Jonnybravo
Post #1
New to the website, I'm helping a friend out with his GTI-6 track car which we will both hopefully use a bit whilst we finish our other projects, one being my 309 and the other being a Mk4 Astra with a 500hp engine.
Anyway Ive already had a few members ask me to post up a thread of mine so here goes
The car was originally built in 1992 and raced in the 1993 Thundersaloon series, it was built by SHP, Sonny Howard who is famous for building the oval circuit cars and similar tube chassis stuff. The race series rules were literally changed overnight and many cars, inc mine were not eligible for the new season ( thats how I understand it anyway ! )
Due to the car being a expensive ornament it was split down and sold on as a rolling chassis with some of the parts remaining with the shell. It was purchased by a guy in south London who then built it back up and has used it for the last 15 years as a track toy. The car came up for sale last year, after a few sleepless nights trying to convince myself to sell my current project at the time I made the call and a deal was done
I didn't buy it with the intention to pull it to pieces but although mechanically the car had recently had fortunes spent on it the body wanted some loving and thats where my mate who owns the 306 jumped in, I'll post a spec below, the car is currently a bare shell and should be off to the paint shop in the middle of november
Some piccys of how it all started:
and then the strip down :
At this point I decided it needed more than a wire brush on a grinder so I dropped it off to have the front end and parts of the interior blasted :
So it was this point where Ash stepped in. I had planned to just paint the bay and interior but the roof had been jumped on at some point its life and other parts were really started to show that they needed attention :
Once the panels were nigh on perfect some of the rotten areas that turned into see through areas after blasting were addressed, front triangulation needed to be removed and remade as the bulkhead in that area had virtually dissapeared
There were a few other bits sorted but nothing I have pictures of at the minute.
Next up was to strip every remaining part off the shell, it didn't need to be rolling so all the rear suspension and axle was removed and then the car was placed in the air so we could look at how to deal with the floorpans.
Narrow tyres :
With the car now placed in the air courtesy of a LOT of pallets I decided to strip all the underseal off them, typically after literally spending hours doing that we then just cut them out, DOH ! however it was probably for the best as there was a bit more rust lurking under the panels, typically any rust so far has only been on what was originally 309
Its now currently a Flintstones spec shell, no pics again but I'm sure you can picture it with the 2 floorpans missing !
The chassis will now have some bracing added which will also act as the mounting points for the seats ( it only ever ran one seat being a race car ) I'm having some weld in slugs made which will be welded into the 1" box to fix the sidemounts too. We will then lay a 0.8 mm skin over the top of the chassis which will be a much nicer looking floor than we had before.
If you curious why this wasn't done originally that is because the rules specified the cars must run the original floors and bulkhead, once again thats how I understand it, it may well of been a certain % that had to remain on the car but I've seen a few other cars that also run the original floors.
I guess lastly would be the spec and purchases I've made for when it goes back together, as mentioned the car mechanically was good, the loom was a heap of shi* so I've had a friend make a new one, I've had several bits powder coated and tried to just buy things that the car needed rather than just throw endless amount of money at bits that worked perfectly well.
Raychem loom courtesy of Ryan @ Car Looms UK
Small race battery as it did have a huge car battery in the footwell !
New OMP wheel with some buttons to switch through the dash screens
Dash
All the new rose joints finally arrived, I just checked everything on a upright as it had been a while since I took it to bits !
Lastly the spec
Chassis :
309 D, semi tube chassis, large tubs, big diff, prop and gearbox tunnel, custom front end with double wishbone setup
GRP/Kevlar bodykit, arches, doors, bonnet, bootlid and both bumpers.
Engine :
Cosworth 200 block, Cosworth pistons, Roland Hayes cylinder head, Isky springs, BD14 camshafts, Kent pulleys, Custom sump pan, Pace dry sump pump, EEC4 plenum with 8 injectors, RS500 T4 turbo, lightweight flywheel, AP Twin plate clutch. Motec M48 advanced tuning
Transmission :
Glebe T5 5 speed dogbox, Gartrac propshaft. Semi floating Atlas axle, Quaife shafts, Tran X plate LSD, Diff cooler
Suspension :
Koni sport 2 way coilovers all round, bladed front ARB, 18mm rear ARB, Cosworth front uprights
Brakes :
Fronts, AP 4 pots, 330x36mm discs. Rears, AP 4 pots, 2wd Cosworth discs. Adjustable pedal box, braided lines throughout. Bias control
Wheels and tyres :
Fronts, 10.5 x 16", rears 12.5 x 16" magnesium minilites, Avon and Hoosier rubber.
I'll keep the thread updated as things progress. The car should be out and about for early next year with any luck, I don't plan to race it or use it every weekend but having thrown lots of money at cars in the past I really wanted to just buy something that could ( if I can drive it well enough lol ) do the business round a circuit.
Posted 27th Oct 2011 at 16:10
[Fun car] >>
Project thread 
double wishbone front and a live axle out back 
Steer it from the rear etc... saying that it doesn't have that much steering lock so its not one for drifting ! 
