A new challenger 'The Beast from the East'

[ian65]

wow, this project is really coming on, fair play to you for planning and carrying this out.... it looks pretty intensive!
Any updates?

[Casey]

Indeed, fantastic work so far

Looking forward to any updates.

[rotarypower]

I have to confess, as I may have mentioned before, that the majority of the fab / welding work is being carried out by someone else.
Sheet metal I'm actually OK at as I spent half a year doing it for my apprenticeship, but I can't weld, work full time & am rebuilding a boat as well!

Still, Andy is doing an amazing job.
And we're nearly at rolling chassis stage.

Updates:

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[rotarypower]

So its been a year since the last post.
And to be honest, progress has been slow, in between buying a house, work, boat work to do, more work and the normal life gets in the way stuff, this has taken a back burner.

But anyway, we're having a fresh push to get it onto the road this year.
Since the last update:
- Gearbox + Driveshaft has been sourced
- Car has been sat on its wheels with the engine in, ride height looks good
- Lots of reinforcement done
- Fuel tank is underway

[rotarypower]

Some more

[rotarypower]

Apparently the RX7 will be back with me this month!

Will still need some work to get it running again, but its all stuff I can do.
Can't wait!

Even better at the end of the year I can register it as a VHI.
As extreme as these modifications are, they can all be justified under the quite loose critieria of reasons for making changes to the vehicle. (For example for economy, safety, or when parts are not readily available anymore)

[rotarypower]

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Well its rolling again. (on space savers)
Better pics to come later this week.

Still a few (lot) of jobs to do.
- Driveshaft - We have a camaro one that will be modified to fit the MX5 diff, and shortened. It has a centre bearing which I think will help with the amount of power to go through it.

- Brake lines, we're using the master cylinder & booster from the the MX5, this includes the ABS, on an MX5, this is a stand alone unit, so easy to wire up. Easy to disable on track days, but nice to have on the road.

- Fuel lines, this engine is normally a returnless setup, initially we are running with a fuel pump from a Honda Type R (FN2) as this has a built in pressure switch and returnless system.

- Exhaust - Tricky one. I don't want some loud & ghetto drift cannon on the back. I need to find someone who can make me a good sounding but subtle exhaust.t

- Dashboard and other bits to go back in, and probably some modification to clear the MX5 column

That's just to get it running, in future it will need paint, suspension components anodised, suspension upgrading, bigger brakes etc etc.