The standard S2000 propshaft has worked out, extremely conveniently, to be almost exactly the right length, within a few mm. I believe it's a few mm too short, so a spacer will be used. This is good news, because it means there will be no need to splice a prop together.
Work has started on the new bulkhead and the new subframe. The electronic side is to be started this coming week, and a half-cage will be ordered soon. Substantial (but hopefully light) 'X' type door bars will be welded into the chassis when the cage goes in. The half-cage itself will most likely be one from TR Lane Fabrications, welded in. Any notions of having a more standard bolt-in cage, to allow me to unbolt it and return the car to standard in the future, went out the window when I realised that I'm permanently chopping half my fucking car up.

Here are some photos of the start of the bulkhead and subframe build, most of which are self-explanatory:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1315677176

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1315677176

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1315677176

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1315677176




This is the finished subframe bracing..............

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1315677176

Only joking. ROFLMAO etc etc. The rusty square sections were welded on when the subframe was bolted to the chassis, to make sure the subframe didn't flex out of shape when it was taken off and worked over.

This is the start of the real bracing work:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1315677176

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1315677176

A full-length aluminium skid plate will be added, all the gussets will be boxed in, and a further brace will be added around the front of the sump.

Love the build, but hate the idea of a cage in a street car. Climbing over door bars is going to get old quickly, not to mention the dangers of driving a caged car without a helmet.

That's why it's having a half-cage. So there won't be anything to bash my head into.
We'll see about the door bars... I'm young and keen, so I should think it'll be ok, ha :)

what are the door bars going to connect into?

The rear of the uppermost bar will attach to where all the other bolt in door bars atrtach. The uppermost front point will be best, in my opinion, to attach to the factory gusset that's half way up the firewall, between the firewall and the side. Hard to explain without pics, ha. Quent will have his own views on it, so we'll see.

More parts ordered. My bank balance is weeping. Photos in a few days.

Oh, and just for the sake of getting a photo up, here's a photo of a Lotus 49 that I had a bloody good look around at the weekend at the Goodwood Revival. It's possibly my favourite racing car of all time. It was also the first racing car to use the Cosworth DFV. Om nom nom :)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1316462406

Good god.

I really need to attend the Goodwood revival at some point.

I prefer the Goodwood Festival Of Speed - there's more action, more of the time, and you still see the majority of the decent older cars that attend the Revival. The Revival is still awesome though. It's a winning combination of hot cars and hotter girls.
Apparently there was a massive crash in the '60s F1 race on Sunday morning, which must have been f$%£^@^king scary to watch.


TR Lane GPX rollbar ordered.

You know you are winning at life when your air filter is bigger than your muffler.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1316887830


And are they Recaro side mounts? Why yes, yes they are. Seat and harness photos soon..

I'm planning to tackle the F20C here in the near future. I have pretty good fabrication skills I'm planning to make a tubular sub frame and a JIG to replicate them. As much work as that shop did to your stock sub frame it would have been easier to just make a New tubular one like V8r's. would drop alot of weight and it would look a shit ton better.

I'd tend to agree with you to be honest. This modified sub frame will be extremely, retardedly stiff once done, but it'll be quite heavy.
That's the nature of these F20 builds... each time someone does it, they learn from the person before and do it a bit better. Good luck :)

For someone that doesn't have the fab skills I'd like to see if the v8R sub frame would work with a f20c at least giving you the steering rack oil pan clearance and you can figure out the motor mounts.

That would be interesting. Although you'd still have to cut into the bulkhead and trans tunnel if you were intent on not moving the steering rack position.
The way I see it re. the V8R subframe, the advantages are:
1) lighter
2) potentially a drop-in solution to the oil pan clearance issue.

Disadvantages:
1) Over $1000
2) Perhaps not 'as' stiff as what I'm having made, although I obviously can't prove or disprove that
3) potentially not a drop-in solution to the steering rack issue!

I think if the clearance does work out though, it would definitely be worth looking into for future F20 builds.

Owen ... you're reeking of money. Give me some.

On a serious note, where did you get your muffler? It's almost exactly what I'm looking for. Is it 3"?

Oh and loving the build thread. Would really like to see this car in the flesh when it's finished.

Muffler was from Merlin Motorsports. Unfortunately, it was literally the last one they will ever have in stock. It's 3" ID, 4.5" OD.
Since i need another muffler, I had to do some digging. It seems that 'Coast Racing' mufflers are rebranded versions of mufflers made by http://www.burnsstainless.com/ultra-lightmufflers.aspx
Unfortunately, nobody in the UK stocks these. So if I wanted an identical muffler I'll have to import it. Alternatively, I could get one made. I've just asked Simpson Race Exhausts for a quote for a virtually identical custom muffler... I'll get back to you on whether the quote is reasonable.

