Race Car Rebuild
Discussion
Part 19
So I thought... do we do another update or do we just leave it and show a finished product in the New Year. On one hand I dont want to become like Project Binky dragging the thing out and on the other there are still a few interesting things going on before the lot gets covered up.
Firstly theres the matter of wiring. To be fair years ago I had a Honda civic racecar rewired and it was fantastic. The guy had a skill or a signature of basically hiding all the wires so that when you looked at the car it was like wifi. Wireless! This was fantastic right up until around the point the car wouldnt start because of a loose earth. Not a big issue apart from the fact we couldnt find the wire never mind the loose wire!
So, whats the point?
The point is wiring is a skill or maybe even an art! Especially when you have nothing to copy so below is an image of work in progress which I hope you can zoom into to fully appreciate how well thought out and amazingly neat the schematic is.
As the build continues it becomes more and more apparent that it is possible to dismantle the entire car with an allen key tool from IKEA which is slightly weird and somehow very cool.
Next is an image of our pedal box. To be honest we had one which was also AP Racing but it was a curse. In last years race it stuck half way on me and then after it was adjusted it stuck at say 5% throttle. Believe me there is nothing more frightening than driving a Dubai 24Hrs at night at 40kph and trying to get back to the pitts safely! Later in the race (19-Hrs later) It stuck in the wide open position and after a few seconds for whatever reason valves and pistons whilst uninvited joined together and spoiled the party!
So, having decided on a few choice words to describe the old pedal box we ordered a new one from our local friends MW (Motorsportwheels). So all was good. Nice new pedal box... the best part was that we also had nice new cyclinders from last year except! Our old pedal box was from a Nascar which was imperial whereas our new one was from UK and metric! Initially this looked like a problem (No idea why) but our Friends at MW came through and delivered 3 lovely new cyclinders for the box as you can see below.
Below are the rear brake internal lines. Again fitted with the infamous IKEA tool. Who needs Snap on eh!!
That pretty much concludes it for now. The car will be finished in a day or two (photos are a little bit behind the writing as such) so in the next update maybe we can show you the livery design and the team race suits. For now the last pic shows the other side of the car which also has the refuelling option. The doors are on the way but if you look closely you can see a pair of trainers on the floor. If you remember we talked about perfectionism! Well Julian doesn't let anyone in the car with shoes on.... might be a challenge for the drivers
Til next time, Seasons Greetings to all our petrolhead friends from all at ZRT.
Oh and the fuel button question from the previous post is to enable us to pump the tank dry.
So I thought... do we do another update or do we just leave it and show a finished product in the New Year. On one hand I dont want to become like Project Binky dragging the thing out and on the other there are still a few interesting things going on before the lot gets covered up.
Firstly theres the matter of wiring. To be fair years ago I had a Honda civic racecar rewired and it was fantastic. The guy had a skill or a signature of basically hiding all the wires so that when you looked at the car it was like wifi. Wireless! This was fantastic right up until around the point the car wouldnt start because of a loose earth. Not a big issue apart from the fact we couldnt find the wire never mind the loose wire!
So, whats the point?
The point is wiring is a skill or maybe even an art! Especially when you have nothing to copy so below is an image of work in progress which I hope you can zoom into to fully appreciate how well thought out and amazingly neat the schematic is.
As the build continues it becomes more and more apparent that it is possible to dismantle the entire car with an allen key tool from IKEA which is slightly weird and somehow very cool.
Next is an image of our pedal box. To be honest we had one which was also AP Racing but it was a curse. In last years race it stuck half way on me and then after it was adjusted it stuck at say 5% throttle. Believe me there is nothing more frightening than driving a Dubai 24Hrs at night at 40kph and trying to get back to the pitts safely! Later in the race (19-Hrs later) It stuck in the wide open position and after a few seconds for whatever reason valves and pistons whilst uninvited joined together and spoiled the party!
So, having decided on a few choice words to describe the old pedal box we ordered a new one from our local friends MW (Motorsportwheels). So all was good. Nice new pedal box... the best part was that we also had nice new cyclinders from last year except! Our old pedal box was from a Nascar which was imperial whereas our new one was from UK and metric! Initially this looked like a problem (No idea why) but our Friends at MW came through and delivered 3 lovely new cyclinders for the box as you can see below.
