Graham's summer 172 cup track car

[frayz]

Thanks matey. Yeah just a hone and 0.006” skim on the sump and top deck to clean it up. Standard pistons cleaned up with new rings to make it nice and fresh in the bores.

Sounds ideal.
I’ve not yet looked into it but tempted once I get some garage space back to rebuild a motor for mine just to drop in when the time comes for a refresh. A standard rebuild can’t be that expensive I imagine.

 

[Martin.]

Sounds ideal.
I’ve not yet looked into it but tempted once I get some garage space back to rebuild a motor for mine just to drop in when the time comes for a refresh. A standard rebuild can’t be that expensive I imagine.

You'd be surprised haha!!

 

[djp66]

I have bolt envy

 

[frayz]

You'd be surprised haha!!

Lol, I wouldn’t 😂😂

 

[GrahamS]

accidentally posted my update half composed! One coming in a moment!

 

[GrahamS]

Few quick updates while I'm on the PC. I've had a couple of days off work to try and make some headway and keep to my schedule but even with this extra time it's not easy!

Got the turbo back from Alex on Saturday. He changed the backplate after I broke it getting the core out of the turbine housing. At the same time he put a couple of new boots on the driveshafts I intend to use. The O/S one is a 182 cup pack item and the N/S swapped for a PH1 shaft (10mm shorter) due to the gripper. Unfortunately the tripod on the ph1 shaft was a bit worse for wear and after initially trying to purchase a replacement the internal spline count (22) made it almost impossible. Fortunately I have a fair few battered shafts laying around and managed to rebuild the ph1 tripod by carefully removing the circlip on each roller bearing and re-assembling it with good replacements.

I've now got the main ABS unit in the car. Unfortunately it fell off the chassis rail when I was mocking it up and the N/S brake pipe got bent so I'll be replacing that thanks to @Mazz's dci having an accessible spare.

The last couple of days I've mainly been doing wiring which, as always, is a massive task and takes hours. The spec is still basic but with some creature comforts I idiotically removed when I first stripping the loom all those years ago.

Dash Loom:

• Add in glovebox light
• Cruise control components:
  • Clutch switch
  • Cruise/speed limiter switch
  • Cruise control buttons
• Replace generic 12v socket with OEM socket
• Repair EPAS canbus connection
• Repair EPAS dash light connection
• Add 12v super seal sockets for:
  • Boost solenoid
  • Oil temp and pressure gauge
  • Shift light
  • USB for GoPro power and panel mount USB hub
• FIA 6 pole cut off

Rear loom:

• Door sensors
• Detachable loom for interior lights.

The interior lights are going to use the standard UCH connections through an on-off-on switch. Position one will be battery protected and the second a timed circuit which will illuminate when the car is unlocked or turned on until the doors are opened. Battery protection is to make sure you don't drain the battery leaving the light on. I've put the front and rear interior lights on different circuits so you can mix and match the modes or have them off all together. Sounds complicated but it's just a normal interior light using 2 pins in the UCH. The lights are cheap DRLs from ebay which are incredibly bright, however, photos will appear when the car has 12v running through it again!

The shift light, boost solenoid and gauges will be on a separate loom with switches to turn them off if required. You'd be amazed how blinding the shift light is at night! These are going on a separate loom to keep the OEM style of having fully detachable looms.

In the engine loom I've still got to wire in the piggy back but have started by repairing a number of wires with broken and split insulation. Unfortunately some of the conduit has gone brittle in places but providing it stays in the current condition it will serve me fine. The engine bay loom is now in and re-wrapped after having the EPAS power wire added and heater matrix wires changed for cup compatible items.

Today I changed a couple of the big ends I stupidly scored when assembling the engine. I mixed up second and third rod caps and when torqued down we knew something wasn't right, quickly identified my failing, and rectified it. Unfortunately the bearings were damaged at this point and as we didn't have spares, assembled the rest of the engine so I knew how. Conceivably the bearings could have been used but the thought of a spun bearing was keeping me up at night so they had to be changed. Everything checked out still in spec with the crank in great shape and bearing clearance spot on so it went back together with new new bearings on 2nd and 3rd rods and the sump resealed. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mention this mishap but it's a good learning point for others wanting to build their own engine. Annoyingly I did mark the rod caps, as Alex advised, but the pen I used rubber off when I cleaned them to within an inch of their life. I'll use a punch next time!

That's it for now. I've got the gearbox back and an RTS turbo clutch so will hopefully make a big step toward having the engine in the car this weekend.
Photo courtesy of Mark.

Mapping is in 4 weeks....little time with a great deal to do.

 

[GrahamS]

Time for an update on here as I can't tolerate being in the garage for a minute more!

