rvaughn: thank you so much! Means a lot to us!! Every dollar counts!

We are working on a custom unit for the heat exchanging duties. We are now using custom engine mounts as well. Lose weight and improve the angles on the axles at lower ride heights as this caused us one broken axle in the past.

Andrew, what car is that transmission mount from? It doesn't look like anyone I've ever seen before. The new one looks pimp though!!

Congrats on making it official!

Looks like an a/t mount.

gixxerdrew said:

WE ARE NOW OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED TO COMPETE AT WTAC 2013!!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Time-Attack-Eclipse/277549119044394

Please consider to use the donation page as well. Tim's flight ticket is $1400 for the cheapest one we could find!

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Great news Andrew!

Please guys, let's help them make this a successful campaign... any little bit will help.

Sent a donaton aswell last week, wish i could have sent more but i am not rich,

I wish you all the best and hope all goes well, and once you bet them all share the details of the car as i like that front end build and hmmm might want to use it

American Le Mans Series ace Tom Sutherland will be our pilot for WTAC 2013! Read more here Five Minutes with USA Pro Driver – Tom Sutherland | World Time Attack Challenge

This car is such an inspiration to me! I know I'll never be able to compete with my car at the level you do, nor will I ever have the experience, but it gives me hope! I'm not able to make a donation right now, but I'd like to send one as soon as my next Pell check arrives. The best of luck to you and your team, and thank you for the inspiration.

Hey, I was only able to donate 40 bucks. I wish i could have sent more but my wife is pregnant.

Good luck and best of wishes to you and your crew. I hope your new team can do you good like the one from the bay. You are honestly a very big inspiration to me and have given me hope of one day being the fastest fwd Dsm in the world. Mine and your story are so close to one and the same it not even funny. Not only did you live right around the corner from me (20mi) but also started form nothing and have worked your way up. I literally paid 1800 for my car and have done all the work my self and it feels so good to just stand back and admire what you have done. I am so close to putting it back together and trying to make it to cmi, but I'm having a baby (little baby boy just found out) and I just had to buy my wife a family vehicle (mercedes menz ml350) so I'm kinda at a holt right now.

Anyhow, I really hope you do your absolute best, or should I say I hope your new driver does his absolute best at driving that beast of a machine you call a car . I can't wait to see some more updates and results with what's going on.

Best of wishes and good luck from the Botello family!

Anthony B.

Thank you everyone. I do believe Tim did well at the shootout, anyone have any inside info?

From his FB page:

Ohio was a great time! It was great to see a lot of old friends and making new ones along the way!

My racing portion was not the greatest but oh well. On qualify #1 I did a 10.0@150 missing 2nd, qualify #2 I sheared a rear ring and pinion on the launch, then converted my car to do fwd by removing the tcase, driveshaft, rear axles and rear diff. Then, did one partial shakedown pass to learn fwd and did something like a 11.2 at 115in the 1/8 with a 2.0 sixty. Then on eliminations #2 I turned it up and did a 1.9 sixty with what looked like it was going to be a solid mid/low 10 run....but then accelerated through the tirespin and vaporized the transmission when it hooked around 100-110mph before the 1/8th.

Just didn't have much luck again this year. Oh well, I am thankful for the time I had with the people I was around and look forward to next year!

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gixxerdrew said:

Thank you everyone. I do believe Tim did well at the shootout, anyone have any inside info?

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I don't think Tim will be keeping the car in FWD configuration - just a lucky guess... though a couple of us joked that if he somehow ran a better time with it in FWD it would have been hilarious. He put in one hell of an effort to keep going though.

He mentioned he was going to really consider playing around in FWD for a bit at his local track since he was having so much fun. Would love if he did to see what the car could do!

A couple of small updates!

The guys rebuilt the dry sump bracket, the one we had before was not going to work, the pump was not aligned perfectly and the weld cracked. A new steel bracket with proper alignment and high quality welds combined with a proper manifold.

Second photo is a custom heat exchanger from PWR. It cools gearbox oil and engine oil in the same case. Using the heater core lines we pump water through and both oils are cooled by this. Water lines in and out are -10. -6 for the trans and -10 for the engine oil.

snowborder714 said:

He mentioned he was going to really consider playing around in FWD for a bit at his local track since he was having so much fun. Would love if he did to see what the car could do!

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I will be fooling around with the car in FWD at the local track hopefully this year still. The car is back up and running in FWD mode currently.




Andrew, the heat exchanger looks BADASS!! Awesome craftsmanship by PWR!!

I like the bracket as well, this should fix the belt deflecting issues we were seeing last year when the cam pulley needed modification to keep the belt from walking off.

I really wish i could help with this as well. I love how the car looks and your drive to become the best in even a fwd. I have a gsx myself and currently in it for right around 11 grand engine and car. If i get a chance ill send some love your way

twicks69 said:

I will be fooling around with the car in FWD at the local track hopefully this year still. The car is back up and running in FWD mode currently.




