172 Race Car
This was all written at the time it happened and posted elsewhere.
As most of you will know 2 years ago I bought a Phase 1 from Daniel to use as a track day car. It did turn into a bit of a major project/obsession and as been a lot of fun.
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296190
Its not that I’m getting bored with track days but I need the thrill of competition. Tony has been doing the track days with me for the last few years, as you know he used to race Clio’s in Hungary. He also wanted to do something more.
Tony, Hungary 2006
Us at Bedford on a track day
So throughout 2009 id been saying we were going to go hillclimbing in the car in 2010. I’ve been interested in it for about 10 years and always fancied a go. But when we looked into the cost verses the time actually driving, it didn’t seem to be good value for money. That and an airfield sprint day I did back at the beginning of August kind of made up my mind that it wasn’t for me. Waiting around for 2 hours to drive for 90seconds. Obviously it’s a completely different discipline from track driving but I’ve enjoyed circuits so much that’s where we belong. Were not ruling out doing some hill climbs but its not what we are focussing on.
So as you have probably guessed from the thread title we are going to RACE! :race:
Loads of research was done into a series that would suit us and finally settled on the ‘Tin Tops’ series run by the Classic sports car club. The races are 40mins long with a pit stop for driver change. Meaning we can split the costs involved. We may also be taking it in turns to do a 20min, single driver, multiclass race at the end of each race meeting at the same circuit.
So with that decided we needed to race prep the car. A cage was needed as well as other safety equipment.
We started looking around for cages and then I spotted a caged phase 1 shell for sale on here (You all know who’s it was)
I jokingly sent Tony a message suggesting we should buy it and before I knew it we were in his works Shogun travelling to Warrington to pick it up.
We decided that it was better to build a race car from this using my 172 track car as a donor, instead of sticking a cage in mine. (My wife disagrees)
This meant I could do what I’ve always wanted. Build a Track/Race car from an almost bare shell! Effectively reshelling a track car that was already very well sorted and can lap very quickly. This means we can get even more weight off it, although we may struggle to get it anywhere near the weight of the current car (879kgs) due to the climbing frame inside it.. and make everything look nice. Cant wait!
20th August 2009 - Collecting the Shell
We picked up the new shell today. It was down the drive with only the rear axle and sub frame on it. Getting it out, onto the road and onto the trailer was a 2 hour ordeal involving trolley jacks, axle stands and a lot of effort.
And we were off.
By the time we got back it was almost the next day so we left it on the trailer till it was daylight.
21st August 2009 - Unloading
With the help of a pallet truck and some of Tony’s work mates, we got it off the trailer and onto the driveway where it will live for the next few months.
The shell has an OMP cage fitted, we need to add a few more bars to it and redo some of the welding to make it safer/acceptable to the scrutineers. Ideally we would of liked the cage to go as close to the A pillar as possible (I hate dash dodgers) But this is a budget build so we cant have it all. The main thing was to get the car as neat, safe and reliable as possible for a reasonable price to get us on the track.
So with the shell being far from bare we set about removing everything. There was no point in doing a full rebuild if we were not going to do it properly.
Dash wiring loom (You would be amazed at how heavy this is!)
So the interior is stripped of everything next time we will tackle the outside and engine bay.
25th August 2009 - Subframe
Tony took off the sub frame today and gave it a dam good clean with a jet wash. It will be stripped down and painted before being built back up with everything checked or replaced as necessary.
27th August 2009 - Engine Bay
This is how the car looked at lunchtime today.
The rest of the bolt on parts needed to be removed from the car. Starting in the engine bay we took off the wiring loom, front wings, lights, wiper linkage and brake servo/master cylinder. Leaving the front end back to the bare bones…………
A few other little bits and pieces were removed, gear linkage, heat shielding etc. Then we moved on to the back of the car to get the axle out. The captive bolts on the off side just wouldn’t play the game so we had to use mole grips to hold them still. The nearside came off easily.
The shell was pretty bare by now with just a few clips and things left on it. The only major thing remaining was the fuel tank. Again the captive nuts either stayed put and were undone easy or caused a bit of a headache.
So there it is, ready for the next step. We are going to weld some extra door bars into it and fit a harness bar across the back roll hoop.