Progress over the past couple of weeks has been a little slower than planned but thankfully I'd built some flexibility in to the schedule which now means we've used up all the extra time to get jobs done. Thankfully the end is in sight and now only a few small jobs remain. To everyone else it will look like a lot of progress given where I was at the end of the last update!

Engine
Over the past two weekend everything has come together nicely in the engine bay. Before putting the engine in there was a lot of preparation to do. We started by covering the vapour blasted parts with ACF50 in an effort to prevent them corroding, however, I'm certain you're only hear to read about one thing, turbo time. I've opted for almost the same set up as Mart's car but after his turbo studs wound loose, I've got a slightly different nut set up. The issue on his car wasn't the stud stretching but instead the stud winding out of the manifold, the weak link. As a result I've used Blackcat Motorsport inconel studs, aerotight lock nuts (13mm head) and genuine Nissan locking tabs for the nuts, I'm lead to believe this is a bullet proof set up and better than the original lock washers and high temp Knut set up I had.

Plumbing for the turbo consists of 3 ply 10mm silicone hose mated to 3/8" banjo fittings on the turbo core. The oil feed consists of a number of hydraulic fittings. M14 male to a 7/16ths UNF 3 way swivel tee piece. On the tee is a 7/16ths male to male and a 7/16ths to M14 female fitting, the latter being for the original oil pressure sensor. AN4 fittings are 7/16 UNF and the swivel tee allows the oil feed to be orientated as required. The main oil feed consists of PFTE stainless steel hose into a restrictor fitting for the ball bearing turbo. On the drain side it's all AN10 fittings which is massive for a ball bearing turbo but definitely won't cause any issues!

The turbo is clocked as much as possible to allow for siphoning of the coolant through the core. As we did on Mart's car, due to the clocking of the turbo the wastegate has been adjusted, with a huge hammer, to take account of the differing compressor housing rotation relative to the turbine housing.

The downpipe is an Engine Dynamics unit, not what I originally intended, but something which became a necessity. As above, the drain is so big it fouled the Scorpion downpipe which wraps very tightly around the turbo, not to mention it was cracked on the weld. I've gone for the 182 set up so I can continue to use my link pipe and existing catalytic converter. Both turbine housing gaskets are super thick Slide Motorsport items and should prove reliable.

For the clutch, on recommendation from Kam racing I've gone for an RTS turbo setup which is torque rated for a level I will never even get close to! It's a hybrid clutch with paddles on one side and organic on the other. The Helix I was originally looking at had a huge lead time which wasn't feasible for the timescale of this project. Hopefully the RTS clutch will be good as I've never seen one used or even heard of the brand!

The engine loom had all of the AEM wires put in and fed through a Delphi bulkhead grommet, labeled up and read to be soldered to the AEM plugs. We took particular care with freshly powdercoated parts to sand the coating off any mounting faces so we wouldn't lose torque as the paint squashes. Mart did an excellent job of cutting a very pretty bit of Nimbus G2 heatshield for the back of the bay and we put heat sheathing over the brake booster vacuum pipe. As you have to do on turbo converted cars, the bottom part of the bulkhead brake clips were removed and the clutch cable was attached to the brake pipe above. Being careful not to risk damaging the pipe, I covered it in hose.

Finally, once everything was assembled it was time to get the engine in the car!

Now the engine is in the car I've been able to get the intercooler and radiator in. The oil cooler has been mounted with the custom laser cut stainless steel brackets which whilst they aren't perfect, mount the cooler in a good location and keep the cores close together. I have an AP10 goldplug in the sump to catch any filings. The engine is filled with Millers competition running in oil and the gearbox with Redline MTL.

 

[GrahamS]

Interior
The interior has now been finished off nicely and even if I say so myself the dash pod is wicked. As always, I've wired everything up to maintain the OEM modular wiring and added connection blocks to the pod to make sure it could be removed easily. On the pod I've got a switch for the SPA gauge, shift light, interior lights (front and rear), boost solenoid and EPAS. I have a fused line which passes power over the terminals when the cut off it out but is rated high enough to keep the central locking going. Unfortunately this stops the cut off working properly and as I found out, blows up the ground resistor when you remove the kill switch key! Looking back it was pretty obvious but I'll find a solution which allows both to work. There's also a USB power hub, EPAS control switch, OBD2 connector, 12V socket and GoPro mount on the top. I intend to make this into a magnetic phone mount for satnav. I've changed over the steering wheel from a car I broke for spares. Pretty sure it's identical to an OMP Targa. I installed interior lights on the ceiling so I can see what I'm doing in the dark. They're amazingly bright and only cost £1.50 a piece!

Sadly I haven't had time for a full LED conversion but most importantly I've done the clocks to bring it up to date. The other lit items will be done in the future when spare time is slightly more abundant. The dash is a flocked one and much nicer than the old OEM unit. We've changed my passenger harness to a 6 point Hans ready Schroth Profi II to match the drivers ones.

