mindless

Yeah I guess you're right. There were actually 3 corollas (one with a 4EFTE transplant) and 1 other starlet in the pack. But yeah other than that its a Honda show.

Time for a refresh

The last race was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Who would have thought the smallest of problems would end our race. I never even got to sit/drive in the car for my time attack session. Just after the morning run of the competition we were having problems we thought was being caused by a faulty TPS. Our tuner was able to mess around with the engine map just enough to make it run for the grid race. The race was highly contested as it was the last race for the season. Everyone was battling for points. We got a penalty because we missed the grid line up and they made us start from the pits. Still after a few laps and a spin we were able to get to 4th place until... >http://youtu.be/sT886JW1-No Our freaking throttle cable apparently got stuck and in WOT. There was a piece of rubber/teflon coating on the cable that was peeled got caught inside the effing cable – and that was what caused all earlier headaches (we thought it was the TPS not detecting throttle properly) That's it for our points battle this season. We'll just concentrate on the upcoming 6 hour endurance race in December 1. For now engine is in teardown to see how much damage free revving did to it. Hopefully not much.

Thanks mate!

New bits for the car

Thanks Rbz. Yes the car has a slight understeer setup which we kind of like at the moment because it allows us some room for aggressiveness when attacking the corners without losing it. This is good for us since the car was really built for me and brother to develop our driving as the we progress through our racing career. We're 2 years in and we're doing quite well if you consider we only get seat time one saturday every month . But I assure you when the rear does rotate quite nicely when needed. I guess it doesn't show in the video. As for Aero, its a question of cost vs weight vs gain. The most cost effective way is to build a full underbody diffuser out of wood/particle board. Cheap to build and if it smashes cheap to replace. However it is going to increase the car's weight. Now the ideal way to do it is to go CF. But is very expensive to create a proper aero package (full underbody diffuser) with CF and very expensive to replace (at least at our level of financing) and if we're going to do it we might as well do it right. So i guess until we get a sponsor for aero or I get additional funds, we'll hold that off and use the money somewhere else (like better brake package). As for boost – at the standard 1 bar level we're already experiencing slight wheel spin problems exiting out of the corner. Leaving it at 1.3 bar all the time will only aggravate it and since there is a radial tire restriction for this race series we can't use full slicks to remedy that. If you watch the wheel to wheel videos you'll see that 1 bar is enough to keep up with even an EG hatch with a built K24 TypeR powerplant As it stands right now – the lap time 1m56s in that video is actually enough to rival 300++ hp 4WD subarus on that track. Of course that was driven by a pro, so I think we have to improve our skills to reach that benchmark before making any major upgrades to the setup. Even that alone is a lot of work ahead for me and brother

Yeah we haven't had the time to do proper data logging/testing because we're in the middle of a race season. There was always something to fix/change in the setup that ate up most of our time. Hopefully after the last leg this October, we can get some downtime and do log some stats while we prep/test for the endurance race on December. To be honest the fuel cooler wasn't really an original idea. Saw my friend running one in his autocross-spec Lancer Evo III. He told me it allowed him to tune and run to 2 bar boost, without fear of the AF mixture getting too hot. So I just took it from there.

Oh yes very much so. Basically night and day. Temps rarely go over 90c. On average stays around 83-88c (take note I'm in a tropical country where avg ambient temp is anywhere around 30-32c and very humid) . We can actually now run full 9-10 lap (3.8km/lap) races without the need for the radiator/intercooler sprays. We've also managed to up the boost scramble to 1.38 bar (from 1.33). Even under max boost no knock and temp stays pretty consistent which is surprising if you consider we are running a non standard rod/piston combination that should not work (Vitara G16B piston + OEM 4EFTE Gen 1 rods). There are a few things left though we still need to put in intake/exhaust fans to draw in cool air into the fuel box and expel fumes + hot air and maybe a dry ice compartment + drain for the fuel cooler.

During that last race we wanted to test if our race car can dice it with the next higher wheel to wheel class so we decided to join race the car in Grid B (our usual class is Grid C). We started from 13th (2nd to the last) because we did not qualify for this race. Car ended up 7th. Not bad considering we only had about less than 3 liters of fuel left and our brakes have been glazed by the previous races during that day. Here is the vid: >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lowZtrkqc6Q Also update on the car: We've installed a redundant external fuel pump system in preparation for the endurance race in December. Should give us some margin against prematurely failing pumps during the 6 hour race.

Thank you @shorty!

Wheel to wheel grid race video is up! My brother started 8th, crossed the line 2nd, but ended up 15th due to a 1min breakout penalty (he went faster than the allowed time per lap for the bracket) Enjoy! >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWQflC_G5ds

A few pics before I upload the wheel to wheel grid race video

ohh my god!! that exhaust manifold!

Here's my afternoon session from last Saturday's race! >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNAOHyi99W0 Clocked in a best time of 2m 08.333s just .167 faster/off of 1st place in Bracket E. Ended up at the bottom of Bracket D. Because the .199 breakout rule I opted to cancel my Bracket D lap for my next fastest lap time: 2m 09.324s -- good for fourth in Bracket E earning me some points at least (vs being dead last in a higher bracket) On the upside I am 4 seconds faster than my last run in this track configuration and 10 seconds faster than when I started racing this year! It feels good having a car that you can constantly improve in – keeps you motivated to push more and more!

Yeah it wasn't a planned run so he didnt have his equipment with him. The helmets we had on hand nearby wouldn't fit and he only had a few minutes to get a lap in.

It kind of sucks I have to defend my build but: 1. A lot of cars locally have been running crush bent black steel roll cages and i have yet to see one squash in a crash (and I have seen a few big ones). That said yes I plan to replace the bends anyway when we redesign the roll cage to improve rigidity including welding gussets. 2. Check again the fuel system / surge tank, external pumps and filters are inside a containment box separating it from the cockpit and driver. 3. what harnesses looped over the the strut brace?? 5. I am not the first or the last to use aluminum as a material to build a race car dashboard. In fact I based my design off of Momentary Laps' LS1 miata dashboard . I'd love to build one out of carbon fiber but obviously since we are at the grassroots level and I am using my own personal funds to fund my small race team we have to make do with what we have and what is available to us. At least we get to race regularly and have fun. That's what matters. Anyway just to give you a teaser for next videos we handed the keys of our scary car to a local former Asian F3 driver (currently racing in Euroracecar Nascar and Macau GP). Clocked in his fastest lap at 1m 56.23s with a few errors (given that it was an impromptu drive). That puts the car's potential in Bracket A – where the top dogs are . Now if only we can drive like he does... >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP2GkWEN0pI

@shorty the aero plan has been tabled at the moment. my tuner and i are discussing cost vs weight penalty vs actual benefit of having a proper aero setup. But for sure we'll know before december which is the start of the endurace race the starlet will be joining. @Socks thanks man! I'll post race vids after the weekend. Hopefully we get another win

@maddox haven't don a comparison as I've lost my stock dash. This was more to protect the electronics from heat and eliminate glare from the silver painted interior shell. But the panels themselves don't weigh more than a few grams each being made from aluminum – and there are like just 6 panels including the gauge cowl making up the whole dash.

Race dash is done! Car is now ready for tomorrow's race! I hope we get lucky again!

Thank you sirs!

Had most of the dash painted except for the new gauge cluster cowl. Put an access door to be able to easily change fuses.

Appreciate it @GP82

LOL thanks i guess

@Philm Thanks man! Can anyone organize even a simple autocross series?

Build update: Started the fabrication of a proper race dashboard