Baha Porscharu Rallycross build

Miatas are good source of 5/8" 180 bends.

So when doing the dot paint trick on the decklid. I dab the top of the hood pin as such.

Then the inside looks like his marked for drilling.

In Place but the scratch guards wait to be drilled in and screwed down after paint.

So, one more drama today. the brakes bled kinda. It's softy but there is something just for now. I installed the rear deck lid and took it for a quick maiden test. Pretty good up to 3rd gear on my back road. On return I figured " I better check the clutch for full engagement". Drop the hammer and see what happens. CLANK CLANK CLANK. Right axle let go. Well inspection shows that with the boot pulled back I am getting very little engagement of teh inner joint. I pulled the pin and set it in place 1/2 way on the gearbox and 1/2 way over the joint. Slowly pulled it out and onto the trailer. OK for painting. I will lengthen it Monday. The car is at Paint! It will be ready to pick up Sunday PM or Monday AM.

So the punch list when it gets back is:

  Brakes and ebrake complete - Clutch cable final adjust - tail pipe - fix axle shaft - install fender flares - decals - weigh it again - perhaps fab and install the bumpers. Light bar comes for July.

Subaru engined Volkswagen with Miata wheels.  This is a microcosm of RallyCross.

I have to figure out how to add a Honda part to the car yet, THEN it's perfect.

So another weekend come and gone and thanks to Matt Brower I have paint. Rothmans livery colors. Not exactly as I planned but close enough. Add fender flares, decals and some paint to the roof and it will be looking right. I came home in a MAJOR downpour so that's why it's 1/2 wet. I only have 3 nights to finish the punch list. Brakes are really poor and I have to get that figured out too.

More pics soon. Most of decals are on and it is starting to look like a real racecar. Brakes are fixed. Tonight the axle gets repaired and then the flares installed. That will make it look more finished. Then maybe a run around he yard?

first look at that shifter was like first time i saw titties up close and personal.   so glad i opened this thread today.

That is a nice shifter, BUT....

Curious about the radiator in the back; wouldn't it get more air up front?  It also wouldn't have the heat of the engine lessening its work.

It's looking great!  I can't believe all the progress you've made especially with all the setbacks you've had.

The deadline approaches and it's down to the wire. Some real hard work the last 2 nights.

So to try and explain the radiator location. A lot of debate about that. It's a 2 part decision. In Rallycross, you get about 1 minute of all out run followed by 5 to 20 minutes sitting still. The heat build during the run gets little help during the run when air is flowing and usually the whole cool down happens in grid sitting and idling while the fans do all the work. So up front for cooling is great for a road car or track car where air flows all the time but has little help when idling. So having real good fans is a must. The down side to up front is that the cooling tubes have to run through the cabin. Under the car is a bellypan design and they will get crushed sooner or later. In the cabin it adds a lot of radiated heat. Insulation adds more weight and then there is the weight of the additional water and tubes.

So the other thing done to assist is that big scoop. It feeds air to the engine bay. Starting with the air filter up inside getting first crack at the good air (when moving) then the rest positive pressures the engine bay pushing all the dirt away. In a car like this, the design sucks all that nasty up behind the cabin and just covers the engine. Positive pressure pushes away. The radiator is also fed by the scoop. with a lot of air over it. The fans are each 1000 CFM so sitting still they will push air. The discharge side dumps behind the car. That is why there are non-recirculation panels holding the radiator and the big hole out the floor in the back. Then the rear skirt was removed also to allow that air out. So all that was done to save weight and minimize the system. It remains to be seen how it all works this weekend. I'll be checking temps after every run using the OBD as I have no gauges (yet).

Now for the update.

A comfort item I had in the VW was moved over. No air circulation in there gets really hot and also there is no defroster for those fog mornings. I found an old roll bar canera mount that I repuposed attaching he fan. It can be aimed anywhere needed.

Then there was that driveshaft that came apart. I had to cut, sleeve and reweld it longer. Here it's tacked together.

And those old front turn signal lenses were sun damaged to nothing so a quick run to Dynatorch and whip out replacements to fill the holes with the laser machine. I know that they may get a rock tossed thru them but I can make another for $1.50 in a few minutes. This is the best they will ever look.

On to attaching those rubber fender flares. I needed some tabs to act as oversize washers. So I cut up some 1/8" x 1" strip and drilled holes. ABout 50 should do.

Stainless screws, fender washers on the back side and nylocks secure the flares.

DECALS. Not all of them  as I need the SCCA ones but I will pick them up at the divisional this weekend. NOW we're getting somewhere.

Still the roof, more tires to mount and some other details and then load it on the trailer tonight. Testing time? That's for sissies.

I can't wait to see this thing in person!

I'd have thought you would whip up a CV spacer.  Cutting and lengthening an axle has me intrigued.

At our regionals, we might have 10-15 cars per heat so there isn't really much in the way of cooldown time...  I have recorded 4 minutes between starts before, which was just long enough to get back to grid and get sent out again.  Lots and lots of fan needed.