The battery is now properly wired through a 150a mega fuse and the fuel pump has been swapped out for a Kemso ebay special.

Running gear
The most exciting bit in this section is the front subframe which is now looking pretty and back in the car. The wishbones and ARB use Powerflex Black Series bushes. Bottom ball joints are new Lemforder and I've retained the almost new tie rods and track rod ends.

All the ABS lines and sensors are now on and plugged in. The rear beam, also Powerflex Black Series, has been painted and had new genuine brake lines. The flexi line bracket was powdercoated and as there are a few signs of corrosion I'm hoping to do a rear end restoration in the future. A headlight level sensor has also been installed for the Xenons I'll be putting on the front.

On the rear I've swapped out the Balance Motorsport rear ARB for a Pure Motorsport 22mm one and will be interested to see how it feels. I much prefer how this one mounts as it was always a pain to line up the rear brackets when tightening the shock bolts.

Sadly I was provided with some rubbish hand brake cables which had a lug so big they wouldn't fit through the hole on the rear axle. The First Line ones have now turned up and fit a treat.

First Start
Today we managed to start the car for the first time and god almighty did it leak coolant from everywhere. The turbo hose clamp I'd somehow seated incorrectly, the clamp on the bottom expansion bottle hose didn't clamp hard enough and I'd forgotten to tighten up the coolant temp sensor! After these were sorted we ran the car for a good time, making sure to monitor the oil pressure and coolant levels. All in all it was a no dramas start up. It did briefly misfire as some air worked its way out of the fuel rail but after that worked like a charm and I'm very pleased.

Tomorrow it's final assembly before I take it up to AW Motorworks to have a custom link pipe and MOT done before mapping on Saturday. At this point I'm very eager to get the project done as it's put a halt on everything else I do in the few spare hours I've had! The end result is keeping me going and even though this post is huge, I am leaving out a lot of the smaller jobs which also take hours!

I hope the next update will have a graph to share, but until then, thanks for reading and for all the kind comments I've been getting on Instagram

G

 

[GrahamS]

Let start where I left off, at the end of last weekend with quite a list of things to do. After having them for years, with the removal of the bonnet release cable I had no choice but to finally fit some Aerocatches, god that's a rubbish job!

Sadly on the Sunday despite my best efforts I just couldn't get the car ready to drop at Alex's in the evening and decided to push it back to Monday. If you follow us on Instagram you'll know that despite everything being in place, we hit a roadblock.

First up wheels. I bought a set of gold OZ F1s last summer to make the BG 182 really pop but as that project never happened I was hoping they'd look good on the Cup, which they do! Unfortunately they don't fit the front and after lowering the car to the ground and trying to roll it out the garage we found the tyres were locked against the strut and the inside of the wheel had destroyed the ABS sensor bracket, excellent. Not only that but the replacement o/s hub was giving crazy camber and the car look stanced. We quickly concluded the front hub was bust and swapped around the camber washers on the AST and put a pair of et35 TDs on the front to cure the rubbing issue

Then, at 9pm on a work night, we rolled the car out the garage started it up, tried to select a gear, but no, the car wasn't having any of it. I tried to press down on the pedal really firmly, checked the linkage and in the end had to admit defeat. A quick buzz to Alex and within 24 hours the car turned up to his on the back of a trailer, a blessing in disguise as he found the O/S driveshaft leaking my precious Redline MTL out of the inner boot.

Alex spent a couple of days on the car sorting out the bits I'd run out of time to do. He made a sleeved decat for the car, sleeved cat for the MOT, adjusted the downpipe, set the hand brake properly, bled the brakes, repaired the washer bottle, replaced the driveshaft boot, solved the leaking sandwich plate replaced the battery with a PC680 as the powervamp unit was duff, had the MOT done and lent me a o/s/r hub with a working ABS sensor whilst my replacement was being delivered. The clutch was an easy fix in the end and because I'd put a new cable on the ratchet in the pedal box needed resetting. Apparently you pull the cable all the way out and depress the clutch a couple of times to get the perfect adjustment.

On Saturday morning we headed up to AWM bright and early, ready for mapping. The car already had a base map on it which Andy at Engine Dynamics had loaded on and posted back to me a number of weeks before so only a short amount of time was needed on the dyno. I won't fib, on the way to mapping the car didn't feel right and I felt it stutter once or twice so I mentioned it to Andy@ED and we sat down in the cafe, me anxiously waiting to hear something wasn't right. Thankfully no such words were uttered and after a couple of hours it was ready to take home having made 242bhp and 219lbft without any issues, and even more importantly, the engine I built didn't blow up! The map definitely needs more work at partial throttle as it's a bit of all or nothing at the moment, however, that's something to tackle down the line.

