GTS Panther kitcar

[PaulYDP]

Sweet the car won’t move in the trailer anyway!!

Haha that’s for sure! About 10mm at the front and very slightly more at the back. Best bit is I can actually drive in and get back out again which I wasn’t expecting to be able to do

 

[gixermark]

Sweet!
I was able to get in/out too..... just took me half and hour.... and then 2-5 hours with a chiropractor! Lol

 

[PaulYDP]

So trip to the rollers today to get it set up.

Fuelling was all over the place and had a misfire which turned out to be a dodgy plug that was virtually new but got things ironed out and a few decent runs. Unfortunately the spring on the actuator is far too weak so the duty needed turned way up to even get 9psi so we didn’t bother pushing it higher than that. So next on the cards is a new Turbosmart actuator so I can set the spring pressure higher and turn the boost up if I fancy it....

S4 got put on towing duty for the first time and was a great job

Here’s a couple of runs, one just partial revs and then a full chat run...

 

[gixermark]

Never mind the car...... turbo..... that’s some trailer hey!!!!

fab stuff Paul, so happy it’s coming together, and a credit to your hard work

 

[PaulYDP]

Never mind the car...... turbo..... that’s some trailer hey!!!!

fab stuff Paul, so happy it’s coming together, and a credit to your hard work

The trailer is the job!!!! Performed the task perfectly and tows great!

Cheers Mark! Glad to have it almost there!

 

[slickcell]

Class Paul!

 

[PaulYDP]

So it's been just over a month since my last update and my trip to the rolling road. You could have called it "done" when I returned from getting things set up, but in truth they're never done! The trip to the rollers confirmed a few things that I already new needed sorted at some stage and highlighted a few other things which I hadn't planned for. On top of that I took into another modification which escalated more than planned but I'll get to that.

So things that the rolling road highlighted that I already new about - exhaust could do with being bigger! It was 2.25 dropping to 2" if that at the can. It still made decent power with this exhaust but a bigger one would help! So in true DIY fashion I ordered in all the individual parts in stainless steel along with some stainless wire for the mig and decided to give it a go making it myself!

Unfortunately I've been terrible at taking photos so you'll have to make do with the completed photos. Basically it arrived as a length of 2.5" straight stainless, 45 and 15 degree bends, some connectors, a blank can with no input or tailpipe on it... you get the picture! Doing it this way kept the price down but meant more work for me. I had the old exhaust to work off and in fairness none of it proved to be that difficult. Welding isn't the neatest but the only ones visible are on the can!

Comparison of the smallest section of pipe

and all welded up

can welded up before polishing

wrapped and temporary fitted to make sure everything is ok - still needs finished off.

Second thing uncovered by the rolling road was around the gear change, there was a lot of movement required on the paddle shift to change gear bringing the paddle uncomfortably close to the steering wheel. As well as that the flatshifter isn't working on upshifts. It works from the test button on the control unit (that tests the connection from the control unit to the engine but not the sensor to the control unit). I still cant' be sure that what I've done will have fixed it though and it could be the sensor at fault. However when I fitted the flatshift sensor it screws into the gear change cable to sense the movement - this meant the cable was really too long now. I made attempts to get round this without changing the cable but that contributed to the long throw on the gear change and just didn't work great at all. So I bit the bullet and ordered up a custom length cable. I've no pictures of this fitted and it's not that exciting anyway but it allowed me to revert what I'd previously done and on testing it static the gear change is much nicer now.

Here's old versus new cables, exciting stuff

The last thing the rolling road highlighted was an issue with the rear arches. I never liked how they looked anyway as the wheels sat slightly proud of the arches. I had previously tried to buy arches the right size but it was proving impossible. Current ones are 280mm wide, I needed something around 300/305mm but the only other size I could get was 345mm. The wheels would be lost in those and also the car would be too wide for the trailer! On the rolling road with the car tied down they fouled quite badly and there was always going to be a chance it would foul on the track also. They were "modified" while on the rollers to stop them fouling so that forced my hand to do something about it!

