dallasdude

This is the factory 8 gallon setup. I think they were done by ATL in the UK, but ATL in the US now has the Cad drawings to do replacements.

I have been concerned about Ethanol in fuel also, but ATL states that anything up to E85 has no effect on the life of the foam in their cells. They do make a different foam for pure alcohol racing fuel, but do not recommend it for anything other than that application. I'm still skeptical, but they insist this is the case. Based on 30 years for using fuel cells, with standard gasoline the foam does deteriorate over time....foam should be replaced every few years. In competition applications the bad thing is ......it's not hard to have degraded foam result in detonation and engine damage because the fuel filter and injectors are plugged with foam sludge, causing a lean condition. Also, the ATL bladders that came from Caterham (and most other flexible cells) seem to start leaking at about 10 years. They also have some internal hoses that deteriorate, so the bladder itself probably needs to be replaced every other time you replace the foam. The 8 gallon cell in the factory style can is a lot easier to deal with from a space standpoint, but in any case you can't just install and forget for ten or fifteen years like a galvanized tank. You have to budget over the life of the car, probably 200 dollars a year over a Caterham without a cell, and if you purchase a car try to reasonably determine when the foam was last serviced. If not, the prudent thing is to replace it.

Craig Mitchell at ATL sold me an 8 gallon replacement bladder a couple years ago. They have my cad drawings. It fit in the aluminum can that came in the car from Caterham. PM me if you need additional information.

The Boxster is a very well balanced car, so unless you are going to drive a lot in really bad weather, I don't think is imperative.....and in an older car maybe not as easy to live with. The PSM in my Cayenne is throwing errors right now and based on the download it looks like I am going to have to buy a new steering angle sensor and I'm afraid to ask what that costs. I will say 4wd and PSM was amazing in the snow however the last couple winters.....but I am afraid I am about to pay the price.

I went to a screening of "Senna" last night. I believe the general opening is tomorrow in most cites. I would encourage everyone to consider seeing it. It is at its heart very much a racing movie, with lots of incredible footage (some of it disturbing). It is also very much a character study, and I believe even a non racing person can appreciate the people he touched and his love and commitment to his country of Brazil.

There is a core yard here that had a bunch of SVT's at one time. I'll try to check there next week. Might also want to check with chris@topspeedperformance.net and william@c-f-m.com Sorry for the delay reply we were racing in Colorado.

Yes I should have posted the link thanks. Most everything can be looked up and ordered online and it works pretty well....you only have to call about special order items like ZX-3 and SVT cam followers....but they are willing to do that too. If the spark plug cover is discontinued I might know where some used ones are. Maybe functional but a little weathered.

You might want to try Tousley Ford, White Bear Lake Minnesota 800-328-9552 They do a big mail order businees, are knowledgeable and are usually 40% less than my local Ford dealer. Steve in parts drives an SVT Focus and is active on the Focus Forums.

You have to decide if you want to pull the wiring harness out of a 10 year old econocar with all its switches and relays and transplant it. There was a reset button added to mine that the previous owner didn't seem to know what it did. Maybe your freind knows or you can copy that installation. After 10-12 years in these race cars they are becoming problematic, but that is a pretty harsh environment. Chip Bond (GT Classics) and Jeff Sloan (British Auto Speicalits) built most of EP cars, if there was build information they would have it. They were mostly ZX-2 based, not ZX-3 however, but a ZX-3 should be less complicated because of the fixed cam timing.

This is all very correct. I get a little more HP than this with a stock manifold Zetec but not that much. Manifold is limited by the throttle body size but much more so by the lenght of the individual intake runners (about 17 inches). What you want for higher RPM apllications is more plenum and less runner. (Which is what the Ford Racing and SVT manifolds have) Getting the cam timing correct to match what the manifold wants or can do is makes quite a difference. Like 14 hp from having the cams timed straight up in my case. I just converted one of these cars from the orginal ECU. I saw three options: Option 1 stay with the factory ECU. My wiring harness was kind of a mess and I wanted something more modern and tuneable, although SCT (and maybe some others) make a unit that lets you tune the factory ECU. You can do a little bit of tuning with a variable fuel pressure regulator also, but this will only affect WOT if the engine has not faulted to open loop. Option 2 use of of the "niche" ECU's that have been used with these cars. Emerald, Pectel and MBE (think I got all that right) These mostly use all factory sensors. There are some prefabricated harnesses available.....Dick Brink had one with a Pectel T2 for sale at one time. Pectel is the spec ECU for FF2000 Zetecs. Apexspeed is a good source of that information. I have a file for a Pectel done with a stock manifold and TPS. Biggest problem I saw with this route is the tuning software is not that modern and getting a replacement unit or repair in case of a failure was not that easy. Third option is go with a modern mainsteam ECU. Motec, Haltec, Electromotive, etc. This is what I did and required fabrication of a wiring harness and builing a file from scratch. I did it with a Haltec so I could use the factory crank sensor, although I had quite a bit of experience with Electromotive. You could use the crank pickup with Motec also, but their units are far more expensive. Also if you go much over 150 hp you will need to increease the fuel pressure or change the injectors in the stock manifold. The Focus ones are only about 18-19 pounds. Hope this helps.

