My other 1303 GL

[Steve C]

Hi Rich

Lots of bracing and I can double up on the tubes if needed.

been getting a bit done on the chassis. I'm going to lay my shocks a little further forwards to give more axle clearance.



I'm really happy with the tube bender and notcher that I bought from Affordable benders, really nice bend with no kinks. I made the first bit to go over the transmission and allow the torsion bar inner spline area to be removed.



I made an extra base for the hoop using 50x50 tube, I made it into a U channel and I was having difficulty cutting a hole with the notcher until I welded a length of angle to it






welded the hoop to torsion bar housing and added an extra bit at the base

[Steve C]

did the big cut today, no going back now








also did the cut out for the 944 spring plates

[Wally]

Are you putting torsion bars in again? (not sure what else you are welding back in?)

[Steve C]

Hi Wally

m going to use the short 30 mm bars that I had in my old chassis again.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Steve C

Hi Wally

m going to use the short 30 mm bars that I had in my old chassis again.

Ok, but why not going coil-over right away when you're doing that much work already? They say coil-over is a big upgrade over torsion bars

[Steve C]

Hi Wally

With my transmission so far forward the shocks were almost touching the driveshafts, coil overs would be worse.

[Wally]

Ah, I hadn't taken that into consideration... space can indeed be a restriction sometimes. GL with the build!

[Steve C]

Thanks Wally, just about to fit G50 in this chassis for the first time

[Steve C]

test fit, pretty happy much more clearance now

[Steve C]

Hi

Still working on the chassis, looking good for a bit of weight reduction. The motor was just sitting in the stand doing nothing, so I put in some ARP 625+ headstuds, new head gaskets and Tomei valve springs, shooting for early 300 kW @ the wheels. One of the head gaskets was close to blowing so another few dyno pulls or hard events and it would have let go.

Been doing lots of driving with my 180SX so lots of tail out driving, more of which I will have with more power in my bug.

Body work is finished now, the body is in storage as my garage is too small to have both parts of the car there.

Steve

[Steve C]

Hi

I've been very busy getting my bug back together, its at the tuners now for a tickle.

I bought a .63 Tial V Band rear housing for my turbo to replace the .82, it was very laggy and wasnt coming until 5000 rpm, I lifted and rotate the turbo. I was lucky a good friend happened to be near ATP in north Cali and picked it up for me.



I acquired a Subaru Gears engine cradle from Todd, very nicely made



I welded in some tie down points to my torsion bar housing



I used 1 3/4 roll cage tube to make new chassis forks and bracing





A forum member VWCool supplied me with some laser cut flat floors



bought some heavy duty tie rods from Lanner at Veedub engineering, they are much stronger than the tie rod ends



I had a new exhaust made and used a 3 inch Varex muffler http://www.xforce.com.au/products/varex-mufflers



I've done a mudguard air intake like Jak and Ricola I think it turned out quiet good, the mudguard is painted now but I don't have a picture of it.





Top view of the motor, the air intake feeds into a BMC Oval Trumpet air filter



My weight saving in the chassis must have worked as the car sits a 25 mm higher on the same spring plate angle

Steve

[Jadewombat]

Great stuff. Not meant as a criticism, but the flat floor pans, won't those be noisy without the factory-like bends? I've always been interested in smoothing out the underside of a bug like you've done though.

The tailpipe out of the stock rear apron looks great!

[Wally]

The new chassis forks and bracing is a work of art!
Very impressive!

[Steve C]

Hi

Thanks guys, dont mind my crappy welding.

The car has just had another 98 and E85 flex tune at DVS, it previously made 277 kW on 22 psi, the Garret GTX 30 76 turbo was a bit laggy and didn’t come on until 5,000 rpm so I had to rev it to 8,000 to avoid dropping off boost between gears.

The turbo originally came with.82 Subaru specific rear housing, I’ve now gone to a Tial .63 V band rear housing.

The car now makes 282 kW on 27 psi but it has picked up 60 kW in the midrange so it will be much more drivable, I haven’t weighed the car yet but its sitting about 25 mm higher than before so it has lost some weight with the chassis mods, now I need to do the same thing. The Tomei PON cams are still not making any difference in the tune, the motor actually lost power when they were first fitted.

I’ve heat wrapped the exhaust up pipe and dump and fitted a turbo beanie, I’ve heat wrapped the coolant out pipe it now passes under the intake manifold where turbo intake was previously located, I used to run my intercooler water lines to the front of the car down the middle of the chassis, I’ve now located them under the right running board and the straight section is now made from 19mm aluminium tubing the flexible part is 19 mm fire hose.

I haven't driven it yet as I had a bit of heart issue, no heart attack but after an angiogram I had 3 stents put in.

Steve

my mate Brad did one of his signature screamer pipes off the 45mm Turbosmart Hypergate



I used an existing larger size up pipe with an extra pipe to lift the and twist the turbo



V band 3 inch dump

[Steve C]

I was hoping for more but I took it up with engine covers so the tuner was worried about getting hit in the head with a car part if he pushed it any further, still more left in the turbo if I need any more but with improved midrange and the weight reduction its should keep me happy for a while.