Marked out and edge cut off

working out the width I want

During filling and sanding after fibreglassing the inside

They're now off the car and in primer but no photos of that! It was a balls of a job and they are not going to be perfect but should at least look better than it did before... I hope! Main thing being they won't foul the tyres which was the main aim.

I'll do another update with things that the rolling road uncovered that I wasn't expecting and then hopefully the final piece of the jigsaw!

 

[PaulYDP]

So now on to two things that cropped up that I wasn't expecting....

I'd already mentioned this in my rolling road post that the actuator wasn't up to the job, so that got replaced with a nice forge item with changable spring so I'll be able to set base pressure to whatever I want via the spring and then let the boost controller do the rest. I can have 4 different boost settings programmed so this will allow me to have them nice and incremental. This fitted straight on with the attached bracket etc where the one that came off had been modified to fit so it clearly wasn't originally meant for the turbo!

The other thing that we noticed on the rollers was there was smoke on the overrun, the turbo has a brand new Mellet CHRA fitted so the only other thing it could be was the oil feed. The banjo bolt was unrestricted so it was getting full force of oil into the turbo, a 1.5mm restrictor is recommended but I couldn't find one anyway handy but managed to pick up a 2mm so slightly bigger but hopefully enough to stop the smoke given the unrestricted is probably 5 or 6mm.

So that was all my "jobs" that I'd planned to do initially but sure, why stop there! I plan to do a few sprints this year if we are allowed to get out to play at some stage. I don't really fancy doing any track work without a few spare wheels and as I'm running AR1 tyres they are meant to be pretty hopeless in the wet. I decided I'd like a spare set of tyres with something that will cope slightly better with wet weather (haven't decided what they're going to be yet!) but in preparation for that I picked up a set of spare 13" wheels. Tested fitted one on the back and no go... I did know that this was a possibility as the rear brake setup I run leaves VERY little options on the wheel front. I may have mentioned this earlier in the thread but at one stage I had planned to swap to MK4 golf calipers, bought them and when trying to fit them I couldn't even get the CXR wheels to fit without fouling the calipers.

So what to do... thought about various things for a while and then decided to do the most common thing people do in the same situation and that is swap out the sierra rear disks for the front disks from a MK4 escort...

As you can see, the offset on the new disk is considerably larger than the sierra disk therefore moving the disk and caliper further inboard and away from the inside face of the wheel. Of course doing this change isn't at all straightforward... for one the inside diameter of the disk is smaller than the sierra disk as you should also be able to see in the photo. This meant that the disk wouldn't actually fit over the hub!

So I pulled the hubs off to get them turned down. Big thanks to @fabiostar for doing this for me in the lathe, he made a great job of it!

While I was in that far I decided to pull the bearing carriers off and replace the wheel bearings as well. I have no idea when they were last replaced so it'll do no harm!

That takes me on to the last part of this puzzle... if you look at the bearing carriers above the caliper lug mounts are part of the bearing carrier. Naturally with everything moving inboard these were now in the wrong place and of no use! So they got cut off and welded on to where they now needed to be further in.

Clearance issues now resolved and this will also allow me to run MK4 golf calipers if I want to (basically they're a good bit lighter than the sierra item). However I'm not doing it just now, it's not entirely straightforward as need new brake hoses and either new handbrake cables or the existing modified. I might tackle it at some stage but it's reaching the stage I've done enough and would like to enjoy it soon!

Next on the list is the arches to finish and then look into finishing the flat floor and I think that'll do for now. Oh and a ruddy good clean as the dust is everywhere from sanding the arches!

 

[gixermark]

do you fancy coming to rebuild my Jedi !!! you get some stuff sorted man !!!!

 

[PaulYDP]

do you fancy coming to rebuild my Jedi !!! you get some stuff sorted man !!!!

Haha no bother at all! Do you want to throw it over lol? I've little else to be at so thought there's no better time to get these things done. Glad to be nearing the end of this stage though!

 

[gixermark]

Dont tempt me!

i’m sure I’ll feel some sense of achievement when done.... just need to keep telling myself that a few times.... a day....

 

[fabiostar]

looking forward to seeing this mad build going..

