I do ice and road race and I heard of how much fun some of the local racers ( road racing ) guys where having going to chump car events and lemons events. Those events are BUDGET racing, the premis is something like a $500 car, no more. 4 drivers , 24 hour endurance racing. Lots of fun and low dollar racing. That got me started down this crazy path I am on.......7 DSM's sitting on the driveway.

I decided I was going to build a chump car, get the guys over into the shop, drink a few beers and build a car. Ive never done that before, I bought track cars that needed a bit of work, but a complete tear down, cage build, etc I was up to the challenge.

So I started looking, I picked a RX-7 right off the bat, but the rotary engine scared me away. No offence to the DSM, but that was the right car to pick. They are fast, easy to mod, etc. They beat my chump car first time out and there are several reasons why which I will get to.

I called up my autocross friend and he said he was in, but cant be a front wheel drive, that works for me because I didnt want to race a FWD either. My friend who is a late model and ledgends racing champ said he was in also. Now the hard part, a 4th guy who can drive, actually has some cash to participate, etc. So I called my friend up that I had a few thrill rides in his modded 1g, he was in.

Back to looking for a car......and then I thought, well, one guy on the team has a 944, but thats hard to live in the budget, the other guy has and knows 1g's, I was on the AWD path now.

Found a 1991 GSX in rough shape for $400, it was missing the front bumper but it had a 3 inch exhaust and some guages. A three hour trip to pick it up, it started, it smoked and I was on my way home. At this point I knew nothing about a 1g, what its strength and weaknesses were....So the homework starts.

Gutting a car is easy.....scraping off the interior sound deadening and seam sealer so you can weld a cage isnt. Hey hang on a minute a running AWD for $200 stuck in a field, so I grab the trailer, come-along, winch, air tank , booster cables and off I go. Car runs great bit its a automatic. Heck for $200 I now have a spare motor, sold the chassis for $200 and now I have a free motor. This is when the addiction to cheap parts starts.

Bought some camber bolts, fabbed up a active toe delete, upgraded to the 93 two piston calipers, regreased the axles, rebuilt the motor, pretty much everything except the driveshaft, trans, transaxle and rear end were rebuilt. Hey whats that? A $400 AWD that blew a timing belt. Hmmm need a spare trans, spare turbo, etc, hey how come the oil cooler is different? Oh, parts from a 90 dont all match up to a 91, hey I can use the oil cooler....I better find a spare oil cooler now, and maybe another ecu, turbo, etc.

The car took way more effort to build, a lot of that was because my team didnt help as much as I hoped, I hired a mechanic to help me pull it together as the race date was nearing.

I was smart, I brought a whole spare car to the race, I had any part I needed. Some teams weekend was over because they didnt have a spare accessory drive belt.

To give you a idea, my engine lift was borrowed by 9 teams that weekend. One team ( neon ) used their spare motor and then I think they took the motor from a crews car !

The car didnt handle great, it had a bad push ( understeer ), but we managed, the other guys drove a few seconds a lap slower than I, but they knew it was a endurance race. I drove the snot out of the car and found out the hard way that while they other guys could almost go two hours on a fuel tank, I managed just over a hour, got fuel cut from the pickup being starved.

One issue we had was grinding into 3rd and I broke the transmission internal shift fork in my stint. I tried a lot, adjusting the shifter linkage, different fluids. It turns out the the new clutch required a shifter pedal adjustment. So we got busy with a transmission swap. Still grinding, tried a new clutch slave, still grinding, the second transmission broke the same way, stuck in 4th gear ( or maybe it was 3rd ). Then we lost the clutch hydraulics. So we raced the last 6 hours stuck in one gear and couldnt use the clutch , its pretty hard to go through the pits stuck in gear with no clutch, we often didnt make it to our pit without stalling ( Silly people walking in the pits not paying attention to RACE CARS was mostly why.

The worst came when we lost the hood pins, I went to go talk to our spotter and I noticed the hood not sitting square on the front, I said call him on the radio to come in, I think we lost a hood pin, my buddy said he noticed it was loose and tightened it the day before, it came loose again. Well, the car never finished that lap, my 3 day brand new windshield was destroyed going about 180 KPH. The hood hit the roof so hard it pushed it down and you can see the roll cage indentation on the roof.

400 litres of fuel, 4 blown shocks, wrecked hood, destroyed windshield, damaged roof, 2 tires destroyed, 1 brake line ruined, 2 transmissions dead, clutch slave pooched. It was the most fun I ever had racing.....

Picture from the chump car race.

As long as you had a blast, thats all that matters!

It was fun ! It was a lot of fun, if you get guys on a team that get along. There were a few grumpy looking teams out there...