After mapping it was back to Alex's to drop the running in oil and replace it with some Millers Nanodrive 5w-40 NT, swap over the filter, slightly adjust the exhaust and swap on my replacement stub axle. The drive home was horrendous and we ended up going through the Blackwall tunnel at a snails pace. As the tracking was miles off I really couldn't give it many beans but it had every hint of being savagely fast. Today I tried to resolve the tracking, swapped the hub out to find it was 2 degrees bent, put in a new Bosch ABS sensor and did a rush job on a string alignment. This has seen it track a lot better but the steering wheel is still out a bit. It's a very difficult job to do in a cramped garage! I have now been able to drive it flat out though and holy moly is it fast. With no interior and the turbo spooling right next to the bulkhead It's a an extremely full on and sensory experience, like nothing I've experienced before. The noise is just crazy and the speed is almost so fast it catches you out!

It's Snetterton next weekend for a shake down and there are quite a few bits to get done before then but I should be able to squeeze them in during the week.

• Brakes need bleeding again as the system was dry and there is some residual air still in there.
• Fit passengers seat
• Have alignment properly set up
• Find very annoying vibration from back of the car
• Make the cruise control circuit
• Refit brake ducts
• Fit PMS studs
• Fit new bonnet seal
• Attach Hans posts to helmet

Although it's not 100% complete, now it works I can offer my thanks and compliments to to those, which without, this project wouldn't have been such a success. First is a massive thanks to @Martin. for all the OCD painting, torque sealing, filming, assembling, extremely helpful spannering and company in the garage over the last 9 weeks. We're both glad it done and 2020 can have a summer get to actually go round a track instead of just thinking about it! It's been great to have such kind comments coming in on Instagram too, everyone has had nothing but nice words which certainly keeps me going on a long late night in the garage. I've also worked with some fantastic companies to get this work done:

• Vulcan Engineering - all the engine machine work
• TSR Vapour blasting - all the zinc coating, blasting and powder coating
• SSS Autos - @stevem42 who supplied me loads of parts in record time
• AW Motorworks - @AlexW - gave me tons of advice, kindly let me build the engine at his and got me out of a sticky situation in the last week.
• @Kev@KAM - excellent advice on the clutch and when the going got tough and I thought the clutch was broken, didn't falter and offered his help.

The first photo taken on 21st December and the second 16th February really show how far this car has come. Everything you used to touch was covered in grease, oil and filth, quite a stark contrast to now. It's been a roller coaster, expensive and a huge test of endurance but I'm pleased to say she's now ready to take some abuse on track!

Mileage is as follows:
First engine turn on: 133,893
MOT: 133,905
Mileage before mapping: 133,972
Mileage after mapping: 133,977

 

[frayz]

Superb job fella. Congratulations on a superb end result, a real credit to all your hard work. Enjoy. 🙂👍🏼

 

[Kev@KAM]

When you called deep down I was bricking it ha ha
Glad that was an easy fix. When you didnt call Monday I saw that as a good omen!
The turbo build looks crazy good. I keep thinking this is what I want to do to my 182 but I must get a diff first.

 

[VenomUK]

Awesome build, and that little oil cooler hanger

 

[Mazz]

Never doubted you’d pull this off, well done!

 

[David172]

Looks mega, got many track days planned/in mind for this summer? Would be nice to see this on track or even get overtaken by it.

 

[Radugns]

Great car mate! Nice to go through all pages!

 

[Mbeau]

Got to have a look over this at the weekend and the engine bay is 😍😍😍
Looks like it came from the factory with a turbo! Dash pod looks stunning. Awsome build 👍

 

[GrahamS]

Thank you everyone for the kind comments

I'm a bit behind the videos so here is the one of me building the engine



Snetterton 29th February

In the build to Saturday there were still a few small things to sort and thankfully I had a couple of spare days leave to get them done.
First up was the tracking. I did do this in the garage which usually is no problem but unfortunately due to the o/s/f not being perfectly on the turn plate and me accidentally knocking the strings I didn't get it spot on. Luckily not too far from mine there's a company which has a Hunter Elite and they sorted out my boo boos. I was pleased to find the new rear beam is remarkably good with almost perfect spec toe. When I left the garage the car was still tracking way off but some good tyres pressures sorted that out. Even having been trained on wheel alignment in the past I was shocked at the difference correctly inflated tyres made. The steering wheel went from 20 degrees off to dead on.

The rear exhaust hanger has always been an issue on this car, recently getting worse. All of the captive nuts had gone but the bolts were all loose meaning the hanger would make an awful noise vibrating against the body. I cut off the heads off the bolts, put in some rather large ruvnuts and now it's nicely secured.

It was also time to get in the PMS stud kit which I'd always lusted after but never taken the plunge on. The threads were cleaned out with a tap, studs fitted and left to dry for a day or so.

I fitted some 5mm spacers to the front wheels which cured the F1s rubbing on the ABS brackets and saw me able to get a full matching set of wheels on the car! If you look back through the photos on this thread that's quite a rare occurrence!

