Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

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Rogue
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Joined: Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:02 pm

Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

Hi All,

The Britcar 24 hour race is now just three months away, which means it's time to tear down and rebuild my MR2 Super GT race car. Fortunately there's an eight week window in my 750MC race calender which means I shouldn't miss any meetings.

At Donington Park on Saturday, the car looked like this:

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Here it is loaded up on the trailer on Monday morning waiting for transport to arrive to take the rest of our teams race cars back to Rogue HQ:

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The workshop is closed the day after a race meeting, so on Tuesday morning the strip down began. Engine bay cover, rear wing and lights being removed. We plan to move the wing further back, slightly higher up and hard mount it to the chassis.

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At the front of the car, the bumper and both wings have been removed as a single piece and the headlights are coming out. The hose below the washer bottle is part of the brake ducting and you can see the aluminium intake for the radiator ducting.

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Seeing the front in one piece makes me wonder about converting it to a clamshell. This makes removal and getting to components underneath very easy, but it does have the drawback that any damage at the front will right off all of the panels.

The dry-break refuelling system is mounted to the roof section and so must be disengaged before the hardtop can be removed. Side and rear windows are light weight polycarbonate.

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With the roof off, the rear quarter panels and bumper are removed.

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Front section shows relocated battery and power steering pump. The pump will have to move again, as this is where the front air jack will be mounted.

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Just the doors remaining from the original bodywork now. On the right hand side you can see the panel that protects the induction hoses from flying debris. You'd be surprised at just how much damage you can inflict on unprotected components with discarded rubber!

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Removal of chassis integration components ready to drop engine. The two blue fittings on the upper left hand side of the bay are fire extinguisher nozzles. One points at the engine, the other to towards the fuel pressure regulator and pipework.

Driver's side engine bay fan. Filthy, but in excellent working order.

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You can see here where debris thrown off by the tyres has stripped the paint from the bodywork! The lifting post will be removed the sill as part of the air jack installation.

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Spaghetti! The wiring in this car has been well rationalised - there's probably about half of what was fitted originally. Every wire has been chased to source and if not required has been removed. I'm strongly considering binning most -if not all - of the stock wiring and replacing it with my own. This will have the advantage that everything follows the routing that I want, rather than what fits with existing cable lengths, and I can have a centralised, easily understood fuse box and relay panel.

On the other hand, everything works and a new chassis loom would be immensely time consuming!

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The hose in the last photo is part of the windscreen demisting solution. We draw hot air from the rear bulkhead.

Workshop shot - it was an all Roadster day! My car is on the furthest lift with a TTE turbo in the middle and another 2GRFE equipped race car on the near lift.

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AP Racing four Pot Calipers and slotted rotors. Braking efficiency has dropped off somewhat recently and it looks like the disks have picked up some material. We'll get them checked over and cleaned up, but it will be new disks going back on.

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Radiator and ducting removed. It's looking pretty empty up front! Note the heat shielding around the steering arm ball joints.

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Exhaust system, heat shielding, fans and engine and gearbox oiler coolers removed. The inverted "V" section of chassis bracing has to remain in place to comply with MR2 Super GT regulations.

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The engine as viewed through the inspection panel in the cabin. We put this in to allow fast, easy access to the engine if we need to get to it during the race. Four quick-release (very expensive) positive locking latches hold the lid in place.

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Wheels and body panels piled up waiting to be sorted for storage. New body panels are being made, and some may change to fit with planned upgrades.

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Various components awaiting inspection and cleaning. Again, some items will be stored and used for spares, with upgraded parts taking their place.

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One of the areas I intend to address is the weight of the doors - even with polycarbonate windows they're very heavy. New versions will look different and be significantly lighter.

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Mid afternoon, and the heart of our racer is coming out. Toyota's might 2GRFE 3.5l V6

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So that's the chassis largely stripped. No need to remove the rollcage, seat and dashboard at this point. The BC Racing inverted monotube suspension will be replaced with new, with the old units designated as spares. Despite being dirty, they're in remarkable condition underneath and will probably clean up as new - an advantage I guess of not using them on public roads!

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I'll do my best to update this thread as we get into the rebuild phase.

:thumleft:
k11cpc
Posts: 158
Joined: Thu May 13, 2010 12:10 pm

Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by k11cpc »

Guess this car wont be at Barkston in 2 weeks... You coming in something else??

Great work by the way love this car!!
uglee
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Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2004 12:38 pm
Location: Ayrshire

Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by uglee »

How are you finding the 2GR on the track? Broken anything yet?

It's quick enough in my Mk2, but in the back of a stripped out Mk3 performance should be verging on mental :mrgreen:
Rogue
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

k11cpc wrote:Guess this car wont be at Barkston in 2 weeks... You coming in something else??


