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Unk577
04-10-2012, 09:30 AM
September 2011 I was able to run with Chumpcar in the 14 hours of Sebring. A buddy of mine has a absolute piece of junk Datsun turbo 280Z that he invited me to come drive. I had a blast, we finished but not very well do to some mechanical issues that left us watching more of the race than we cared to from behind the pit wall. At the trophy presentation I saw something I needed in my living room as a center piece.3063

After getting home I knew I wanted to build our own car and new where the perfect candidate was sitting. After negotiating a chump friendly price I drug it home. When I found this car it was buried up to mid hub in sand and had a colony of large wolf spiders living in it. It was a 97' with a turbo setup, 99' head, rollbar, FM exhaust, tokico shocks, FM clutch, 17" wheels, and enough poorly repaired body work that it should fit right in at Chumpcar.
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From here I sold off everything I could to help pay for the build and contacted a few people I know that can really drive. Team Hoonage was born.

The First vital part of the car to be worked on was the cage. The thought behind our design was that we are going to be on track with cars such as Crown Vics and worse case scenario would to be parked sideways in front of one of these land yachts and take a hit in the drivers door. Also one our drivers is 6'4" tall so we needed plenty of room around the driver.

With the help of the guys and our teammates at V8roadsters we started with a main hoop that is 2" taller than your normal spec miata

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After the main hoop was in along with the windsheild bars and halo we put together a rather stout doorbar that touches the sheet metal of the door when it's closed, giving us as much room to the left og the driver as possible without removing the door.
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Since there will be no one riding shotgun we decided to go a little more traditional on the passenger side.
3069 maybe it will help save some weight from all the tubing on the drivers side. Maybe

Unk577
04-10-2012, 09:43 AM
After Shandelle finished setting himself on fire and welding out the cage he only had one question. "why did we put this cage in such a piece of shit?"
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We also figured the bumper could use a little support for bump drafting so we added some more tubing.
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Since safety was out of the way it was time to move onto making this thing move. So I loaded it back up on the trailer and b rought her back home. The engine was pulled and disassembled to see what condition it was in. To my surprise bearings and cylinder walls all looked great. The head was sent out to be resurfaced. Once the head returned reassembly was started. Since originally there was a turbo on the hot side I had to source an OE tubular manifold. After assembly we added a lil paint to help spot leaks(and bling) and added some DEI exhaust wrap to try to keep under hood temps down.
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Unk577
04-10-2012, 09:50 AM
Now that the car is running, the seat and all belts are mounted, we went forward working on adding kill switches and some switches for accessories like fans, extra lighting, fuel pump, and anything else we might add in the future. I found a good deal on some scrap aluminum and made a dash to hold our guages and switches.
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I had a set of 15X8 6uls sitting in the garage so the were donated to the cause.
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At this point we need to add a muffler, some tires as the RS2's are hard as a rock, and install driver's nets and some rollbar padding , and we should be ready for a test day.

Phatmiata
04-10-2012, 10:57 AM
I like where this thread is going!

psulja
04-10-2012, 11:04 AM
I always liked chumpcar builds, in for updates!

stormin'norman
04-10-2012, 11:09 AM
Chump rocks! Good luck and have fun.

richterat83
04-10-2012, 01:03 PM
in for the build

Unk577
04-13-2012, 04:34 PM
Exhaust is complete. Best part about it was that I found a exhaust off of a 08' GTI at the dump while chucking a bunch of other parts. 2.25" tubing, was able to sell the 2 cats from it for $125. Muffler cost $30, $45 in v-bands, total cost -$50;)

The clutch master cylinder is leaking and I need to install a couple of gauges. May be able to post some video tomorrow.

Unk577
04-19-2012, 04:26 PM
Put about 100 miles on it today. Couple things learned: #1- car has an oversteer issue when turning left. Will look at alignment and make adjustments if needed. #2 threw the alt/ water pump belt.- crank pulley bolt back out some and pulley was loose.- retorqued and will pull it apart this weekend and make sure there isn't any other issue causing this. #3 need a larger capacity radiator and a lower temp thermostat. #4 need a camera man with a steady hand- will post video tonight.

Anyone interested in donating parts to our chump car car build let me know and I'll cover shipping

Unk577
04-19-2012, 06:35 PM
Ok so no video tonight. Having trouble with the format it was taken with.

Unk577
05-04-2012, 08:40 PM
Heading out tomorrow to do some test/tune. Hoping all will go well. If so then more testing at Sebring in 3 weeks. Will try to get some pics tomorrow.

Phatmiata
05-08-2012, 08:36 PM
Ok so no video tonight. Having trouble with the format it was taken with.

I saw a video of this car, wink wink.

Unk577
05-10-2012, 06:23 PM
Figured out one of the issues with how it was running. One wire fixed and now I'm very pleased with how it runs. Now that it runs right, time to make a few mods and tune it.

