Thread: B13 Rally Car Build

At 6:14 in the video I went off on this same corner, I just got the car rotated and slid sideways into stuff and bled off all my speed and didn't do any damage. The car in the video (my friend Dan Drury in his Suziki Swift), sustained moderate front end damage, and though he was able to continue, electrical problems from the damage ended up causing him to DNF.

Entropy Rally OFR 2012 Stage 8 - YouTube

With actual engine (and wind) noise. SD for the first bit then the HD camera got turned on.

1:14 is where I'm pretty sure I got the only damage I sustained. A small gouge in the rear bumper cover.

I have a few more stages of video to post, but I'm working more on the car than the video right now. 3.5 weeks to the next event.

Pulled off the rear section of the exhaust (VRS 2.5" mandrel bent) and removed the Magnaflow muffler, welded on an extension tube, added a v-band flange to that and to a new metal-substrate Magnaflow catalytic convertor, which is now the exhaust "tip." I was getting some grief from tech at events regarding the cat. You need to be able to prove that the cat has an intact substrate. Most people seem to just choose to put them at the end of the exhaust and the tech inspectors like that they can just look at the tailpipe. So I'm pulling the current cat (no-name universal 2.5" spun with ceramic core, stock location) and straight piping the exhaust back to the new unit at the very end of the exhaust. I suspect I'll miss the deeper sound of the muffler, but it's a race car, after all.

Oh, and the NEMU tune does the wonderful brief richness when the throttle is cut from WOT, causing the lovely popping from an afterfire when you let off. Music to my ears!

It's so cool to see the car running so well after all of that work building it.

Mark, if you get a chance, please post some pics of the light bar setup you fabbed. Like perhaps some close ups of the mounting points to the upper and lower radiator support.

Thanks, Mike

I'll do that tomorrow when we're working on getting the car ready for lspr.

It's pretty simple. I bent the bar out of 1-1/4 conduit, which has an OD of 1-1/2. The light mounts are made from 1-1/2 square tube notched to fit tight against the round tube and welded on.

At the bottom I cut two chunks of 1-3/4 13ga DOM left over from building the cage, and welded them to the radiator core support. The bottom ends of the light bar simply slide into them, no fasteners.

At the top there are a couple of 1-1/2 x 1/8 flat bars that run to the top of the brackets that hold the grill, which I drilled and welded 8mm nuts to. Two bolts go in and that's all it takes to install or remove the bar.

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Ok, took a while longer than I planned (but what doesn't?)

Here's how the lights looked close up at OFR.


One of the mounting tubes on the bottom of the radiator core support:


And the other:


A shot of the bar off the car for more detail on how it's made:


The M8 nuts welded to the headlight brackets:


Two M8 bolts and it's on, solid as a rock. I'm a big guy, and I can climb on this thing and it doesn't deflect in the least. The actual bar itself only weighs a few pounds, as the EMT conduit is fairly thin walled, but at 1.5" diameter, it's very stiff after bending. The lights and ballasts probably account for 80+% of the weight.



Two of the bottom lights are missing from the bar currently because I gave them to a friend (and fellow G2 competitor) at service at OFR. He was the guy who center punched the trees in the video I posted earlier, and had busted out all his lights.

I'm actually hoping to replace them and the other lights on the bottom with a 20" LED light bar eventually. I'm also switching the lenses in the Hella 4000s on the top from pencil beams to Euro beams, and hoping to track down one more 4000 and hang it upside down in the middle with a pencil lens.

Excellent write up and pictures. Thank you very much Mark. The design looks very well thought out. Thanks for sharing.

Mike

Mark it looks very good great idea , I'm actually requesting you permission to copy this also
Gus

I was just reading you previews post , I started with VRS exhaust also I end up with the last car down pipe 2 1/2 resonator and cat at the end in place of the muffler , work great , easy to inspect as you say and sound was great .
Gus

Copy away, no secret engineering here.

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how much power do all those light pull?