Capri GTT... V10, 550bhp

[andygtt]

janesmith1950 said:

We used to make sea kayaks with a carbon cloth called 'Textreme', think it's Swedish. It had a checkerboard pattern (like you see on some F1 large area stuff, eg. Red Bull). A car roof would look and be awesome in that stuff.

I seriously considered doing the roof in chequerboard... wife hated it so its simple V weave lol

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Storer said:

My apology. I thought the 'boxed' car was your Ultima.

I understand the need to keep your wife happy. I find it quite difficult to keep mine happy!

What is the reason for the loss of interest in the GTT?

The Problem is this is entirely a hobby... i do what I'm enjoying, I selll nothing.

The GTT spanned a part of my life that ended in divorce and some of my kids going with my Ex... the cars/projects were not a factor in the break but i kinda lost all interest in doing cars and took a while before i got back into playing.

When I did I kinda eased back into it in the way of playing with the Noble and I enjoyed that a lot, so much so i got carried away and turned it into the car the GTT was going to be.... the bar for the GTT was raised considerably after all it has to be better than a 1000kgs 700+bhp full carbon bodied machine that handles better than any other car I had been in!

So the GTT become a even bigger budget machine (mainly engine and drivetrain need to take over 1000bhp).... My new wife is very encouraging of my Hobbey, even came out on Boxing day to help finish the mould of the tub on the noble... however to her the GTT was a pile of tubes and dodgy body panels (essentially it is actually scrap till its finished).

So not only did I not have huge motivation for the GTT but also my wife struggled to get exited about it and provide motivation... However I needed a big project to work on as i love all the design and fabrication (proper R&R for me) so we decided to do a different car were both very excited and enthusiastic about the Capri.

Yes the Capri has got carried away... what started as a just some major work on an existing car has turned into a scratch build going for a new late... but thats just me.

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RichGault said:

Hello Andy,had a look at the website,gotta say very nice pattern work there!! Nice work on the tooling aswell,are the moulds being kept? Good shout going with infusion,herringbone down the roof centreline looks very nice........same with the bonnet?

I am going to V weave the bonnet as I am unsure if i am going to paint it of just lacquer it.

I will keep the moulds, after all i need to be able to replace panels if any damage ever occurred.

[andygtt]

I'm essentially an accountant, and I needed a new rear end for the noble after it got damaged and thought why not give it a go!.... I watched a few u tube videos, then did the rear clam lol

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Storer said:

Accountant! I would never have guessed.

Looks like you are a frustrated engineer that has realised accountancy pays quite well. Needs to an end!

There is a growing demand for CF presently and a business opportunity in the UK for high quality CF production.

If you enjoy the accountancy, that's fine. If not, why not turn the hobby into a lucrative business?

Whilst I am an accountant I actually have my own niche business, making carbon parts won't pay me as well and my spare time is spent doing stuff for myself.

I am however also a part qualified engineer lol

[andygtt]

economicpygmy said:

andygtt said:

I'm essentially an accountant, and I needed a new rear end for the noble after it got damaged and thought why not give it a go!.... I watched a few u tube videos, then did the rear clam lol

Hmm, about the same size as an Exige rear clam.
How much did it cost to do your rear clam?

Rear clam was probably around £2k-£2.5k to make in mould materials and carbon/resin.... expect it to cost £10k plus if your get an expert to do it as its a lot of work.

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OK little update... been working on the noble and the house so not huge amounts happening on the Capri.

What I have been doing on the Capri is the front suspension, Ive made the wishbones and had them professionally welded up and I have nearly finished machine the uprights. Ive also finalised the brake design and have had them made.

Also while planning the front upright, hub and bearing design I made a big decision to change the stud pattern as i was compromising my design by trying to keep the wheels interchangeable between the noble and the capri... so I've moved away from Ford 4 stud hubs and changed to BMW.

An additional benefit of this change was that I could pick from a much wider range of wheel designs and offsets... and it means I have been able to package in the wider front I really needed... so I now have 10x19inch wheels all round.
Im now in a position to weld in the wishbone points and then assemble the entire front suspension and start fabricating the wings and front end of the car.

