Budget Track Car

[DR Motosport]

I think in general most members enjoy reading build threads whether it’s a mega bhp big budget build or more modest “I could do that” project. So this is the later and I hope it shows that for a couple of grand you can build a fun track car.

Some of the older members may remember my previous track car, I had a Classic WRX ra from 2005 til 2009 when Grant at AWD bought it for a price I really couldn’t refuse.

Previous Track Car

As I still had my new-age JDM STi road car, it took me a full 8 months to miss a track car, and indeed started modifying the STi for more power. But from an advert on these very SIDC pages I bought another classic WRX with a pretty decent spec.

It was a 1995 model imported in 2007, with 98000km, a rebuilt engine to a better spec, new-age STi Brembo brakes front and rear complete with new Performance Friction 2pc discs and pads, Apexi Power fc with hand commander, 3” decat exhaust, HKS induction kit, blitz bov, blitz turbo timer, 17” inovit tarmac alloys and lowering springs.

All the above had been fitted during the previous year. Now adding up all the receipts (engine build £2500, brembo’s £800, performance friction brakes £700, apexi ecu with mapping £800, alloys £400) and that’s just some of it, but all in it was easily over £6000 spent including labour.

Unfortunately the previous owner had had a little bump with it, nothing serious. He had gone down a bank and hit a fence through no fault of his own as he was avoiding an oncoming car. The post had damaged the rear quarter panel and the fence wire had also scratched the paint on the corner of the bonnet and also the front wing. The front bumper also had some damage. I think this was the final straw and he’d become a bit fed up with the car and put it up for sale, so I got the car for £1650. Happy Days

At first I wasn’t sure what to really do with the car, it was worth more in parts so the original plan was to break it and indeed the Performance Friction discs and pads went to another project car. So in reality I had the car for less than £1000 at this point, but it was such a decent base car I decided to see where I could go with it as a budget track car, and see if I could keep to a £2000 budget.

First job was to repair the rear quarter panel, the dent was knocked out almost flush, a light fill, then a quick spray.

[DR Motosport]

At this point I took it to its first track day to set a base point.

Mechanically it seemed strong but the suspension was hopeless, and it highlighted a few other issues. The plastic header tank on these early classics had a crimped on top and this leaked, so it was replaced with a metal tank from a later model I had in the garage. This is a simple enough job, make up a new mounting bracket and use the samco hoses also from the later model. The radiator also had a small leak so a replacement from ebay for £65 and new some uprated hoses at £30 were fitted.

At this point I had 2 strokes of luck, Adam from Track Scotland was selling his Tein coilovers for £150, so these were soon fitted together with some Eibach camber bolts I still had from the white track car.

The following day a local garage called me to say they had a classic WRX in and it needed a km to mph speedo convertor and the owner also wanted a boost gauge and pod. His car had come in from Japan with a bolt in cage fitted which the garage was removing as he didn’t want it, so a deal was done I supplied his parts in exchange for the cage (£112). Although it’s a dash dodger and no longer any use for any type of competition use, for a fun trackday car it was fine. The cage was a straightforward fit and had come with all the under floor plates, all I did was replace the old bolts with new stainless ones and lock nuts.

The intercooler was the early slanty type, pretty useless for track days and when the turbo pipe popped, I bought Bravehearts old FMIC for £100 and had new pipes made up to suit mine at £60. Since the front bumper was still looking worse for wear from the original accident, I had a tatty looking later MY99-00 bumber that was then cut to take the FMIC, and given a coat of paint. I also had a set of crystal headlight in the garage that I fitted with a later grill. I still had a spare set of rear lights from the white car that I also fitted. They look better than the originals and since STi ones would set me back £150 I would rather spend that money elsewhere. The rear spoiler was also swapped to a damaged STi 6 one I had after I fixed it up and repainted.

[cullenmin]

Good write up there, I knew you sold your trackcar to Grant but didnt know about your next project, keep the updates coming

Rich

[mctwistuk]

Good thread. Looking forward to all the updates.