Lastly I made a ropey magnetic phone mount for the dash pod. This was always the idea with this attachment and it works a charm.

Onto the trackday then. Overall it was fantastic and in my warped brain nothing majorly went wrong. In the morning Storm Hugh was passing which after monitoring for the previous week gave us all it promised with 50mph winds and huge rainfall. The track was very wet but I'm pleased to say the Pirelli's I inherited on the gold wheels were more than up to the job and the car wasn't even remotely twitchy like it had been on my last few trackdays. The wet driving reinforced the snappy nature of the throttle and when trying to slowly feed in power coming out of the corner the car would suddenly take off. If you have any lock on both wheels span and understeer ensued. I'm sure this can be sorted with some adjustments to the map.

By mid morning the track started to dry out I was really getting a lick on. I had to keep dropping the tyre pressures as more heat got into the tread blocks and lap times started to tumble. At lunch, after a brief hail storm, I swapped to the AD08Rs and continued to have a great afternoon with almost no hiccups. The brakes were getting to about 350 degrees and it looked like the fluid was boiling. Despite there being a large piece of heat shield between the downpipe and the brake reservoir I think heat is still an issue. Down the line I might look into doing a remote reservoir set up in the skuttle panel but for now it works ok. The brakes also felt a bit dead and now the car is substantially faster I think it may be time to upgrade to some RC8 pads with their significantly higher coefficient of friction.

On my last session the car sounded a bit different to normal and wasn't boosting right. When I pulled back into the pits it was clear I had an exhaust blow. Upon opening the bonnet I was welcomed to the washer pipe melted off, it's remnants sizzling on the exhaust, the PVC coating on the oil feed totally frazzled and some of the wiring showing signs of extreme heat exposure. Unfortunately my rather pricey manifold to turbo copper gasket had completely blown out. @incy-spider watch out for this! The studs and nuts hadn't moved so there was a sizable gap for rather hot exhaust gas to escape. As it was the end of the day we decided the car was just about driveable and limped it to Alex's for replacement of the gaskets. I'm going with OEM Nissan as they're proven reliable and much thinner.

Some of you with a keen eye will notice I've got a new helmet and FHR set up. I thought I'd talk about this because it's all good and well having a nice fast car but it's very easy to look over safety. It's an entry level Bell Sport 5 and Schroth FHR which so far are very very good. I barely even noticed the FHR and the helmet is extremely comfortable. @Martin. and I went to autosport to try on a lot of different hats and this one didn't just come out on top, it was miles ahead of the competition. Even the Stilo ones felt hollow and pants compared to this.

Here's a short couple of laps. I will do a longer video when I've caught up with my editing.



Next update should be a good one. I'm off to the ring in a few weeks so praying for good weather. As always there are a few small things to do before then:

ABS light intermittently comes on
Re-install ABS sensor brackets
Cruise control
USB charger
Re-install brake ducts
Get a cup holder!

Thanks for reading

 

[frayz]

Excellent update as usual.

 

[scullyg40]

Plowing through the field. There's no doubt it's really fast, but what's your opinion about throttle dosage coming out of the corners compared to the ITB setup before?

 

[colesy]

Just read this entire thread, wow the cups come on a long way! Given me extra motivation to do mine now!

 

[GrahamS]

Plowing through the field. There's no doubt it's really fast, but what's your opinion about throttle dosage coming out of the corners compared to the ITB setup before?

It does seem to do that quite easily now! Brakes get cooked constantly slowing down from a higher speed. I just had cams before. Marts had ITBs. The power delivery is totally different. You get a massive hit from about 2500. With the GT2560R you still get quite a linear torque curve which is good.

Just read this entire thread, wow the cups come on a long way! Given me extra motivation to do mine now!

Cheers dude. I really should have just fixed the leaks but it got out of control!

A little update.

New video. Part 3 will be out when I get the car back and can film some extra bits on the wiring. It's very difficult to make an interesting wiring video! In the mean time, here's part 4.



Alex has had the car since Snetterton. Unfortunately one of the seals in the gearbox developed a fault and started to weep oil onto the clutch which had caused my clutch to slip. This isn't the fault of anyone, just a bit of bad luck and a teething problem which can now be remedied. From chatting to a few people it seems like this has happened a few times recently so we suspect a bad batch of seals. I'm pleased it happened on the shakedown and not on a longer trip. The flywheel had quite a few hot spots after slipping so has been refaced and the friction material on the clutch replaced.

Alex also took the turbo off and found the Slide Motorsport gasket totally destroyed. When I fitted this I thought the thickness was good but after reading up some more it actually creates a weak point which has reared it's head here. Definitely don't recommend that piece of junk.

