MX-5 1996 Eunos 1.8 Trackday Car
Discussion
I thought i'd post something about my car here, rather than my usual hunting ground trying to offer advice in the health section.
Going back 3 years, after a conversation that started after a few pints in the pub, a plan between 3 mates was hatched and we all put £35 a month into a joint account and waited until the right car came up. We discussed BMW 325i, 328, Mk2 Golf GTI 16v, 205 GTI. Eventually, mid-night shift after a year or so of saving, I stumbled across a beauty of an advert for a car on Ebay. A quick couple of emails later provided lots of information regarding the history and the chap selling seemed very genuine, only selling as he was moving to a full race car MX-5 for the coming season. With this in mind, we emptied our account (and added in a little extra each) and headed down to Essex. The chap selling, Steve, was exceptionally helpful, very pleasant and only too keen to let us pour over his VERY tidy 1.8 Eunos. He had it up on axle stands so we could crawl around underneath and everything looked tip top. It had been modified with yellowstuff brake pads, a TR lane rollbar and harness bar and a K&N induction kit - all perfect starter modifications given that we were going to spank the car on track. It turns out that this is indeed what he had used the car for, looking after it well in the process. It had a new engine in it 18 months prior to us looking from a 80k car and the chassis now had 175,000 km on the speedo.
The passenger test-ride that followed was something I won't forget in a hurry - Steve hussled the little MX-5 down some country lanes in a manner that had me clinging onto the door handles! Sure enough, after a trip each, we couldn't pay up fast enough. In the end (after a very English haggle over the price of a tank of fuel to get us home) we parted with £1600 and found ourselves the proud owners of N122HTR - a seemingly rust free MX-5. It would be our introduction to 'bang for your buck' trackdaying.
Given that none of our group members own a garage, our friend Tommy kindly stepped in and agreed to what we felt is a good mutual deal - he looks after the car in a secure locked garage, we pay for him to be an additional driver/passenger on any trackdays we do that he is free to come to. With that settled, the car had a place to live. Although we decided at the time to insure and tax it, we do have current plans to trailer it to our trackdays. Insurance set us back £232 for 3000 mile policy, fully comp, with all modifications declared, with Adrian Flux.
From April 2013, it was a very VERY long wait to our first trackday in the car. Both Chris and I hold ARDS National B racing licences and have done around 15 days between us with myself having completed 6 races with the HSCC - none of which prepared us for quite how much fun we would have on the first outing. Our chosen event was a Snetterton (20 mins from Norwich) event with Javelin Trackdays, who offer very reasonable and well run open pitlane events in the Summer.
In the garage before the event, having filled up with a tank of Tesco 99 Momentum, while checking tyre pressures, that we were running 3 Nokians and 1 Tigar 'Sigura' - a tyre that a quick online check revealed reviews that mentioned the words 'terrifying in the wet' and 'complete crap'. A good start. Despite this, we a firm believers in cheap oversteer and the ditchfinders fitted to our MX-5 only added to the sideways experience. Our first session was a complete hoot - massive sideways action, loads of great on-limit handling to explore and some epic tankslapper momments when we (I) ran out of skill. Truly it was enough to know we had spent the best money of our motoring lives so far.
Some pics from the day:
Following this event, we quickly booked into Snetterton for the evening session on Monday 24th June, and Blyton Park on 7th July that year.