Andrew, the heat exchanger looks BADASS!! Awesome craftsmanship by PWR!!

I like the bracket as well, this should fix the belt deflecting issues we were seeing last year when the cam pulley needed modification to keep the belt from walking off.

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Yes! PWR made a very nice piece! Really simplified our hose routing and aerodynamics in the front of the car. Yes the new bracket should be great and with steel we should not have an issue with cracks at the welds!

Im getting to the point now where I almost never want to use welded aluminum on anything mission critical. THe other day we had a small fuel leak at Tsukuba on under suzuki's car from a crack formed at a weld on an aftermarket surge tank. Something like that can destroy years of hard work.

I hear that, aluminum welds are also my car's bane

Some proper aluminum construction, tank lid is formed. I did the same on mine to avoid 90 degree corner joints. Often it's not the welds fault, it's more an improper application of aluminum material. Alternator brackets for example.

I really like that heat exchanger. My moderately sized oil cooler takes awhile to get the oil up to temp (even with the factory Evo 9 thermostat), and it actually won't get hot enough under normal street driving most times. And of course, it's not great for aero!

Well I think the big thing is that everything has to be vibration dampened that is aluminum welded and some things that is just not possible with as they need to be attached directly to the engine and any damping would be extra weight.

Sorry for being slow on the updates guys, the guys in the workshop are doing heaps but they are so busy right now I dont want to burden them with documenting things. There will be a lot to see and talk about after the event though. For now I will leave you with this:

Our team for this year is something that I am so proud and excited to be a part of.

Everyone on this list is absolutely top shelf. Mechanics, drivers and engineers. We have experience in this group from F1, A1GP IndyCar, Le Mans and our driver coming from Le Mans prototypes... We have mechanics that I have huge faith in to do it all right the first time, we have Tim that you all know can rebuild those gearboxes blindfolded, an electrician on hand, we have everything we can think of covered. I believe after working with them that GT Auto Garage is a truly amazing workshop and one of , if not the best in Australia. Im hoping for just a little luck to be on our side and I think we can do well. Everyone is volunteering because they love the project and trust in me. That makes me feel wonderful but committed to the end to do right by all of them in any way I can.

Fingers crossed!

I also want to give a huge thanks to all those people who were involved in this car from the beginning who gave heart and soul and who believed in me. To the fans who pushed me forward and said thank you to us. I know we may have problems out there, things can always happen outside of our control, but firstly Im glad just to be at such an amazing event, to spend time with such an amazing group of people. It was from my defeats that I reformed and found victory, so I believe that any result will be positive in the end. I have never given up on the car even when I REALLY REALLY wanted to!!! When everyone around me said it was pointless, stupid or would never succeed. Even just a short time ago ago some people around me were telling me the car was a waste and a "piece of shit". I learned who my real friends were, and who just wanted something from me. I learned to gather up the people who have my back and will work hard to achieve something together. The people that wanted to see me succeed with the things that mattered to me, I will never forget. Thank you. I hope some of these people in particular are reading this, I have so many rich and wonderful memories... thank you.

We collected about $600 so far and that really helps fellas, tim's flight ticket was over $1700 and mine was $1200.... and thats nothing compared what the workshop has into this shipping the car to AUS, labor, etc etc. So this is not something cheap and easy to do. THe biggest thing that you guys can do for us though, is spread the word, tell people about this blog and our facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Time-Attack-Eclipse/277549119044394

Drop our sponsors a note to say thank you for supporting our effort, or like their pages as well. These are small things that dont cost anything but would mean a lot to us! It all helps us build support and help for the future.

Wow man what a cool build! I love seeing people make custom parts for their cars and the things in this thread already are very high quality. I can't wait to see this come together for you guys!

I'm maybe late to ask this: Have you ever thought about using the Evo head or 99+ Hyundai head to place the turbo behind the front axle/tranny for better weight distribution?

For a rear mount turbo you'd have to move the alternator or dry sump stack to the front. A 321 tube header with V band turbine housing is fairly light, and will package much nicer.

I moved my front wheels forward to improve weight distribution...

lowell said:

For a rear mount turbo you'd have to move the alternator or dry sump stack to the front. A 321 tube header with V band turbine housing is fairly light, and will package much nicer.

I moved my front wheels forward to improve weight distribution...

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Still, with a rear mounted system you'd be placing the somewhat heavy turbo further back in the engine bay, as well as moving most of your heat radiating components away from the already quite taxed cooling system. Packaging could probably be worked out, but to be done right would almost require a complete redesign of the engine bay.

I think the biggest reason to NOT do that though would be losing the 2G head. From what I've seen, Evo heads on the 2.4 setups have a tendency to just shift the whole power curve to the left, rather than just augment the midrange without hurting top-end like the 2Gs seem to.

Still... an interesting idea.

I have thought about it. We have always had bigger fish to fry though. Right now we have to focus on reliability and not just for this race but so we have a stable platform to build into the future with.