BRZ Rally Car

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

bluej (Forum Supporter) said:

TXratti said:

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Ha, I'm not sure who all would want to follow that or what anyone would want to know. Slightly too fancy to be "GRM"?

I would love to hear/read that thread! GRM just means playing with race cars, whatever budget :)

Or GRM means playing with other peoples' high-dollar race cars!

I'd follow along too.

Rally content is good content. You'd have another follower here. 

In reply to shagles, TVR Scott, bluej,  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Ask and ye shall receive: Fancy Racecar on a GRM Budget - A Rally Co-Driver's Perspective - AMA

TXratti said:

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Ha, I'm not sure who all would want to follow that or what anyone would want to know. Slightly too fancy to be "GRM"?

Another vote of interest here!

Now, I just need to find enough time after work to pull the Supra diff apart to send to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to hopefully help this build along.

Made fuel line protection- I couldn't find the channel size I wanted so this is all made from a piece of 2x4" tube that I cut lengthwise to make 1x4" channel:

The topside after paint:

Then I glued some cut up motorcycle inner tube to the channel to add some cushion and abrasion resistance for the lines:

Here's what we're covering:

Installed- I'm still waiting on some foam weatherstrip stuff to seal the ends so it doesn't fill with dust:

This thing is heavy and was pretty time consuming to make, but I think as long as the hardware can hold it it should do the job.  If I start having hardware issues I'll cut out the factory weld nuts and add bigger ones.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

At least that's a pretty good place to add weight if you need it.

I'm thinking you should build a matching one for the passenger side & screw a length of PTFE down both of them. You'd be able to rail-slide anything you get high-centered on!

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

I actually did zap a few weld nuts into the passenger side while I was at it, no plans yet for those but you make a compelling argument. 

Finally weighed the car, more commentary in a bit:

EDIT: As of 2023 I have determined that these scales went off at some point, and were weighing about 150lbs light.  Unknown whether that had happened by this point.

So, I'm pretty happy with the above weight- that's full interior w/ airbags and stereo, skidplates under the diff/engine/fuel lines, and the big beefy towers.  What I'm a little surprised by is that 58% of it is up front, but that would explain why the rear felt too stiff with the 275lb/in springs.

The majority of the weight added going forward will be towards the back (spare tire, tools, fuel tank skid, etc.) and the battery will be relocated to the rear seat area, so that balance will shift rearward.  If I'm lucky the airbags, stereo, seat belts, stock seats, and whatever I can gut out of the dash will make up for a lot of cage weight, and there's still some weight to be lost (and ground clearance to be gained) in the exhaust.  I'll probably gut the hood and trunk lid too, although I doubt that will save me much.

Minor note: If you are able to I'm a big fan of keeping this stock seatbelts. We basically switch straight over to the stock seat belts on transits and for just general driving and it is infinitely more comfortable than doing all that in a six point. The weight penalty is minimal and it sits low in the middle of the car anyway. Ymmv, but I cannot think of how many times I have said to myself and heard from others "That's great that you kept the factory seat belts also"

That weight looks pretty good. Figure most of the cage's weight will actually be on the back wheels so you should even out the distribution a lot better once you have that in and move the battery. All told I don't think you are going to be significantly heavier than my E30. 

On another side note: are those your scales or did you borrow them? I really need to find somebody around here who has some.

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

They're the scales at work, we have an old broken set there too that I really really need to get them to "throw out" in my direction so that I can try to fix them.  Automotive scales are annoyingly expensive.

As to the factory belt thing, I really don't mind harnesses as long as they're cam lock.  Those latch and link things are super annoying though.

FYI for anybody interested, Diode Dynamics has a 15% off sale this weekend.  I'm going to get one of their bars for long range lighting, and fill out the mid and close range with Amazon cheapies- should be just a hair over $300 for all of the light I could conceivably use.

Fair enough. So I would say the other thing to think of.... I'm sure you did not have to with the merkur, but does the BRZ have to get annual safety inspection? 

I only ask because in Virginia it is actually not legal to drive with a six-point harness on, and generally speaking if you try to take a car through inspection without an actual seat belt you won't pass. My rally car is on vintage plate so does not get inspected anyway but If I was rallying a more modern car I would have to get it inspected just like anything else and so I would need seatbelts. And technically if I get pulled over for speeding or something and the cop only sees a harness he could give me a ticket.

I have no idea what the rules are in PA though

I made some fuel tank protection out of 1/4" HDPE.  First, cardboard:

The HDPE is nice and easy to cut and drill.  I then riveted some piano hinges to the unibody to give the entire leading edge some support:

It fits but I really thought it was going to be easier to form with a heat gun, so it has some spring to it:

All bolted up:

I'm not totally happy with it but I'm going to leave it for a while and see how much dirt collects on top of it and whether it moves before I try to come up with something better.  On the upside, it's not hanging down particularly low and all of the fasteners are tucked up nicely.

I have heard good things about diode dynamics, but FWIW Baja Designs has literally blown my mind. 

Painted my other 8 VW wheels:

And painted the rear bumper support black:

Cut out the dirt scoop section of the rear bumper cover:

Removed the trunk latch assembly and installed some springy things:

Stuck some muflaps and a flush mounted LED reverse light on it and reassembled:

All in all, this stuff cost very little, lost a little weight, and makes the rear plastics less likely to dig in and fall off.  I was on the fence about ditching the trunk latch, but when it comes down to it, everything weighs something and it's good to be able to get into the trunk after a crash without fumbling with a key or a release button.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Just catching up on the thread. Looks great!

Some front end stuff to match the back- hood pins:

I put the pins themselves in a hole that was already there behind the headlights, just needed to open it up a bit:

Popped some LED bulbs into the high beams while I was in there, and began scheming on the rest of the lighting setup:

The bars will go up high on the nose once I figure out how I want to mount them.  The round pods are going to be fill/cornering lights so I welded the brackets to the bumper support and cut slots to pass them through the cover:

I plan to leave these installed most of the time since they have thick rock shields on them and they're not in the way when working on anything:

immediately makes me think of Independence Day :)

Those round ones are damn decent, ran three on the big truck for awhile

Wash out the foreground a bit tho. 

I remember Battocchi having some super slick clips for mounting his light bar on the hood.  Of course I can't remember what they were called.

Do you work a partial schedule at work or just never sleep?

Your progress on this car is insane lol

In reply to Nesegleh :

Nonack doesn't sleep, he waits...

For the next Rally!

Recon1342 said:

In reply to Nesegleh :

Nonack doesn't sleep, he waits...

 

 

For the next Rally!

He doesn't wait for dawn before getting to it, that helps a lot.