After a quick scan of internet forums and we were keen to start with some small modifications. Two new Bosch wiper blades were the first to go on. For a 1 minute job, our insistence on completing the task without reading the instructions lead to much head scratching, before retrieving the packaging from the bin to complete the task in no time at all. We then decided to paint the camcover. A nice little video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDSFztSNcdI by a cheesy American type gave us something to follow - much clearer than the Haynes manual we were previously attempting to use. I bought some VHT engine primer and black wrinkle effect paint (they do it in red - so you can copy a well known Modena-based car company...). I also bought a new camcover gasket and silicone gasket seal from MX-5 parts. A new oil cap was also added to an Ebay order to finish the bling. A pic of the assembled parts:
Before we started:
After getting started on the various tubing (all pulled off with various ease), Chris and I discovered that neither of us own a torque wrench. Off to tool station we went (for the first time...). Having chosen a torque wrench, we couldn't remember if we owned 3/8 or 1/2 inch ratchet. A trip to Halfords across the road and a cheeky peak through their various tools resulted in us deciding that it was, in fact, a 3/8 that we needed. A very reasonable sum of money later, we were back at the car. To our horror, momments later, we found out that we only had imperial sockets to go on our lovely new torque wrench. A return 20 minute trip to tool station later then allowed us to crack on with the 10mm and 12mm sockets required to liberate the camcover:
We covered the exposed parts and headed back to prep the cover. We used a normal household multi-surface cleaner and some oven cleaner to get the more stubborn bits of oil off the cover. A cheap 70p toothbrush helped at this stage. We then dried it off and covered up the important bits with masking tape, before spraying with the undercoat:
It looked so good at this stage, we almost opted out of trying the wrinkle effect paint, going with a plain colour instead. We decided to press on, and despite blasting myself in the face with the VHT wrinkle paint (after getting confused with the different nozzle on the cans - apparently these ones required "50% less finger pressure to reduce finger fatigue") we then added the wrinkle effect paint - three coats - 1st horizontally, 2nd vertically, 3rd at an angle. In all honesty, we weren't that impressed by the time we had finished - hoping it would look better when dry:
So, the camcover turned out really well - all apart from the bit of explaining I had to do to my wife when she discovered the cover in the oven as part of the curing process!! The only real problem we had was not being able to remove the rubber bung in the unit - sorted by masking off the area. The paint crinkled up nicely with small symmetrical crinkles. I found some old volvo touch up paint in the man draw at home (i've never owned a volvo, so i'm not too sure how that got in there) and did the lettering.
Fitting the unit was fairly easy, using the torque wrench to tighten it up slightly more than suggested as it was really only over finger tight on the recommended settings - I'd be interested to hear what every uses for the torque setting to tighten the camcover bolts? Despite this, we feel the 'new' cover looks ace. Especially with the stupidly bling oil cap:
Having started 1st time and run to temperature with no visible leaks, we were concerned that new smoke was appearing from the heat wrapping on our exhausts. Having no extinguisher in place, we were a little reluctant to run to Snetterton without being able to put out any fires that might occur. We ran the car around the block and popped the bonnet and the smoke had disappeared - we only assumed that something must have either dropped on the wrapping, or that there is a crack in our manifold - something to be looked at later when we had more time. With that, we were late leaving for Snetterton. There were a couple of seriously pimped up MX-5s at the evening session, most running turbo. Our 185/65/14s looking decidedly puny compared to one chap who was running 225/45/15 R888s. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves, the car had its first spin at the hands of co-owner Chris's little brother (first trackday) but was undamaged. Next to be investigated is a knocking noise from the front corners, noticable with lock applied. Another very successful outing.
Having got the car on a ramp and investigated, we discovered some shot drop link bushes that were contributing to the knocking noise. Having then replaced them out for polybushed alternatives, the noise disappeared and happy motoring continued.
After a few months, we decided that the ditchfinders needed upgrading. Having been on the MX-5 OC forum, I found a local chap selling 4 Enkei alloys with some nearly new Federal 595 RSR's for £200. I bit his hand off and fitted them:
Our next summer outing then brought about a string of disasters. Overheating on a hot day due to a loose alternator bolt resulting in the waterpump failing, meant we overheated and had a long tow home from Blyton Park to an emergency stop off in Cambridge before we could arrange a return to Norwich. After a new cambelt and waterpump, another full fluid service and battery cut off installation, we discovered we were still overheating. A replacement heating pipe later, new cam angle sensor o-ring and another inspection and we thought things were sorted. Until we took it for a test drive...
The result was a blown headgasket. A new search for a reliable local garage later and we discovered cleaverly cars in Stradbrooke, suffolk, who sorted us out with a new gasket, as this was way out of our comfort zone mechanically (little steps - at least I can now change some brake pads..). At the time we advanced the timing to 14 degrees and he added an additional head skim to up the compression ratio. The result was a much stronger and happier engine.
