$2008 GRM Challenge – Turbo AWD Mercury Tracer LTS
- Thread starter kcbhiw
- Start date
no joke! i cant even begin to contemplate converting a car over to awd. nevermind on a budget!
When do I get to drive it?I think I'll hold onto her for a little while. I still have some possibilities to explore.
When do I get to drive it?
get in line lady! (poke)
How bout next time you visit
yeah they call it the s00perturd or something like that
Thanks!
It's basically a mockup of an old Superbird wing. It's made of partical board and is only installed for the concourse portion of the Challenge. There's no way it'd hold up under any wind force.
Yup, the s00p3rturd. It's placed 2nd the past 2 years.
Bump! The Challenge issue was received in the mail today. I've been waiting with great anticipation. Flipping through the pages, pictures, and writeups for each of the Challengers makes me look forward to this year's event. Furthermore, I look forward to refining the Tracer and making it faster.
The preliminary teardown has been interesting and I've found lots of room for improvement. Primarily, the fact that the #4 cylinder showed 20% loss from a leak down test was a bit disconcerting, but that's easy enough to fix with a quick re-ring of the engine (GRM style, no less). The rear tires apparently were the biggest slow-down with persistant rubbing on the shocks, deflection contact on the trailing arms, and slight contact with the quarter panel lip (yikes!). The rubbing on the shocks was so intense, that it turned the metal blue (yikes again). Adding a quarter-inch spacer yeilded only an eighth-inch clearance between the shock and tire....I suppose I neglected to check that.
I started polishing the paint by wet sanding and buffing a fender. The paint comes alive and looks great. I'm excited about seeing the entire body finsihed, but not so much the execution.
Once time permits, work will begin again on the Tracer racer. Good times.
The Challenge issue was received in the mail today. I've been waiting with great anticipation. Flipping through the pages, pictures, and writeups for each of the Challengers makes me look forward to this year's event. Furthermore, I look forward to refining the Tracer and making it faster. The preliminary teardown has been interesting and I've found lots of room for improvement. Primarily, the fact that the #4 cylinder showed 20% loss from a leak down test was a bit disconcerting, but that's easy enough to fix with a quick re-ring of the engine (GRM style, no less). The rear tires apparently were the biggest slow-down with persistant rubbing on the shocks, deflection contact on the trailing arms, and slight contact with the quarter panel lip (yikes!). The rubbing on the shocks was so intense, that it turned the metal blue (yikes again). Adding a quarter-inch spacer yeilded only an eighth-inch clearance between the shock and tire....I suppose I neglected to check that.
I started polishing the paint by wet sanding and buffing a fender. The paint comes alive and looks great. I'm excited about seeing the entire body finsihed, but not so much the execution.
Once time permits, work will begin again on the Tracer racer. Good times.
95EscortDriver
Member
After reading this Thread for 4 hrs, thoroughly inspecting all the work you accomplished int he short amount of time you had with limited funds, poor quality parts from various old, junk vehicles, I can come to only one conclusion.
You sir, are a god!
I have to thank xtherieldealx and sleepy93 from FEOA for sending me to this thread, it is absolutely incredible. I hope the refinements come even easier than the build did. Good luck, and please, hang on to it, and enjoy every moment of it, for all us BG frame followers.
You sir, are a god!
I have to thank xtherieldealx and sleepy93 from FEOA for sending me to this thread, it is absolutely incredible. I hope the refinements come even easier than the build did. Good luck, and please, hang on to it, and enjoy every moment of it, for all us BG frame followers.
Thanks!
. The car won't be going anywhere any time soon. I have too much work in it to get rid of it.-------------
I started tearing back into it today to fix the leaky rear differential housing. A leak had sprung at both the fore/aft seam as well as the input shaft. 'twas a pretty simple job, though it had to be removed from the car and dissasembled, heh.
I have some theories to correct the steering geometry. Currently the steering is pretty vaque and the turning radius became quite large due to the modified front suspension geometry and increased elevation of the steering rack. I currently have Capri XR2 knuckles installed, but will be swapping those out for the GTX knuckles. The steering arms on the GTX knuckles are about an inch higher and should level out the tie rods. I may also try to space the steering rack out about an inch to move it forward. Doing so will allow me to use OE tie rod ends as well reduce bump steer a bit.
There's a picture? Oh snaps. I'll have to look again.
Korey: Yes, VVT on the CSP Miata. It rawks .
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Bump!
Less than 3 weeks to go before the $2009 GRM Challenge and all is well. I've not made a lot of changes, but a few that are important.
I've modified the steering geometry by moving the rack forward about 2 inches and leaning it back at about 38*. This has significantly improved turn in moves the rack to a more or less stock orientation. Furthermore, boost control is now implemented via the MegaSquirt. This should better my previous 14-ish drag time since I was only boosting to 8 PSI (and tuned to 15).
I've added spacers to the rear hubs to move the wheels outward 1/4". This allows only 1/8" clearance between the 225 tires and the struts (yikes!). The rubbing was significant and should improve times significantly with the loss of drag.
I wanted to modify the stock fuel tank to clear the drive shaft and improve the center of gravity. Unfortunately, I have been unable to weld the plastic as I cannot determine the material from which the tank is made. (If someone can land an AWD Protege fuel tank at my door in the next 2 weeks for $50, I'd be quite appreciative ).
In all, I can't wait to have the car at the Challenge again. If time/progress serves, I'll post a few pics.
Wish me luck!
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Bump!
Less than 3 weeks to go before the $2009 GRM Challenge and all is well. I've not made a lot of changes, but a few that are important.
I've modified the steering geometry by moving the rack forward about 2 inches and leaning it back at about 38*. This has significantly improved turn in moves the rack to a more or less stock orientation. Furthermore, boost control is now implemented via the MegaSquirt. This should better my previous 14-ish drag time since I was only boosting to 8 PSI (and tuned to 15).
I've added spacers to the rear hubs to move the wheels outward 1/4". This allows only 1/8" clearance between the 225 tires and the struts (yikes!). The rubbing was significant and should improve times significantly with the loss of drag.
I wanted to modify the stock fuel tank to clear the drive shaft and improve the center of gravity. Unfortunately, I have been unable to weld the plastic as I cannot determine the material from which the tank is made. (If someone can land an AWD Protege fuel tank at my door in the next 2 weeks for $50, I'd be quite appreciative
).In all, I can't wait to have the car at the Challenge again. If time/progress serves, I'll post a few pics.
Wish me luck!
