New photos showing my Christmas progress on the rally car. All is plumbed and ready to fire, just cranking and priming oil, etc Need to get a proper ecu for competitive driving, but should be able to drive around gently on what's in there. I'll post up some dyno charts once I get enough money together to tune. Quick specs: 10.8:1, 86.5 mm bore, C2's with appropriate valvetrain upgrades, full ported head and IM all port matched, Outlaw spacers, JDM header (for now, will build a custom after break in), cold air with POP charger, full stepped mandrel bent exhaust. With a bone stock DE, with 211K on it, the same header and intake, etc made 135/124 WHP. With this engine, I hope it's closer to 180, but will take a real header and some tuning to get there. The car weighs a svelte 2200 (rally tires and wheels are about 42# each!) with all the rally goodies installed, so should go pretty well once it's all tuned and running properly. Enjoy, comments are always welcome!
http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/771/page/1

Wow it looks fantastic John. Do you ever plan on coming up this way for STPR or Rally WV? Let us know if you do.

..nice.. :biggthump

why no Sr20VE? classing?

Well, when I first started this project 3 years ago!!! How many times have you heard that!! Originally, this car was designed to go into Gr 2, which had a 2000cc limit, and no minimum weight! Now, they have changed that, with the Rally America rules, to reflect a weight limit, based on engine displacement. We all know that lighter is better, but with the grunt of a V6 or something, you can still be heavy and win. I hope this car makes it worth my while! I'll just be doing local rallycrosses mostly, real stage rally is ridiculously expensive these days. I will probably be coming to those events as crew, but seriously doubt I'll have the dosh to compete. I'm scraping together what I can, but looking at what Rally WV cost last year, it's not going to be possible without some serious backing!

Looking good John. Glad to see you spent some time on the cage and didn't just try to build it to 'minimum' specification.

If you are going to do primarily rallycrosses, then work on drive traction. I'd consider investing in the Nismo clutch-type LSD rather than the OEM viscous crap. Night and day...

You have more than enough power with that vehicle weight. In fact less power would be better for stage rallying until you get some serious stage experience time. A friend of mine I crew for has a Group 5 rallycar with 230 hp (turbo) and the car weighs 2500 lbs. Both his ECU and Stack dash panel's datalogging shows wheelspin in 5th and 6th gear at speeds of up to 105 mph....

So lots of power is kinda redundant on gravel with 2wd! Regardless, have a blast, and keep the shiny side up.

Bob

I'm glad to see you approve of the cage! If I am going to be driving it off a cliff, I want to know I'll survive! I hope I don't have to find out!
I think when it's time to upgrade the diff, I will send one to Triple E. I know the guy who runs the place, and he has customers running his difffs in World Challenge and Ice Racing series, so that speaks volumes to me! And I can maybe get one for less than the NISMO unit. I also want the 4.437 CWP, but depending on power, may not need it. I already have some traction issues with the car, so more power is probably not going to be of great benefit for now, but if I upgrade to 15" tires, then the longer footprint may end up helping out inthe traction department.
I just need to drive it more, that is what is killing me, all dressed up, and nowhere to go!

I also want the 4.437 CWP, but depending on power, may not need it.

I'd certainly do it if you are opening the tranny up for a new diff at some point anyway. In a rallycar, you can almost never have enough gear...you rarely risk breaking 110 mph on any rally, so in theory it would be nice to have a close ratio gearbox with the final drive geared for max rpms at top speed in top gear.

Another guy in an SE-R on the west coast recently sprung for a full custom final drive, I think he went with a 5.20 ratio or so. He tried the 4.437 and it was simply not enough for him. I'd tend to agree! You will probably almost never get into 4th gear on a rally with the stock final drive ratio, at least not with an engine that breathes at higher rpms and has a raised rpm limit.

Years ago Houseman Gear in Canada made some 4.88 final drives for the SE-R, I wish I had bought one when he was trying to dump his last two sets.

