... January 2022

More offside, inside photos...

... January 2022

Offside, outside photos.

May 2022

After the welding was carried out at the start of the year, the car went into dry storage. With it booked in for mapping with Leighton in June, the plan was to get it out in May and start carrying out the a engine work - the 2.4 head

This ported and polished 2.4 head was sold without exhaust and inlet valves and so as we're building a turbo car, we went for Nimonic exhaust valves and they took an age to arrive. As Joe couldn't kick the head rebuild off until these were in hand, this delay pushed us right up against the mapping date. I had bought the head itself off Leighton for a steal last year and when it arrived, Joe found he had to scavenge a few missing parts together from his own parts division to complete it. With everything ready, it was all sent off to a local workshop to rebuild the head.

Going back to the previous issues with the car when mapping was carried out previously, Leighton believed it was caused by a high compression, the old head having been skimmed too many times. For this reason, I asked Joe to test it himself before and after the rebuild. Compression came in at 150psi across all 5 cylinders and, althout this is perfectly acceptable for a good engine, it was just too high when pushing the boost up. Having fitted the new 2.4 head, compression came in at 135-140psi allowing us a lot mnore headroom with boost. Relief!

While the head was off, Joe also ported and matched the exhaust manifold and carried out a bit off future proofing for me - although the car was having a dual port aquamist system fitted for now, I have plans for a direct port system and so Joe drilled the fittings and blanked therm all off. This will save me time having it all pulled apart again when I inevitably opt for a bigger turbo at some later date and start pushing the envelope even further.

Additional work carried out during this phase also included tidying up where the welder had left off (undersealing the welded areas, fitting a new wheel arch that the welder had carved up and replacing the exhaust tunnelling plate to fix my leaning handbrake).

Oh, and Snoopy needed a new MOT, which Joe was able to arrange

With a holiday in Somerset booked that just happened to coincide with the week the car needed to go in for mapping , everything was all set to finally get this engine singing

June 2022

The engine is mapped

Leighton had a few issues mapping the car which meant it wasn’t finished on the Friday and ready for collection on Saturday as planned. This meant I had to kill some time in the area on the day. However, when the issues had been resolved, he said it was responding much more readily to tuning at last. With the compression now reduced by the new head, the new head itself allowing the engine to breathe a little more freely and, of course, the Aquamist keeping the temps a lot lower, it eventually made 448bhp and 370lbs/ft, up from 416bhp and 328lb/ft from the previous map.

The final upgrades to complete the engine rebuild and tune then:
• Aquamist HFS3-v3.1 system with a dual port install
• 10L Aquamist water/meth tank (internally baffled/drilled), with bracket. The tank and Aquamist pump are mounted in the boot to help spread weight to the rear of the car

I then drove it to Must Weld Motorsport who would be fitting the cage and left the car before heading home. At this point I discovered a few issues with the car that would need rectifying. First, the steering wheel was off centre and, worryingly, it seemed to shift even more when maneuvering at full lock. When driving straight, although the wheel was 'off' it wouldn't move anymore. At this point though, the knackered Vibra Technics gearbox mount made itself known as the driveshaft started knocking. It'll all be alright in the end!

July 2022

The roll cage

I took a trip over to Must Weld Motorsport on Monday 4th July to carry out a few minor jobs on the Coupé to allow the cage builder access, to discuss the required spec in person and to get measure dup for seat fitting. Jamie likes to build the cage around the seat / driver to ensure everything works together.
Although a ‘belt and braces’ approach to building a roll cage would be the best way to maximise torsional rigidity, it would also make the car heavy. As I wanted to strike an efficient balance between rigidity and weight, before getting into diminishing returns, we had a lengthy discussion on what was and wasn’t required. After discussing just about every brace I’d seen online and what it was for, we went full circle and eventually settled for a fairly straightforward 6-point cage.

