Track Car Project Thread - Eventually

[ciaranrb5]

Ciaran

The classes for the Impreza's are pretty much determined by what you do to the car. if the car remains road legal and is not stripped out etc it would be entered in Class A3 but if you stripped it out and extensively modified it then it would probably run in the modified B3 class. That is a bit simplistic but where you place your car really depends on what you want to do to it. There are a lot of rule changes happening this year which will see some cars become inelligible for for A1, A2 and A3 due to the modifications carried out.

The club you join is not necessarily determined by where you live but by what you want from your club. There are a number of excellent clubs in the central belt like East ayrshire car club, Monklands car club and Lothian car club. Further north you have ADMC, GAC and Caithness car club.

As anyone who has competed in the championships will tell you this is not a cheap hobby. With travel costs, entry fees and accomodation costs never mind the cost of building and maintaining the car, helmet, race suit etc etc it is something that you need to properly research before diving in and pulling your car to bits.

If you do decide to do it there are plenty of people around to help and advise

Due to working offshore I would only be able to do some of the events. I also have a good mate who is an ex AWD mechanic and access to a full garage and spray booth whenever necessary which I am sure would help keep alot of the labour cost down.

Don't worry I won't be pulling my car to bits as it's currently my everyday car. I would most likely leave the car as it is (330/321 with a few choice suspension parts) do a few events and see how I like it then make a decision

weather to properly commit myself by spending a small fortune.

[braveheart]

Thanks and you

Great thread's enjoyed the read, all the best for next year Arch..

Chris

Edited December 2, 2009 by braveheart

[arch]

Great thread's enjoyed the read, all the best for next year Arch..

Chris

Thanks Chris will certainly be an interesting year

[arch]

Well thought it was about time to update this thread. I have not really had the time to spend on the car that i had hoped due to working away from home a lot recently.

I have now managed to pick up most of the bits i need for the changes i have planned. The first item was an uprated twin plate Exeedy clutch which will be needed to cope with the extra torque and power i anticipate this year.

Also needed a set of GT Spec headers which i have trial fitted prior to getting reworked at Meercat.

I knew that the gearbox I have used for the last 2 seasons would not cope this year so i have been hunting for a fair while now for a suitable six speed and managed to pick up a Hawkeye Spec D unit. This is fitted now but not wired up to the Neetronics yet but that wont take long. I was surprised at the difference in size of the two boxes but having seen them side by side can now understand why the 6 speeds seem able to reliably cope with decent power levels.

It is not the easiest of boxes to fit with the car on axle stands but with the help of John McG we managed to get it in after a bit of persuasion.

I do have a small issue with the linkage hitting the tunnel but hope that will be resolved when I fit the 6 speed gearbox mount, I had to use the old 5 speed one as a temporary measure but have a new hardrace one now thanks to Bren at Apex

As a result of the 20G I used last year heading off to a new home I have liberated the GT30 from the Rocket - thanks John. This is obviously a rotated fit turbo so needed to get the pipework etc changed to suit this. I had the car booked into Meercat just after Christmas but with problems associated with the weather that had to be postponed until last Monday and Tuesday. I had the car down with Willie and Scott for two days to have the upipe modified to suit the garret, rework the downpipe to suit and plumb in the external wastegate. As well as this I had to change around all intercooler pipework. I cant thank the guys enough the attention to detail and effort put in to ensure the best results possible was superb but having said that Scott has done work on the RA numerous times before and also on the road car so the quality of the work is not a surprise. I have not got many decent pictures of the set up yet but all the pipework has to come back off to have some sort of heat management arranged so will sort ot some pics then.

There is still a fair amount of work to do to get the car ready for mapping but confident it should be ready by the end of the month.

[terzo neil]

very nice Arch

you be ready for test days at kames ?

[arch]

very nice Arch

you be ready for test days at kames ?

Not sure Neil I will be away in Athens again at the start of March so will depend how quick I can get the car sorted, it would be useful though.

[terzo neil]

lucky buggar

looking for an apprentice to go out to athens with you

[arch]

lucky buggar

looking for an apprentice to go out to athens with you

When I was out in Jan it was colder than here It was a real nightmare trying to fix anything outside. No snow just biting cold temps and wind but March, April and May should be better

[hi_jac]

I would like to see some photo's of you rotated set up, including wastegate.

Is that John Banks old turbo ?

[arch]

Well been out today and removed all the exhaust pipework so it can be sent for ceramic coating.

Not the best pictures of how it turned out but here it is.

Also took a couple of pics of the intercooler pipework, again it will be coming off to be cleaned up and then refitted. Will also check all the interior weld joints to ensure they are smooth and grinde flush with a flexi-drive where necessary.

I was going to V-Band the turbo to downpipe joint but decided against it so this may find itself a new home soon

Next up need to remove and swap the rear diffs after the new one has had a tweek. Then its a case of putting it all back together

Edited February 8, 2010 by Arch

[RA Dunk]

intresting contraption, screamer pipe?

[arch]

interesting contraption, screamer pipe?

Pretty standard set up not unlike the RCM one. take off for external wastegate then plumbed back into the downpipe to keep it nice and quiet ish. It was made to try and make sure the gas flows were as good as possible. The downpipe has also been made to flow as best possible which compromises the turbo location a little. It is difficult to fit it all in the space available so its pretty much a case of sticking as close as possible to what works and taking advice from those that know and have been here before.