Following the new found happiness in the engine bay, we treated the car to some Eibach lowering springs to go with our stock bilstein dampers, and some custom geometry from Cleverly Performance to get the most out of it. The resulting set up was superb and the car looks great a little lower to the deck. Cornering is hugely improved.
With the set up now sorted, fast forward after a couple of superb trackdays to Summer 2015. Having been looking for a house in the UK for a while, my parents-in-law then dropped a total bombshell and told us they'd splashed out on something else, not a house....
Credit to them for taking the plunge! Can't wait to have a go at some point. Hopefully. While visiting at that time, I dusted off their old BMW e30 325i M-tech 1 from the garage, complete with original suspension, a car that hasn't turned over since summer 2005, to see how its going with is southern france storage. Turns out, its still looking good. As soon as I have my own garage, the plan is to bring it home to Blighty to start as a next project, keeping it as original as possible. Would be a truly amazing thing, and quite some jump from the MX5.
After changing job, from a paediatric registrar and deciding to re-train as a GP, I took some time off and planned a trip with an old school friend who owns a mk1 Elise that has an aftermarket supercharger kit attached. We both had a week off between saturday weddings and decided to plan a road trip into Switzerland, back via Germany and the 'ring, before stopping off at Spa to do a premium trackday with RSR Spa. To anyone who wants to take their trackdays to the next level, I can't recommend them enough! It felt a little like taking a potato to a gun fight....
The trip was unforgettable. I'll hopefully post a route in due course.
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/MIl4lzgC.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/p9ACvyt4" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/p9ACvyt4.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/tOLxYO9A" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/tOLxYO9A.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/BIpNzSH6" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/BIpNzSH6.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/ipeiKxQ5" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/ipeiKxQ5.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/tOLxYO9A" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/tOLxYO9A.jpg)
Going back 3 years, after a conversation that started after a few pints in the pub, a plan between 3 mates was hatched and we all put £35 a month into a joint account and waited until the right car came up. We discussed BMW 325i, 328, Mk2 Golf GTI 16v, 205 GTI. Eventually, mid-night shift after a year or so of saving, I stumbled across a beauty of an advert for a car on Ebay. A quick couple of emails later provided lots of information regarding the history and the chap selling seemed very genuine, only selling as he was moving to a full race car MX-5 for the coming season. With this in mind, we emptied our account (and added in a little extra each) and headed down to Essex. The chap selling, Steve, was exceptionally helpful, very pleasant and only too keen to let us pour over his VERY tidy 1.8 Eunos. He had it up on axle stands so we could crawl around underneath and everything looked tip top. It had been modified with yellowstuff brake pads, a TR lane rollbar and harness bar and a K&N induction kit - all perfect starter modifications given that we were going to spank the car on track. It turns out that this is indeed what he had used the car for, looking after it well in the process. It had a new engine in it 18 months prior to us looking from a 80k car and the chassis now had 175,000 km on the speedo.
The passenger test-ride that followed was something I won't forget in a hurry - Steve hussled the little MX-5 down some country lanes in a manner that had me clinging onto the door handles! Sure enough, after a trip each, we couldn't pay up fast enough. In the end (after a very English haggle over the price of a tank of fuel to get us home) we parted with £1600 and found ourselves the proud owners of N122HTR - a seemingly rust free MX-5. It would be our introduction to 'bang for your buck' trackdaying.
Given that none of our group members own a garage, our friend Tommy kindly stepped in and agreed to what we felt is a good mutual deal - he looks after the car in a secure locked garage, we pay for him to be an additional driver/passenger on any trackdays we do that he is free to come to. With that settled, the car had a place to live. Although we decided at the time to insure and tax it, we do have current plans to trailer it to our trackdays. Insurance set us back £232 for 3000 mile policy, fully comp, with all modifications declared, with Adrian Flux.
