Another Winter (ahem!) Project !

General Owners Cars
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Thought it was about time I started a thread on my rebuild too… not long till Anglesey and hopefully this will help me push through to finish it in time !

Those of you who know me will know that my car started as a standard S1 Exige bought from Steve on here (6970k) several years back.

As soon as I got the car I did a full suspension refurb (wishbones/bushes/Nitrons/brakes discs) and used it as is for a year whilst I got used to driving a Lotus on track.

A year on I decided to enter a few Lotus On Track races, but this left me with a bit of a dilemma, as my Exige wasn’t eligible for standard class, and the existing VHPD wasn’t going to be able to compete in Class B.

So off it went for a Link-Up NA Honda conversion… my first race at Donny was the first time I drove the car with the Honda in. Along with this was all the race prep for the car such as FX/4-point cage/etc.

Fast forward a few years of great track days, I treated the car to a paint job…

In the back of my mind I’d always seen build threads like DaveOz’ and wanted to do something similar - I put my car up for sale and was planning to build a new car from scratch purely as a track monster.

After working through all the calculations and costs, and not finding a buyer that would make it worthwhile, I took the decision to ‘sod it’ and just continue with my car - probably ruining a nice ‘Exige’ even further in the purists eyes, but what the hell… it’s a car that I love and I am ‘attached’ to for many reasons.

So - the plan began. The plan was to make it an ultimate Honda NA track car.

Full cage (always regretted not putting in a full cage originally)
New race uprights
Strengthened subframe
Ally Bulkhead (I don’t know why really, it always just seemed more racecar!)
New brakes (the whole 4 pot front/2 pot rear dilemma that Exige owners suffer!)

Along with this had to come new wheels, as the uprights are S2 items.

Along with that also came new wishbones… again, the race T45 jobbies.

Yes, it was a nasty bill - I hope it’s worth it when it gets back on track!

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New front section of the Cage - Added to the original Custom Cages 4-point.

IMG_0201 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Old wishbones/brakes…


IMG_0271 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Subframe out


IMG_0210 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Engine ready to come out…


IMG_0207 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr



IMG_0266 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr



IMG_0348 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Cleaning up bulkhead… then removing !


IMG_0346 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr



IMG_0393 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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One of a couple of expensive boxes of bits…


IMG_0285 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Split the gearbox to install a nice WaveTrac LSD…


IMG_0418 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr


IMG_0434 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Some shiny bits to bolt back on…


IMG_0300 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Nice new Pedal box supplied by JSR…


IMG_0454 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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New Frontend built up…


IMG_0458 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr


IMG_0850 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Rear end coming along slowly…


IMG_0852 by CoreDaveP, on Flickr

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Still a fair bit to do, and as always its the little things that will take time to sort out… but hopefully I can get up and running for Anglesey - can’t wait to get it on track !

Thanks to the following people for helping me get this far !!

Scuffers, Eliseparts, MarcP, Jamie Wilson, JSR, Gav, Steve Gugliemi (for the cage work and final push I needed to go for the race uprights)

If it handles and stops anywhere close to Jamie’s car, I will be a happy chap…I won’t have the power he does (saving that upgrade for another day) - but his car is phenomenal…

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Did you use a Dremel?






Looks great Dave - I’m so envious of you guys here who do so much fabulous work on your own cars - I’m just a useless numptie :wink:

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No - a big hammer - you can see it in the pics next to the subframe :wink:

I hadn’t really done any mechanical work before I got the Exige… I do actually enjoy doing it most of the time…

Although I have to say I’ll be happy if I never have to see another pedal box in my life - those of you who have done it will know what I mean!!

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Not sure where you are trying to go with this car Is it a track day weapon or a race car. :smiley: Just trying to help, that wasn’t meant to sound harsh :wink:
This car was already amazing before these upgrades.
You gave me a pax ride at Outlon park and when i got back into my Type 72 it really did feel gay and slow. :cry:

When is the charger going on Dave. ?

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Awesome Dave :sunglasses: I’m surprised that you manage to silence those SC pixies :wink:

I’m in Pesky’s envy camp - I don’t havethe skills/space/time/tools (probably in order of relevance) to do what you guys do. Without the likes of JSR/Edwards existing then running my car in the way that I do would be untenable.

Look forward to seeing you and the car in Anglesey bud :sunglasses:

Thinking about it the following are cars that may or may not be attending due to protracted builds :

  • Jonnyfox
  • DaveP
  • Quo
  • Muu
  • SeriouslyDave

Let’s hope they all get busy with the spanners over the coming weeks…

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[quote=Top cat]Not sure where you are trying to go with this car Is it a track day weapon or a race car. :smiley: Just trying to help, that wasn’t meant to sound harsh :wink:
This car was already amazing before these upgrades.
You gave me a pax ride at Outlon park and when i got back into my Type 72 it really did feel gay and slow. :cry:

When is the charger going on Dave. ? [/quote]

LOL !

I remember the day at Oulton - good day :slight_smile: - weren’t you looking at some suspension soon after ?

Managed to keep the SuperCharged fairies on hold for the time being… I was SO close to going for it, as it’d be the easiest time to make all the changes, but I also wanted to see what difference just these changes made alone.

The way I look at it, the car will have everything done ready for more power at a later stage… make it handle and stop as well as possible, then add power.

It will get a few more ponies now hopefully… there’s an RBC manifold on now as I have the extra room by removing the bulkhead.

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[quote=Benja]Awesome Dave :sunglasses: I’m surprised that you manage to silence those SC pixies :wink:

I’m in Pesky’s envy camp - I don’t havethe skills/space/time/tools (probably in order of relevance) to do what you guys do. Without the likes of JSR/Edwards existing then running my car in the way that I do would be untenable.

Look forward to seeing you and the car in Anglesey bud :sunglasses:

Thinking about it the following are cars that may or may not be attending due to protracted builds :

  • Jonnyfox
  • DaveP
  • Quo
  • Muu
  • SeriouslyDave

Let’s hope they all get busy with the spanners over the coming weeks…

[/quote]

I’ll be there either way bud… either in mine or a BatCar !

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I’m so envious of you guys here who do so much fabulous work on your own cars - :wink:[/quote]

Totally agree