Far better than East enders, the journey goes on, but there will be an ending.

Great to see you progress.

Just wish I had the garage space to do such major work

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[color=#000080]ST205 WRC 1994
Hybrid turbo
Apexi AVC-R
Apexi Power FC (Not being used ATM)
Apexi Power commander (Not being used ATM)

Can't say that I was I'm afraid...my ventures into TSS were back in 2009
...Class A2, No 34 http://www.toyotasprint.com/tss/images/stories/Documents/2009/tss09_rnd4_eventreport.pdf

Class A2, No 22 - 2010.

Final outing (b4 ring failure) at Brands Hatch (Jan/Feb 2011)

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Vice Chairman
1990 White UK Celica ST185 - Project DTM
1997 Cream BMW R1200C (as seen in James Bond "Tomorrow Never Dies")
2005 Jaguar X-type 3.0 Sovereign AWD Automatic
Blood Bikes - https://www.freewheelers.org.uk/

Ahhh i see. Ringlandfailure isn't cool....

Yeah i guess our work is pretty major. We have done a fair bit of motoracing, as can be evidenced in the back of some of the photo's. Also we are pretty keen to give anything a go. the only bits we couldn't do were major welding jobs.

I've found a "how to DIY a fibreglass bonnet" post on another forum...and now I'm planning but that will be for once the car has been finished.

I looked at the weight of a carbon bonnet vs the standard ally one and the weight saving was virtually non-existent but if you're chasing the last few grams then fine, I decided it was easier to turn the boost up a fraction more

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

It's more for my own enjoyment and trying to learn a new skill. A lot of the things we have planned and a lot of the bits we looked at for this have been inspired off the amazing track toy build! So far every thing has been pretty standard but the plan for all the front end modifications have been influenced by that bar you have to hold the front engine mount!

We have rebuilt her using the stock internals so can't go mad with the boost but eventually we plan on upping the power. But as Colin chapman said "simplify and add lightness"

Adding lightness
The choice of champions

And virtually free until you walk into the carbon/titanium/unobtanium shop

There is lot of potential to shed weight from the shell but you do need to be careful. We have gone with almost a full spaceframe type cage so all the suspension loads get taken on the cage. It's not the lightest cage as its CDS not T45 but that was chosen for ease of repair and crashability T45 seems prone to snapping particularly on the co-drivers side if there's a red mist moment from the driver and the car visits the scenery.
Some of the cages I've seen are not structural, they are only good for rollover protection. I wouldn't take too much metal out of the shell in those cars.
Have you removed the double skinned parts from the shell? How about seam welding. Is that something you have done? It's real pain removing the seam sealer and paint!

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

that cage is lovely, does it literally just weld onto the side of the strut tower in the front or is there some reinforcement fitted?

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FN2 Civic Type R w/Mugen Parts
Toyota Celica GT4 ST205
Toyota Celica GT4 ST185

Yeah went with CDS for the same reason I think that T45 is all good and well for professional teams, but as you said it sort of beds in a crash....there is some really good videos on youtube of rally car's rolling with and the cage bending on the roof.

In fairness when you look at one of the Prodrive mini's the cage is basically the car, and I think thats the application that T45 was aimed at.

We haven started lightening on parts of the chassis but only at the front of the car. Most of the effort is going to be round that, to lighten it at the back is counter productive as far as weight distribution goes. The amount of weight we'd loose for swiss cheesing the rear of the chassis would be what a few kilo's but would probably be better served left in to try and address the dreadful corner weights it started out with. Thats why our plans all involve aluminium and the front end.....

We are going to seam weld in the long run but it'll be a DIY job we are going to get her back up an running then start doing things such as that in future between outings. At the moment we have just been selective as to where we are welding.

The cage has plates as re-enforcement around the joins. Essentially unlike the Track Toy build this cage is MSA compliant rather than build to FIA standards. So it's a little less heavy duty, but it still needs a fair amount of backing plate. If I remeber rightly there's a 4 or 5 inch square in the wheeelarch as well as the square bit you can see in the picture.

A lot of work in that alone - very nice project

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JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

Well here's an update from this weekends work.

Initially spent a while on Saturday going round with a brush getting the difficult to reach parts of the cage and the inside of the car painted. Completed with largely no run's or drips. I've not included and pictures of this as I am sure there are plenty more pictures of the inside of the car to come yet from the rest of the project.

Then we moved onto some rust treatment underneath the rear of the car. There wasn't too much going on down here surprisingly for a near 90,000 mile jap import and with a bit of attention from the electric drill wire brush combo we were in a good situation to spray some wax oyl onto the bottom of the car in a 1:10 ratio.



Looks almost new!

Left this to dry overnight.

Next day started to rebuild the rear end of the car. Firstly installed the Whiteline ARB courtesy of Mr. Barry of the OC.



That last picture shows just how well the sprayed on Waxoyl worked. We then set about reassembling the rear subframe, we had a look at what bits will be easiest to do off the car, and decided that the Toe adjustment arms looked hard work off the car let alone on it and so with a good helping of copper slip (tub two for the car so far!) we spent a fair while making sure these were perfectly aligned before we bolted it all together, and also assembled it in the opposite sense to what the manual recommended as that looked easier to adjust toe at a later date.




Once we finished that we decided it would be easier just to assemble the diff onto the subframe and jack the lot into place. Basically because we didn't want to split the driveshafts off the Diff.

So some assembly later we were at this stage!



Then it drizzled a little bit and as I had just waxed the daily driver I couldn't resist a little photography given that I already had the good camera out in the garage....





So back to the actual effort.....




Slowly we jacked the whole assembly up to meet with the long bolts on the chassis and much like one of those Discovery programmes where they build an oil rig with millimetre precision we made contact! A few bolts later and....




It looks like the rear underside of a ST205 again, and what a pretty sight it is.

Well that was the weekend's work, nothing exciting but progress that needed to be made! I guess what is of note is that it all goes back together a million times easier than it came apart!

Love all the attention to corrosion prevention but I think I have spotted a chink in your armour The standard finish on the Whiteline ARB doesn't take kindly to our lovely climate and the result is not pretty. Worth keeping an eye on during the winter if you dont include it in your nuclear treatment!

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Yeah I can fully imagine that. It's from Australia?? We will be having a good look under the car after most track outing's anyway, old motorracing habits die hard, and it won't be on the road ever!

If/when it starts getting a bit flakey then it's now not a great hassle to drop the subframe again. and pull the roll bar out.

Of course it doesn't rain in Oz so their paint doesn't have much of a job to do When new the finish looks good but its deceiving. With a bit of deft wiggling (very technical term!) you can get the ARB off and also refit. You don't have to drop the subframe.

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Yeah when I went to baz's house to buy it he took it out without undoing too many bolts.... Was interesting to watch that was for sure.

Yeah the lack of rain and lots of sun certainly helps corrosion. Just like the northwest of England.