Also have a second car for the team in the plans ;) Something miata, something different. But that will come next year.

Phatmiata
05-10-2012, 08:36 PM
Bring the chump car out to the next East Side Miata meet

Unk577
05-11-2012, 07:24 PM
Would love too BUT the tag expires tomorrow(and I can't put one on there as of yet) and lights might be a little much for on coming traffic. But I am going to go for a drive in the morning

Unk577
07-29-2012, 02:51 PM
A lil update. Added a panhard bar to the cage(more cage after seeing the wreck from Daytona). Boxed in the front on the car to get all the air through the radiator. Brakes are working great. Got it tuned on the dyno. Alignment is set.
Took it out for some test and tune. Car ran great. There are a couple of issues to address but nothing major. Gonna do a little bit of aero work to help offest our deficiency in HP. I will post some pics once we are done with it.

AHHthatsJDMyo
09-03-2012, 10:02 PM
cnt wait to see this car running at the chump car event real soon!

Blueiii
09-04-2012, 07:09 AM
Did you figure out what the oversteer problem was? I have the exact same issue - specifically when turning left.

tsingson
09-04-2012, 09:41 AM
That really looks like fun. My friends did the LeMons race in Cali and they had a blast.

Unk577
09-04-2012, 09:47 AM
The alignment was way out of spec. After setting up the strings and getting everything adjusted our oversteer issue was gone. Car is very benign now. It will 4 wheel drift before it will oversteer or push.
We have been taking as much weight out as possible. Should be around 1950lb with 1/2 tank, but I'll put it back on the scales later this week to see exactly where we are.
We have also depowered the rack, done some aero work, cooling improvements, freed up some room around the driver, and will work on going through everything this week to make sure we're ready for Sebring on the 22nd

Unk577
09-04-2012, 09:51 AM
I'll get pics of how it sits now when I get back to the house

Blueiii
09-04-2012, 10:18 AM
The alignment was way out of spec.

I'm hoping that was the issue with mine as well. Toe on my rear wheels was -.37 and +.12 degrees previously. I now have the toe zero'd out. I'm not completely satisfied with the new alignment specs, but its at least a starting point. Glad to hear it fixed the issue for you. (Hopefully it does the same for me.)

Unk577
09-04-2012, 02:04 PM
Now it just needs numbers and some love for our sponsors
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Phatmiata
09-04-2012, 03:25 PM
what number do you want, I might have an idea for this car ............................ :twisted:

Unk577
09-04-2012, 03:52 PM
We are #44. What ya got in mind? Txt me if ya want

AndrewTCM
09-25-2012, 11:40 AM
Now I know all your secrets! lol jkjk

I was driving the #78 (cought on fire.....) I drove from sundown till 8 or 9something. lol

our car was FAST! I was VERY surprised!

Unk577
09-27-2012, 11:57 AM
Right on. Our day was a lil less eventful. Overheated very early to our surprise as we have had no cooling issues before. This led to several other issues which ended up costing us the motor.
Picked up some parts earlier this week and just pulled it out of the trailer. Time to begin the tear down to see where it all started. We have another motor ready to be assembled and we plan on being at Road Atlanta in December.

We would like to thank MazdaRoadster.net as well as V8roadsters for all their help. We'll be back shortly and intend on a much better showing next time out.

(maybe I can get Randy to post some of the pics for me;)

Squirmy
09-28-2012, 06:27 PM
Rick wanted to me to tell you that the Z doesn't seem like such like a piece o' crap now does it? At least you guys made it to the race, we couldn't even make it that far! maybe next year SkoolboyZ & Team Hoonage can share a pit.
Jeremy

Phatmiata
09-28-2012, 10:19 PM
................................

We would like to thank MazdaRoadster.net as well as V8roadsters for all their help. We'll be back shortly and intend on a much better showing next time out.

(maybe I can get Randy to post some of the pics for me;)


You wish is my command!! Thank you for flying our flag brother!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8313/8034573278_093f7eea44_c.jpg

is that the infamous Shandelle from V8Roadster's hehehhehe smile your on camera!
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8034/8034573128_1358e72dce_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8180/8034574099_076dabbf37_c.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8169/8034574281_23f6d4b895_c.jpg

Unk577
09-28-2012, 11:45 PM
Yep that's him and Smbstyle to the right

Jeremy,
Tell Rick I meant it in a loving way, and if he would give up on the Z and use the miata in the back yard y'all could of been there

Squirmy
09-30-2012, 06:47 AM
My thoughts exactly. I doubt that we would need to drive to another state to find a head gasket like we had to at CMP for the
Z.

Unk577
09-30-2012, 04:01 PM
Motor is out and apart. It ain't pretty. Gonna make some artwork out of whats left

Unk577
01-23-2013, 03:44 PM
Art work still pending. New motor is in, feels strong. We have an idle issue to figure out but it shouldn't be long.