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Rebirth - 83' 244Ti - aka Gallop Racing #411 Hornet Hi-Class race car

I don't have a timeframe when I want to get it done, hopefully in a year. I just want to do it right this time, I feel like I cut corners on things before.

So first plan that will go in to effect when I am back from vacation is the chassis - going to weld up all of the body seams, fix areas that have been attacked by surface rust the past few years, paint the engine bay and door jambs, remove all undercoating, gut all the doors and trunk, fabricate lexan windows, adding a few bars to the roll cage and figuring out a mounting solution for the doors/trunklid & tieing up the unibody in those areas to make it stronger. Also need to mount the new, FIA legal fuel cell.

After that the new suspension goes in, followed by the new engine and wiring. I have everything for that in my hands except a cylinder head.
 
So between the time this thread started and now, things have rather changed.

I don't need to go into the original plan, because that has gone out the window. I have sold or am in the process of selling off all of my expensive parts I had for the car.

Following a trip I took by myself to the east coast back in August, which included a 24 Hours of Lemons race driving Blkaplan's #Obamaexpress 850, I had an epiphany. Why is someone working 2 jobs with pay hovering around $15-$17 an hour, struggling with paying bills such as rent and struggling to feed himself even trying to build a 450 whp race car to compete in an SCCA class full of rich doctors and lawyers who go out and buy ex-SCCA World Challenge cars?

With the car stripped bare, I decided since it was already caged with all of the other safety equipment needed, and that it has awesome brakes and very good suspension, I already have the basis for what could be a good, solid car for the 24 Hours of Lemons and Chumpcar World Series. Yes, it does have a lot nicer paint and body than most cars that run in both series. But I was going to risk destroying that anyways by attempting to try and race it with tons of power and lack of experience driving something with that sort of power.

But with some of the hard parts [having a racecar chassis] already done, and the harder part [giving up on a goal, SCCA ITE, that I had been working towards for almost 7 years] being settled upon I knew there were only a few elements missing to have good overall success in Lemons and Chump racing

1. Built a reliable, solid powerplant
2. Find a team of drivers that will stay on the race track and out of the penalty box
3. Come up with an awesome theme and have fun

So here are my solutions

1. 1994 B230FT engine, 16t turbo w/mbc, 3'' exhaust, LH 2.2 [w/s70 T5 white injectors, custom made 3'' maf housing] with custom wiring. I will be resusing all of my old cooling units [radiator, IC, oil cooler] that I had for the car. Ben is making a baffled oil pan. I already have an Accusump to run too. All lines will be done in AN, and I will be installing a 24 gallon pyrotect fuel cell. I am not going to be rolling the dice trying to run an M46 so I will be using the T5 I had for the car. We will see how bad the car will get penalized if at all. I can come up with an elaborate story about how I got the car and try and go under the radar with things, but in the grand scheme of things I don't care much. I just want to have fun and put the car to use finally.

2. Rob Prince [Volvorules] & Ben Kaplan [Blkaplan], both experienced 240 drivers will be on board the first race which will be in December at Sonoma. The wild card here is my friend Terry. He is a champion dirt track racer, but has never done a road race but I owe him track time in a car [long story.]

3. Utilizing plasti dip [to possibly preserve the nice paint underneath and easily change themes in the future - although I think the current one is a winner] my friends vinyl cutter, some extra sheet metal and a bunch of spare stereo components - the car is going to be decorated exactly like the #41 Hornet High-Class race car that was in the old SEGA Daytona USA arcade game. The stereo will be rigged up to be playing all of the ridiculous music that was in the arcade game at any time, mostly yellow flags, in the pits, warm up laps etc [driving with it under green would result in insanity, much like the nyan cat BMW].

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GAcMqFTkAs8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Y1WlBBVPMJo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Zrtl41oZxOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Also, I will be trying to coincide racing with fundraising efforts for pediatric cancer research through Alex's Lemonade Stand. Still working on that end too, most importantly I have been busy working on getting the car prepped because I have 10 weeks before Sonoma.

Keep an eye on this thread, I will be updating it often.
 
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When I was a kid the arcade at the mall had that game and if you unplugged the machine and plugged it back in, you got to play a free game. I'm not sure why. Maybe a gift for the movers installing the machine? Many hours spent doing that, and many threats from the mall cop who would catch us sometimes.

I like your new plan. Enjoying the experience is what matters.
 
Why LH2.2 and not 2.4 or MS?

Mostly for ease of setting up - I already have stacks of LH 2.2 parts and nothing for 2.4, parts that I have like my aluminum flywheel won't work with 2.4, etc. I know I could covert to down the line to 2.4 but with a 10 week deadline right now I am sticking with my current plan, I already have enough on my plate putting the car back together.

As far as Megasquirt goes, I do have an MS3X box [it's for sale] but I feel like for ease of repair, diagnosis and initial setup it will be better to use a factory EMS. Also both these series [LeMons and Chump] are supposed to discourage you spending money [there is supposed to be a $500 budget I am meeting], it'll be alot more believeable to say I purchased a complete engine/tranny/wiring harness/ECU's on half off weekend at Pick N Pull than trying to explain to them how I put an programmable EMS in the car.

