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Klyfax's Starlet Chaser. - RUNNING :-D


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Hey there.
I'm Thomas, lastname is Magnussen, its also the daily name for me. I live in Sweden, and work in Denmark. It has some advances and some disadvances.
I moved to Sweden in 2008, and I took my car with me.

Many years ago I bought a Starlet EP91 from 1997. Think I bought it in 2006.
The plan was to make a Glanza Replica with 4e-fte engine, 250 hp and a LSD box.
I bought the following parts for it:
Every Glanza part for the exterior.
4e-fte engine.
Some engine parts.
Turbo, think it was a GT2860R Garrett.
LSD Box. Unknown LSD.
TRD short shift.
D2 coilover
D2 330mm brakes.
And properly more.

The first pic I have of it, is then its mounted with some rims I had, and a D2 coilover. My car is the one in the back. The one in the front, was Raffi's car, later to be known as this Glanza

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I sold the rims, and bought these instead. The D2 coilover is dismounted.

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Then I went to my first Trackday. That was costly :D Found out, that trackdays are way more fun, than having a nice looking car. So all most any Glanza part was sold. I kept the front and side indicators, the Remix rear lights and the cup holder.
The 4e-fte engine was a wreck, so it was thrown out. The turbo got stolen. Someone needed a LSD Box badly, so I sold that for a very good price. Well, I thought. He never payed for it.
Didn't like the D2 Coilover, and the D2 brakes where to big. So both D2 where sold too.

I was back with a car with HR springs, OZ wheels and a TRD short shift.

Then I moved to Sweden, and I start thinking about selling my Starlet and get me something else. In stead I registered my Starlet in Sweden.

And then I bought this:

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A 5e-fhe engine, 100% stock, some Wiseco pistons, a T3 turbo and a ex. wastegate. 250 hp was, and still is the plan.
Then I took the engine apart.

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Wiseco pistons mounted on 5e-fhe rods. No need to change rods for 250 hp.

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Pure beauty... (Rods not mounted to crankshaft :) )

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And the final engine pic. Looks nice, but the paint could not hold on, so it needs a repaint someday...

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And then the project all most stopped. Something came up, and the engine was put away for half a year.

Meanwhile I bought a non-LSD turbo Box and a Quaife LSD.
Box being disassembled:

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Disassembled

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It was mounted in the car 5 days after the LSD came in. Even with 1.3 NA engine, a LSD box is quite funny. Really great upgrade!

And then the project really stopped. 6 months later, I slowly started again with the car.

A friend had a used BC Coilover for sale, I bought it.

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Then a other friend had these for sale. Sparco Evo2 Plus. Really nice seat. Loving them.

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Then I maked the seat brackets for them, and took most of the interior out.

Custom tool for seat harness eye, and the very beginning of the brackets.

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I am quite high, so I needed the seat to be farther away in order to sit perfect. Thats why it looks funny.

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The brackets are reinforced so it can hold on. First a guy with knowledge of racing, looked at them and said it was approved for racing. Then I tested them for 1 year, and investigated after. No cracks, and they are still approved for racing. But they weighs 5 kg each. But safety first.

Mounted:

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Looks great, and its works very well... But there is a problem. I can't reach the shifter, the steering wheel or the key.

A D1 snap off, and a dish steering wheel was bought, that gives 12 cm (4,5"), so the steering wheel is closer to me. It was not enough, so I ended up with a 9 cm deep dish steering wheel. Now the steering wheel was 15 cm (about 6") closer to me, and it sits perfect. I have no pic. of it.

Then I took the gearshifter apart. Not the TRD one. Still has that :-) But the other one. I looked at the TRD one, and maked my own TRD first. Then I extended the shifter with 10 cm (4") so I could reach it. Think I have a pic of it on the phone. I'll uploaded someday :-)

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Then I only needed to reach the key. I maked this instead. The green button starts the car, the red plane switch kills the ignition. Its works both on the key, and on buttons on the same time.

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Then I upgraded the engine. It still lives in storage, not in the car.

Fitted this, no ideas of what its called in English, but its a digital RPM sensor. Instead of the original RPM sensor.

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And I bought a Defi boost gauge, oil temp. gauge and a oil pressure gauge. I mounted the pressure sensor here.

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And the temp. sensor is mounted here.

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Then the projects stopped again. A other thing came up, and put it all on hold for 1 year. Raced 4 trackdays in the car.

I bought some half-racing tyres. Toyo R888, and mounted them on the 15" OZ wheels.

Starlet-4.jpg

After the trackday, I was going to dismount the R888 from the rims. But R888 tyres are hard, so I would damage the rims. And they had some damage all ready, so I bought some OZ ALLEGGERITA HLT - White in 16" for summer daily rims. And some green nuts :)

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But now the engine is out of hiding. I have started to make my own exhaust manifold, that will carry a T3 turbo on a ex. wastegate setup.
The BC coilover is broken, so it needs a renovation. Then the manifold is done, thats the next thing to do.

Future plans:

Mount WMS brake kit.
Mount BC coilover when its good again.
Fitt the engine, make it run.
Maybe build a cage for it.
And alot of other things to do.
I hope that it will be ready so I can run a trackday or 2 in 2013. I think it will...

