The potential supercharged F20C recipient
08-08-2012, 03:45 PM
#1
The potential supercharged F20C recipient
Okay, already met a couple of you guys on the drift day a few years back at Oulton (and another couple in the winter when we took the 4wd buggy too). And I'd guess a few of you have seen me about on other forums tinkering with various track/race cars too, but I thought I'd stick a few details up, just in case the S2000 motor makes it's way into it in the next few months 
Basically, it started off as a 1969 VW Beetle. Then some american put bigger suspension on it to make it into a Baja model. Then another american dude chopped the entire body off that, and put a spaceframe in to make a beach buggy. And a bigger engine.
It competed in the Baja 500, dissapeared in a shed for many years, got shipped over here, new owner realised how fooked it was, and we bought it.
Then we did the sensible thing, chopped the front and rear suspension off that we wanted (torsion arms on a beetle so the whole units come off as a beam), whipped the engine and 'box, and built a new buggy around them.
Was originally intended as just a toy for playing in at minimal cost - didn't work....
Anyway, after playing with the 2180cc veedub motor in there around some fields, we took it to a local safari event, and promptly grenaded the motor....doh.
So then we chopped the back off, and stuck one of these in:
RX-8 Renesis motor, small, light, very compact, ideal replacement for a flat-4!
Anyway, lots happened, loooaaads of work since then (and before then), but I'll leave that for a more complete project thread if the transplant goes ahead.
Aforementioned drift day:
In case you're wondering why the S2000 all of a sudden, we've had enough of this:
It's been good fun though:
^^Yep, I'm a photo whore, you'll soon find out I like lots of pictures
It's about 880kg fully fuelled/oiled and including driver+codriver, so relatively light, ~260bhp+, runs a renault master van transaxle (£20 from the scrappy, bit cheaper than the Sadev most competitors run at £12k...)
Suspension is VW-beetle based trailing arm system all around, heavily modified though, 4x remote canister Fox monotube coilovers at the rear and 2 at the front cobbled together out of Fox emulsions and some old Bilstein reservoirs, roughly 15" of travel at the rear (depends on tyres fitted), 14" at the front. Has secondary torsion bars at the back for bump stops.
Brakes are wilwood 2-pots up front, 4-pot Hispecs in the rear, Carbotech pads all around on some solid steel discs we made up, it also has fiddle brakes (we can brake either side of the car independently to steer the car or lock a spinning rear wheel)
16 x 7J steelies at the rear (we made for it last year, has 15's as spares), 16 x 6J at the front, wrapped in 235/70R16's at the back and 195/70R16's up front, Fedima Extreme Evo Mud/Snow tyres.
Basically, lots of scrapyard bits, big hammer, welder, sorted.
Basically, it started off as a 1969 VW Beetle. Then some american put bigger suspension on it to make it into a Baja model. Then another american dude chopped the entire body off that, and put a spaceframe in to make a beach buggy. And a bigger engine.
It competed in the Baja 500, dissapeared in a shed for many years, got shipped over here, new owner realised how fooked it was, and we bought it.
Then we did the sensible thing, chopped the front and rear suspension off that we wanted (torsion arms on a beetle so the whole units come off as a beam), whipped the engine and 'box, and built a new buggy around them.
Was originally intended as just a toy for playing in at minimal cost - didn't work....
Anyway, after playing with the 2180cc veedub motor in there around some fields, we took it to a local safari event, and promptly grenaded the motor....doh.
So then we chopped the back off, and stuck one of these in:
RX-8 Renesis motor, small, light, very compact, ideal replacement for a flat-4!
Anyway, lots happened, loooaaads of work since then (and before then), but I'll leave that for a more complete project thread if the transplant goes ahead.
Aforementioned drift day:
In case you're wondering why the S2000 all of a sudden, we've had enough of this:
It's been good fun though:
^^Yep, I'm a photo whore, you'll soon find out I like lots of pictures
It's about 880kg fully fuelled/oiled and including driver+codriver, so relatively light, ~260bhp+, runs a renault master van transaxle (£20 from the scrappy, bit cheaper than the Sadev most competitors run at £12k...)
Suspension is VW-beetle based trailing arm system all around, heavily modified though, 4x remote canister Fox monotube coilovers at the rear and 2 at the front cobbled together out of Fox emulsions and some old Bilstein reservoirs, roughly 15" of travel at the rear (depends on tyres fitted), 14" at the front. Has secondary torsion bars at the back for bump stops.
Brakes are wilwood 2-pots up front, 4-pot Hispecs in the rear, Carbotech pads all around on some solid steel discs we made up, it also has fiddle brakes (we can brake either side of the car independently to steer the car or lock a spinning rear wheel)
16 x 7J steelies at the rear (we made for it last year, has 15's as spares), 16 x 6J at the front, wrapped in 235/70R16's at the back and 195/70R16's up front, Fedima Extreme Evo Mud/Snow tyres.