Chris

[Big Daz]

Nyles old motor

And Nick's gonna be pissed that your taking all the credit for his track car

I'll be back on track in a few months to see how well it goes.... Just like the good old days, Tiger v White RA

Daz

[DR Motosport]

Cheers guys, will try and post more about it later tonight once I sort out some photos

Rich, I think Grant sold it on to someone who used it at Crail, but its been sold again, and has been at a few SIDC track days. JohnS posted some photos last year.

I know it no longer has the AP brakes (Grant ) or the GAB coilovers, shame they were brilliant.

[DR Motosport]

Nyles old motor

And Nick's gonna be pissed that your taking all the credit for his track car

I'll be back on track in a few months to see how well it goes.... Just like the good old days, Tiger v White RA

Daz

Nick is now a typical teenager, more interested in booze and woman.

I think he also thinks it's an arrive and drive set up for track days. I sort everything out, get the car to Knockhill, he arrives - late, drives the car for a few sessions, then goes home.

About time you were back on track yourself, we had a good few dices with those cars

[DR Motosport]

Time for some more updates,

At this point I was pretty happy with how it looked and how it went, it has somewhere in the region of 280bhp, it handles ok (not as good as the white car though) and it stops well with the Brembos. So from that point back in 2010, it literally stayed that way til now.

The main reason was my son Nick was coming up to being 17 and desperate to get out on track, so I didn’t want to go mad with it, and in the back of my mind was the thought it could end up in a few gravel traps .

So for 2011 and 2012 we did a variety of track days together at Knockhill and at Kames with the car in that spec.

But towards the end of last year, I decided it was time to do more work to the car to make it quicker. More power (50+ bhp), less weight (50kg at least) and better handling (too much understeer on tight corners), but still trying to keep it to a £2000 budget, and so it begins. I had been through most of this before with the white car so knew what I wanted and the best way, hopefully to do it, learn by previous mistakes, etc.

A couple of bits of luck were that the bonnet and wing still had scratches from that original crash and the door had a small dent. Then Neill54 put a post up with a bonnet for free uplift in silver, and later a door too, perfect, cheers Neil.

That just left the wing, and I picked up a silver one for £20 from a lad on Track Scotland that was breaking his car and who also stayed in Livingston.

He also had a rough looking Whiteline rear anti roll bar for £20 and a rear tow hook another £20. Both were rubbed down, repainted and fitted. New SuperPro anti roll bar bushes were bought for £12

A bit dirty now

At this point Nick had found a Bomex rear bumper I’d had for at least 10 years. I think the plan was to use it as a mould for a modified bumper that incorporated a diffuser. As it was originally silver it just needed a freshen up before fitting. Not 100% sure if I like it fitted, but it’s a track car, and looks a bit different. Nick says it’s cool, teenagers – what do they know.

This now allowed me to finish off the graphics. They are very similar to that of the white car, 1) to keep it with a similar theme, and 2) I still had loads left over from the white car, so there was no expense. Those with a keen eye will notice the SIDC stickers are red trimmed rather than blue, a sheet of graphics paper and a sharp knife, the blue didn’t match, oops.

Actually taken before the tow hook was fitted

A standard road trim WRX weighs in at 1230kg, so first job was to remove the rear seats, the carpets, all the boot trim, tools and spare wheel, seat belts, stereo, speakers centre dash, anything that was no longer needed. I modified the rear section of the roll cage to remove the bends and replaced with straight ones together with a bar joining both suspension turrets that would also be a mounting point for harnesses.

I bought a pair of Sabelt 5 point harnesses for a friend who had them in his Subaru rally car and was selling them as they were just out of FIA dating £60. For now these are fitted with the standard seats until I decide what seats to get, and more to the point since the seats would be the largest purchase so far, could I find a bargain.

One very cold and frosty Saturday morning during the Winter with the car out all night I set about on the sound deadening with a chipping hammer, 2 hours later it was all done, it literally came off in huge chunks, a full 10kg removed. A quick rub down with paint thinners removes any residue. With the white car I did this job in the Summer with a chisel and heat gun, took a full day and what a pain, so a really cold frosty morning is definitely the way to go. When the sound deadening is removed, you’ll find it holds in place a dozen or so metal discs, these will now be loose, so need to be bonded back in. I used a liquid metal, but only because I had a tube already open. When I get some time, I'll pull the interior again and paint the floor to tidy it up.