We filled the 'Gator' with parts to put into storage ready for the rebuild process.
28th August 2009 - Suspension Prep
Tony has been busy prepping some of the suspension components. They have all been jet washed, rubbed down and given a coat of hamerite. We decided against having them sandblasted/acid dipped as its not a show car and it doesnt justify the expense.
2nd September 2009 - Real Work Begins
Today, it was obvious the weather was going to be against us. Rain and more rain. Good job we managed to get the car into the workshop. Not easy with out any suspension on the car.
We tried a little experiment…………….
Didn’t really work that well. So we went to plan B.
On the front, one of our chaps made up a really neat tow hitch.
It bolts to the front cross member and with some strapping is very secure.
This made the shell into a trailer so we could move it about with the ‘Gator’. Only problem was the rear end. Just to get it into the workshop this time, we used a pallet and truck. Not ideal and was a little bit of headache. Did the job but a more permanent solution was needed.
So with the shell indoors, just before the rain came, we got it on the ramp to make a start on some real jobs.
Sideways Danny (aka. the homeless looking one) had come over with his welder and set about improving the roll cage. We wanted some more door bars added to increase the side impact protection. Starting on the nearside, everything was carefully measured and cut to size from some new, high quality roll cage tubing.
The same was then done to the off side door bar.
We are very pleased with how they have turned out. There is quite a bit left to do on the cage, could of quite happily carried on into the small hours but we all have work tomorrow.
While Danny was busy welding we built the back axle up quickly. Its not permanent as we still have work to do. We plan to replace the bushes etc. But what it does do is remove the need for the pallets and make the shell into proper, towable trailer. We can now move it into the workshop every time we need to work on it. As we don’t have any shocks we used some wire just as a tether to stop the springs falling out every time we jack the car up.
The whole front end was inspected for rust. There was quite a few areas of surface rust bubbling up the paint. Every thing was wire brushed to remove the loose stuff and given a coat or red oxide.
Quite a bit done today then. Made it so much easier for us to progress further on from this point. Now all that was left was to tow it back out of the workshop so some proper work can get done tomorrow.
As most of you will know 2 years ago I bought a Phase 1 from Daniel to use as a track day car. It did turn into a bit of a major project/obsession and as been a lot of fun.
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296190
Its not that I’m getting bored with track days but I need the thrill of competition. Tony has been doing the track days with me for the last few years, as you know he used to race Clio’s in Hungary. He also wanted to do something more.
Tony, Hungary 2006
Us at Bedford on a track day
So throughout 2009 id been saying we were going to go hillclimbing in the car in 2010. I’ve been interested in it for about 10 years and always fancied a go. But when we looked into the cost verses the time actually driving, it didn’t seem to be good value for money. That and an airfield sprint day I did back at the beginning of August kind of made up my mind that it wasn’t for me. Waiting around for 2 hours to drive for 90seconds. Obviously it’s a completely different discipline from track driving but I’ve enjoyed circuits so much that’s where we belong. Were not ruling out doing some hill climbs but its not what we are focussing on.
So as you have probably guessed from the thread title we are going to RACE! :race:
Loads of research was done into a series that would suit us and finally settled on the ‘Tin Tops’ series run by the Classic sports car club. The races are 40mins long with a pit stop for driver change. Meaning we can split the costs involved. We may also be taking it in turns to do a 20min, single driver, multiclass race at the end of each race meeting at the same circuit.
So with that decided we needed to race prep the car. A cage was needed as well as other safety equipment.
We started looking around for cages and then I spotted a caged phase 1 shell for sale on here (You all know who’s it was)
I jokingly sent Tony a message suggesting we should buy it and before I knew it we were in his works Shogun travelling to Warrington to pick it up.
We decided that it was better to build a race car from this using my 172 track car as a donor, instead of sticking a cage in mine. (My wife disagrees)
This meant I could do what I’ve always wanted. Build a Track/Race car from an almost bare shell! Effectively reshelling a track car that was already very well sorted and can lap very quickly. This means we can get even more weight off it, although we may struggle to get it anywhere near the weight of the current car (879kgs) due to the climbing frame inside it.. and make everything look nice. Cant wait!
