hi, thought i would put up a project-thread on my 2wd sapphire, to get feedbacks, comments and maybe an advise or two.
i'm gonna try to take i all from the beginning when i bought the car 2 years ago, i got it cheap, mainly because a bad engine and some rust. on the good side the car was fitted with a lot of good parts, and i got a spare 200-engine.
this is how the car looked like when i got it:
at the time running greys, mountune chip, turbonetics e-50 and all the usuall stuff.
the engine had a low oil pressure, was ratteling badly and generally misbehaving. i could drive it with 0.7 bar boost, but as soon as i set the boost to 1 bar or more, the car would suddently start to fire only on 3 cylinders. the electrode of the spark plug was jammed in each time the problem occured. also, remember, the engine had som really bad rattles, this was the reason:
the problem was mainly on cyl 4 but there was marks on all other cylinders, i have NO IDEA what the previous owner has been up to.
well, the engine was stripped, all use-able parts was put to side and the rest was scrapped. i rebuild the engine with the rebored 200-block, mahle pistons, balanced bottom end ++. the turbo was also scrapped since all the blades on the exhaust-wheel was damaged. bought a new Presicion SC44 turbo and bolted the engine back together.
all this was during the fall/winter 2005/2006 and in the easter 2006 we started to rust-weld all the rust that was on the car. me and a mate worked about 12-16 hours a day in 10 days to get it all finished
this is just some of the rust!
wasn't finished putting the car back together before late august 2006, just drove it some months, took it to one trackday (no picture, sorry)
i drove the car just ONE day to much....took the car to work a cold morning, had the original wheels with studded nokian hakkapelitta tyres on (well, the studs had been torn out, the tyres were ment to be used on a trackday) came all the way to work and on the parking lot the ground was frozen. to much speed + ice + crappy tyres =
came sideways over the parking lot and straight into a solid building (the irony was that the building was owned by a tyre-company...
)
the "only" damage was to the wings, rear bumber and a broken mirror. nothing on the doors...
well, a good reason to respray the car!
fall/winter 06/07 some work was needed on the car
the car when to the bodyshop and came back all white, will come back to this one, once i found the pictures...
the colour is just plain base white, no diamond white here as i think it may look a little bit yellow og grey sometimes. base white is soo much purer and cleaner!
also, wanted a little more power now, so bd16+ cams and pectel t2. the cams required the pistons to be pocketed and the head to be machined to accept double valve spring. this ment that the engine had to be stripped again, i also got jenspeed to machine the block for 4 long-studs. jens
also machined the pistons and the head. since the head was already ported this wasn't needed now.
put the engine back together and timed up the cams
didn't have time/money to mount and map the pectel now so the engine was still run on the mountune chip and grey injectors
drove at about 6-7 trackdays during the summer, with the diff collapsing at the second trackday.
borrowed a spare 7" diff and axels from a mate, welded it properly
some trackday-pics
but the co-driver/mechanic didn't seem to matter
i think this one looks cool, didn't have the sideskirts mounted, one of the first trackdays
the white paint is falling off!!
at the last trackday, wich was a small almost private one, the 6-pad clutch went and stucked itself to the flywheel, it was almost welded stuck! got hold of a new 6-pad, got the flywheel skimmed and put it together only to find out that the syncro-ring on third gear had gone. got sick of the car and didn't see it for a month or so.
finally got some motivasion (?) back and decided that the car was goiing to be a proper trackday-toy.
so out with all the interior, bar the upper part of the dash. also remowed all sound-shit and cleaned it
next step was to weld in a proper rollcage, first we stripped the car and took of the doors for easy access
then the welding started
the cage is build after the regulations that are needed to get a licence. since the car is still goiing to be "road-legal" and have plates, i need this licence.
the cage was also welded to the a-pillar and b-pillar for extra security and stiffness.
a-pillar shown here
the cage was also linked to the front turrets
the car is just gonna have the cage, 2 bucket-seats with 4-point harness, upper part of dash, the needed gauges and aluminium or carbon plates on doors etc. all you need to have fun!
i'm also goiing to wire up a completly new wire-harness, with just what i need and nothing more.
so, what main things to be done this winter:
get the inside painted white
mount everything inside
new gaz golds
wire up a new harness
change syncro-rings on the t5
mount and map the pectel
new 750cc injectors
maybe a big-brake thing up front
maybe strip the underside and paint it
so, there you have it, i will try to update as soon as anything gets done on the car.
will come back to you guys with the full spec of the car if anyone wants to know.
please comment, ask or just have a look