 

[PaulYDP]

So as usual updates have been few and far between but we're getting there now...

So got the arches completed, they're ok far from perfect but better than what was there before with the wheels poking out etc.

This is 100% the maximum I could go width wise on the rear arches, as it is there's about 1mm clearance a side putting it into the trailer!

I got it cleaned up and then it was off to the guys at Blackwater Graphics to get some stickers on. I wanted something fairly subtle but just enough to change it from plain blue/black. Very happy with the outcome! Race number on as one of the main uses of the car will be sprints etc.

The flat floor is complete however it will need modified as it's just a touch too low for road driving. However next up is a sprint which is taking place tomorrow at Kirkistown which will be the first real shakedown of the car so I haven't a clue how it will go! I drove the car approx 2 miles last night just to bed in the brakes before tomorrow and it's an absolute hoot!

So that's a wrap for now, loading it onto the trailer later and hope the weather improves tomorrow and it's not wet all day as it's really not going to be fun in the rain!

Here's a final shot with my freshly painted lid which I painted up last weekend.

 

[gixermark]

I wish i had 5% of your abilty... let alone drive to make this happen - absolute TOP DRAWER effort.... total credit to you.

hope you have a blast tomorrow !

 

[PaulYDP]

Cheers Mark, appreciate that! Not sure about ability, more will give anything a go once Will let you know how I get on...

 

[adzy]

Looks great! Looking forward to see it go.

Heading tomorrow myself, fingers crossed on the weather!

 

[Paul Hamill]

Best of luck tomorrow.Hope you get a good run.

 

[slickcell]

Absolutely awesome man. I forgot you were chopping and widening the arches yourself. They actually look class!

Let me know how you get one tomorrow - best of luck man

 

[svensktoppen]

That looks great, nice and subtle

 

[PaulYDP]

Looks great! Looking forward to see it go.

Heading tomorrow myself, fingers crossed on the weather!

See you there! Looking like the afternoon might just come good...

Cheers for all the comments! Loaded and ready for the morning, it’s snug...

 

[svensktoppen]

Loads of room there

Have fun!

 

[Big Pimp]

Have a brilliant day tomorrow dude

car looks immense

 

[PaulYDP]

Cheers Ross!

Hopefully I’ll have some GoPro footage tomorrow evening

 

[PaulYDP]

So the sprint on Saturday has come and go and I had a good days craic! Unfortunately no GoPro footage as the external mic didn't work causing no sound (there's one run with sound where I'd forgotten to plug the mic in but it's just wind noise so may as well have no sound!)

So the day started out absolutely stinking and the rain was pretty steady at Kirkistown until close on midday and from then it brightened up and by the end of the day it was a lovely day! My brother was also running on the day and he had the idea that we should take a garage for the day and I'm so glad he suggested it - it just made the whole thing that bit nicer.

So I got 2 runs in the dry, and the first of those there was still damp patches but it's safe to say it is an absolute hoot in the dry and a complete and utter handful in the wet! When boost came in full even in 5th gear I was getting wheel spin (new AR-1's in the wet are pretty shocking!). First day on track in the car so in the wet I wasn't pushing it at all, just short shifting everywhere so I didn't bin it! Ended up 2nd in class which I'm happy enough with for the first day out, especially given I messed up my final run which was the only full dry run!

Here's some images courtesy of @Graham (ignore the indicator being on, kept knocking it all day lol)

Here's my messed up start on the final run...



and then also on the final run - locked up entering the infield and only just got turned in but was miles too deep and then found neutral without realising (it's between 1st and 2nd on the bike engine) so all in it was a bit rubbish but sure!



So takeaways from the day are my flatshifter isn't working so I'm going to redo my gear-change setup again to see if that's the problem (I previously had it working on downshifts but now it's not working at all) and the clutch is too sensitive (slips with little pressure on the pedal) and needs adjusted. Also have a slight oil weep to investigate... so as per normal the work is never done with these things!

 

[svensktoppen]

Garage - how very posh

Nice in the rain I'm sure!

Maybe put a rain map on for better traction when it gets slippery?