From April 2013, it was a very VERY long wait to our first trackday in the car. Both Chris and I hold ARDS National B racing licences and have done around 15 days between us with myself having completed 6 races with the HSCC - none of which prepared us for quite how much fun we would have on the first outing. Our chosen event was a Snetterton (20 mins from Norwich) event with Javelin Trackdays, who offer very reasonable and well run open pitlane events in the Summer.
In the garage before the event, having filled up with a tank of Tesco 99 Momentum, while checking tyre pressures, that we were running 3 Nokians and 1 Tigar 'Sigura' - a tyre that a quick online check revealed reviews that mentioned the words 'terrifying in the wet' and 'complete crap'. A good start. Despite this, we a firm believers in cheap oversteer and the ditchfinders fitted to our MX-5 only added to the sideways experience. Our first session was a complete hoot - massive sideways action, loads of great on-limit handling to explore and some epic tankslapper momments when we (I) ran out of skill. Truly it was enough to know we had spent the best money of our motoring lives so far.
Some pics from the day:
Following this event, we quickly booked into Snetterton for the evening session on Monday 24th June, and Blyton Park on 7th July that year.
After a quick scan of internet forums and we were keen to start with some small modifications. Two new Bosch wiper blades were the first to go on. For a 1 minute job, our insistence on completing the task without reading the instructions lead to much head scratching, before retrieving the packaging from the bin to complete the task in no time at all. We then decided to paint the camcover. A nice little video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDSFztSNcdI by a cheesy American type gave us something to follow - much clearer than the Haynes manual we were previously attempting to use. I bought some VHT engine primer and black wrinkle effect paint (they do it in red - so you can copy a well known Modena-based car company...). I also bought a new camcover gasket and silicone gasket seal from MX-5 parts. A new oil cap was also added to an Ebay order to finish the bling. A pic of the assembled parts:
Before we started:
After getting started on the various tubing (all pulled off with various ease), Chris and I discovered that neither of us own a torque wrench. Off to tool station we went (for the first time...). Having chosen a torque wrench, we couldn't remember if we owned 3/8 or 1/2 inch ratchet. A trip to Halfords across the road and a cheeky peak through their various tools resulted in us deciding that it was, in fact, a 3/8 that we needed. A very reasonable sum of money later, we were back at the car. To our horror, momments later, we found out that we only had imperial sockets to go on our lovely new torque wrench. A return 20 minute trip to tool station later then allowed us to crack on with the 10mm and 12mm sockets required to liberate the camcover:
We covered the exposed parts and headed back to prep the cover. We used a normal household multi-surface cleaner and some oven cleaner to get the more stubborn bits of oil off the cover. A cheap 70p toothbrush helped at this stage. We then dried it off and covered up the important bits with masking tape, before spraying with the undercoat:
It looked so good at this stage, we almost opted out of trying the wrinkle effect paint, going with a plain colour instead. We decided to press on, and despite blasting myself in the face with the VHT wrinkle paint (after getting confused with the different nozzle on the cans - apparently these ones required "50% less finger pressure to reduce finger fatigue") we then added the wrinkle effect paint - three coats - 1st horizontally, 2nd vertically, 3rd at an angle. In all honesty, we weren't that impressed by the time we had finished - hoping it would look better when dry:
So, the camcover turned out really well - all apart from the bit of explaining I had to do to my wife when she discovered the cover in the oven as part of the curing process!! The only real problem we had was not being able to remove the rubber bung in the unit - sorted by masking off the area. The paint crinkled up nicely with small symmetrical crinkles. I found some old volvo touch up paint in the man draw at home (i've never owned a volvo, so i'm not too sure how that got in there) and did the lettering.
Fitting the unit was fairly easy, using the torque wrench to tighten it up slightly more than suggested as it was really only over finger tight on the recommended settings - I'd be interested to hear what every uses for the torque setting to tighten the camcover bolts? Despite this, we feel the 'new' cover looks ace. Especially with the stupidly bling oil cap:
Having started 1st time and run to temperature with no visible leaks, we were concerned that new smoke was appearing from the heat wrapping on our exhausts. Having no extinguisher in place, we were a little reluctant to run to Snetterton without being able to put out any fires that might occur. We ran the car around the block and popped the bonnet and the smoke had disappeared - we only assumed that something must have either dropped on the wrapping, or that there is a crack in our manifold - something to be looked at later when we had more time. With that, we were late leaving for Snetterton. There were a couple of seriously pimped up MX-5s at the evening session, most running turbo. Our 185/65/14s looking decidedly puny compared to one chap who was running 225/45/15 R888s. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves, the car had its first spin at the hands of co-owner Chris's little brother (first trackday) but was undamaged. Next to be investigated is a knocking noise from the front corners, noticable with lock applied. Another very successful outing.