Below are the rear brake internal lines. Again fitted with the infamous IKEA tool. Who needs Snap on eh!!
That pretty much concludes it for now. The car will be finished in a day or two (photos are a little bit behind the writing as such) so in the next update maybe we can show you the livery design and the team race suits. For now the last pic shows the other side of the car which also has the refuelling option. The doors are on the way but if you look closely you can see a pair of trainers on the floor. If you remember we talked about perfectionism! Well Julian doesn't let anyone in the car with shoes on.... might be a challenge for the drivers
Til next time, Seasons Greetings to all our petrolhead friends from all at ZRT.
Oh and the fuel button question from the previous post is to enable us to pump the tank dry.
Err I seem to be a bit behind the build schedule (I blame work and way to much travel). Anyway, here are the last 2 build updates:
Part 20
Its come down to the line but we are finally finished. 8-months ago almost to the day we bought the scrap DC5 shell in Sharjah from Lap57.
Its been a long build and whilst we had a lot of parts in the end we replaced a lot more in a bid to ensure the build was to the higest standards possible. With that we would like to firstly thank the following companies who helped us along the way:
- A-tech DXB
- Saluki Motorsports Dubai
- MotorsportWheels Dubai
- Deutches Auto Services Dubai
- Lap 57 Sharjah
- Leadright Dubai
- TGMsport UK
- SpecialProjectsMotorsport USA
- Gear-X USA
- SHGmotorworks USA
- Plastic4Peformance UK
- Torq racewear
- Cartek UK
So, how does it look. Well quite honestly due to the light the photos dont do the final product justice but have a look and see what you think.
Purposeful and highly technical dash which was a bespoke design for our needs.
Steering wheel refurbished with new alacantara, fresh paint and a few new buttons including the awesome main beam x3 flashes for when we are overtaking A3 class cars
The business end of the build which was tuned on the rolling road during the week and produced a healthy Horse Power figure. Nothing crazy as we are looking for longevity rather than outright power.
A few pics of the exterior of the car before we wrap it.
Preliminary light test:
Onboard view:
The office chair:
Another view of the business end of things:
Need to clean up a few wheels:
Part 20
Its come down to the line but we are finally finished. 8-months ago almost to the day we bought the scrap DC5 shell in Sharjah from Lap57.
Its been a long build and whilst we had a lot of parts in the end we replaced a lot more in a bid to ensure the build was to the higest standards possible. With that we would like to firstly thank the following companies who helped us along the way:
- A-tech DXB
- Saluki Motorsports Dubai
- MotorsportWheels Dubai
- Deutches Auto Services Dubai
- Lap 57 Sharjah
- Leadright Dubai
- TGMsport UK
- SpecialProjectsMotorsport USA
- Gear-X USA
- SHGmotorworks USA
- Plastic4Peformance UK
- Torq racewear
- Cartek UK
So, how does it look. Well quite honestly due to the light the photos dont do the final product justice but have a look and see what you think.
Purposeful and highly technical dash which was a bespoke design for our needs.
Steering wheel refurbished with new alacantara, fresh paint and a few new buttons including the awesome main beam x3 flashes for when we are overtaking A3 class cars
The business end of the build which was tuned on the rolling road during the week and produced a healthy Horse Power figure. Nothing crazy as we are looking for longevity rather than outright power.
A few pics of the exterior of the car before we wrap it.
Preliminary light test:
Onboard view:
The office chair:
Another view of the business end of things:
Need to clean up a few wheels:
Part 21
So its time to wrap up the build story. If you want to read the race report and all our blogs (mostly serious but also a few not so serious) head over to www.zrtmotorsport.com
So where were we?
I think we were due to head for our first test day.... which we did but our team suddenly developed a 'tash-attack'
The car ran well. We clocked a 2:26.5 after only a few laps on old tyres. In perspective our old car best lap time was 2:24.5
We weren't running the car on the final geo set-up and a front tie rod arm came a little bit loose because it didn't have lock-clip on it. The car felt stable and really solid. Engine pulled strong and our new Gear-X box ratios were perfect. We had a few comments / feedback to A-tech which were all recorded by Richard T and communicated clearly. There were some minor issues such as the fact Jonathan & Umair prefer the radio comms talk button on the right side of the steering wheel on the basis that we tend to still shift gear from 3-2nd when entering pit lane.