New Hoosier radial slicks http://www.hoosiertire.com/pdfs/radial43542_bull.pdf

Jim, I should be able to make TWS. I have to resolve the oil control problem I had at TMS...and the broken clutch disk. Part of the new car development I guess. After all I said about old tires....I did run several laps last weekend on 5 year old tires with probably a dozen heat cycles. They came off the car you have now. They were a gift from Larry. Probably shouldn't have trusted them on a high speed track like this. Unfortunately I wasn't any faster on new ones. Sorry to hijack. You'd think we have telephones in Texas. [/url]

32 heat cycles is forever on bias slicks. I think for most people 6-10 cycles is normal for club racers in production car. As someone said ...it's a combination of heat cycles and age. The way they are kept affects the aging also. Bagging them in a cool place (not freezing)helps. In a hot trailer might be the the worst way. Hoosier is coming out with a new 13" radial slick. They had hoped to have it out by Memorial day. I looked at the specs...and put one of the test batch side by side with one of my bias slicks. They are taller than the Goodyear slicks and quite a bit taller then the Hoosier bias slicks. They will need lots of negative camber. Hoosier has the specs on both radial 13" size slicks posted. The person who worked with Hoosier testing the 13" radials and ran the 15's at the runoffs last year thought they were consistent through a 30 minute race and would go more heat cycles before they dropped off a lot. The are also more expensive, so the end cost may be similar, even given the extended life.

My feeling is you have to remember is when you lower the front of the car with the spring perches, you can adjust the toe and camber back to your previous settings, but you have also changed the roll center and probably effective camber gain. You lower the front too much (lower A frames pointing up) and I feel like you can very easily have a roll center below the ground. I was told once by someone who should know that a low roll center helped front engine cars turn in. Taken to an extreme it a very low roll center can't be good for the overall handling of the car however. The only calculations I've ever done it just to determine the motion ratio of the supension. Has anyone done any calculations of the front geometry and roll center at various heights? Thanks

The other suggestions are good but if you want to invest in a dedicated tool to do Weatherpack/Metripack/open barrel connectors this is a good tool at a reasonable price. At least a lot less than a hundred bucks. http://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/product_info.php/cPath/111_112_170/products_id/362 I've used the posi-lock connectors also and they work well.

I got the pictures late last night. Detail even down to things like the pedal assemblys is amazing. Yes unless this guy is incredibly fast as well as being a perfectionist, thousands of hours is absolutely right. If he built it to sell, after materials he has to be getting way less than minimum wage. Perfect used or new rotor housings are what you want if you are building a preformance rotary with creamic apex seals. Ceramic seals are expensive and a rotor housing with pits in the surface can wear them quickly. Otherwise they last forever. The engine is this car will probalby last for many miles on the street and produces more than enough power as is. It could be converted to a 13B with new intake and exhaust if someone wanted to. I was mostly curious why he started with a 12A instead of a 13B when they are both plentiful used. Almost all the 13B parts (including housings) are still available. Rotarys are great for a track car. The only thing that ever normally needs replacement is the apex seals....and if you use ceramic ones you replace them once and you're done for then on. If this car wasn't so far away I'd be there tomorrow. Still trying to talk myself into it.

It is interesting he built it with a 12A instead of a 13B rotary. I think 12A's were last produced in 1984. The rotor housings are no longer available from Mazda, and there was no factory fuel injection so it would be harder in fabricate one. For track use a 12A is capable of close to 200hp at 9000 rpm with the right porting and intake. 13B a little more but with more quite a bit more torque due to the larger displacement. In either case you want a heck of a muffler. Some of them use lava rocks. The lister replied to me from e-bay with a promise of more pictures. Looks like a great car. Has to be hundreds of hours in it. Wish it was closer.