Having got the car on a ramp and investigated, we discovered some shot drop link bushes that were contributing to the knocking noise. Having then replaced them out for polybushed alternatives, the noise disappeared and happy motoring continued.
After a few months, we decided that the ditchfinders needed upgrading. Having been on the MX-5 OC forum, I found a local chap selling 4 Enkei alloys with some nearly new Federal 595 RSR's for £200. I bit his hand off and fitted them:
Our next summer outing then brought about a string of disasters. Overheating on a hot day due to a loose alternator bolt resulting in the waterpump failing, meant we overheated and had a long tow home from Blyton Park to an emergency stop off in Cambridge before we could arrange a return to Norwich. After a new cambelt and waterpump, another full fluid service and battery cut off installation, we discovered we were still overheating. A replacement heating pipe later, new cam angle sensor o-ring and another inspection and we thought things were sorted. Until we took it for a test drive...
The result was a blown headgasket. A new search for a reliable local garage later and we discovered cleaverly cars in Stradbrooke, suffolk, who sorted us out with a new gasket, as this was way out of our comfort zone mechanically (little steps - at least I can now change some brake pads..). At the time we advanced the timing to 14 degrees and he added an additional head skim to up the compression ratio. The result was a much stronger and happier engine.
Following the new found happiness in the engine bay, we treated the car to some Eibach lowering springs to go with our stock bilstein dampers, and some custom geometry from Cleverly Performance to get the most out of it. The resulting set up was superb and the car looks great a little lower to the deck. Cornering is hugely improved.
With the set up now sorted, fast forward after a couple of superb trackdays to Summer 2015. Having been looking for a house in the UK for a while, my parents-in-law then dropped a total bombshell and told us they'd splashed out on something else, not a house....
Credit to them for taking the plunge! Can't wait to have a go at some point. Hopefully. While visiting at that time, I dusted off their old BMW e30 325i M-tech 1 from the garage, complete with original suspension, a car that hasn't turned over since summer 2005, to see how its going with is southern france storage. Turns out, its still looking good. As soon as I have my own garage, the plan is to bring it home to Blighty to start as a next project, keeping it as original as possible. Would be a truly amazing thing, and quite some jump from the MX5.
After changing job, from a paediatric registrar and deciding to re-train as a GP, I took some time off and planned a trip with an old school friend who owns a mk1 Elise that has an aftermarket supercharger kit attached. We both had a week off between saturday weddings and decided to plan a road trip into Switzerland, back via Germany and the 'ring, before stopping off at Spa to do a premium trackday with RSR Spa. To anyone who wants to take their trackdays to the next level, I can't recommend them enough! It felt a little like taking a potato to a gun fight....
The trip was unforgettable. I'll hopefully post a route in due course.
Before we set off on the trip, I spent the day prior to the trip getting an uprated radiator fitted to enable better cooling for the mid summer trackday and mountain passes we had planned. It worked a treat.
Some additional pictures from our trip:
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/ipeiKxQ5.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/MIl4lzgC" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/MIl4lzgC.jpg)
The trackday was truly superb and i'll be making a special attempt to do another one some time in the next year. It was very expensive, approx £680 for two people and a car, but fully catered all day, with a wine tasting included at the end of the day. It was very very impressive.
In addition to the trip, I also managed to squeeze in one round with the HSCC in my Godfathers car, borrowing it for the occasion. I qualified 12th and finished 9th at Donnington, having selected 3rd rather than first on the grid and dropped back to nearly the back of the field before the first corner!