I'm only shooting for a ballpark of 200 wheel horsepower at fairly low boost [13 psi]. I will be more thrilled if the car can hold up to a race weekend without issues rather than making as much power as possible.
 
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:volvo::nomex::whip: Wow! this should be interesting to watch. Not having to invest the sums of money to compete with the doctors and lawyers will be a big advantage, I'm sure. And heck, racing is racing, whether it's Formula 1 or something gently more affordable...;-)
Best of luck; I'm intrigued.:)
 
So, here's a long overdue [and long] update


This was pretty much the starting point in September after we got accepted.

After working inside the car I realized it needed a cleaning, bad. I never really cleaned it over the course of 7 years.

Rob came over one Sunday and we got the crossmember and part of the rear suspension back in. Cleaned the diff off and started removing the old shot trailing arm bushings

After assessing what the car needed, I set out to sell some of the nice go fast goodies I had on the car before to reinvest in parts to make it more reliable and cost-efficient to run. I had enough money left over to do a little racing while waiting for parts. Drove a mini-stock that a friend lent out to me [the #88] for a handful of dirt track races in September

Won a main event my 3rd race out. Pretty cool considering it was in a car far less competitive typically than the Preludes and Integras.

Even drove in a LeMons race at the reconfigured Thunderhill track in an Opel. Aside from a blown clutch on Saturday and a wreck courtesy of an ass in an E36 it was fun!

All the racing got me motivated to work on the car more. I was it was tough since I was a little hampered still by knee and shoulder injuries from skateboarding accidents in August

Made a new dash layout. I sold Harribert an R-sport cluste a while back and he did not need it right away so he let me use it. Thanks dude, and thanks Roger for the restoration. Wonderful job

Rear end back in with a couple fresh studs [a few broke after the rear end took a fall off a workbench] and other bits from Kaplhenke. Also, scored a stock tank and complete LH fuel system setup from Justin [blu92in99]

I quit my job of 4 years in August to free up time to finish the car and enjoy myself. Still did a lot of sidework on cars for people, cooked at caterings, trimmed weed and drove this badass dump truck to get by.

Rob and Alden came over one weekend and we got the engine together

Engine and trans going in

A job well done

Started mocking everything up


I got it mostly together ready to fire up, but it did not want to run. I spent a few days chasing problems but it never started. I built the entire engine and chassis harness myself and I felt it had something to do with it. At this point it was 1 week from the race, the car did not run, a laundry list of other items needed to be done and drastic action had to be taken.

I said screw it, and ended up switching the fancy harness I made that did not work with a factory LH 2.2 240 harness, and instead of EZK went with breakerless ignition from a 240 Turbo at the advice of Erik [Cosbysweater].

Stayed late that night getting the new harness in and sure enough it fired first try. My friend came over the next day and helped me fab up a downpipe and flex section for the exhaust.
I worked on a multitude of other items that weekend to make the car hopefully be able to drive. Rob came over that Sunday, we got it running pretty solid, got the brakes bled and it drove on it's own power for the first time in 8 years. I needed it to be able to drive onto a trailer the next day to go to Evil Genius Racing for some new door bars on the cage.

One small problem though - California finally got rain. Lots of it. And unfortunately, my shop was out in the middle of a field so the area around it turned into a mud bog. I was not going to drive it in the dirt. So I ended up putting the car on my gojacks in a small patch of concrete in front of the door and tried backing up the trailer. Well, sure enough my truck struggles with the mud in 2WD [it's a dually] so I unhooked the trailer and we hooked my landlords 4x4 Chevy up. Well, she gets her truck and the trailer stuck much worse. It ended up being a giant fiasco, but I got her out with my dually courtesy of a long rope, than I had to physically lift the trailer and rotate it 180 degrees, dragged that out with my dually too and we ended up using a bunch of stacked plywood to back my truck and the trailer up to the car and finally got it loaded. I was supposed to be at John's shop at noon, but ended up there at 530. He stayed late and finished it.

That night it started to absolutely pour and it continued all week. We were 3 days away from the race. There was no way of taking the car back to my shop to finish it because of the mud making it such a pain to load and unload [before I had rented a open trailer to tow it to Sacramento but for the race we were using my friend's enclosed.] Thankfully my parents lent me their garage. Ben came into town and we worked and worked on the car for 3 days straight just about and we got it done and went racing. No theme though.

Here's the thread from that race
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=303671

I'll post updates from here on out in this thread. We are running Sears Pointless next month and I am in the midst of getting the car all ready for that.
 
The 240's lines and flat paint would have almost been self cell-shading




But I went with gloss. Decals should be printed in the next few days

Overall I am satisfied for having spent less than $50 and using rattlecans
 
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This car is sick! I'm glad I could help with the funding lol. The turbo and header fits awesome on my car!
 
Looking good - I'm getting excited to pilot this sucker at Sonoma.

I might even try passing on the outside in turn 4. No one passes on the outside! But we've got a really good set of matched set of tires. The tires are matched perfect and staggered special.
 
Looking good - I'm getting excited to pilot this sucker at Sonoma.

I might even try passing on the outside in turn 4. No one passes on the outside! But we've got a really good set of matched set of tires. The tires are matched perfect and staggered special.

Will you PM me your digits? I want to coordinate rolling up there.
 
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