Well its been a while so thought some of you might want to see the progress...
The car is now back in one piece and going, so I haven't updated this as much as I should have. I will try to fill in the blanks as best I can - there is a lot to get through!
So anyway, on with the show.
The idea was to close in the underside of the car, making the floorpan as flat as possible. This has a number of benefits, the most obvious of all being added downforce, especially at high speed. Don't forget though, this will also allow smoother air flow under the car, allowing the car to break through the magic "200k/h barrier", a must in a 1600cc car!
Here is the floorpan on the car:
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timmiblc at 2011-04-11
Here's where it gets tricky. In order for the undertray to work properly, turbulence must be kept to a minimum, so the exhaust must be run up inside the undertray. Of course having an exhaust exposed to the inside of the car is a big no-no, so it must run inside a box, so as to keep it separate from the cabin (and the heat away from the fuel cell!). This box has to run alongside the box for the fuel cell (which is also in its own box) - lots of fabrication work to be done inside the car!
Before this could all start though, the fuel system has to be built and installed (well not quite, more like in tandem with the exhaust box). Wayne made a mounting plate that was able to drop in to the fuel cell box and be taken out again if needed:
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timmiblc at 2011-04-17
Here's the box for the fuel system sans pumps etc:
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timmiblc at 2011-04-17
And both together in the box (unfinished of course!):
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timmiblc at 2011-04-11
While all this was happening, all remaining wiring was removed from the car. Here's the pile that was taken out!
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timmiblc at 2011-04-11
Only the bare necessities are left - engine/ecu, wiper, blower/demister, and rear lights. Everything else is gone! They also made up a nice bracket for the ecu to mount to, better than rattling around in the glove box (which is also gone for good!
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timmiblc at 2011-04-11
The interior of the car will be painted the same colour as the rear, that nice machine grey colour. Low sheen equals low glare, and once painted should not have any more issues with rust showing through the paint etc.
Once it comes back to the workshop, it'll go up on the hoist and I'll have a go at removing the underfloor sealer, but most probably not
Heres a couple of pics of the fuel system in the car all finished and installed. If you've been reading the build properly so far you'll know that the car is running so this will be the final resting place for all the fuel system and battery etc.
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timmib at 2011-04-11
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timmib at 2011-04-11
And here is the rear diffuser and exhaust in its entirety:
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timmib at 2011-04-11
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timmib at 2011-04-11
You get the idea.
The car has also been on the dyno for a complete re-map from 2,000rpm to 9,100rpm. The one thing I always felt let the tune down was that the original tuner hadn't tried to adjust the cam gears. He felt that the tune made good power and was safe enough without further adjustment to the mechanical timing of the engine.
What I can say though is that the adjustment of the cam gears has unleashed hell on the car! It has made power from 2,000rpm all the way to 9,100rpm, and increased the torque right across the entire rev range.
I don't have any power figures as I haven't seen any of the dyno sheets yet, but the car was tuned on a hub dyno so even the half throttle tuning should be pretty good! Heres a pic of the car on the dyno just to show that is was there!
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timmib at 2011-04-20
All I can do at this stage but I am picking the car up on Tuesday next week, after which Ill take a whole raft of pics for you lot to enjoy.
Thanks to the faithful who have stayed with the build from the start, your encouragement when things went wrong really kept me going.
Theres not much else left to do on the car, so this long build will be finally coming to an end soon. Apart from a re-power, of course.
Bugger, just realised that the build has a long way to go!
