Goodwin Racing Turbo NC Gets Resurrected
 

This project has been sitting in the back of the shop for a couple years. This is one of two cars that GWR acquired a long while ago from a Formula Drift team. Many are familiar with the sister car which was stripped down and built into Brian’s yellow “NC Light” AKA the Banana. That car was all about low weight and tons of mechanical grip. It used a naturally aspirated 2.5L built for World Challenge racing and went on to set several track records with Brian behind the wheel.

While the Banana was being raced, this second car was getting built in the background, but this one with a turbo. If the Banana was a ridiculous assembly of awesome stuff, this turbo car is perhaps even more ridiculous (In a good way). However, it’s never been to the racetrack. It made good power on the dyno and needed more fuel to go higher, but as sometimes happens at a busy shop, the project got sidelined.

Fast forward to now and here she is, just dragged out into the sunlight:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1445037418

We're going to dust this thing off and finish it. We’ll update the fuel system, feed it some corn, and see what it’ll do. Whatever power it makes, we’ll call it good and take it racing.

Because the car never made it past the dyno testing stage, there are a lot of loose ends to be tied up. My task is to take this awesome assembly of parts that it currently is and give it some purpose and direction, some elbow grease and perhaps a bit of my own flavor and make a finished, fast car out of it.

The (short) list of what we’re working with: stripped/seam welded/caged tub, Cosworth 2.3L dry sump engine, Jenvey intake manifold/TB, turbo system, side-exit exhaust, Motec ECU, custom wiring harness, rear-mount oil cooler, AIM Dash, Tilton pedal set, Ohlins R&T Race coilovers, Enkei RPF1 18x10s…

We’ll be able to apply much of what was learned with making the Banana fast directly to this, but with more power and more aero it should be quite a recipe for some fun!

She is now on a lift in the shop, parts are being ordered, and a plan of attack is forming. :naughty:

:likecat:

Have to admit that I always liked the NC. Looking toward to seeing the results.

Turbo AllTheThings!

Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Work began on the car yesterday, will get some pics of the stuff being done soon. In the meantime, here are a few shots of the interior as it sits.

It's a bit rough, but I can hear Han Solo faintly.. "she may not look like much but she's got it where it counts"

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1445190313

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1445190313

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1445190313

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1445190313

In for the pics.

Couple questions on another forum about the backstory on the car so I'll copy that here:

Basically, Intl Allstars (is that a name from the 90's or what?) was a formula drift team with backing by Mazda N.A. which explains the budget level of the build. We're talking about the early days of drifting in the US a decade ago. If you look them up they still have old vids with the cars, with a super cheesy fast and the furious feel to it all.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1445291171

Underneath the drift/show paint and stickers though were carbon bodywork and a drivetrain and chassis that were full-on race car. Through mis-management the program fell through and so GWR ended up with two of those cars back in 2007 when the team couldn't afford to keep them. I'm not sure what happened to the third car. After GWR acquired them, the first car evolved into the "NC Light" or what some affectionately call the Banana, which Brian beat up on Vipers with at SCCA and NARRA events:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1445291171

Original plans for this second car were to go after the big guns in XP autocross with the turbo, but the project got sidelined a few years ago. Last week we were discussing some of the upcoming events that we want to participate in - and which cars would be best suited for them - and the idea to finish this car up and give it a purpose came about.

So what's first on your agenda to get it up to snuff?

Excited to see this thing going again!

This is so awesome!

tell me more about "bananas" side pipes... seriously

Update all of the safety equipment plus bring the car up to current safety regs, new injectors and pump for the E85, tow it to the dyno and tune the Motec, get all the bodywork on, and lots of little fabrication-related bits and bobs to just tie up loose ends, make sure nothing will fall off the car, etc. then do a shake-down at the local autocross in a week and a half.

If the above goes well, we add aero and prep to go to the track.

... And if there's time, wrap the car (because I am not about that red/yellow combo).

:cry:

I like the F&F look.

Passes through the px footwell, hence the cover on that side in the interior shot. Obviously this wouldn't work for a "V" engine that needs exhausts on both sides, that would have to be done with more finesse.

Lots of little bits and bobs on the to-do list to tie up loose ends and get this car fit for track use. Not all of it is exciting/fancy stuff, but equally necesssary:

New battery went in the car, we went with a standard NA/NB unit as it's a bit smaller than the NC version. No need for a lightweight battery as this helps with weight balance. The old battery box was thrashed so I made a new one:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2899&t=1

Apparently drifters don't need mirrors? Because the car didn't have one. Welded in brackets for the convex mirror. We'll likely run without side mirrors on the exterior of the doors for lower drag:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2900&t=1

Sure. If you want to know what's in front of you, you look out the side window. If you want to know what's behind you, you look out the other side window.

--Ian

:giggle:

Touché :rofl:

Took this for you:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2902&t=1

As we go through the car to double check systems, the wiring schematics from Motec come in very handy. I'm nerding out a bit here - there's an easy $10-15k here in just the ECU, wiring harnesses, modules and sensors.

