Letting the "Chicken" out of the bag.

If you are familiar with the New England Hillclimb series.  You may have heard stories and legends of the "Superchicken".  A feat of backyard engineering, conquering hillclimbs and setting records.  Well the owner/ creator of the Chicken, Paul,  has moved on to bigger and better projects (SuperChicken2), leaving the poor Chicken gutted and resting in a barn.  In a moment of lacking common sense I made a deal with Paul to acquire the Chicken and a donor car to replace its, previously removed, engine and tranny. 

Here is what the Chicken looked like in its former Glory.  At the Mt. Washington Climb to the Clouds in 2014.

Fun fact.  This car is THE fastest privateer car to ever race Mt. Washington. Second only to Subaru of America drivers Travis Pastrana and David Higgins and their multi bagillion dollar rally team.   Setting a time of 6:22 up the 7.6 miles and 130+ corners and 4700ft climb. 

And here she is coming to her new home.  With no engine and 2x4s for shocks/springs. 

Wow, looks like form tried to follow function but couldn't keep up and got lost along the way!

But seriously, anything that works that well is awesome, full stop. Congratulations! What's the donor, and what are your plans?

Pulling the engine out of the donor car.  The donor is a 2001ish Audi A6.  cheap source of a biturbo 2.7l audi v6 coupled to a stout 01E 6 speed awd tranny.  Same basic engine as a S4 but not at S4 prices. 

Form? What is form? 

In the garage ready for work.  You can see in this shot the strange cantilever front suspension.  Struts on the outside, Coilovers go on the inside next to the trans. 

In reply to Ransom :

Plan is to hopefully have it running for some events this year.  Drivetrain is Audi 2.7L V6 with the 01E 6speed, AWD, stock TD04 WRX turbos replacing the tiny Audi units.  Running either E85 (non-existant in my area) or diluted race gas. 

Dissecting the rats nest. 

Here you can see the old dual mass flywheel.  This has been removed in favor of a lighter single mass unit. and a performance clutch.  You can see in the lower left the stock Audi water/oil cooler under the oil filter.  Very tidy solution to high oil temp concerns.

New flywheel.  This unit doesn't have a crank position ring on it so Paul is going to make one for me that goes on the balancer on the front of the engine.  Paul does some awesome machine work at his shop SuperCar Machine Shop

One of my biggest projects has been wiring.  The Chicken had a Motec ECU in it before Paul robbed it for the new race car.  He included an older MS3 PRO unit that he ran back in the day.  He stopped using it when it fried a transistor running two injectors per cylinder.  I sent it back to DIY Autotune and had it repaired for $85.  I was very impressed with the value and turnaround time. 

I decided to add a little form to the power system for the car.

Old wire harness

Disassembled instrument panel

I added a fuse/ relay box to the panel and some small bus bars to make power connections and maintenance easier. 

I also made a small frame to mount it in a different location than before.  trying to keep it up out of the dirt and grime. 

And as installed in the car. 

Even has USB charging ports and a 12v power jack.  Fancy.

Quality inspector checking out the work. 

Fabricated Exhaust manifold, to be adapted to TD04 WRX turbos. 

This thread has way less Trans Am content than I expected. I like it though. Looks like a fun project. 

Ill admit it is a little bit of a different direction for me, but that's why I like it.  Learning new stuff, and going faster.  Hopefully......

My primary purpose with this car is to expand my skill set to include basic efi setup and tuning, turbocharged application setup, and awd driving dynamic practice.  I have plans for a future race car, but fabing a completely new car is out of the picture right now.

T.J. said:

This thread has way less Trans Am content than I expected. I like it though. Looks like a fun project. 

I was also expecting fire chicken content. I was dissapointed at first, then I saw the 2.7, not what I would have expected. I'll be looking forward to this one.

Did it originally have a 2.7, and specific reason you/he chose that power train?

How reliable are they once you free it from it's Audi wrappers and you modify/simplify it?

In reply to Opti :

The car started out with Audi 5 cylinders.  With enough boost to satisfy, those engines and transmissions were a disposable item.  Once he switched to the 2.7t it became much more reliable.  The 2.7 is an unbelievable stout engine.  Cast iron block, plenty of cylinder wall thickness.  German engineering.  Once you remove the Audi/VW electronics scourge your golden.  And the 01E 6 speed is one of the most robust manuals that Audi has made.  I should be able to run 20lb of boost without making it too unhappy.  

Well well well .......What Do We Have Here??? Since I haven't seen Kevin G respond to this , I assume you're trying to find the right time to tell him? HEY!!! HillClimb Bubba this is berkin' awesome.!!!!...always wanted to know the pertinent details on the 'SChicken' ..... and now here it sits for all to see, congrats C392!!!! Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this basically started out as an A6 floor pan with aero/cage? 

pssssst, where's the howe?

It really didnt start out as anything. Im goibg to try to go through the car and photo document all the different parts.  Its a completely one off chassis, and few of the components come from the same car. Stay tuned. 

Waiting patiently.............but I must ask, is the front drive assembly 'tweaked' to where the 2.7 sits behind the front axle?

You could always grab a 2.8 n/a if that goes south and put it on that. Same block and heads different intake and cams from what I remember.  No getting that motor behind the center of the wheels with the 01E transmission. Not really needed as it plainly has been set up to not have to worry about it. Been seeing those going for anywhere from $500 to $1500 with bad auto tanns in them around these parts. Cars are nearly perfect inside and out but not worth the $3500 plus most places want to replace or rebuild the transmission.

In reply to 759NRNG :

The 2.7 sits completely ahead of the front axle, same as it does in the stock A6.  Many items have been relocated in an effort to help weight bias. 

In reply to brad131a4 :

The 2.8 n/a is the same block but different rotating assembly that doesnt lend as well to lots of boost.  I have heard that the hot setup is 2.8 n/a heads and cams on a 2.7 block with an S4 intake manifold.  I plan on sourcing a set of junkyard 2.8l heads to work and eventually install. For now im just going to get it running and driving. 

Challenger392 said:

In reply to Opti :

The car started out with Audi 5 cylinders.  With enough boost to satisfy, those engines and transmissions were a disposable item.  Once he switched to the 2.7t it became much more reliable.  The 2.7 is an unbelievable stout engine.  Cast iron block, plenty of cylinder wall thickness.  German engineering.  Once you remove the Audi/VW electronics scourge your golden.  And the 01E 6 speed is one of the most robust manuals that Audi has made.  I should be able to run 20lb of boost without making it too unhappy.  

What specific issue did they have with the 5 cylinders? I assume they where using the AAN engine? I was always under the assumption that they where pretty stout even in factory form.