Basically, lots of scrapyard bits, big hammer, welder, sorted.
08-08-2012, 11:39 PM
#3
That looks like either insane fun ... or sheer terror!!!
08-09-2012, 12:22 AM
#5
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Love these projects - the 'Readers Cars' section of PH is my first stop on a morning.
Had bad experiences with the Sadev sequential box in the Clio Cup, great when it was working but unreliable and expensive to fix - reckon the scrappy derived solution is probably wise.
What sort of problems have you had with the Renesis - we're talking about engine transplants for the Ginetta and we don't want too much torque, currently have a 200ish bhp Zetec but in such a light car it's a bit torquey.
Renesis was mooted as we'd get 250ish but with a slight decrease in torque, we're currently undecided as they seem to be a bit delicate and sensitive to maintenance.
Had bad experiences with the Sadev sequential box in the Clio Cup, great when it was working but unreliable and expensive to fix - reckon the scrappy derived solution is probably wise.
What sort of problems have you had with the Renesis - we're talking about engine transplants for the Ginetta and we don't want too much torque, currently have a 200ish bhp Zetec but in such a light car it's a bit torquey.
Renesis was mooted as we'd get 250ish but with a slight decrease in torque, we're currently undecided as they seem to be a bit delicate and sensitive to maintenance.
08-09-2012, 01:25 AM
#6
Many years ago I came very close to buying a Beetle; I had discovered a company in the US called Kennedy Engineering and they manufactured an adapter to fit an RX7 engine to the VW transaxle. Nice sleeper.
I guess with the availability of RX8s on the used market the engines could almost be considered a disposable commodity; run it until it breaks, throw it away and fit another.
I guess with the availability of RX8s on the used market the engines could almost be considered a disposable commodity; run it until it breaks, throw it away and fit another.
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08-09-2012, 04:01 AM
#8
What sort of problems have you had with the Renesis - we're talking about engine transplants for the Ginetta and we don't want too much torque, currently have a 200ish bhp Zetec but in such a light car it's a bit torquey.
Renesis was mooted as we'd get 250ish but with a slight decrease in torque, we're currently undecided as they seem to be a bit delicate and sensitive to maintenance.
Renesis was mooted as we'd get 250ish but with a slight decrease in torque, we're currently undecided as they seem to be a bit delicate and sensitive to maintenance.
The Renesis is very particular about both cooling (It's a lot of power in a small space) and keeping the EGT's under control - tune it for max power and you'll find you warp the apex seals, we killed one motor from the start like that, our own fault really - plenty of overun fuelling to cool the side seals is a must too - it's also very dependent on what maintainance the previous owner did.
The stock coils are only fit for the bin in a race application, seriously, get rid of them straight away, same with the leads, rotaries are very sensitive to ignition components and they'll just cause you a lot of headache, penny pinching accountants at work there, we run D585's on Magnecors and haven't had an issue since - but do have about 2 dozen dead OEM coils.
We learnt our lesson with the secondhand motors, and eventually had an engine builder refresh us our latest S2 engine for the start of this season, only for it to die completely after 200 miles - it looks like he's ground through the hardening on the plates though rather than any actual fault with the motor - but like I say, the problem is, once you open it, really the only sensible thing to do is to refresh all the seals/o-rings, etc, which is a grand just in parts.
It's a beautiful motor when it's going though, we had over 80% of peak torque from 2.5krpm's right to 8.5krpms, and it was pushing 268bhp and 168lbft at the crank in the last incarnation, and the low CoG and little flat sump are definate plus points over a lot of motors.
I've no doubt you can make one reliable - but with our latest engine being scrap along with the new seal set and having to find another motor and then buy seals again.....there's a point where you just get fed up and fancy a change! (And more horsepower, the S2000 has more headroom with a supercharger than the RX-8 unless you start carving into the housings with a dremel)
08-09-2012, 04:32 AM
#10
Looks Interesting!
PPRE Quad-Rotor Engine
New Built N/A PP Short block,(block only) all new parts, Hi comp rotors, includes Sump, choose from Drag/Sprint/endurance porting, all internally balanced & modified to produce 600HP +.
http://www.pulseperformance.co.nz/in...p?page=product
PPRE Quad-Rotor Engine
New Built N/A PP Short block,(block only) all new parts, Hi comp rotors, includes Sump, choose from Drag/Sprint/endurance porting, all internally balanced & modified to produce 600HP +.
http://www.pulseperformance.co.nz/in...p?page=product