Lightyear's SE Replica Track/Road MX-5

rascal · Postby **rascal** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:15 am

16bit wrote:wow, a legit m3 csl hey?

i saw one of those on the road the other day.

Yep, goes with the 997 Turbo S and 997 GT3 she also runs sometimes... :shock:

Postby **beavis** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:20 am

Sally is a cool lady and has good taste in cars.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:11 pm

The 4.1 Torsen diff is for sale now. I am changing ratios. This diff was fully rebuilt around 1000km's ago.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:53 pm

Dodgy video edit. But you get the idea. Video from Broadford.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=you ... qd4pBW5W2w

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 11:26 pm

Looks like you're using that oversteer to your advantage.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 10:10 am

If I had my wing on the car there would definitely have been an advantage. Will have to grab it from Beavis next time I hit the track. Good excuse for him to get to Bayswater to buy some foam so we can make proper wings.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 10:57 pm

On the last lap of Broadford, it seemed to loose a bit of boost and power. And I thought I could hear a whistling noise. I figured it was an intercooler pipe loose, and coasted the rest of the lap and loaded it on the trailer. I had a look to find a boost leak, but there was nothing obvious. So last night I unloaded it from the trailer, (first time it's been off the trailer since Broadford) took it for a drive. And it works fine. Fark it goes good. It throws you in the seat when you pull third. It won't do that without R specs on, just spins the stockies.
Maybe it over heated and something was going on. Will need to put something in to keep it cool for Phillip Island on the 12th.
Any guesses to the lap times? I am hoping for a 1:47. I will need to change diffs too. The 4.1 will max out, I tried to get a 3.6 Torsen, but ended up with a 3.9. I hope it is enough. Top speed should be about 240 or so. I might even run the triple element wing to create a bit of extra drag. Might stop it hitting the rev limiter. The old red MX5 had a 4.3, and maxed out at 206 bouncing on the limiter in 6th. Only just got there for a couple of seconds before turning in for turn one.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 8:47 am

I did a gear calculator thing. I think it will be close. 7200 in 6th will be just under 240km/h. The WRX did 245km/h. So will see.
The diff swap is done, new oil in. Engine oil cooler is done, with fresh oil. Mounted behind fog light hole. I used 20-60w mineral oil. I hope it's not too thick. Old oil was thick and black already.
I made a heat shield for the exhaust manifold ( not in pic ). Cold air intake to pod filter from other fog light hole. And made a temporary "catch can". Will bolt the wing on to give me some rear grip and help lower the max speed.

And the freshly rebuilt 4.1 Torsen is for sale.

photo sharing sites

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Sat Sep 12, 2015 6:58 pm

So, I went to Phillip Island with high hopes. All turned bad as I started on my first hard lap. The meatball flag came out. It was spilling oil out from my bad excuse for a catch can. After a couple of hours of coming up with a solution, and creating some make shift large catch can, I was allowed to go out. I knew there wouldn't be a full session in it. So I went hard from the first flying lap, well as hard as I felt comfortable to do with no seat time in this configuration. (Turbo and wing). Wow, no more oversteer, is a pleasure to drive. It now feels fast enough, handles perfectly and drives so easy. My plan was do 2 laps, bring it in and have a look. Oil was still coming out, but not as bad. Overheated after a lap or so. And the turbo came loose after the first run.
I wanted a 1:46, and I believe it will do it, just need some seat time. I did a 1:49.6, then a 1:48.7 before doing a cool down lap and bringing it in. Has much more left in it to find the limits. Not once did I feel I got close enough to pushing it to its limit.
I did win my class, and I came 3rd or 4th out of 122 entrants. Next time as they say. I will fix the issues, as they really are not hard to fix. And try it one more time. If it's not reliable, I will use it as a road car (no issues on the road). And get stuck into the C.F car, as it is built to race. Not like this shoe string budget build.

image upload

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:45 pm

I am making the frame for the fastback. I just put the hi fill primer on. So should be ready to mould soon.

image hosting 10mb limit

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:49 pm

I also have the new alloy radiator and twin fan with alloy shroud set up. (All EBay). Still waiting on Nick to weld up the catch can.

Corey · Postby **Corey** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:25 pm

Looks awesome, does this mean fastbacks soon? :mrgreen:

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:26 am

I hope so. Once this is done, and I take a mould, it's on the home stretch. Still many hours of work before its all ready to take the final moulds.

Here is the new radiator and twin fan shroud.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 9:16 am

As the car hasn't been used much in the last 6 months. And it wasn't really usable, I decided to convince Brendan to come and help me get it going. We pulled all the turbo gear off. Swapped all the fittings to the spare SE turbo and manifold, and bolted it all back together.
Took it for a drive, and had a drama with the radiator fan mount digging into the hose. So it was loosing water. An hour later it was going again.
The car is a lot of fun to drive on the road. Just need to get th e catch can, and duct the radiator. Then it's ready to go to its next track day.