This is what you get from Motec when you order a custom pro-built harness for your car. Top two pages are the chassis-side harness, and bottom two are the engine-side harness:

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...h.jpg~original

oh that's giving me bad ideas :)

Yesterday we removed the APR GTC-200 wing because we have some other things in store for this car.

That's for sale in the classifieds now:
https://www.miataturbo.net/miata-par...6/#post1277901

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2905&t=1

Lots of updates!

The first one is that we swapped in a new Deatschwerks 340lph fuel pump and test-fired the car yesterday and it's running! :D
Now in go bigger 1000cc injectors for the switch over to E85:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

DG Motorsports lightweight carbon fiber hardtop is installed:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

Doors went on the car, these are the DG Motorsports carbon fiber doors. They're sturdy, bolt to the factory hinges, still use the factory latch mechanism (actuated by a cable), and are only 9 lbs each:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

Installing the doors and hardtop is a good sign - It means we've finished up work on the interior. The "office" needed some updates. New Cobra Suzuka seat:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

We went with lots of lay-back in the seating position and the seat back is against the rear bulkhead. Leg/foot ergonomics are still great thanks to the pedal box. We'll be adding a steering wheel spacer to move the wheel back towards the driver to account for the new seating position. This picture gives a good visual of all this:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

You'll also notice in the above picture another addition - window net. Locators were welded in for the rod up top and the net straps on the cage door bar:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

More lightweight body panels! This is the DG Motorsports one-piece carbon fiber nose:
This nose had been used on two cars here back and forth for a while so the attachment points were all worn out. We've reinforced those areas and replaced all the fasteners and it now mounts to the car solidly.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

Side-note, bump stops serve as excellent hood pin bumpers, with a nice and wide footprint and juuust that perfect one or two millimeters of compression so you get a little positive pressure on the body panel against the pin so it doesn't rattle:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

Sean has been hard at work peeling all the old stickers off the car:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1446007782

And in that last picture you can see that I've gotten started on the aero for the front of the car. Will have more pictures of that as it is completed in a few days!

The ID 1000's are in and she's now running on E85!

We've gone over the car with a fine-toothed comb, lots of little bits replaced or updated.

The aero is coming along nicely. With a relatively short timeframe to work within I have to prioritize, so first up is to get the big primary elements put together. Finer details and elements can come later. This first stage of aero involves a BIG splitter just finished up today. Here it is fiberglassed and painted, off the car. It extends back to the front subframe, uses a combination of a fixed frame plus cables (not in the pic) for support, and the whole assembly is on quick-disconnects so it can be removed from the car in 30 seconds. it only looks short front to rear because it is a monstrous 75" wide!

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2928&t=1

I've also added an airdam and front tire covers to the nose to work in conjunction with the splitter. Won't have this mounted back on the car until Saturday so we'll have a picture of the front end all together then.

In the rear, that big front aero gets balanced by a big wing. This is a custom Kognition dry carbon wing I had made earlier this year for my car, but since that project is down for a drivetrain swap it's better used here than sitting in my office. This wing is #600, the final wing produced before they closed up shop:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2930&t=1

I was able to modify a set of wing mounts I had for my car to fit the NC, and voila:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2929&t=1

It's good to see this car together and looking whole! Can't wait to make it all one nice color instead of the mis-matched panels it currently has, but many things to do first.

We hit the dyno tomorrow to get the tune sorted out, and then we have a shake-down at the local autocross on Saturday. :naughty:

#winning

This is so awesome!

i dig the wing. what are the weight savings with the doors?

Stock door is a little over 40 lbs without glass, so figure close to 70 lbs saved between both doors counting glass removal.

holy moly!

Got the car on our scales: 2255 lbs. Just a little over 100lbs more than the Yellow "NC Light" came in at, which makes sense as this is a similar build but with the additional nose weight of the turbo system plus more aggressive/larger aero.

SUPER light for an NC, and particularly for one which makes this kind of power (hint: dyno results soon to come!)

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2967&t=1

Friday Dyno day

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2968&t=1

After working through a few hiccups we now have a solid, safe tune with 380hp and 340ft-lbs of torque at 12psi. This is on a well-known dynapack, number is ~10% greater than a dynojet, so figure 340whp/300wtq.

This is on a standard GT2871 on wastegate only. There's of course a plethora of things we could do to control spool and boost further, but we're going to race it as-is for now.
Obviously, we don't want to be below 5k rpms :giggle:

Horsepower:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2970&t=1

Torque:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2969&t=1

I just wet myself.

man. that's healthy.

:likecat:

Last weekend we took the car out for a shakedown at the local autocross and had a great opportunity to learn a lot about the car. Love these local events so we can test/tune conveniently before all the effort involved in going to the track. Keep in mind, this is the first time this car has really ever been taken around a corner fast - it's previous life as a drift car it was never dialed in.

Great example here of something that guys often overlook - that an assembly of parts only gets you so far, tuning and revising is what makes a car fast. SO many elements that were completely un-tuned at this point.