The current rebuild schedule probably means this particular car won't be at Barkston, and I may come along in a mk2 turbo. Some other things are developing that may change things considerably but more of that later. ;)

There should be at least one 2GR equipped Roadster at Barkston, and with a more capable pilot than me. :lol:

uglee wrote:How are you finding the 2GR on the track? Broken anything yet?

It's quick enough in my Mk2, but in the back of a stripped out Mk3 performance should be verging on mental


It's amazing, and the engine has been faultless. The only things that have bitten us were a gearbox failure in the 24hr race (cause identified and shouldn't be an issue again) and a catalytic converter failure. The car has required little more than routine servicing.

Performance is great, and we're far enough along the development curve now that we're tweaking for performance rather than reliability. Our focus is very much more on the chassis than the drivetrain.

There's a video here if you haven't already seen it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpi5dw0E8KA
uglee
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Location: Ayrshire

Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by uglee »

Cool, good to know they can take more of a beating than I'll ever give mine!

Does the car have to have a catalytic converter for the race series?
Rogue
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

uglee wrote:Does the car have to have a catalytic converter for the race series?


Yes, any car manufactured from 2000 onwards must have a catalytic converter fitted. One of the options we're considering at the moment is to run each bank separately with two cats but no silencers... We need to be below 103dBa for night running.
k11cpc
Posts: 158
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by k11cpc »

Glad your still coming and glad there will be another similar car was great to see you on track and barkston I might actually see your laps ;-)

Might have to come watch you at brit car 24hour race too good luck with the build \:D/
Quigonjay
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Quigonjay »

patrick, how come nobody is posting up footage of the super gt races this year? :(
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toxo
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by toxo »

Very interesting thread :) Are you able to disclose the cause of the gearbox failure during the 24hr?
IMOC-UK - the only club to win 'Best Club Stand' at JAE more than once, and twice in a row!
ashley
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by ashley »

Rogue wrote:Some other things are developing that may change things considerably


Now I'm curious....
Rogue
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

toxo wrote:Very interesting thread :) Are you able to disclose the cause of the gearbox failure during the 24hr?


Yes, it was an oil leak from a driveshaft seal.

We have the technology on the car to spot such faults as they occur - in this case the rising gearbox oil temperature should have given it away - but last year didn't have the processes in place to pick it up. Gearbox oil temperature is tucked away on a secondary screen on the dashboard (along with fuel pressure, temperature and level, front and rear bank wideband readings and some other sensor data) so it's not an obvious thing to check if you're concentrating on the circuit.

This year we plan to have the driver read out sensor data at specific points every lap - namely on the straights! We didn't use the comms much at all last time and it's an area we think will prove invaluable this year. Reading out sensor data means we can keep an eye on the car from the garage without the driver having to worry about interpretation and making the call to come in.

We've also established datums for alarms.
Rogue
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

ashman wrote:
Rogue wrote:Some other things are developing that may change things considerably


Now I'm curious....


Something very special may or may not be happening... I don't want to jinx it by talking about it! 8-[
Rogue
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

Quigonjay wrote:patrick, how come nobody is posting up footage of the super gt races this year? :(


We've all been a bit slack! Expect to see some decent coverage from Silverstone onwards. :thumleft:
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tonigmr2
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by tonigmr2 »

/cough

More pics of build after my visit please. :mrgreen:
Infamous
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Infamous »

This is awesome, any more progress with it?
Quigonjay
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Location: Blackburn

Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Quigonjay »

Rogue wrote:
Quigonjay wrote:patrick, how come nobody is posting up footage of the super gt races this year? :(


We've all been a bit slack! Expect to see some decent coverage from Silverstone onwards. :thumleft:


:whistle: :mrgreen:
Rogue
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

Okay, okay!

I promise a big announcement on this subject tomorrow...
ashley
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by ashley »

:bounce:
Rogue
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by Rogue »

So... the announcement is going to have to wait a week, but it's about our sponsors for the Britcar 24hr race and it's a biggy. \:D/

In the meantime, allow me to tease you with the following:

http://youtu.be/7wFYPrTlsrQ?hd=1

If you're on Facebook then please "like" the Rogue Motorsport page and in return you'll get our news first and the chance to enter a competition to win a prize worth well over £1000...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rogue-Mot ... 4258426946

On a not entirely unrelated note, has anyone seen this:

http://www.britcar24hr.co.uk/cms/news.php?item.1141

:whistle:
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tonigmr2
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Re: Mr2 Super GT / Britcar 24hr Rebuild

Post by tonigmr2 »

You old tease. :mrgreen:
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