Some additional pictures from our trip:
The trackday was truly superb and i'll be making a special attempt to do another one some time in the next year. It was very expensive, approx £680 for two people and a car, but fully catered all day, with a wine tasting included at the end of the day. It was very very impressive.
In addition to the trip, I also managed to squeeze in one round with the HSCC in my Godfathers car, borrowing it for the occasion. I qualified 12th and finished 9th at Donnington, having selected 3rd rather than first on the grid and dropped back to nearly the back of the field before the first corner!
What's next for the car?
It's going in next week for a turbo. Hopefully i'll be able to update some more in due course with the results. We've also invested in some bucket seats, courtesy of Fast Eddy in Norwich, to keep us inside the vehicle. Should be fun....
We also got the car on a rolling road to see what it makes, prior to attaching the turbo. We were chuffed to find it was up on stock factory power, which was a nice surprise!
I also then got carried away and decided to try my hand at some nice 'carbon' wrapping, to spruce up the centre console:
It's going in next week for a turbo. Hopefully i'll be able to update some more in due course with the results. We've also invested in some bucket seats, courtesy of Fast Eddy in Norwich, to keep us inside the vehicle. Should be fun....
We also got the car on a rolling road to see what it makes, prior to attaching the turbo. We were chuffed to find it was up on stock factory power, which was a nice surprise!
I also then got carried away and decided to try my hand at some nice 'carbon' wrapping, to spruce up the centre console:
I thought the plate looked familiar - myself and a mate were out at the 'ring at the same time as you, and we went to the same trackday at Spa (just to spectate sadly)
We did have a giggle (in a good way) seeing you tanking it up Eau Rouge in amongst all the exotica!
Did you happen to see the blue mk2 on Colorado plates run at all? It was sat in the pits leaking coolant all the time we were there sadly, but it looked a bit crazy.
We did have a giggle (in a good way) seeing you tanking it up Eau Rouge in amongst all the exotica!
Did you happen to see the blue mk2 on Colorado plates run at all? It was sat in the pits leaking coolant all the time we were there sadly, but it looked a bit crazy.
HughS47 said:
Fitting the unit was fairly easy, using the torque wrench to tighten it up slightly more than suggested as it was really only over finger tight on the recommended settings - I'd be interested to hear what every uses for the torque setting to tighten the camcover bolts?
That IS all it takes, it really is not much more than finger tight. If you crank it up too much its more likely to distort the seal and leak. And make sure its done up in the right order!If it hasn't leaked by now - leave it, just remember next time you ever have to remove it.
Regarding the camcover bolts, I've never used a torque wrench, purely as the torque required is so light.
An awful lot of people have issues as they mis-read the inch/lb figure as ft/lbs and strip threads/snap the bolts.
It's only to stop oil getting out and dirt in, it's not actually holding anything together.
An awful lot of people have issues as they mis-read the inch/lb figure as ft/lbs and strip threads/snap the bolts.
It's only to stop oil getting out and dirt in, it's not actually holding anything together.
Nth said:
I thought the plate looked familiar - myself and a mate were out at the 'ring at the same time as you, and we went to the same trackday at Spa (just to spectate sadly)
We did have a giggle (in a good way) seeing you tanking it up Eau Rouge in amongst all the exotica!
Did you happen to see the blue mk2 on Colorado plates run at all? It was sat in the pits leaking coolant all the time we were there sadly, but it looked a bit crazy.
I had a chat to the owners of the Mk2 - it had a V8 conversion, so it was a shame it didn't do much running!We did have a giggle (in a good way) seeing you tanking it up Eau Rouge in amongst all the exotica!
Did you happen to see the blue mk2 on Colorado plates run at all? It was sat in the pits leaking coolant all the time we were there sadly, but it looked a bit crazy.
I can't give enough praise to the RSR boys for running such a professional day, it was strange, but people seemed really keen to come and chat about how we were getting on, as everyone else was in supercars or racers, and made sure they weren't intimidating us on track - I suppose the speed differential on the day made sure that we weren't in anyones way!