The axle appears to be through hardened. Cut with abrasive saw only. Sleeve is substantial steel. A spacer was not an option as the Outer CV sits way down inside a pocket in the lower control arm and would use really long bolts weakening it. This just was a direct fix.

Holy crap. That is looking AMAZING! 

So, I've seen the results on paper, but interested in your take on how the car did - since results on paper don't usually show the whole story in rally-x (like Vaughn basically losing because his shift linkage broke, but on paper it just looks like he made a mistake on his last run...). 

Also curious as to thoughts on the event itself, since all I've heard are various issues posted on facebook. I haven't been out to Ohio to run since 2014 GLDivs (which I lost by 0.1 seconds after doing a full spin on my first run), but Ohio's crazy weather this time of year always makes me hesitant to tow all the way out there for rallycross. Looks like it was a great turnout for MR class though - sucks about no runs on Day 2/ 

PS - just catching up on this thread, and the paint / stickers look great :)

OK so a few last things I didn't get posted before the event.

The weight. Any guesses? Over / under?

The target on page 2 was 1850 so I beat it by 60 Lbs. If I drop the glass side and rear windows for lexan and do fiberglass doors I can drop another 100 pounds. Maybe this winter.

Here is the actual scale readings. Now ignore the corner weights on the front as my floor resembles the foothills I live in. But overall and front to rear is something to use as real. It's just that the uneven floor loaded the lft front more than the right front.

So since the Sunday runs were canceled due to impending storms, we all got to leave early in the morning. Back home now. The car looked great and was well liked but ran very poorly. That's what happens when you get no testing time. A shakedown 400 miles away isn't a great idea but I was going to go anyway with something so why not? It's really only running on 3 cylinders. Then the engine just lays over at around 4000 RPM and will not go any higher. The right 2 plugs were white. The left front a little dark and the left rear fouled dark. The fans blew all the fuses on the first run so no cooling till I stuck in some 30 amp fuses (were 20's). Then one of the original cooling hoses for the throttle body sprung a leak.

As to the really sad and rough running of the engine I had no power and no RPMs so the results were predictable. I put in new plugs and wires (again) a different coil pack and a whole set of injectors. I pulled off the muffler for the PM runs per ZB's advice. He thought it was choking the motor. No better, just louder. It pops and catches here and there but drop right back out. Seems like and electrical connection somewhere on that new harness. I'll have to check every pin and socket for loose fit.

Here it is upon arrival.

As to the event? I don't want to say things that are negative much. The group as a whole had a good time. We always do. The course for Saturday was about low 60's in length and was very well liked by everyone. I had no complaints at all. Just happy words. Issues with information about run order, groups, grid and worker assignments were a problem. The course area was pretty good and only the lower north required regular changes from degradation. This was planned from the start and were done when cars started to really get into the underlying rocks. Changes were done in less than a minute every time.

A gas station with food was close by and hotels were easy. I think only one porta-john was there. 2 would have been nice. Tech went easy and class inspection could just as well been skipped (opinion only). Overall a fair number of runs for a single day and a good

time. I'd do it again but hope for a really running car. This thing will get a lot of work in the next week or so  to find and fix the dang thing running like it should. A nice header and better exhaust will come once the bugs are out. I need it fixed before our next run at Hollytree (July 7) and then off to K.C. for the central divisional July 20-22.

Well, I got an action pic from Jonathan Seaton so at least it can be proven to have moved on dirt under it's own power.

Right now it's at the dyno shop. Tomorrow we dive in and try to find the problem with the power, missing and limited RPM. Hopefully that can show why it's not running right and have it ready for our next event on teh 7th followed by K.C. and yes I am already registered. That's confidence or presumption in action.

In reply to RallyCaddy :

holy E36 M3... how the hell have I been missing this for a Month!?? 

that's friggin Rad.. 

Great job on the build!  Hopefully you can get the issues sorted without too much frustration.

Purposeful..., and awesome. 

I can't figure out why everyone's pictured lofting the right front coming out of that corner.

Last night I got a call about the problem. It's fixed. One of the cams was off time. They said it really hauls a$$ now. Tomorrow we dyno and I get to take it home. Next outing on the 7th should be vastly improved.

As for that right front up. Its the start of a right hander right after the start when you still have 1st gear torque and begin the turn-in so the right front on a lot of cars lifts off. It also looks great in pics....

In reply to RallyCaddy :

Yes! Can't wait to hear your impression of it at full power! Still can't believe the amount of work you did so quickly.

In reply to Knurled. :

I think that's corner 3, at the top of the hill just past the timing truck. My guess is that there was a bit of dip/rut just as people were beginning to turn in and get on the power. 

In reply to artur1808 :

"get back on"... heh.  I am pretty sure I was WOT after turning in to the second half of that corner.  On the other hand I also was posting crappy times.