First few times out with both Sean and I driving, our initial impressions were this car is a beast - tons of power, but lots of understeer and NO brakes - which made the power even more... "thrilling" :noes:

A few tweaks later we had it rotating better and starting to get some feel in the steering, but nothing much we could adjust track-side to get the brakes working; going into this shakedown the brakes were an unknown - just running whatever the drift guys had put on the car so many years ago, plus it is a full manual brake setup with no booster, so lots of variables there.

With suspension adjustments made, we went into the timed runs and I was able to wrestle the car to a Top Time of Day despite being in such an early state of tuning, which tells me we have TONS of potential in this car as we get things dialed in. :D

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2997&t=1

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=2998&t=1

Much learned and more things added to the to-do list that hangs in the shop by this car.
This is all part of the process :)

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!

Going to go back to a power assist setup on the brakes?

No, we should be able to get the manual setup working great :)

Brake pads in the car were old and crumbling stuff, those are being swapped out to our high-torque Porterfield R4-1s.

I pulled all the measurements off our current setup, sent those to resident brake expert Johnny at OGRacing and he did the math on the hydraulic system for us. Thanks Johnny! We decided to change master cylinder sizes to give us more line pressure from less leg force. This should make it easier to drive fast consistently. We're also adding a remote knob so that we can make small adjustments to the bias on-the-fly from the driver's seat:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=3000&t=1

Brake bias knob installed below the shifter so it's within easy reach (seat position is so far back that you have to extend your shoulder out of the seat to reach the center dash console). Our steering wheel extension also arrived to place the wheel where we need it given the seating position - it was quite a reach to the wheel without it last weekend, so the ergonomics are now sorted out:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=3001&t=1

Epic!

Sean was configuring sensors with the AIM dash and wrapped things up with a new start-up greeting:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=3002&t=1

Forgive me for being the negative nancy, but why does the torque come in so late? 200ft.lbs at 3500rpm is what Theseus made on the same turbo, and that was on a stock-port/cam BP6D head. I expected a ton more from a Cosworth 2.3L MZR. Are there big cams in it?

We're you running EBC? They said it was just wastegate, which would hinder spool.

Yep, standard wastegate maxed at 12 psi. It's a tale of massive struggle trying to keep shut during spool.

Of course there's a plethora of things we can do to improve that, but a safe tune with whatever boost it wanted to develop was first on the list so we can get it out on track and begin dialing in so many of the other systems. Motec's EBC is $1500, so we will probably not go that route. ;)

:barf:

Yeahhh pretty much. The USB adapter we needed prior to the dyno day was $450.

I was on a 1bar WG spring and a home depot MBC. Even my wastegate-only pulls were much better. Furthermore, why is it struggling to build 12psi? Torque curve suggests you aren't seeing 12psi until nearly 5000rpm, from a 2871R? On a 2.3L motor? Huh?

And a simple ball/spring MBC is very likely what we'll add soon. Not sure if we will do it before first track outing, depends on how much dyno time we have available next week.

MBC won't alter spool substantially. Even EBC is only worth a few hundred RPM at best. My money is on that motor having a monster set of cams. Ryan, do you know the cam specs on that motor?

I don't and that could very well be the case. The cams date back from when the motor was naturally aspirated, the only change made back when it was rebuilt for boost AFAIK was the drop in compression ratio.

If its a really light wastegate spring then EBC will alter it by quite a bit. Imagine a 6psi spring that creeps up to 12psi. You turn that creep into spool and suddenly you have a couple k's of spool.

Now I don't think thats the case here because I bet it has an EWG and i doubt its creeping.

Cams sound plausible. Does it sound cammed?

Internal wastegate on the GT2871

The motor is a gem. The turbo kit is an old Bell kit. 'nuff said.

I bet a set of OEM cams and another 4-6psi will pull the torque curve back about 1500rpm without hurting top-end power at all.

wait till you see how much the ABS costs :)

Is there too much valve overlap since it was na to start with?

With track time coming up fast, still on the list was to give the car some fresh new colors.

We went with a dark gray metallic. I like how the yellow in the interior pops where you can see it against the gray, and it's a little less in-your-face than having the whole car yellow.

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=3031&t=1

We had a sunny day in the mid 80's out at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway for testing. Sean brought out his NA as well:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=3032&t=1

Lots of great initial impressions from the test day and we're starting to get many elements dialed in now. We ended up blowing the weak NC1 transmission, but not before we made good progress and all of the data and sector times are pointing towards us having a very capable machine in the works here. :D We'll be putting a stronger NC2 6 speed in shortly.

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=3033&t=1

Eating Porsches, Corvettes, etc. for breakfast on the straights:

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/downlo...hp?id=3034&t=1

I'm sure you guys have seen this similarly awesome NC build: https://www.facebook.com/TXTrackNC/?fref=ts


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1448479181

That car and this car are making me want to build an NC so badly!

The purple NC was built by one of the guys at CJ Wilson racing I think?

Yeah I think so. It's SOOOO Dialed. I too want a NC after seeing these builds.


@thepass what kinda laptimes at chuckwalla? Just curious, this thing must haul ass!

Yep, he has a build thread on our GWR forums too :)

No full laps yet, just sector times, data collection and tuning/tweaking.

So much awesome.