Just looking now to get the front splitter/crash structure done so I can get on with mounting the front clam.
I tried a std 2-11 front splitter and undertray on first. It’s a little too big out the front and a bit too wide for the Exige body, also it doesn’t leave enough stuff to mount to the front clam/ support rods etc, luckily in my pile of bits was a splitter with ‘JIG’ written all over it. It would appear to be the original GT3 one looking how it fits… I’m going to have to make my own ali front undertray to make it work but it should be a much better/stronger design than the 2-11 yet still give some protection to the chassis if the worst happens…
Offering the 2-11 design up -
GT3 “Jig” -
Marking out a separate board as a pattern for the ali under tray -
It’s really interesting following this thread Gav. Good work. How come you’ve changed the dampers from the ones you had on earlier in the thread? More ‘ways’?
They are just a set of temporary slaves I’ve been playing around with to get a feel for how it all sits with ride heights, geo and body fit (and to be able to push it around the shop on it’s wheels)… x
Making the templates for the front crash structure/radiator housing end plates -
Small mod to the front lower engine mount. There is a 3mm gap between the chassis rail and the bracket when bolted in place. They have been known to work loose and elongate the holes in the chassis. Welding a 3mm plate on the back sits it tight up against the chassis so it’s not able to physically move backwards and forwards in it’s position anymore -
Agreed - things like “3mm gap between the chassis rail and the bracket when bolted in place” and the issues this causes - where are you finding this stuff out from?
Thanks guys, comments like that are very much appreciated.
I must have done over 30k of track miles in the last 6-7 yrs with the Toyota based elise chassis, a lot of those have been under racing conditons where you push the car to its absolute limits.
As such you tend to learn a little bit about them as you go along in the sense of what works, what doesn’t, the good bits about them and the bad…
I’ll be quite honest - I was very unsure as to whether I should share the build (or certain parts of it) online as I am. A lot of people would simply keep the info and finer detail to themselves either in fear of not wanting people to know or fear of being shot down for carrying out their ideas… I have nothing to loose or gain from sharing my experiences though when all is said and done, if I can help someone along the way with what I have learnt I will try and assist, advise and generally help save them the greif I have either had myself or seen someone else suffer from… It’s very much up to them whether they want to take it onboard or not. That’s not to say my way is right or wrong, as with eveything there are many ways to skin the preverbial cat.
It’s the first time I’ve attempted to do something like this, its for a bit of fun that’s all, nothing too seriuos (when am I ever serious). There is no right or wrong as such just as long as it is bolted together safely that’s all that matters to me and that I’m happy with it. Rule of thumb- if it looks right it probably is.
My initial thoughts were to go charge cooled. The GT3 front crash structure I’m using was originally designed for mounting both a water rad and a charge rad directly in the airflow.
Biggest problem for me with a c/c is the additional cost on top of the build at this time. It’s also quite a complex system to install with more lines to run up and down the car and it does add some weight…
Rather than spend out on a c/c now, I thought I would look if there was room for improvement on the a/a intercooler which I pretty much have all the parts for.
One of the biggest problems I can see with the std design is simply the amount of air getting onto the i/c. The hole leading across the top of the roll bar is tiny, even doing the fettling mod it is still very small. Not only that, once it gets through the narrow hole it then has to do a ziggy zag though the bellows before it gets anywhere near the cooler…
Then you look at the scoop itself. The long scoop starts off with a nice wide aperture which narrows down to a fraction of the width at the roll bar and then expands again inside the bellows, My understanding of positive intake scoops is that they should start off with a narrow opening and then expand in size having the effect of slowing the air and increasing the pressure which is not what the oem scoop is doing looking at it…
Also I have said a few times about the heat that comes up off the front rad. You feel this heat blast in your face in a 2-11 and it is pretty warm!! You can try this out for yourself in a elise/exige if you take your roof off and hold your hand out over the top of the window surround catching the air coming up off the windscreen.
I really do believe that by having the long scoop hanging out over the front all your actually doing is picking up the hot air from the rad and feeding it directly onto the i/c…
So, my thoughts are that the hole needs to be bigger and the scoop need some repositioning. Cue the 300RR -
I know the scoop was to feed the air box on the 300 but if you look at the design it has the scoop positioned further back on the roof and is much, much wider down its entire length.
Just so happens I have one of the original 300RR engine covers which fits the std clam opening. My idea is to use Johns scoop (which the front opening is the same width as the 300RR engine cover opening) in order to open up the air intake for the i/c by 200-300% and have a new duct made which is a straight through design and opens out to the full width of the i/c.
Im going to explore the a/a options first, i really do think it can be improved upon vastly, if not from the roof scoop then possibly side scoops using a modified 2-11 intercooler inlet shroud. If you look at the Redbull car which was built on a massive budget they still used an a/a cooler.
If it doesn’t work as intended I will look to c/c and then use the roof scoop as the inlet for the airbox, I just want to get it up and running with minimal cost at this point.
It may look far from standard, but in reality its just a big square cowl which wouldn’t be too hard to fabricate. I thought about doing something similar but it would mean having to buy a big charge rad. Then theres the pipes and ducts to run back up the engine bay and countless fixings and brackets to be made, it was all just extra money and time.
I may look to put some form of ducting off the back of the i/c running up to the back of the clam (which I’m fully cutting away) to take advantage of the low pressure and pull more air through.
The most challenging bit is the roof scoop. This is the same size in the cabin as it is outside, and takes its air from the top middle of the windscreen. Very cunning!
Agreed, It was a clever idea, especially the screen…
Thing is though they are feeding a massive rad, subsequently it needs a pretty big inlet… The cup i/c I’ll be using is what a quarter the size, so won’t need so big a duct is my thinking, just as long as it gets a good feed of air… Plus I’m not going to be going 24hrs in it non stop!