It's a shame we didn't get to go to the ring and do what undoubtedly would have been an incredible dry trackday but there's no question we'll be going over there soon to get the laps done. I have after all got an enormous trackday credit to use!

Last but not least, the more I watch the clips from Snetterton the more I can't ignore the throttle/maps issue. It's like a switch and particularly in the wet when trying to feed the power in slowly coming out of a corner, all of a sudden it has tons of power, like the ECU goes into a totally different part of the map and thinks I want to go flat out. It's quite evident this happens at the point between making almost no boost, to making some boost. This actually slows me down as I have to be extremely ginger on the throttle.
This is how it feels:
20% throttle 20% power
21% throttle 80% power

Has anyone else come across this issue or anything similar? As a refresher I'm running a factory ECU with AEM FIC8 piggy back, both mapped for boost with the AEM running it's map all the time, not just when boost comes in. I want the car to have an OEM feel in both the quality of the build and how it drives. I've been told a couple of times you just need to get used to it but a car wouldn't leave the factory like this so I'm not willing to accept that's how it'll remain! I'll do some data logging when it becomes possible.

Here are a few clips of the issue

 

[Martin.]

Very evident in that last video!

 

[scullyg40]

And that's exactly what my question was about.

 

[Iain C]

Amazing work as always fella. Im gonna start going through the vids too.

 

[GrahamS]

Got the car back from Alex last week and it's back to it's former glory making ridiculous choo choo noises!

He did a load of work for me, including:

• replacing the n/s ABS ring which was causing the ABS light to come on and ABS to behave strangely
• have the box input seal replaced
• send off the clutch for friction replacement after it got oil on
• have the flywheel resurfaced
• repair a thread in the inlet

Now I'm not saying this is happening yet but I'm quite interested to know what people think a car like this would be worth if I were to sell it. I have an idea in my head but would like to hear the peoples verdict too. Yes I know it's worth more in parts but that's not something I'd ever be interested in doing. I kind of knew this would happen during the build but was in pretty deep then and had to see it through, however, now I'm out the otherside I still can't stop thinking about whether I can justify having two two cars when I do almost 0 mileage in them.

Headlines are it's a 134k 172 cup with a dent in the n/s read 1/4 to add character but 242bhp and 218 lbft of torque. Pre turbo conversion it weighted in at 996 kg with a half tank of fuel.

Engine
Machine and rebuilt from a 23k mile block and perfect condition cylinder head
Decked and honed so standard bore size
Drilled for 3/8npt turbo oil drain fitting
Genuine Renault bearings throughout
ARP rod bolts
Hastings piston rings
197 valve springs
Properly timed up
Megane 225 headgasket
Megane keywayed crank pulley
New dampened pulley
Supertech intake and inconel exhaust valves
Freshly cut valve seats
Genuine valve stem seals
All genuine Renault gaskets
Vapour blasted sump/cambelt cover/engine mount/ thermostat housing/cam cover
Genuine water pump
Pierberg oil pump
NGK BCR8ES spark plugs
Yellow zinc passivate bolts on almost everything
Run in with Millers motorsport running in oil then dropped and replaced with Miller 5w40 CFS Nanodrive
AP10 gold plug

Turbo conversion
Genuine ball-bearing Garrett GT2560R 14411-69F00 from a JDM Nissan Silvia S14 with 7 PSI actuator
AN10 oil drain
AN4 restricted oil feed
AEM FIC 8 30-1930 piggyback ECU with electronic boost control
AEM boost solenoid
Mapped standard and piggyback ECU
Megane 225 injectors (new)
Nimbus GII firewall heatshield
Swivel T oil take off for turbo oil feed with PTFE teflon hose
Engine Dynamics intercooler kit
Engine Dynamics log manifold
Engine Dynamics 182 downpipe
Genuine Nissan turbo gaskets
Genuine Nissan t25 turbo nut locking tabs
Inconel turbo studs
Aerotight turbo nuts
Catch can
Kemso 300lph fuel pump

Cooling/Oil System
Direzza radiator
75 degree Clio 197 thermostat
13 row 235mm Mocal oil cooler
Torques AN10 black fittings
Torques sandwich plate

Other engine bay bits
Powerflex black series dogbone mount
Cup alternator brackets, gearbox spider and battery tray powdercoated
3000 mile old genuine Valeo alternator
Vibratechnic engine and gearbox mounts
Poweflex black series rear exhaust mount
K-tech un-resonated stealth exhaust
New clutch cable
Recently refurbished loom, all aged wires repaired.
Piggyback wiring run through proper bulkhead grommet
All engine bay rust recently treated with Bilt Hamber Electrox (zinc primer) and painted with top coat and lacquer
Brake servo repainted