The spec then:
• It’s a custom-made, weld-in cage in CDS with 2.5mm wall bars
• The main hoop and harness bar is in 45mm, while all other bars are in 38mm
• The rear struts are mounted to the boot floor above the subframe is mounted. As Jamie points out, there seems to be no sense in mounting it to a wheel tub if suspension isn’t mounted to it. Best to put it where the load will be to make the cage take the weight and not the chassis.
• It has an ‘X’ in the rear stays to prevent lateral movement in the main hoop, but won’t have gussets.
• It features double door bars in Jamie’s ‘easy access’ style – I asked him if he could line these up with the slashes on the door. When I asked for this, he gave me exactly the look you would imagine he would… but did it anyway – I think it really sets it off! Two bars are used to maximise side impact protection but there is no X that can result in a bar pointing into the cabin if notched against the first diagonal. You can bend two bars to make an ‘X’ but then access is restricted.
• A harness bar is installed on the main hoop (as opposed to between the rear stays) to keep the harnesses as short as possible, and they line up exactly half way up the harness holes in the seats to ensure they hold the driver in place and put no pressure on the seats in the event of an accident.
• The cage is super tight to the shell and welded to it wherever possible. This ensures that it functions with the chassis (rather than moving about within it!) and also keeps it as far aware from the occupants as possible.
• FIA spec seat mounts have also been fitted. This means the original seat mounts and box section are no longer required – they’ve been cut down for now but I’ll have to drill the spot welds to clean it all up. Jamie measured me up for fitting for the best placement of these but I will have a degree of adjustment using the Sparco FIA Steel Side Mount Brackets. Annoyingly, there is little to no adjustment in height with these brackets in combination with my seat, so I may have to look elsewhere if this is an issue.

November 2022

Catching a 6am train from Colchester, I was able to get a lift from Joe at the other end and got to his unit at 10am before hopping in the Coupé for a trip over to Hereford to pick up a set of arch liners and water meth tank that had been left at the roll cage fitter unit some months before. After heading back to Joe’s we set about refitting the Aquamist tank and making the car fit for the long drive home. I’d also arranged to collect a few items from Joe’s parts department, highlights including a complete dash an undertray and a cup holder, as well as boxes of all the old parts that had been removed during recent works. After a couple of near starts and a false start, I was able to get underway and spent the next 4 hours in a mixture of stop start traffic or motorway speed driving, neither of which was much fun in a car full of loose rattling parts and no sound deadening. The final list of work carried out at this latest major milestone then:

Fix vibrating EGT probe port
20v Turbo late model front water rail coolant T piece
FCSS custom 63mm stainless turbo to intercooler pipe
FCSS custom 75mm stainless charge pipe
NGK plugs (8s)
Nylon gear selector base and 2x roller bearings
Battery in the boot mod
2nd hand steering rack
Power steering fluid
Eye bolt mounts (for harness lap belts) welded to centre tunnel
Protection applied underneath seat mounts and eye bolt mounts
Replacement rear arch liners
Replace failed Vibra Technics rear gearbox mount with ‘competition’ version
Fit new 20vTurbo Facet thermostat (to address water temp gauge issue)
New wishbones and drop links
Supply new wishbone pinch bolts and ARB Nyloc nuts
FCSS tank straps
Re-wire dash lights
Aquamist system refitted

Parts / consumables collected for later:
Tin of Zinc spray (for roll cage welds)
Undertray (and spares to reinforce after cutting it to fit)
Rear brake bias spring
New dash
Millers CFS 10w60 oil
3D Printed cup holder
New centre console (I have plans to modify two of these in order to move the head unit position. More to come later)

I can confirm that initial impressions of the steering feel and handling post roll cage are that incredible gains have been made. However, due to inclement weather conditions becoming the norm rather than the exception now, I have taken the car off the road already and started work on the interior in earnest. There's also the small matter of it sounding like a WW2 battle tank with no interior or sound deadening to speak of. The interior rennovation work has now started and will be complete well in time for the spring when it will be released back into the wild. More on the progress of this to follow...