Last year I decided to finally take the plunge and build a new race car for the 2009 season. I looked at several series and narrowed it down to Caterham Academy and Westfield Championship. I had decided to that the Caterham was what I wanted and so I started the fund raising, unfortunately the last car was ordered before I finalised my plans which landed me back in square one.
I decided to talk to some people who raced Caterham’s to see if it was worth going straight into Roadsport B with a 2008 car. I wasn’t as keen on this option as the cars weren’t as good value as the Academy. Some people suggested taking a look at the Ma5da Championship and that was the first thing I did when I got home.
I did some research into the championship and it did look very good indeed. Spec cars with big grids made it very attractive and the plus point was low priced cars with some ex Max5 cars available from £4k. I went to a race and talked to the organisers and decided instantly this was what I wanted especially after hearing all the stories.
I started looking for a suitable donor car and settled on a 1992 Eunos Roadster V Spec as it had some nice bits that I could sell to recoup some money. Unfortunately due to personal circumstance I had to delay the build of the car. I looked at selling the Eunos to free up some space, I however decided to keep it as a weekend driver after I realised how awesome it is on the road. Some pics of it from early this year.
After 9 months of road use the time had finally arrived to take it off the road and start my eagerly awaited project.
October 09
I started to take the interior out so I could sell all the bits I don’t need and start planning. I took the dash, seats and carpet out which revealed some interesting battle scars.
Dash removed. I don’t think the original owner would like this very much. lol
We thought this might have been due to accident damage but we couldn’t find any other marks to support this theory. All the panel gaps were perfect with no other damage.
November 09
I decided to get another engine to rebuild as I didn’t want to rebuild this as there was too many component out of tolerance and this one kept overheating for some unknown reason.
I managed to get a 70k miles engine out of a written off UK MX-5 from the local MX-5 specialist. It was delivered in the back of a van as I didn’t want it in my car and left on the garage floor as I didn’t have bolts of the correct length. I sourced some bolts the same day and after some heaving lifting we got it onto the stand (I did the most important job of supervising while the others lifted it
).
The engine is now sitting in the garage ready to go off to the machine shop for some improvements and will hopefully be back soon so it can go back together.
After we went over every part of the shell we discovered when it had an accident on the front N/S it bent the shell upwards on that corner. The repair on the car was a high standard but somehow they missed this. With an uneven ride height it would mean the setup would be extremely awkward and thus I decided to transplant everything I need into a straight shell.
Progress is slow at the moment but should speed up next month when I get the new shell.
I decided to talk to some people who raced Caterham’s to see if it was worth going straight into Roadsport B with a 2008 car. I wasn’t as keen on this option as the cars weren’t as good value as the Academy. Some people suggested taking a look at the Ma5da Championship and that was the first thing I did when I got home.
I did some research into the championship and it did look very good indeed. Spec cars with big grids made it very attractive and the plus point was low priced cars with some ex Max5 cars available from £4k. I went to a race and talked to the organisers and decided instantly this was what I wanted especially after hearing all the stories.
I started looking for a suitable donor car and settled on a 1992 Eunos Roadster V Spec as it had some nice bits that I could sell to recoup some money. Unfortunately due to personal circumstance I had to delay the build of the car. I looked at selling the Eunos to free up some space, I however decided to keep it as a weekend driver after I realised how awesome it is on the road. Some pics of it from early this year.
After 9 months of road use the time had finally arrived to take it off the road and start my eagerly awaited project.
October 09
I started to take the interior out so I could sell all the bits I don’t need and start planning. I took the dash, seats and carpet out which revealed some interesting battle scars.
Dash removed. I don’t think the original owner would like this very much. lol
We thought this might have been due to accident damage but we couldn’t find any other marks to support this theory. All the panel gaps were perfect with no other damage.
November 09
I decided to get another engine to rebuild as I didn’t want to rebuild this as there was too many component out of tolerance and this one kept overheating for some unknown reason.
I managed to get a 70k miles engine out of a written off UK MX-5 from the local MX-5 specialist. It was delivered in the back of a van as I didn’t want it in my car and left on the garage floor as I didn’t have bolts of the correct length. I sourced some bolts the same day and after some heaving lifting we got it onto the stand (I did the most important job of supervising while the others lifted it
).The engine is now sitting in the garage ready to go off to the machine shop for some improvements and will hopefully be back soon so it can go back together.
After we went over every part of the shell we discovered when it had an accident on the front N/S it bent the shell upwards on that corner. The repair on the car was a high standard but somehow they missed this. With an uneven ride height it would mean the setup would be extremely awkward and thus I decided to transplant everything I need into a straight shell.
Progress is slow at the moment but should speed up next month when I get the new shell.