Quick update on the Mazda. Towards the end of December I dropped the car in at Cleverley Performance in Suffolk and he set about starting the turbo installation. After many an evening spent admiring countless self-build conversion threads on PH and other MX5 forums, I must admit to feeling like a bit of a cheat using a workshop to do the work, but with the technical ability to change some oil and brake pads, I felt that something on this level be best left to a professional. Also, with starting revision from my first GP exam, I don't exactly have endless free time on my hands. In the future I would love to be able to do the work myself.
The spec of the system is quite common, we're using a Subaru TD04 turbo and a front mount intercooler. All pipe work will be either silicone or custom made and we're going to be running a twin valve Bailey motorsport dump valve to allow for our electronic boost controller to run slightly higher boost (interesting to see what tolerances we have given the increased compression from our earlier head skim). We're also running a highflow 3" downpipe and custom stainless exhaust with the ability to decat it, due to the fact that on inspection, our exhaust and cat were non-standard and the pipes had been 'modified' to fit the cat... Last of all, we have put in some RX-8 yellow injectors to allow for increased tolerances.
Exciting times ahead - pics from the build are looking good!! We're also having an exedy stage 1 clutch put in, as our old one was knackered.
The spec of the system is quite common, we're using a Subaru TD04 turbo and a front mount intercooler. All pipe work will be either silicone or custom made and we're going to be running a twin valve Bailey motorsport dump valve to allow for our electronic boost controller to run slightly higher boost (interesting to see what tolerances we have given the increased compression from our earlier head skim). We're also running a highflow 3" downpipe and custom stainless exhaust with the ability to decat it, due to the fact that on inspection, our exhaust and cat were non-standard and the pipes had been 'modified' to fit the cat... Last of all, we have put in some RX-8 yellow injectors to allow for increased tolerances.
Exciting times ahead - pics from the build are looking good!! We're also having an exedy stage 1 clutch put in, as our old one was knackered.
Edited by HughS47 on Sunday 10th January 20:08
Quick update. The turbo is installed and new custom exhaust is on. The car has been MOT'd and is running well when warm, but the team are having trouble with a cold start issue that results in engine flooding when cold. It runs well and is "bloody fast" according to the chaps but sadly collection has been delayed. Fingers crossed its ready for Snetterton on Saturday.
Pic of the new exhaust here:
I've been totting up the spec of the car, now we've had it for a few years, its strange to add up everything into a list, but it makes for some good reading!
1.8 Eunos with LSD
Bilstein dampers
Eibach lowering springs
Custom Cleverley Performance track geometry
Polybushed front and rear anti-roll bar
Polybushed drop links
HEL braided hoses
EBC yellowstuff pads
EBC turbo grooved front discs
Enkei alloys with Federal 595 RSR rubber
Bucket seats
TR lane half roll hoop with harness bar
TRS 3-point harnesses
TD04 Turbo with custom manifold
RX-8 yellow injectors
Bailey motorsport twin piston dumpvalve
Custom 3" downpipe
Custom 2.5" catback exhaust with decat pipe
Megasquirt ECU with custom tune
Exedy stage 1 clutch
Quite a list! Next up on the list is driver training and further weight loss for the car without compromising the ability to take the car on trips to Europe.
Pic of the new exhaust here:
I've been totting up the spec of the car, now we've had it for a few years, its strange to add up everything into a list, but it makes for some good reading!
1.8 Eunos with LSD
Bilstein dampers
Eibach lowering springs
Custom Cleverley Performance track geometry
Polybushed front and rear anti-roll bar
Polybushed drop links
HEL braided hoses
EBC yellowstuff pads
EBC turbo grooved front discs
Enkei alloys with Federal 595 RSR rubber
Bucket seats
TR lane half roll hoop with harness bar
TRS 3-point harnesses
TD04 Turbo with custom manifold
RX-8 yellow injectors
Bailey motorsport twin piston dumpvalve
Custom 3" downpipe
Custom 2.5" catback exhaust with decat pipe
Megasquirt ECU with custom tune
Exedy stage 1 clutch
Quite a list! Next up on the list is driver training and further weight loss for the car without compromising the ability to take the car on trips to Europe.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff