SCCA EMod MGB GT V12 Build

OK, so I might have blinked or something, but has a new warhead been designated or is it still up for debate.

Seriously, anyone reading this exploit is going to think you are in for the fab not the race.

NOHOME wrote: OK, so I might have blinked or something, but has a new warhead been designated or is it still up for debate. Seriously, anyone reading this exploit is going to think you are in for the fab not the race.

I do enjoy the build very much. It's depressing how little all this will be worth when it's done but at least I can have pride in what I have created. The first version of this car was, in retrospect, a disaster. It was a cool-as-hell fire spitting V12 powered monster but was also overweight, underpowered and with a front suspension geometry that couldn't be fixed. I hope my critics can forgive my mistakes, being that it was my first build and all. This version has had far more research put in and yet I still look at things and think "I would change that if I could do it again".

I am enjoying the journey and will read every post regardless.

Lol-you have spent hours of your life typing and posting pictures just so we can follow along on an incredibly cool build. I don't think there's any reason you need to ask us to forgive any perceived mistakes. :D

Those aluminum rockers are beautiful!

Ok, the front and rear suspension is welded in and for the first time, the car is fully suspended and I can bounce up and down on it. The rear pushrods are a little close to the tires when on the softest setting but I hope it won't be a problem. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/loosecannon/media/MGB-GT/IMG_3014_zps41c8f25b.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/loosecannon/media/MGB-GT/IMG_3015_zpsb7e4db9f.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/loosecannon/media/MGB-GT/IMG_3016_zps05acc36a.jpg.html][/URL]

I wouldn't thinkbthat the top of a tire would deflect much, if any.

I'd unhook the shocks and move the suspension through all its travel. 2 wheel bump/droop, 1 wheel bump/droop and max rotation left/right roll. With the PHR and 3 link you will see a fair amount of axle movement and need to check for bothe right and left interference. It does look a little tight but you could always run 1/4" spacers if you run that soft. Wouldn't the top outer hole be even softer and even tighter or do you not intend to use that one?

Looking good on the progress.

With all the space up front I'm surprised you didn't use pull rods. You probably could save a bit in pull rod weight and move a good amount of weight lower in the chassis.

In reply to nocones: I have some wiggle room by adding spacers and trimming the inside edge of the rear fenders. I had good luck with the pushrods and didn't want to reinvent the wheel, I just took the steel rockers and got nicer, machined aluminum ones made.

That is berkeleying pornographic.

Reacap please...

What became of the drive-shaft challenge? Last I recall, it was too short to work.

NOHOME wrote: Reacap please... What became of the drive-shaft challenge? Last I recall, it was too short to work.

I got tired of chasing after driveshaft shops to build one so I sold the 5.0 and will be putting in a turbo 4, most likely an Ecotec 2.0 out of a Solstice GXP or an S2000 engine. These engines are narrower than the V8 and have the intake on the left, so I can move the engine closer to to the middle of the car and reduce the driveshaft angle, which was the sticking point for the driveshaft shops.

An offroad shop should have been able to build one with CV joints for you without too much hassle. I would have tracked down the hardcore Jeep folks and ask them who they work with on their fab work. Drivelines aren't rocket science, grandad used to build them in his basement as a part time gig for a local driveline rebuilder, the angles just meant they should have suggested using CV joints instead of U-joints.

So basically this car won't see the track until next season at least?

Great build, but it seems like you've basically just been rebuilding the car over and over without much gain on actually getting it on course consistently. Having gone down that road myself, I have to say that at some point you have to back away from "ideal" or "perfect" and drive the berkeleying car and have some damned fun, its just autocross you're not going to get rich from it.

Great work! The suspension looks amazing. Don't listen to turboswede, keep building. For my selfish needs, your constant rebuilding is much more interesting to see and read about than a recap of an autocross meet. Video's are cool though, but not so much with a turbo four and huge sticky tires, I don't expect much drama on the autocross course. For my money, this is in the top five of interesting builds on the forum.