20th August 2009 - Collecting the Shell
We picked up the new shell today. It was down the drive with only the rear axle and sub frame on it. Getting it out, onto the road and onto the trailer was a 2 hour ordeal involving trolley jacks, axle stands and a lot of effort.
And we were off.
By the time we got back it was almost the next day so we left it on the trailer till it was daylight.
21st August 2009 - Unloading
With the help of a pallet truck and some of Tony’s work mates, we got it off the trailer and onto the driveway where it will live for the next few months.
The shell has an OMP cage fitted, we need to add a few more bars to it and redo some of the welding to make it safer/acceptable to the scrutineers. Ideally we would of liked the cage to go as close to the A pillar as possible (I hate dash dodgers) But this is a budget build so we cant have it all. The main thing was to get the car as neat, safe and reliable as possible for a reasonable price to get us on the track.
So with the shell being far from bare we set about removing everything. There was no point in doing a full rebuild if we were not going to do it properly.
Dash wiring loom (You would be amazed at how heavy this is!)
So the interior is stripped of everything next time we will tackle the outside and engine bay.
25th August 2009 - Subframe
Tony took off the sub frame today and gave it a dam good clean with a jet wash. It will be stripped down and painted before being built back up with everything checked or replaced as necessary.
27th August 2009 - Engine Bay
This is how the car looked at lunchtime today.
The rest of the bolt on parts needed to be removed from the car. Starting in the engine bay we took off the wiring loom, front wings, lights, wiper linkage and brake servo/master cylinder. Leaving the front end back to the bare bones…………
A few other little bits and pieces were removed, gear linkage, heat shielding etc. Then we moved on to the back of the car to get the axle out. The captive bolts on the off side just wouldn’t play the game so we had to use mole grips to hold them still. The nearside came off easily.
The shell was pretty bare by now with just a few clips and things left on it. The only major thing remaining was the fuel tank. Again the captive nuts either stayed put and were undone easy or caused a bit of a headache.
So there it is, ready for the next step. We are going to weld some extra door bars into it and fit a harness bar across the back roll hoop.
We filled the 'Gator' with parts to put into storage ready for the rebuild process.
28th August 2009 - Suspension Prep
Tony has been busy prepping some of the suspension components. They have all been jet washed, rubbed down and given a coat of hamerite. We decided against having them sandblasted/acid dipped as its not a show car and it doesnt justify the expense.
2nd September 2009 - Real Work Begins
Today, it was obvious the weather was going to be against us. Rain and more rain. Good job we managed to get the car into the workshop. Not easy with out any suspension on the car.
We tried a little experiment…………….
Didn’t really work that well. So we went to plan B.
On the front, one of our chaps made up a really neat tow hitch.
It bolts to the front cross member and with some strapping is very secure.
This made the shell into a trailer so we could move it about with the ‘Gator’. Only problem was the rear end. Just to get it into the workshop this time, we used a pallet and truck. Not ideal and was a little bit of headache. Did the job but a more permanent solution was needed.
So with the shell indoors, just before the rain came, we got it on the ramp to make a start on some real jobs.
Sideways Danny (aka. the homeless looking one) had come over with his welder and set about improving the roll cage. We wanted some more door bars added to increase the side impact protection. Starting on the nearside, everything was carefully measured and cut to size from some new, high quality roll cage tubing.
The same was then done to the off side door bar.
We are very pleased with how they have turned out. There is quite a bit left to do on the cage, could of quite happily carried on into the small hours but we all have work tomorrow.
While Danny was busy welding we built the back axle up quickly. Its not permanent as we still have work to do. We plan to replace the bushes etc. But what it does do is remove the need for the pallets and make the shell into proper, towable trailer. We can now move it into the workshop every time we need to work on it. As we don’t have any shocks we used some wire just as a tether to stop the springs falling out every time we jack the car up.
The whole front end was inspected for rust. There was quite a few areas of surface rust bubbling up the paint. Every thing was wire brushed to remove the loose stuff and given a coat or red oxide.
Quite a bit done today then. Made it so much easier for us to progress further on from this point. Now all that was left was to tow it back out of the workshop so some proper work can get done tomorrow.