Thats all for now. I will try and find some more pics of the project.

Edited by klyfax
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Enjoyed reading that mate, going to be a proper track animal when its done. Hope you keep the look with them black bumpers

Thanks. If I go for a Remix front bumper, extra cooling for brakes instead of fog lights, it will be red. Can't buy a remix bumper without paint.

Track animal? No, daily driver in the summer with trackdays is the plan :D

Nice write up. At last.

You better find more pics. And get going with new manifold. I am curious on how much faster it's going to be, than my old car.

I remember that I out raced you in a 75 hk starlet, and you having 140 hk at that time... ( He passed me in the end of 2 / start of 3 gear ) :yahoo:

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I won't cut any bumpers. I got a water to air intercooler. FMIC kills the sleeper look :D

First update, part 2 :D

Found more pics of the project.

Gear shifter:

A TRD short shift is a little longer in the bottom than a standard starlet. It is also shorter in shifter end (the part with gear knop), than a standard.

I couldn't reach the shifter with my new seats. So I changed the standard one. First I changed the bottom so it was the same as an TRD shift. I think I made it 5 mm longer.

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Then I made the other end about 10 cm longer. Compared to the TRD shifter.

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That work very well. Many people have laughed about it, it looks funny. But those 10 cm did make a change from 1st to 2end a long throw. So I shorted the arm on the box, think I took 1-1.5 cm, maybe 2 cm out of it. Now the throw is as long as a standard starlet shifter. But still 10 cm longer :D

This is the steering wheel setup, with the old wheel, on a Sparco adaptor. 12 cm longer than standard. Running 15 cm longer now.

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I had 5 points TRS harness, and the seat brackets are made for it. But the shoulder belts was attached to the rear strut braces. That was never going to hold if I crashed.

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So, once again, I found my self creating something. This black bar.

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My racing friend says it will hold me tight if I crash, but I will weld it in when I get the seats and harness in the car again.The tube is pressure tested, its holds my weight and a passenger plus 50% if I crash from 60 mph to 0 mph.

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Looks great, and a other great upgrade! I have tried racing with the standard seat belt, and these seats. I am flying around in the seat, not very fun to drive.

In Denmark, you HAVE to use the standard seat belt if you drive the car. So if you drive with the 5 point harness locked around you, you have to use the 3 pointer as well. Looks funny, but is the law. The seat bracket is having the 3 pointer lock bolted on to it.

Its still the old steering wheel.

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Talking steering wheel, and the seat is in the back of the car. I find it hard to reach items in the car. So I was thinking of making something, so I get some buttons in the steering wheel. A starlet only has 4 wires to the wheel, so thats 4 buttons. And 1 of them had to be the horn.

One day, Raffi called me, and we took a trip to the local wreck place. We where looking for parts for his BMW. Some Toyota's where also wrecked, and I looked at them. And I found a Camry with Cruise Control in the steering wheel. It had 6 wires to the wheel. Thats 6 buttons.

And it fitted perfect in my Starlet.

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Next problem was the snap off from D1. It only have 2 wires. Then I used an hour looking in a supplier's catalog. I found a 7 point connector, that will fit inside the D1 snap off.

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Its on a to do list when I have some time. It maybe work, maybe not. A D1 snap off, cost around 35-40£ if I fail, so thats not a problem.

Some pics. of upgrades made to the suspension over the last 2 years.

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I have rear discs for it too. Just a other to do item :D

Thats the upgrades I done so far.

This is the car before I made it ready for an MOT test. Short storie is that in Sweden a car can't pass MOT with bucket seats and harness, if it is not approved by something called SFRO. Every upgrade you do needs approval from SFRO. Plan is to take the car to SFRO when the brakes are on, and have it approved with seats, harness, cage and brakes. Thats all I can get approved. Engine can't be approved.

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Right now I work on the turbo manifold. Its a working progress, and my first try to make a manifold. This is how far Ive got right now.

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Next update will be in the next year :D

Edited by klyfax
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No... And yes...

I can't get a NA engine that have aftermarkedet turbo on, road legal. I can get a standard turbo engine road legal. But!!! I can't get an engine that fits right in the engine bay legal. So any E engine upgrade is not legal. A 4a-gze (1.6 compressor from a Corolla) can get road legal. But then I have to stay with the compressor setup.

But, if we take it to the extremes, I can get a EP85 with an 3s-gte engine and a Celica 4wd transmission system road legal. Up to around 200 hp. But when it has been approved, I can raise to 800 hp, and they won't say anything, as long as brakes and the rest of the car can handle the extra power. As long as you don't say it to the MOT people. Police may pull you over for a little chat. But thats all.

Police in Sweden are very friendly, as long you are friendly towards them as well. Piss on them, and US police looks very nice compared to Swedish police.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Haven't desided yet. :) We'll be there around mid day on friday 12th and we'll be leaving on monday I guess. Tempted to try the track, it's just that I've been on track only once before. Hopefully we'll meet up there then! :) Let's drop a PM some time before the event and sort something out.


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  • 1 month later...

Hehe, Gatebil Rudskogen is great fun. But the car wont be ready. It have taken alot of time to build the manifold. Thats one thing i wont do again when building something... But its almost done.



Damn work, it takes to much of my time :-D But it paids for it :-D


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