Anyhow enough words, just for this update I quickly mocked up the front wishbones, hub and brakes...

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So I spent lunch today fixing the photo bucket links to a new photo storage that doesn't want £40 a month... I was motivated to do it when i read a thread I was interested in that had exactly the same issue as mine and found it frustrating lol

Anyhow... as recently mentioned I changed direction with regard to the hub design, this had an effect that I had to do some suspension geo redesign and also change the wheels.

The new design means I will now run 10x19 front and rear (hence the geo change).

So I sold the Rotas



and bought these



hope to get the some temporary front wishbone mounts welded in place tonight, then i can test fit the front wheels and start to fabricate the front wheel arches. The front end is actually significantly different to the standard capri so i need it all mocked up to ensure what I'm doing still looks factory standard.

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After what seems like an endless task of design and fabrication I finally had enough of the front suspension to mocking up the front wheels... I changed the design significantly mid fabrication by deciding to use BMW stud instead of the original ford... this means new wheels, new hubs, new wheel bearing, slightly different offsets and thus changes to the geo to accommodate
I also finished machining the brake bells and adapters (as I had already had these made prior to the changes).

The reason for the design change? basically I now have a huge range of suitable wheel design and sizes with the offsets i now run, and the wheels are available off the shelf.... Also the bearings, hubs etc all are beefier than before and i don't have to machine them myself, this is actually a significant advantage as I intend to keep this car long term.
Another ramification is im going to need to change some of the front chassis as the main brace diagonal is potentially going to touch the tyre with 2 inches of bump in a counter steering position... basically when the rear end steps out and I have to counter steer to catch it lol

Anyhow it was all worth it as its now exactly what I want with no compromises at all.. I can now start making the front wheel arches, like the rear my starting point is the X pack kit, however I have to widen it and move the wheel significantly higher in the arch, Ive also extended the wheelbase a little.




Brakes are 370mm discs with 8 pots, these run 2 brake pads so double bite of a standard single pad setup.





Wheels are now 10x19 front so I can run 260/30/19 tyres all round, I'm going to run electric power steering.

[andygtt]

Fastdruid said:

andygtt said:

Wheels are now 10x19 front so I can run 260/30/19 tyres all round, I'm going to run electric power steering.

Electric Rack, Electric column or electric pump with a hydraulic rack?

I know the Corsa B is a popular one to use as a EPAS column but I'm using an Vauxhall Agila A/Suzuki Wagon R instead as it's smaller, lighter and I believe has a clutch in so while it's not totally frictionless when unpowered there should be less drag than there with the Corsa B column.

I had bought a corsa unit to test with, will look into the Agila one... does it have variable speed control?

[andygtt]

Thanks for this information, must say it does look and sound like an improvement over the Corsa unit I have... not overly worried about the steering mounting as I will probably fabricate my own so i can fit any steering wheel I choose.

I will also have to pass IVA.

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Mr Tidy said:

I'm loving this thread - thanks for posting OP.

In the 80s I thought a Capri 2.8i was the business with 160bhp (I had 2), but 550bhp has to be bordering on mental!

Good luck with the build, and I'm really looking forward to the end result.

I also had a 2.8i when i was a teenager, even bored the engine out to 3 litres with chevy pistons to give it 180bhp lol... i replaced it with a 1.3 GTi swift which was NA and yet was quicker than the capri, I was gutted at the time lol
taught me a valuable lesson actually... power isn't everything, its actually ALL about the entire package..The swift was light and rev'd and thus all the power could be unleashed, unlike the capri that could light the wheels up at will and was actually harder to put the power down.

I'm hoping my version will be easier to drive fast than my old 2.8i despite the huge power advantage

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It's still alive.

Ive been focusing and spending all my time and money on the noble as I want that back on the road... unusually for me the winter rebuild has taken a spec slide and i've taken on a little too much to the point I scratch built a new design of dash and made it in carbon along with fitting a different engine and box etc etc.

[andygtt]

Last think i was doing is the front wheel arches.... long way to go till i take moulds.

But the wheels have tyres on them