1973 Midget build by ianjoub

11 minute(s) of a 203 minute read

P.S.

I am renting Little Talladega GP for a day in the next couple of months, most likely on a Mon. It will be an open test and tune. Anyone want to join? It will give you eight 20 minute sessions, cost $225 for the day.

http://www.tgprace.com/

3-6-2015

Picked up the big sheet of aluminum for the splitter



I am mounting it in quick release fashion. I will need to take it off to get the hood open.



The mounting bracket has adjustability for the angle to the ground. This will be important as I adjust ride height and front to rear stance.

3-10-2015

I did another autocross last Sat. It went much better. I am improving my driving skills, but the tires were the biggest difference. The Hoosiers have feel to them. The grip is much better than the Toyos as well. I did not have time to finish the splitter before the event. I did get the rear wing on though.





Lots of grip and lots of horsepower, what a combo! I put a red line on the tires at the valve stem. This wheel spun inside the tire.

4-1-2015

Not quite finished, but close

5-11-2015

An update on my long absence:

I was at an autocross. The head gasket started leaking. I have more money than time though, so I kept running it. After it shut itself off, I brought it home. I replaced the melted pistons, the scored cylinder block, repaired the crack in the head, resurfaced the head, and did a valve job.

This problem was most likely caused buy bent throttle butterflies causing a lean cylinder or 2. The throttle butterflies bent when I had a backfire through the throttle bodies. I have since purchased and installed stronger stainless steel butterflies.

I have also added a water/methanol injection system. The methanol raises the octane and the water cools the pistons/combustion chambers/exhaust ports.

I rushed and got the motor/car back together for my track day at Lil Tally. I hauled up there, but only got in 4 laps. The bearing in the turbo failed. I had no boost/power.

The car is now back at home. I sent the turbo off to have it identified and a replacement matched as close as possible. I also ordered new wheels for the car. They will look the same, but be 8" wide front and 12" wide rear instead of 6" and 8". I have some wider and stickier Hoosier race rubber coming for them.

When the new turbo arrives, I will have it back at the dyno for a retune.

5-15-2015

Just another electronic controller on the dash.... This is for the water/methanol injection



This is the pump. I repurposed the radiator overflow tank as a water/methanol tank



I then installed a radiator overflow on the other side in front of the pedal box

5-16-2015

Somehow forgot to post the pic of the injector for the water/methanol. It is in the plenum,

5-20-2015

I have new tires for roadracing. I am waiting for the new wheels to mount them on though.



They are 12.5" wide rears and 9.5" wide fronts...



I have the new Garrett GT2871R turbo in. I will have to do a little more fab/replumbing to get it in though.

6-18-2015

Finally here! 13" x 12" rear wheels. They are in the photo with the new rear slicks and a 175/70-13 for reference



And here is the new front wheel, now 8" wide

6-19-2015

This has got to give me traction!

6-23-2015

Well, this is a pleasant surprise: The new fat tire and rim weighs 30 lbs as an assembly, the old much smaller was 28 lbs.

Old



New

6-26-2015

More trials and tribulations. I have the new turbo all plumbed up, exhaust remade, etc. I start the engine to check for leaks in the oil and water feed lines to the turbo and I am not running on all cylinders. After some troubleshooting I have narrowed it down to either a wiring harness issue of a bad powertrain control module (brain box/ECM). Did the prince of darkness possess my fine Suzuki electrics?

7-2-2015

Ok, got the wiring figured out. An aftermarket fuse box failed. I got the rear fenders trimmed up and rewelded, still have the fronts to go. I like the stance though! It should go to the dyno this weekend or early next week.

7-7-2015

Ok, progress!

I dropped it off at the dyno again. The instructions were drop the boost from 15 lbs to 13 lbs and crank in more timing. The timing will be possible due to the better fuel and the water/methanol injection.

I also asked for a top speed number, which his dyno will display, and some video. I hope to have it back next week some time.

www.guruedgear.com

7-17-2015

Update from the dyno: The tuner says this turbo spools up much faster than the old one. He is having trouble with the wastegate though. It isn't working properly. I may need to rebuild it or get a new one. He said it failed to open once, his boost pressure gauge spiked to its max reading of 26psi and his dyno got a 390 hp figure at 7,000 rpms (redline is 11,000). :cringe: Good thing the motor is built to handle that type of abuse.

It is likely to be another week before I get it back.

1-8-2016

It is finally back from the tuner. We ran less boost, more timing advance, better fuel, and have a water/methanol injection system up and running. I didn't get a top hp number. I let off at under 10k rpms, had another 1k to go to redline. We kept the boost under 14 psi. The high number I got was 339 hp, 199 torque. The first vid is a 5th gear run, short of redline and at about 130 mph. The 2nd run was 6th gear, 1k rpms under redline and about 160 mph. I can't imagine ever having the stones to go that fast in this car though...

1-22-2016

Ok, I am all loaded up for an autocross tomorrow with FCRC http://www.floridacorvetteracing.com/ at the Brooksville, FL airport tomorrow. We'll see what this new tune does for me. This will be the first run with the new front splitter as well, though I doubt it will have too much effect at the low speeds we attain (less than 80 I imagine). I'll try to get some video and post on Monday.

1-23-2016

Ok, my best time was a 36.9 second. The best time of the day was a 33.5. I don't know if it was a good time or not though. It was a test and tune, so penalty seconds for cones weren't added to the raw scores. Anyway, this is a quick post. I am off to ride a 4.5 hour enduro tomorrow, wish me luck. I haven't been on my dirtbike since Thanksgiving.

2-17-2016

Ok, this summer is paint and body time!

Who would like to put together some color schemes for me to ponder????

I was thinking a dark metallic green (sorry, not British racing green) with silver racing stripes.

Any ideas?

I thought a silver metallic for the underbody and under the hood. I forget who, maybe Hap, who suggested the light color under hood to make it easier for our old eyes to see stuff....

I also thought I would have the roll bar chromed.

As I asked, throw up suggestions. Photoshop stuff and/or pics are welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

4-8-2016

I have another autocross next weekend. Things should go far better now that it is hot out. I have done a couple of street runs and the tires are hugely better with heat in them.

On the grip note, I have some old 14" wheels from my Ranger that fit the rear hubs on the midget. I ordered some super cheapy skinny 14" tires to put on them. Smoke show/donut videos are forthcoming, as soon as I find a suitable place to do it. I don't care to go to jail after all...

4-22-2016

The autocross went well. It is fun to say the least. I am finally getting the hang of driving a car fast.

I put the 185/60-14 tires on my old ranger wheels and went for a short drive ... VERY SHORT. Trying to go straight down the highway at 50 mph had the back end weaving back and forth. I can only assume it was the sidewalls rolling (even though I had 40 psi in the tires). I came back and switched out the wheels back to the DOT race tires. So, unfortunately, I have no smokeshow/ burnout videos for you.

I went to a car show last night which required a 15 mile drive down a straight highway. I did a few roll ons and raced a buddy in his 2012 5.0L Mustang from a 10 mph roll. The MG was pulling hard and getting great traction. I hit 120 mph in 4th gear, still spinning a bit but tracking straight. The car actually felt stable at that speed and I just walked away from the Mustang right from the start.

No video as that could be incriminating evidence.