Winter work:
We decided Tiddles was too fat and had earmarked many changes to lighter her over the last 2 years, we just needed time to do the work.
Using our CNC router and oven, we made a set of 4mm thermoformed polycarbonate windows, the rears being one-piece and tinted. The front drivers side has a security slide opening. This meant the electric window mechanisms, switches and wiring could be removed. Our own carbon dashboard was fitted with new gauges, switches etc and had to be wired via 10-pin connectors to the car loom. This was a mammoth job in itself. More on the wiring loom later.
We built a new intercooler to replace the water/air chargecooler system and lost some 31kg from the car. The new cooler with all its bespoke ducts is more efficient than the older system too, and we haven't finished making the intake duct yet - a good result for the development programme. Because of the air feed to the core being below the intercooler, there was nowhere to mount the main distribution and relay box within the loom length so it was moved into the interior of the car. This turned out to be another task in itself!
We beefed up the roll cage, installed harness bars and painted the interior in black as the carpets had seen better days and were only in the car last year because the floorpan was sorely needing a proper coat of paint.
We also make bespoke heater ducts which allow the standard matrix to be used along with a simple 4" fan to feed the in-built ducts in our dashboard and clear the screen. The total weight of the heater and fan is just 1.2kg!
The ignition system was ''upgraded', i used inverted commas there because as it turned out the 'upgrade' was a downgrade. On the dyno we had a misfire bad enough to stop the session. We have rebuilt the system and have yet to return to the dyno for a final mapping session. Up to 1.6bar there was no misfire so we did get a few clean inertia runs. The good news is the results are encouraging with 650hp at only 1.6bar. The intention is to go to 2.5bar and see if we can increase the torque from last years 700lbs/ft.
Between the 120kg weight loss - a tenth of her weight or 5 bags of cement and likely power increase there's no doubt we will be getting into un-chartered territory for a sprint & hillclimb saloon in terms of overall performance. She's certainly shaping up to be a seriously quick beastie.
Updates to this season can be found on the 2013 season results page
Using our CNC router and oven, we made a set of 4mm thermoformed polycarbonate windows, the rears being one-piece and tinted. The front drivers side has a security slide opening. This meant the electric window mechanisms, switches and wiring could be removed. Our own carbon dashboard was fitted with new gauges, switches etc and had to be wired via 10-pin connectors to the car loom. This was a mammoth job in itself. More on the wiring loom later.
We built a new intercooler to replace the water/air chargecooler system and lost some 31kg from the car. The new cooler with all its bespoke ducts is more efficient than the older system too, and we haven't finished making the intake duct yet - a good result for the development programme. Because of the air feed to the core being below the intercooler, there was nowhere to mount the main distribution and relay box within the loom length so it was moved into the interior of the car. This turned out to be another task in itself!
We beefed up the roll cage, installed harness bars and painted the interior in black as the carpets had seen better days and were only in the car last year because the floorpan was sorely needing a proper coat of paint.
We also make bespoke heater ducts which allow the standard matrix to be used along with a simple 4" fan to feed the in-built ducts in our dashboard and clear the screen. The total weight of the heater and fan is just 1.2kg!
The ignition system was ''upgraded', i used inverted commas there because as it turned out the 'upgrade' was a downgrade. On the dyno we had a misfire bad enough to stop the session. We have rebuilt the system and have yet to return to the dyno for a final mapping session. Up to 1.6bar there was no misfire so we did get a few clean inertia runs. The good news is the results are encouraging with 650hp at only 1.6bar. The intention is to go to 2.5bar and see if we can increase the torque from last years 700lbs/ft.
Between the 120kg weight loss - a tenth of her weight or 5 bags of cement and likely power increase there's no doubt we will be getting into un-chartered territory for a sprint & hillclimb saloon in terms of overall performance. She's certainly shaping up to be a seriously quick beastie.
Updates to this season can be found on the 2013 season results page