[badbaz]

Good story Davie

[fai17]

Nice detail project Davie.

Very inspiring and sure will be good info for anyone wanting to do their own track scoob.

[johns]

Subscribed to this one

[arch]

How's thing's Davie thought you had vanished off the face of the earth. Are you planning doing any msa events as the cage wont be compliant because of the kink in the front and rear legs.

[DR Motosport]

Cheers Barry, not seen any updates for yours for a while now

I hope so Peter, lots of cheap classics about nowadays, and nothing that can't be done in a garage at home.

Pretty sure it will be at the next SIDC track day in June John,

Just been keeping quiet for a while Archie. Dont think I'm planning on doing anything, always had it in the back of my mind, but never get round to it. Maybe Nick will have other ideas, and I'll change the cage then, but for track days it's fine for now .

[lewisscoob]

Cracking project Davie, keep the updates coming! Hopefully see you in June.

[DR Motosport]

The good news Lewis is I seem to get on quicker with the car than I can type, so it will be usable.

So........

The STi 6 spoiler was next for the chop. Anyone remember Stephen on here, big lad from East Kilbride I think it was, he had a black blob-eye WRX. Anyway, my mate Gavin bought his car a few years back, and it had a copy S202 carbon rear spoiler on it. Finally last year I talked him into replacing it with an STi spoiler, there’s a surprise, and I ended up with the old carbon one. However these sit really too low to be of any use, so I bought a square of 8mm thick aluminium from ebay for £16, and had a friend mill it to make 2 leg supports up so it sat about 12” above the bootlid, I didn’t want it to look too mad up at roof height and this was the same height as the white cars carbon spoiler. Carbon competition type spoilers go for quite a few hundred pounds, so at £16 this was a bargain, and another 5kg saved.

The electric folding mirrors were next to go, replaced with lighter DTM style ones from ebay for £22 and a saving of 2.5kg, and should give at least 10mph more top end due to aerodynamics, or maybe that should be 0.1mph.

[burnett]

Good right up I am looking for the right car to do the same with

[DR Motosport]

Purely for cosmetic purposes and the fact the originals were a bit worn, Colin at AA AutoBreakers let me help myself to a set of pedals from a new-age STi. The left foot rest is a 2 bolt straight swap over, the clutch and brake pedals also just clip/slide on easily enough with a squirt of WD-40 for lube. However the accelerator pedal isn’t a straight swap, as the whole bracket is different so it’s a bit more awkward. You have to swap them over at the pivot pin right on the back of the pedal. So knock the pin out with a pin punch, swap the pedal, and replace the pin, but it’s a very tight fit in a limited space, so a few sweary words were used. But they do look much better I think.

[cullenmin]

Looks better than the standard classic pedals

[gc8-r]

Any chance you could get me some risers made for my rear spoiler.??

Please

[DR Motosport]

Quick update time....

To make sure the aluminium bonnet didn’t pop open at high speed, I bought a set of bonnet pins and cups for them at the Autosport Show for £15, I already have a set of the flush Aerocatch type, but will keep those for now in the box, as they may end up on the STi. The pins are the usual standard alloy bonnet pins of old, but the cups are a bit rarer and I originally saw them on a certain McRae R4.

After removing the sound deadening, the floor was like a patchwork quilt of colours, so time to get the original seats out and paint the floor. I didn’t want to remove every single thing thats inside the car, so removed what was easy and masked up the rest.

These small spray guns are perfect for getting into awkward places and can be bought on ebay for £10. I just used some cheap 406 silver and didn’t lacquer. The footwells were given plenty of coats to make them more hard wearing. I’ll had some small cut down rubber mats for the pedals and heels.

[thebigfelly]

looks good. loving the pics and enjoying the wee build thread

[g1983]

I like that wee sprayer, is that 792 royal silver

[fai17]

Loving the great detailed project Davie.

[monsterenergy]

Love the bonnet clips, min!

[DR Motosport]

From the photo it does look a bit like royal silver, but definitely 406.

I do like the bonnet pins and cups, something different and as I said only £15, both made by grayston. The cups don't come with any templates so you have to make some up, but simple enough to do