So what did I learn? Its a pretty quick car, we prayed for rain but didnt get it. The Rx7 could easily out brake us, out corner us and we were not much faster on the straights.

I fixed the push by adding in a bigger rear sway bar, that might get us penalty laps next chump race. I do need to remove the stock 16 gallon tank and put in a 18 gallon ( rules allow this ) as the car cant do the 2 hour fuel window which you need to be competitive.

I need to put some serious effort to take more weight out. I can scrape the undercoating. I can remove more wiring, I can remove the crash bars from the doors ( there are door cage bars ). But the car is still going to be very nose heavy.

Wider than stock 205 tires would probably help.

Our local race track is being built and paved, Im really hoping a chump car race comes up here, the Eclipse will be entered !

The car is home from being on display for the winter, thanks to Southside Mitsubishi for contributing to the display.

I have decided to get the VR4 caliper upgrade from Ziggy at RTM as the car needs better brakes and or brake cooling. This means I need 17 inch wheels and either Dragg or Tead Dynamics fit the budget. Im hoping to flare the fenders and run 235 or 245 tires. More rubber will help the grip levels at the expense of higher unsprung weight.

I will also cut up the front control arms and add some caster\camber and drop by doing so as the cars handling is its weakness. Lowell on the site might do that work for me. The car really needs some camber. According to Lowells post I can shift the weight bias by 1% to the rear. That hopefully helps the push also.

I need to go to town on weight reduction and have found a set of dimple dies I want to buy. Im also going to remove more from the doors, remove a lot of the wire harness I had no time to remove before. I also parted a 1g and was surprised at how heavy the bumpers were, Im taking the bumpers off and looking to save some more weight there also.

Some lexan is in order even though that adds some weight but I think it will help aero. I picked it up but I have not decided if I rivit it to the chasis and have no hatch or ligthen the hatch as mush as I can and attach the lexan to that.

Our local track opens up the full road course this fall and I know the race series will come. I need to invest some time to 'sort' the car.

I forgot to set the timing after the engine rebuild, I didnt remove the cone from the MAF, so the guide on the forum for base mods to free up horsepower is on the list of things to do.

Corner weights ( I think with me in the car but I cant remember ), car is AWD and this was with no hatch.
LF 943
RF 865
LR 606
RR 505

I'm trying to figure out how a rotary engine scared you away. N/A rotaries are dead reliable, light weight, and love revs. Also rear wheel drive and tooooons more road racing support.

DSMs are turds that have to be massaged a lot. Good luck.

Hi. I started to dismantle the car to swap put some parts as per the new rules and to fix what I know are the current issues.

The rules of the series assign dollar values to cars and parts, you need to stay under $500 to not get penalty laps. I will list out some of the changes and could use some advice ( control arms, strut towers, not blowing out shocks ).

The car starts with a set value $375 - 91 (gsx - awd, turbo )
1) Fuel capacity - I could not make the 2 hour fuel window so I am allowed a fuel cell 2 gallons bigger than stock, no penalty dollars, safer, but not cheap to do.
2) 205 wide tires were not enough grip for the car ( not enough camber also ), so switching to 255/17 et 27 17*9 wheels.
3) My 2 piston caliper upgrade and racing pads failed at 15 hours on the track ( these races can be 24-36 hours ), so I upgraded to the 3000gt vr-4 calipers, I think It will be a $10 value add for the adapter brackets, no penalty for the brakes.
4) 3 inch exhaust - no penalty
5) active toe delete $10 per heim joint so $20 - already done
6 ) eibach lowering springs $80 penalty, but since Im taking a penalty I can use any spring now, including if I can find a coil over sleeve cheap, or I can remove the springs and cut some stock ones to get me ,y $80 back
7) I put in a bigger rear sway to help with push, $30. I might be able to go to stock if I ran a stiffer spring to get me my $30 back.
8) brake cooling ducts $10

Car sits at $515 - 2 penalty laps per 8 hours of track time

8) poly suspension bushings $25, I have them but if I install im over $500 with my current setup.
9) leave front springs but remove upgraded rear save me -$40
10) lexan side windows and hatch cover $10 (aero) or run nothing which is free?

Car would then sit $500.

So am I getting good value for springs? Do I find a cheap coil over sleeve so I can run stiffer springs and corner balance car?

I have a set of cut up control arms to add some castor and a wee bit of camber, Im going to make a spare set for track, but do I add in some drop this time?

Im 2 degrees ( if not more ) short of the negative camber I need up front. Slotting the strut mount is only going to get me .5 more before the spring hits the tower. I can cut up the towers but there isn't much room by the brake booster to move it inwards 2cm. Coil overs might get me some strut tower clearance.

