Archive for the ‘Track day toys’ Category

Hot Oil Headache

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

If you had spent lots of thousands of pounds on a shiny new race engine you’d want to keep it safe.  When this ZR Trophy spec race car was fitted with it’s new 200BHP Janspeed built K series the owner was told he must be careful not to let the oil overheat.

Oil temperature has never been a problem in the past due to the oil/water intercooler fitted but now an extra oil/air cooler was required to satisfy Mr Engine Builder. Space behind the bumper wasn’t a problem but mismatched pipe threads, odd bore sizes and torturous pipe routes meant this job used a whole weeks worth of swear words in one day. It all went together in the end and now if the engine goes bang we know it’s the driver’s fault… Not that racing drivers ever make mistakes of course.

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Moggy 2000- nearing completion

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

DSCF1686The Morris minor having a zetec engine fitted is close to completion. Cooling systems, fuel system, exhaust, gearbox mounts, chassis mods to fit the starter and many other small jobs are all hugely time consuming but progress is slowly being made. There’s a few more small jobs then the car needs switching over to negative earth and the ECU needs fitting and programming. We can finally start looking forward to the maiden voyage!

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MGZS T16

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

We’ve worked closely with this customer for some time and his skills and ideas have become ever more adventurous. When faced with the usual K series headgasket failure he was easily talked into a T16 engine conversion. He has tackled a lot of the work himself including wiring and hydraulic installations  but the mechanical engineering side has been left to us. The process is fairly simple- line up the driveshafts, get the engine as low as possible and make some  mounts. Then all you have to worry about is  the fact that none of the driveshafts are the right length and nothing else on the car fit’s the engine. It’s during a project like this you realise how many things there are connected to an engine. We’re currently working on new front suspension location points to give better traction and make the most of the new engine position. Development of cars like this is never ending but the owners enthusiasm seems endless so we’ve plenty to work with. 

DSCF1611 The rear wing is nothing to do with us by the way!

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A Mk1 that didn’t need welding!

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Another Mk1 Escort joined us recently and this one had already had all the welding done on it.  The shell certainly seemed solid and it was built to a simple, honest, budget DOES matter standard and I loved it. It’s so nice to see one that hasn’t just had thousands heaped on it and is too valuable to use. This car will see some road rallies and maybe some stage rallies in it’s future. The owner wasn’t happy with the seating position or the seats so we made some subframes to fit some mazda mx5 seats. It also needed an alternator to solve a charging problem and some brackets making up. Nice easy jobs and a great car.

 

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More MK 1 Mods

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Our old friend the solid Mk 1 escort came back for more work. The list was endless although jobs were small. We had to remake the exhaust, make some brackets for the navigators trip computer,  adjust the door hinges, fit a lower temperature thermostat, make pipes and t pieces for a capillary oil guage and lots more litle jobs on top.  Most of these I think the owner could have sorted himself but it’s far too cold for working on cars at the moment and we love working on these cars no matter what size the job. The car went away a little closer to reaching the rally stages.

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Flying Pig

Monday, February 1st, 2010

This is something you’ll either get or will just not understand at all. The challenge was to find something truely different. In the car world just about evrything has been done and it’s hard to create a new idea without spending a fortune. We decided the craziest track car you could possibly use was a Reliant Robin, so we got one and turbo chraged it to see what would happen. It was good but not fast enough and still suffered from a lack of wheels, so we did the only sensible thing. We got a Honda VFR750 engine and designed a ful space frame chassis and cagearound the robin chassis. This incorporated such things as coil overs all round, subaru imprezza vented discs, hydraulically self loading suspension to counter body dive and roll and so many other little touches it’d take all day to list. Plans are to make a few people smile at tack days and shows this year. There’s still a lot to do but here’s some pictures of the build so far.

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AA Silencers-gives you wiiiings

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

The Capri has been resting over the winter but development has slowly been taking place. lighter rear brakes have been developed and some more weight has been trimmed from the shell. Wider wheels have been added and some modifications were required to get them in and still be able to turn the wheel! All of the glass bar the windscreen has now been binned in favour of plastic which again is a huge saving in weight and even the wing mirrors have shruk in the name of weight loss and better aero efficiency. The aero package has extended further than the mirrors though and the car now has a front air damn and rear wing, plus a few other cunning tweeks here and there. Now it’s time for more power so we’ve got a new engine in development which will hopefully give us an extra 100BHP or so. Fingers crossed

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Customers come first

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Over the weeks leading upto Friday 13th, we had been carrying out some work on a Focus RS for a fellow enthusiast fitting spark plugs, boostpipes and swearing a lot trying to fit the uprated CFM gearbox stabilizerand charge cooler bushes. Anthony had agreed to pop down to Oulton on Friday for somepassenger laps in the Capri, as the spaces had already been filled the RS was going to stay parked up in the carpark.

Unfortuntely as the day approached we had several large jobs to complete and more than a few customers in need of our help so track days have to go on the back burner. During the hectic Friday the 13th we’d forgotten all about Anthony and his visit to Oulton, until that is he called from the track to ask where we were.  Knowing Anthony had the car for the job and was no virgin in the field of track days it was suggested he find a crash helmet and take our place.

300 BHP on a wet track in his pride and joy filled Anthony with a slight hint of fear but 25 laps later he was in his stride and glad he’d mde the journey. “Had brilliant fun, and just wanted to say a big thanks to Phil and Steve for sorting it out, and Mark for being a top bloke transferring the track pass.” – Anthony

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Retro rides

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

 Another classic which came to us recently was a lovely MGB GT. It came to us for a few little jobs and some electrical wiring faults.  It already had a sports exhaust on and the engine was so sweet and revvy. This car was obviously someones pride and joy and understandably so.

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We also had this wonderful little chevette in which needed some exhaust work and an MoT. The customer has done a lot of work himself and this car should become a popular sight out and about n track days next year.
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Track cars, tyre racks and engines

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

We worked with a customer last year organised a charity run in various Datsun Z cars.  We only had a small part to play but this year he turned up with a new challenge for us.  He had bought a Mitsubishi GTO Turbo as a track day toy nd it needed a bit of work doing.  It started with sorting the exhaust and checking it over then squeezing in a couple of bucket seats to it’s still fully furnished cabin.  The car is receiving a shake down at Silverstone when it’ll doubtlessly return with an extensive list of required develoment work! I suspect better brakes and a bit of a diet will be on the agenda, there’s loads of potential here just bursting to be unleashed.

We also had another tyre rack to build. This one was for a car transporter although we’ve done them for trailers and workshops too.

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There have been plenty of diagnostic and engine rebuilds too. Fiats with missing cam lobes, Mercedes with broken valve springs, and the usual plentiful supply of MG/rover headgaskets!