Maybe a stupid question, with all this chassis work, why not IRS? You are running on a very smooth course and there isn't much to be gained? You have a lot more adjustment possibility with toe, caster, camber. Think about it?

Yeah the constant rebuilding makes for a great build thread, even if it may not be fun on your end

Wow, there's a lot of hate in this thread.

It's a damn cool project, in my opinion.

Guess I need to pay more attention. Missed the left turn to 4 cyl completely and I follow this on a few sites!

I will also echo the grater interest in build than racing. I cant learn stuff from racing videos.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not hating on the build (though I prefer the V12, but that's a personal preference because I'm weird and it certainly isn't my money or time involved in this project) and you've done great work in very short time periods. I wish I could turn out work nearly that good. My point was that at some point the goal is to actually race this thing, is it not?

If it isn't, and the goal is to fabricate lots of stuff and re-engineer things in your off-time, then by all means go for it. We all love fab-porn around here and yours is top-notch!

I'd like to see it running and racing is all, since that was the stated goal.

I am always surprised at the criticism I get for the way I do this or that or how I change something from this or that. What makes my build so different from others is that IT'S THE FIRST THING I HAVE BUILT! Not only that but I share all my mistakes, my changes, my backtracks and my re-dos because they are interesting. Every time I get the comments about how I'm not focused or how I should just stick with something, I think I should just stop wasting my time taking pictures and posting updates because it sucks the joy out of the build. I love building things and I love race cars. I attempted to build a competitive race car out of an all steel MGB-GT with an engine that weighs 650 lbs and made only 300 hp-it failed as a race car but it was a success as a learning tool. The most recent version of the car is so far advanced of the original that I should have started a new build thread-my mistake. I attached a picture of a popular sign found in workshops all over. Sadly, the original car was done cheap and fast so it wasn't very good. The current version is being done cheap and good so it's not coming along very quickly. As far as IRS, weight it the enemy and the winningest cars in the class use a live axle for it's simplicity and light weight, so that's what I'm using, too.

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Also, I went over all the drama with the driveshaft shops in earlier posts. As soon as they found out the length and angles, they didn't want to touch it. Several recommended and reputable shops had the same opinion on the matter and I couldn't get them to build even one, even with an offer to pay $2000 for a single shaft. A driveshaft is very different from an axle shaft, There is a massive difference in shaft rpm and aggressive angles lead to massive failure. So please, anybody reading this thread, keep your driveshaft shop suggestions to yourself-the topic has been beaten to death. The V12 and the V8 are long gone and not coming back.

Are you going for na/ or power adder with the 4 cyl?

And please continue giving us fab porn. Im seeing new things and ideas in every post.

Also, how big are the rear tires? They look huge, but im having trouble with scale in the pictures. And I normally do muscle cars, so my frame of reference is skewed.

In reply to Dusterbd13: I need 350-400 hp at the wheels so a turbo is on the wishlist. The rear tires are 13 inches wide and the front ones I think are 10.5 inches. I'm glad you're enjoying the build, sorry it's going so slowly lately.

everything takes time. especially when we have jobs and families.

I just wanted to chime in to help save the thread. I read through some of this and honestly, I don't see the criticism as being negative. Please understand that we're all working through your build (and all of them) in our heads, in reference to what each of us want (rather than what you want, which is obviously the direction you're choosing). Any comments about your direction or choices seem more like discussion points than anything else.

I promise, we all want you to keep taking pictures and documenting this. It's fascinating. You're also quite good at fabrication. You came up in my build thread today, actually.

Don't take anything personally, please, most of us are just curious.

Timeliness is something I understand quite well. Constraints are real, and updating a build thread isn't in the top ten on your priority list. No big deal.

Keep posting please. No need to justify what you are doing.It IS a public forum and people ARE going to toss their opinions out there for what they are worth.

Pete