Bob

Yeah, I had the chance to get a 4.88 from a friend of mine in FL last year, but I didn't have the cash on hand at the time. I know with the rallycrosses, I'm rarely out of 2nd gear, mostly in first, and probably will never get out of first if I can see 7800 rpm! Most of the ones we had in FL were pretty fast, and smooth, but the ones up in TN are short and tight, and slippery, so I'll probably be short shifting a lot to keep out of the wheel spin zone! Makes it tough, get all the wheelspin, or bog down in the next highest gear. Probably faster in the next highest gear, but nowhere near as spectacular sounding!

Nice job John. Come a long way.
You would not believe who is rallycrossing an SE-R. A certain yellow GT-3 Mazda national driver. A diehard Mazda man running an SE-R and loving it.

It runs!!!!! Sounds pretty mean, but on the stock ECU, I had to turn the fuel pressure way down at idle to keep the 370's from flodding everything! Makes buttloads of oil pressure, kind of scary, but it's cold here! I'll be getting a Calum ECU and then having a very reputable tuner make it all work. Couldn't afford the MOTEC and the individual coils ;) so this will have to do for now!!

Great to see another SE-R being prepped for Rally. :biggthump

I guess I'm a little late to stumble upon this project. Are there any earlier threads about this car? I'd love to know what suspension will be used and details about fabbing a skid plate perhaps. Would I be right in assuming that no one sells a commercially available skid plate for a B13?

Thanks,

Mike

no commercially available plate no. I'll send you some pics of mine if you pm me an email. I am using Hotbits gravel dampers, nothing special, probably the cheapest commercially available gravel setup for that car. I wish I could find some old Dirtras or Proflex for a GTiR, but those are really rare!! They will work however, so keep your eyes out! Here is my gallery link, have a close look around. I have more pics on my computer and can take any other pics if you are interested. Just let me know what you want to see!

no commercially available plate no. I'll send you some pics of mine if you pm me an email. I am using Hotbits gravel dampers, nothing special, probably the cheapest commercially available gravel setup for that car. I wish I could find some old Dirtras or Proflex for a GTiR, but those are really rare!! They will work however, so keep your eyes out! Here is my gallery link, have a close look around. I have more pics on my computer and can take any other pics if you are interested. Just let me know what you want to see!
Thanks John,

PM sent. :) I'd love to hear more about, and find out where the Hotbits suspension stuff for the B13 is sold.

Mike

ok, pm replied. Look up Hotbits.com, and then you can head over to Specialstage, and in one of the forums, there is a raging battle over the need for expensive suspenders for budget-entry level teams. If you can find a guy who's screen name is SagSert or maybe it's 3literpower, he sells them, but don't quote me there. Anyway, get in touch with him. I bought mine from Motorsports Distributing in Canada, got in on a DSM groupbuy. They took a long time to come, but were much cheaper than anywhere else that sold them. They are pretty good, for what you pay. I destroyed a set of KYB's in about 5 events, puked their guts out, but I had cut the collars for coilovers, so no warranty replacement! I'll email you pics in a day or two, once I get some stuff cleared up in the garage!
Link to discussion: http://www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25177

Hotbits, great stuff. That is the next suspension I am getting. FOR SURE!

BRent

Larry Parker(3literpower) can be reached at 586-980-2543. I got my Hotbits(single adjustable, gravel) for my Sentra from him. Good guy, good service. They came with 10" main and helper springs. I swapped them to 12". You might want to do that right away.

George

George, what rate are you running, F/R? I got the set up they recommended, but find it a little too stiff for where I rallycross. I'm guessing those are 60mm springs? I guess I'll call Larry and order a second set of replacement springs to have. Thanks for the number.

John,

Do the Hotbits struts allow more tire clearance up front on our cars? As we all know the B13's are very limited in fitting taller than stock tires.

Mike

The hotbits are coilovers, so height wise, yes, but where you run into trouble with our cars is the turning radius. I put 195/70/14's on, and they rubbed all over the chassis front and back at full lock, so going to a 185/55/15 rally tire (Hankook, I think) is about all you could do. I have my 185/65/14 sitting next to a 205/50/15 Hankook road race radial, and it is almost 2" taller!! So, even if the size says one thing, measure the overall diameter, as that is where you are going to run into issues when turning. Correct me if I am wrong George, you are actually out running your car--I just pet mine in my garage--for now!