[braveheart]

Hey Arch we still got the Plans on the big power ..??are you running it this year what are you running in it just now ??

[arch]

Would like around 1100bhp and similar torque but prob not this year

Your build is looking a bit tastey

Edited February 10, 2010 by Arch

[braveheart]

Would like around 800bhp and similar torque but prob not this year

Your build is looking a bit tastey

WOW 800 thats big power indeed, ill be happy with 650 with tourqe.. without NOS that is.. interested how to get that typ of power keep me updated thanks..and best of luck..

[arch]

Sorry just upped the anti

[braveheart]

Sorry just upped the anti

I think you will be chasing your tail with that number lol... best of luck..

[terzo neil]

Would like around 1100bhp and similar torque but prob not this year

Your build is looking a bit tastey

know of a few engines with over 2200 bhp on twin turbos, but think weight would be an issue for you tho and wrong type of fuel tho, but torque is massive

[arch]

I think you will be chasing your tail with that number lol... best of luck..

Wouldnt be chasing my tail I would be in an institution To be honest I have never chased numbers and have never had a car on a rolling road. I just bolt on what I hope are the right bits in the right order and then hope it all works. Having some knowledge backed up by the advice and help of a few good friends and a LOT of hard work seems to have worked up till now.

[arch]

know of a few engines with over 2200 bhp on twin turbos, but think weight would be an issue for you tho and wrong type of fuel tho, but torque is massive

mmm not sure your type of engines are quite suitable Neil

[terzo neil]

ok is a V16 twin turbo too big for you, or straight 6 with 900bhp at 1800 rpm do you

hows the build going ?

[arch]

No further forward at the min, work and an exploding fridge water filter resulting in an indoor lake causing me some time issues

Hope to get some progress done tomorrow. Work and families are a real distraction, note to self buy lottery tickets more often

All the exhaust pipework has now gone out to Stewart Black at http://www.blackperformance.co.uk/ to be ceramic coated. That should work out better and also save me half a day of wrapping and a week of scratching

Few more bits arrived from TSL and RCM today so hopefully sort out the rest of the gearbox fit and driveshafts tomorrow. Then if time permits redo all the engine and fuel tank braided lines. I have been unhappy for a while with the quality of the hose I got from Pirtek which has resulted in a couple of fuel leaks so its all coming out to be redone with better quality hose.

[arch]

Managed to spend some time on the car today but t turned out to be a frustrating day but achieved a fair bit.

I had an issue with the front drive shafts for the Hawkeye 6 speed. The front shafts from the Spec D would not fully engage with the newage 100pcd hubs which resulted in the hub nuts not running up far enough and were infact only on by about 4 threads I initially thought that this might be due to the ABS rings but had my doubts.

I decided to remove the spec D shafts and compare them to a normal 5 speed shaft, a 5 speed Hawkeye WRX shaft with the male gearbox ends and lastly the Hawkeye Spec D shafts .

It should be clear from the pics what the issue is. The top shaft is the Spec D shaft, then the Hawkeye WRX then the 5 speed at the bottom. All the shafts are identical in overall length hub to gearbox but for some reason the 115 PCD hubs must be machined slightly differently. Pity because the Spec D shafts have a significantly beefier inner outer joint but hey they are now surplus, anyone after a set of Speed D shafts

The next job was to fit the 6 speed gearbox mount. This didn't take long and successfully solved the linkage clearance issues I had with the tunnel.

I then fitted the gear linkage and Agency Power short shifter.

This is where it went wrong. The linkage itself is a pain to fit but once fitted I couldn't select reverse. The lever pulled up and the arm on the gear box moved but it wouldn't engage. I worked out I needed to lengthen the cable but ran out of adjustment. I had to remove the linkage and cut the slot for the reverse cable slider longer towards the bottom of the shifter. With the linkage in again I then managed to get enough adjustment to solve the issue. Word of warning, if you are thinking of buying an agency power short shifter - DONT it doesn't fit properly and will result in 1 hours worth of filing.

The other trauma was the set of Perrin 6 Speed shifter bushes that I had just purchased

Again they don't fit at all. They are a smaller diameter than the linkage in the Hawkeye 6 speed so the linkage must also have been changed from Blobeye to Hawkeye - good old Subaru you just have to laugh This is a pain as I fitted a similar set to my 5 speed linkage and it made a significant difference to the solidity and feel of the gear change.

Last on the list tonight was to open up the new rear diff to inspect it and check the ratio prior to fitting.

All looks good and the correct ratio as expected I decided that it would be rude not to give it a quick lick of POR15 before it gets fitted

Well all in all achieved a fair bit but not as much as I anticipated. It never ceases to amaze me how many parts I have bought and found they just don't fit properly, you then have to spend ages making them fit where possible

Edited February 12, 2010 by Arch

[fai17]

Oh the joys of up grading archie!!!

Its NEVEr plain sailing is it?

Best of luck with building the car back up and gees a pax lap when its done

[arch]

Oh the joys of up grading archie!!!

Its NEVEr plain sailing is it?

Best of luck with building the car back up and gees a pax lap when its done

Thanks Peter and that wont be a problem as long as I manage to get it out before I go back to Athens in March, April, May .......

Didnt use your downpipe in the end so will get that back across to you prob on Sun evening

Hopefully your build is not far from the big switch on