This was the first time our new car named Rhonda2 entered pitlane:
Even after the test day we still had some parts en-route. The main thing A-tech wanted upgraded which wasnt yet was the track rod ends. Thankfully as usual our trusted partner www.specialprojectsmotorsports.com 'Kiwi' for those in the Honda trade came to our rescue and sent a set of Hardrace track rod ends. Thank you Kiwi.
Next up was our livery. We deal with Alah of Leadright UAE mainly because we trust him, he understands exactly what we want and his standards are higher than our expectations. Leadright's business is mostly wrapping and detailing the UAE's super and luxury cars to the highest standards so whilst our little Honda may have looked out of place when it arrived, it certainly didn't look out of place when it left.
So in terms of the build thats it finished really! Now it was time to race.....
With that it just leaves me to thank those of you who followed the build thread, I hope it has been informative and light-hearted. For anyone who would like more information, please email me on ian@zrtmotorsport.com and for the guy on pistonheads who enquired as to what the total cost was... There are only two people in the world who know the answer to that..
I leave you all with a few pics with commentary from the event.
We did bring back Caglar (Director of our film Labour of Love) so there will be a very short video coming out on vimeo in a few months.
The car before the race:
The car during the race:
Julian (A-tech) who with his team built arguably the best Integra DC5 enduro spec race car there is:
Our ZRT family:
Our team mate and media icon: Chris Yarwood:
Our team mate and fastest lap 2:22.5 Graham Davidson:
Our team mate and coolest guy on the grid start: Umair Khan
Richard T directing/advising and generally looking after all of us.
Our Crew Chief Heiki Heleema making sure our splitter is not likely to fall off. Previously I thought his favourite tool was a hammer... turns out its duct tape!
The A-tech team along with Heiki from DAS:
Our Team Manager Theo Souris with his boy racer Jonathan:
Our Sporting Director Ian Rodgers (me) keeping a watchful eye:
Our pit lane control: Adnan Khalil:
Our tyre and spares manager: Jason Lyness:
Our trouble shooter and top mechanic: Sander Sink:
Our youngest team member Huw Williams who is in charge of refuelling:
Lastly but not least the ZRT core family (Jonathan's family) for supporting all of us.
The car after the race:
The moral of the story is... The build is important but without the support of family, friends, sponsors, fellow petrolheads and all these guys we couldn't have done it. We started 87th and finished 65th.
Till next time....
ZRT
Stats for the petrolhead nerds here: https://www.zrtmotorsport.com/dubai-24hr-2017-race...
So its time to wrap up the build story. If you want to read the race report and all our blogs (mostly serious but also a few not so serious) head over to www.zrtmotorsport.com
So where were we?
I think we were due to head for our first test day.... which we did but our team suddenly developed a 'tash-attack'
The car ran well. We clocked a 2:26.5 after only a few laps on old tyres. In perspective our old car best lap time was 2:24.5
We weren't running the car on the final geo set-up and a front tie rod arm came a little bit loose because it didn't have lock-clip on it. The car felt stable and really solid. Engine pulled strong and our new Gear-X box ratios were perfect. We had a few comments / feedback to A-tech which were all recorded by Richard T and communicated clearly. There were some minor issues such as the fact Jonathan & Umair prefer the radio comms talk button on the right side of the steering wheel on the basis that we tend to still shift gear from 3-2nd when entering pit lane.
This was the first time our new car named Rhonda2 entered pitlane:
Even after the test day we still had some parts en-route. The main thing A-tech wanted upgraded which wasnt yet was the track rod ends. Thankfully as usual our trusted partner www.specialprojectsmotorsports.com 'Kiwi' for those in the Honda trade came to our rescue and sent a set of Hardrace track rod ends. Thank you Kiwi.
Next up was our livery. We deal with Alah of Leadright UAE mainly because we trust him, he understands exactly what we want and his standards are higher than our expectations. Leadright's business is mostly wrapping and detailing the UAE's super and luxury cars to the highest standards so whilst our little Honda may have looked out of place when it arrived, it certainly didn't look out of place when it left.