Driveline/suspension
Recently rebuilt gearbox with vapour blasted castings
Gripper differential
Redline MTL gearbox oil
RTS turbo clutch (hybrid paddle/organic)
TTV racing billet flywheel
182 Cup 60mm hubs
Ph1 n/s driveshaft for gripper box
182 Cup o/s driveshaft
New rivnuts in the subframe
Almost brand new tie rods and track rod ends
DCI steering rack
EPAS with controller integrated into the dash loom and EPAS ECU on the dash light and canbus network
Refurbished subframe (couple of knocks from being jacked up but straight)
Powerflex black series powdercoated wishbones and genuine new Lemforder m12 ball joints
Powerflex black series powdercoated ARB
Powerflex black series straight rear beam painted black
Powdercoated subframe triangles
Genuine new rear beam brake lines
AST 4100 coilovers in almost immaculate condition, always coated in corrosion inhibiting wax
Pure Motorsport 22mm rear anti-roll bar
Pure Motorsport solid top mount and strut brace kit
Pure Motorsport 78mm stud kit
New gear linkage bush
New hand brake cables

Brakes/Wheel Tyres
Refurbished with Big Redd seal kit front calipers
Ferodo DS1.11 front pads and Brembo high carbon discs
Braided flexi lines
ABS retrofit including properly working headlight level sensor
Black team dynamics with AD08R tyres (Dry)
Gold OZ F1s with Pirelli Cintuato tyres (Wets)
5mm spacers for running F1s
Standard rear brakes
CM Composites brake ducts and x65 Cup Racer deflector plates
Typ200 brake fluid

Interior/Comforts/Lack of Comforts
Cup racer roof scoop
6 point bolt in Fulcrum Motorsport blue book cage in RAL6018 Kawasaki green. Roof cross and double rear cross, harness bar and door bars
Bimacro Futura seats
OMP subframes
Silver Schroth Profi II 6 point harnesses
Odyssey PC680 battery relocated behind passenger seat with 25mm cable, 150A megafuse and longacre battery through bulkhead terminal
Flocked dash
Retained airbag ECU. Correct dash illumination and light extinguishing for MOT.
Totally custom wired dash loom with full integration and planning behind each connection
Custom cruise control on the radio stalk
Turn one suade steering wheel
Lifeline snap off boss
MOMO steering boss
Red and white LED dash conversion
Manual wing mirrors
Manual wind down front windows
CM Composite flat door cards with cup racer door handle spacers
Hard wired USB power for GoPro
Boot mat
Interior painted white (hammerite but looks very pretty)
182 increased capacity washer bottle
Alfa mist washer jets
Aerocatches on front
Pure Motorsport gear linkage

CM Composites dash pod on it's own independent loom including:
Spa signature series oil temperature/pressure gauge. Sensors mounted correctly with pressure sensor remote of vibration.
DRE5 shift light
Switched for front/rear interior LED lights
EPAS switch and potentiometer
12 socket
OBD2 port
FIA 6 pole cut off
2x USB port for charging phone
Custom GoPro/magnetic phone mount.

That should be a relatively comprehensive spec list! Probably missed a few bits but it's there for the most part.

 

[GrahamS]

Finally I put part three together!

Mart and I are booked onto a Brands Hatch evening on 5th August. I had the tracking done again on Saturday and have a few small jobs like changing the pads and re-clamping the CV boot but other than that it's good to go.

Looking forward to testing out the new GoPro.

 

[gambit]

Just read your build thread and watched your videos incredible setup! Well done.

 

[GrahamS]

Just read your build thread and watched your videos incredible setup! Well done.

Thanks dude, very kind of you, it's a hoot!

Brands Hatch 5th August

Before the second outing of the year the Cup needed a few bits doing to bring it back up to spec. As a quick summary for those which haven't seen the last post, when I was at Snett on the shakedown the manifold to turbo gasket blew out and since being sorted the car has sat unused.

First up was brakes. The Cup has got quite some pace now and although I know people love DS1.11s they just weren't cutting the mustard for this application so it was time for a change. Given previous good experiences with Carbon Lorraine pads I started to look at what they had to offer, settling for RC8s given the 20% increase in μ of over DS1.11, 0.6 vs 0.5. the DS1.11s had done well since I installed them in 2017 and have done Bedford twice, Brands Hatch twice, Cadwell once and Snetterton twice. I also put some PBS pads in the back to see if this balanced out the car a bit.

There were a few other bits which needed doing including resealing a CV boot, putting heat shield on the fuel pipe and refitting the brake deflector plates. Mart kindly installed some coilover covers to prevent any more grot getting in the AST which are still looking beautiful underneath their Bilt Hamber UC wax coating.

On to the action then. Hot just about sums it up. It was 30 degrees which thankfully dropped off a bit during the course of the evening but my god was the cabin roasting, particularly given my lack of working windows although the roof vent did it's job well. We tried to fit the winders but I bought the wrong ones so I need to wire in the electric window switches when I put the door cards in.