Re. the money...... my entire life savings, and more, are being blown on this. So I really hope it works out, ha.
And with that said, it's almost 5am, which means I need to leave for work. Gah.

More photos: First, this is me in a 1950s Kieft Formula 3 car, as raced by Stirling Moss no less! Complete with his signature on the dash. Very cool. The shop have just finished rebuilding it. More info about these cars here: http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac....Cars/Kieft.htm

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1317404714

This is how the engine will sit in the car. Obviously there's a lot more work still to do here. NB: Oil filler is easily accessible, and the cam cover can be removed by unbolting the subframe and steering rack and dropping the engine slightly. Hassle... but not too big a deal I don't think.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1317404714

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1317404714


Subframe. The brace around the front is not ideally shaped as a brace, because it's also designed to make a little platform for the battery. Also, and I've only just thought of this, is that it'll work pretty well in a front impact, as the force of the impact will be fed around the engine and outwards through the rest of the subframe.

Attachment 240492


Lastly, three points:
1) Interestingly, for me at least, is that unbeknownst to me, my dad had told the owner of the shop in no uncertain terms to make the car very safe before the build started. 'Safety' in a heavily customised car can imply a number of things, and I think one of the things it imples is that things should be, if anything, overbuilt.
So I think that explains, in part, why the subframe is particularly beefy. It's basically a cage around the engine, which although heavy, should be great for stiffness (I've decided a front strut brace will be even more pointless than many racers already think it is on these cars...) and in turn it can only improve steering feel. Note that the most popular theory behind the MX2000's (I think it was that car, could have been another F20c miata) initial handling issues was flexing of the front subframe as a result of some not-ideal chopping.
But.............. I do really dislike weight. Ah well.

2) I think there will be people out there who wonder why I'm moving the engine back, then putting a battery in front of it, in terms of weight distribution. Well, I'm not looking to make the weight distribution as rearward-biased as possible, I'm looking to move it back "a bit" to make the car "slightly" rear biased, or 50:50. Quent thinks to achieve this, I'll need to locate the battery in front of the engine. Be in no doubt though, that if the car is still front-heavy, then I will ask the battery to be relocated in the boot.

Having the battery by the engine also saves on a long length of heavy battery cable, assuming that the rather heavy brace the battery will be mounted to will be there regardless of where the battery is located.




3) I have a proposition that involves me driving your car.............


I've decided I would really like to have a drive in a >well sorted< turbo mk.1 MX-5/Eunos/Miata, with at least 200hp at the wheels, when this build is complete. I've driven a decent turbo mk.1 before, but I'd like to refresh my memory and conduct very geeky assessments of steering feel, brake feel, pedal weighting, ride quality etc, that will allow me to have something fresh in my memory to compare this car to. A benchmark, if you will. Note that I do not want to do big skids in your car, just drive it about, basically as quick or as slow as you want me to.

In return you can have a drive in this F20 car. So what I'm proposing is a you-can-drive-my-car-if-I-can-drive-yours sort of thing. And only if you're covered 3rd party insurance, of course, and in the UK.

I really have no idea if anyone out there would be interested in this, at all... if you are, let me know by PM or just on this thread. Thanks anyone in advance.

Here's a photo that shows the relative position of the gearstick compared to the original position. I'd like to measure it exactly, but I think it's come back around 100mm (4").
The steering wheel in the photo is being replaced by an OMP Corsica Superleggero item. I chose this for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that it has a dish of 95mm, which means it takes care of that aspect of the driving position. As I've mentioned before, the seat will be bolted back 100mm, and the pedals will be extended 100mm.
The trans tunnel will be either cut or beaten out slightly (into the cabin) to make room for the exhaust and a 115mm diameter silencer/muffler.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1317540653


Also, as much as I realise I should probably only post photos related to the build and not photos of ladybugs having sex, me in a dress, other cars, etc, I'm going to post this one photo below anyway. I was a runner today for a TV engineering crew, who's work of the day climaxed in a remote control Jag XK8 being launched off quite a large ramp. So here's a photo of the Jag mid-flight. I think it's crying out for a "VTEC just kicked in, y0!" tagline. It also makes for a photo which some people out there might find cool:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1317540653

lol Thanks for posting your engineering thoughts.