KYB GR-2 are known to blow on lowered springs. If I move the strut tower do I raise it so strut isn't overly compressed and modify spring perch?

I bought a dimple die set and will remove more wire, gut doors even more, fab a tube bumper, etc to save more weight - free.

Keep in mind if you can fab it with basic tools and a welder its almost free.

The car has enough power, handling is where it is weak.

I think I have addressed to some degree the 3 items that hurt last race - fuel capacity, breaking longevity ( or we need to learn to drive a endurance pace ), handling ( bigger tires and rear sway ).

Lighter will obviously help, suspension geometry is where Im a noob. I know some about CG and roll center, etc but how to manipulate the car for more desirable results is beyond me, except I know from tire temps and wear I am desperate for more camber.

I just had hand surgery so Im tying to think this through for when I can start working again. Advice welcome.

After 4 months of recovery from breaking my wrist I am back to working on the car.

Installed VR4 3000 gt calipers and 13 inch rotors - done

Brake ducting through the subframe, starting where front side marker lights were. Will come straight down after strut from subframe. 15% done

Installing fuel cell - 75% complete

Modify roll cage - 10% complete

Widen front fenders, still need to widen rears - done fronts

Test fitting Fast FC-01 17*9 et 25 wheel next week, lets hope it clear the calipers

Modify seat mount and floor pan ( cutting center tunnel to move seat inwards and lower ) - 10% complete

Wire harness removal - good lord I hope I didnt screw anything up! 50% complete

Weight reduction, removing more sound deadening, bracket bits, climate bits, gutted doors even more etc 75% complete

Modify front control arms for more caster\camber - done

Properly depower steeering rack - done

Still need more camber - slotting strut tower and maybe gain something at bottom of strut - not started

Adding wideband - not started

Rewiring switches and starter button ( adding for lights, cool suit ) and fabbing new mount for switches and guages- not started

New center net, new window net ( rule change ) and changing to full containment seat - not started.

Added poly suspension bushings , need to window weld mod the motor mounts.

Then its time to paint in my new sponsor colors. Super 8 hotels are the best

Im hoping to wrap up all the changes end of March and put up lots of pics. I will probably miss that date as it always takes longer than planned. I do need to finish it asap so I can get some testing done and finish another long overdue project which is a SBC into a Porsche 930.

Fastest lap of the day was a Talon in the first chumpcar road race this year. They went extreme and cut the roof off for weight reduction. My car will be faster than last time out, it just needs to not break to be competetive after this round of upgrades.

This sounds really cool to me. I've never heard of it before; but I am surprised the engine held up to a 24 hour endurance race! Car looks good!

See you at autobahn! Follow our excerpts if you like at www.facebook.com/dominationchassis

We just ran the car in a 1000km race. We only lasted 10.5 hours of the 11 it took for the race, thats almost the end. About 1/2 the cars didnt make it to the finish line. The car handles way better than before, my data shows almost 1.3 lateral g. Not bad for stock shocks and eibach springs. I may get a better suspension for the 1000km race, but the car was built for the chump car class, so Im not sure I want to spent any loot modifying the car for one race.

Recent modifications are.
1) Fuel cell for more capacity\pick up issues
2) Modified front control arms for more camber\castor - thanks to Lowell
3) Exhaust out the passenger seat - fuel cell in the way
4) Made it lighter but its still a pig
5) Allowed to use the strut brace in this race ( penalty in chump car )
6) Improved seat position - lower and more centered for better helmet clearance
7) VR4 Brake kit from RTM
8) 235 rubber up from 205
9) Poly bushings
10) Properly de-powered steering rack
11) Lexan for side windows and hatch
12) Radio, Traqdash and better switch panel for all the goodies
13) Center net for safety
14) Better door bars and I made the door a little less tall for getting in and out

I still need to investigate the engine failure, the driver said that he lost power, no reading on the boost guage, then a few laps later he reported the oil pressure was gone.

After repairing the wear items from the last race. I will work to make it lighter, but there is nothing easy left. I will analyze the tires and tire data and tweak the alignment. Cool suit and helmet blower to install. I am a bit over the allowed value for the Chump car rules. So the eibach springs come out and I will experiment with cutting stock springs to lower the car and increase the spring rate, I just know that the shocks wont last long when I do that. Bigger scoops for the brake ducting and a better brake fluid than the ATE super blue I used. Then its next race will be a Chump car event.

We did learn that the driver with the quickest times, boiled the brakes. I think the brakes are great for the race series, he just didnt drive a endurance pace.