The cup performed very well, even better than expected with very little coming close to being as fast. For those that are interested lap times weren't particularly low, around 58.5s at best according to the Go Pro and although I am very much not a competitive or fast driver I do always push myself to improve skill level. Oil temps peaked at 116 degrees which is good.

The brakes proved to be phenomenal getting rather toasty as you will see in the coolest picture ever taken of this car. I read up on how hot the discs have to get to glow and it's 800 degrees! Brands is always very hard on brakes so I was hoping for this pic, as even after two cool down laps the brakes were 480 degrees and smoking when I came back into the pits after a long first session. Discs are standard Brembo HCs, not new and are still working well and no warping. I'm not sure if the fluid boiled or not but I didn't really loose the pedal but it did start to feel a little like it might start to go towards the end of the mega session. Who knows, I'll change the fluid.

A few other bits to note. The AD08Rs are now holding the car back, particularly now the damping is set much harder. These won't be replaced until they're worn out but I will be going for a stiffer sidewall when the time comes. These wheels and tyres came on a car I broke so can't complain. I also had one or two fuel starvation moments coming out of Clearways which is to be expected. When the tank is topped up this isn't a problem. Whilst I'm mentioning fuel, wow does this thing drink now. I did about 30-35 litres in 80 miles of track driving which is about 11mpg! The car totally lost boost on the way home which turned out to be the circlip on the wastegate. It's vanished, luckily just £2 to replace


I didn't really intend to film on the day but did a quick video to keep the channel ticking along. It's a shame I can't put more time into making these because I love making them and find the stats on them very interesting but sadly time is against me. Even a short 5 minutes video like this takes a good 3 hours to put together because I have to watch quite a bit of track video to get the good bits, make sure all the transitions are seamless, watch countless takes of the same thing, create a thumbnail and upload it. On my main channel upload I had an interesting comment from someone saying no music over the track videos which is a slight point of contention with trackday videos. Having watched a few trackdays videos I find it pretty boring to watch lap after lap of someone else driving. The most interested person in this video is without a doubt me so whilst it may be bearable for me to watch my trackday video with no music over, for viewers I think it's a big switch off. The music is there to match the clips, build suspense and if I've edited correctly should climax at the point the videos do.

Would be interested to hear what people think about this. I have no formal or even informal training in making videos but I hope you see I like a high quality product.

Below then I offer you three videos!

• Main channel full edit with music over track

• Side channel full edit with no music over track

• Side channel race render

 

[MrBlonde]

Thats a great last photo😎

 

[Djw Dave]

Fantastic write up, The last Picture looks straight out of Forza or GT.

How did you find having the PBS in the rear, something I'm currently looking into.

 

[VenomUK]

View attachment 1490198

Fantastic photos, qudos to the photographer on the day.

Quick Q, Where did you get your deflector plates from please and are you running front-liners?

 

[Martin.]

Fantastic photos, qudos to the photographer on the day.

Quick Q, Where did you get your deflector plates from please and are you running front-liners?

No arch liners.

Deflector plates are genuine Renault cup racer fiberglass ones. I'm not sure they are around anymore. You can buy other deflector plates online though, like from CMComposites.

 

[Greeny.]

Awesome pics, get some DZ03G’s on there Graham, one of the best things I did to mine, bloody brilliant tyres tbh.

Dunlop DZ03G Trackday Tyre

MSUK List 1C tyre. Widely used as a Control Tyre in various Senior and Junior Race Championships throughout the UK. Tyre is Sold For Competition Use Only

www.mrtyremotorsport.com

 

[frayz]

Fantastic pics Graham, glad to see you getting some proper enjoyment from it after all your hard work

 

[Krarl]

Watching your vids just makes me want to get my car sorted and book a day!!

Whoever that melt in the black 200 was needs to take a long look at themselves

 

[GrahamS]

Still for sale everyone. Haven't driven a mile since going to Brands Hatch. Had it up for £10k but willing to listen to reasonable offers as I want to see the car go whole and used.

 

[cjgower]

@GrahamS what happened to YouTube? I miss the updates haha. Amazing build, fingers crossed you get what you want and it goes to a good home.

 

[GrahamS]

@GrahamS what happened to YouTube? I miss the updates haha. Amazing build, fingers crossed you get what you want and it goes to a good home.

I won't say it's died because it hasn't but I changed jobs during my cup build so am a little down on time and actually not done anything on the cars recently because I'm working on the house! With that said there are one or two videos on the horizon

 

[R29TJR]

Look forward to the videos.

Can you not be tempted to keep the Cup? It's such a high quality build and I'm sure you'll come to regret selling.

 

[GrahamS]

Car is now on ebay for £8250. Sad to potentially let it go for this amount but the likelihood of me having the time to tinker or do a trackday is so slim.
Anyone that follows this thread surely knows this is quite a steal for whoever buys it!