be black.

 

Awesome. Keep us posted please on the build. Subscribed...

 

I was following the build on Speedhunters. Glad to see it up over here.

 

Very nice, well thought out track car. Can't wait to see some more updates!

 

Just stumbled across your build, looks like the beginnings of a great racecar except for the pink mirrors . All kidding aside you're off to a great start!

 

yes! excellent choice of wheels, i'm actually looking for some donors myself. what were the before and after widths, and offsets if you don't mind me asking, and what size lip did you add.

I've also been following on speedhunters. Looks like it's going to be amazing.

 

Thanks BigAl, been watching yours closely too, can't wait to see it all finished.

Wheels were 8" wide with a 1" lip stock, put on a 3.5" lip and are now 11.5" wide. However, ST only allows 10" wheels in competition, so these may become my Time Attack wheels and get some RPF01's for ST.

 

Awesome work so far, ive been following this build on speedhunters and cant believe that i almost forgot about it, lol, i guess its been alittle while.. beautiful car/build, and i cant wait to see more done

im subscribing

 

I love the renderings, the car is going to look fantastic.

Good luck with the build.

Richard

 

Subscribed!! Great build. I think I'm inspired to build a rotisserie myself for my other project.