So in terms of the build thats it finished really! Now it was time to race.....
With that it just leaves me to thank those of you who followed the build thread, I hope it has been informative and light-hearted. For anyone who would like more information, please email me on ian@zrtmotorsport.com and for the guy on pistonheads who enquired as to what the total cost was... There are only two people in the world who know the answer to that..
I leave you all with a few pics with commentary from the event.
We did bring back Caglar (Director of our film Labour of Love) so there will be a very short video coming out on vimeo in a few months.
The car before the race:
The car during the race:
Julian (A-tech) who with his team built arguably the best Integra DC5 enduro spec race car there is:
Our ZRT family:
Our team mate and media icon: Chris Yarwood:
Our team mate and fastest lap 2:22.5 Graham Davidson:
Our team mate and coolest guy on the grid start: Umair Khan
Richard T directing/advising and generally looking after all of us.
Our Crew Chief Heiki Heleema making sure our splitter is not likely to fall off. Previously I thought his favourite tool was a hammer... turns out its duct tape!
The A-tech team along with Heiki from DAS:
Our Team Manager Theo Souris with his boy racer Jonathan:
Our Sporting Director Ian Rodgers (me) keeping a watchful eye:
Our pit lane control: Adnan Khalil:
Our tyre and spares manager: Jason Lyness:
Our trouble shooter and top mechanic: Sander Sink:
Our youngest team member Huw Williams who is in charge of refuelling:
Lastly but not least the ZRT core family (Jonathan's family) for supporting all of us.
The car after the race:
The moral of the story is... The build is important but without the support of family, friends, sponsors, fellow petrolheads and all these guys we couldn't have done it. We started 87th and finished 65th.
Till next time....
ZRT
Stats for the petrolhead nerds here: https://www.zrtmotorsport.com/dubai-24hr-2017-race...
Edited by IanUAE on Sunday 5th February 18:29
Edited by IanUAE on Monday 6th February 04:40
Mini update.
We entered and won our class in a local 3hr endurance race in April. The event was great for us as the drivers could focus on looking forward and not in their mirrors most of the time (at the Dubai 24hr race we are in the slowest class) and thus we have better idea on fuel consumption, handling etc.
https://www.zrtmotorsport.com/ngk-3hr-enduro/
We are being asked to display the car at exhibitions and car shows. So the car is currently on display for a week at the City Walk car exhibition.
We entered and won our class in a local 3hr endurance race in April. The event was great for us as the drivers could focus on looking forward and not in their mirrors most of the time (at the Dubai 24hr race we are in the slowest class) and thus we have better idea on fuel consumption, handling etc.
https://www.zrtmotorsport.com/ngk-3hr-enduro/
We are being asked to display the car at exhibitions and car shows. So the car is currently on display for a week at the City Walk car exhibition.
So another bit of news. Rhonda (as we call the car) is now available on Forza 6 on the X-box. We were sent some images by Jfiler who had created a DC5 with the our old Zetternet livery:
So impressed by the design we asked Jfiler to see if he would created the car with the current livery in the game. The answer is below:
So, if anybody would like a digital copy of Rhonda, search for GT:Jfiler in Forza on the X-box.
So impressed by the design we asked Jfiler to see if he would created the car with the current livery in the game. The answer is below:
So, if anybody would like a digital copy of Rhonda, search for GT:Jfiler in Forza on the X-box.
News update.
We asked the director of our 2015 Labour of Love film to return to the 2017 Dubai 24hr to record some footage and produce a short film. Due to his busy schedule, Calgar has only just been able to complete the film. In our opinion. the wait was well worth it.
So put the kettle on / grab a drink and enjoy the next 6 minutes and 50 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObLdcQXAvyM
We asked the director of our 2015 Labour of Love film to return to the 2017 Dubai 24hr to record some footage and produce a short film. Due to his busy schedule, Calgar has only just been able to complete the film. In our opinion. the wait was well worth it.
So put the kettle on / grab a drink and enjoy the next 6 minutes and 50 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObLdcQXAvyM
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