The Britcar 24 hour race is now just three months away, which means it's time to tear down and rebuild my MR2 Super GT race car.
Fortunately there's an eight week window in my 750MC race calender which means I shouldn't miss any meetings. At Donington Park on Saturday, the car looked like this:
Here it is loaded up on the trailer on Monday morning waiting for transport to arrive to take the rest of our teams race cars back to Rogue HQ:
The workshop is closed the day after a race meeting, so on Tuesday morning the strip down began.
Engine bay cover, rear wing and lights being removed. We plan to move the wing further back, slightly higher up and hard mount it to the chassis.
At the front of the car, the bumper and both wings have been removed as a single piece and the headlights are coming out.
The hose below the washer bottle is part of the brake ducting and you can see the aluminium intake for the radiator ducting.
Seeing the front in one piece makes me wonder about converting it to a clamshell.
This makes removal and getting to components underneath very easy, but it does have the drawback that any damage at the front will right off all of the panels.The dry-break refuelling system is mounted to the roof section and so must be disengaged before the hardtop can be removed.
Side and rear windows are light weight polycarbonate.
With the roof off, the rear quarter panels and bumper are removed.
Front section shows relocated battery and power steering pump.
The pump will have to move again, as this is where the front air jack will be mounted.
Just the doors remaining from the original bodywork now.
On the right hand side you can see the panel that protects the induction hoses from flying debris. You'd be surprised at just how much damage you can inflict on unprotected components with discarded rubber!
Removal of chassis integration components ready to drop engine.
The two blue fittings on the upper left hand side of the bay are fire extinguisher nozzles. One points at the engine, the other to towards the fuel pressure regulator and pipework.Driver's side engine bay fan.
Filthy, but in excellent working order.
You can see here where debris thrown off by the tyres has stripped the paint from the bodywork! The lifting post will be removed the sill as part of the air jack installation.
Spaghetti! The wiring in this car has been well rationalised
- there's probably about half of what was fitted originally. Every wire has been chased to source and if not required has been removed. I'm strongly considering binning most -if not all - of the stock wiring and replacing it with my own. This will have the advantage that everything follows the routing that I want, rather than what fits with existing cable lengths, and I can have a centralised, easily understood fuse box and relay panel.On the other hand, everything works and a new chassis loom would be immensely time consuming!
The hose in the last photo is part of the windscreen demisting solution.
We draw hot air from the rear bulkhead.Workshop shot
- it was an all Roadster day! My car is on the furthest lift with a TTE turbo in the middle and another 2GRFE equipped race car on the near lift.
AP Racing four Pot Calipers and slotted rotors.
Braking efficiency has dropped off somewhat recently and it looks like the disks have picked up some material. We'll get them checked over and cleaned up, but it will be new disks going back on.
Radiator and ducting removed.
It's looking pretty empty up front! Note the heat shielding around the steering arm ball joints.
Exhaust system, heat shielding, fans and engine and gearbox oiler coolers removed.
The inverted "V" section of chassis bracing has to remain in place to comply with MR2 Super GT regulations.
The engine as viewed through the inspection panel in the cabin.
We put this in to allow fast, easy access to the engine if we need to get to it during the race. Four quick-release (very expensive) positive locking latches hold the lid in place.
Wheels and body panels piled up waiting to be sorted for storage.
New body panels are being made, and some may change to fit with planned upgrades.
Various components awaiting inspection and cleaning.
Again, some items will be stored and used for spares, with upgraded parts taking their place.
One of the areas I intend to address is the weight of the doors
- even with polycarbonate windows they're very heavy. New versions will look different and be significantly lighter.
Mid afternoon, and the heart of our racer is coming out.
Toyota's might 2GRFE 3.5l V6
So that's the chassis largely stripped.
No need to remove the rollcage, seat and dashboard at this point. The BC Racing inverted monotube suspension will be replaced with new, with the old units designated as spares. Despite being dirty, they're in remarkable condition underneath and will probably clean up as new - an advantage I guess of not using them on public roads!
I'll do my best to update this thread as we get into the rebuild phase.
Are you able to disclose the cause of the gearbox failure during the 24hr?
