Se7en

Managed to drive over mine yesterday Think I got them from Fluke originally. Did Mog take over here? I need a left front ASAP to get back on track next week!! Any ideas on quick sources much appreciated.

The car is back up at Jeff's for paint and a couple of other mods. I will get some pictures when I get a chance. I was losing faith in the intercooler but I knew it worked on the dyno so stuck with it. The ducting is the same principle as the red Westy done by Omex although ours is no where near as pretty as that at the moment. We just wanted to prove it out. I am also going to add a stat in the water system as I am bored with taping up parts of the radiator. However, the plastic Ford one is pretty fragile looking and smaller diameter outlet than we are using. There are some nice in line stats using newer technology that we are looking into. If I make a new water rad that can sit vertically, I can add back the fans as well as they wont fit in now I have moved the rad back.

Just got back from an interesting day at Croft. Weather held up pretty well until about 3pm when the rain came down. The good news is that my intercooler duct mods worked superbly! I used the Westy route, using a new nose cone, of ducting dedicated air up over the water rad and through the intercooler. The water rad had to be angled backwards to allow this which is not ideal but I just wanted to prove the theory. Now I can have a new shorter, thicker water rad made. The car feels much faster than the last run out - in another league in fact. We adjusted the shocks to a lot stiffer, especially on the rear and it feels really good. Jeff Wilson thinks the car would benefit from a rear anti-roll bar but I don't know if this has been tried on a CSR? What did the race cars use? The only "incident" today was when a friend tried it out. Under braking from 6th gear into Tower, we locked up, missed rear ending another Caterham by mm, missed the tyre barrier by cm and hit some crops in the field by a few metres!!!! No damage done other than dented pride........

I have seen a Dax turbo with one big duct accross the front. I think my current ducts could be modified to that style of opening and I think it could work. I think it might look pretty awful though. The X330 had a small inlet on top of the nose as well. The nose looks very busy as they seem to have had water rad, oil coolers and intercooler all in the nose. The blue car has something similar to mine but not sure how well it worked. Pics here I may try a Westy type ally duct and think about carbon fibre later. I have been trying my hand at this on another project......

I thought about various add on flaps (!) and scoops but I just thought they would look.........well.........add on really. I already have a new nose cone and have cut my rad fittings about to move it back. Just need to have them re-welded on, mount it and make a guide up and over the rad to the current intercooler.

I actually quite like the nose ducts but I guess it is just a matter of taste. I was more than happy if they were functional. I do agree the clean stock look is very nice indeed. The RS solution is very common on forced induction vehicles, whether OEM or aftermarket. I fitted a massive (and expensive) front mount to an Audi RS4 a few years ago and it worked superbly on inlet temps but it did affect the water rad. I will just have to spec up the water rad if need be. Not sure if the Westy has changed rad position but it has added an intercooler and ducting to the front end. The CSR rad is way out in front and angled forwards so I may get better weight distribution by changing my set up to mount further back. However, the anti-roll bar is preventing me going as far back as I would like. A spray bar would feel like treating the symptom to me - I would rather get a good air to air intercooler working. The nose cone is not that expensive. Not sure about front wing until I use it more. Initial thoughts are of low speed understeer but I need to push it on the high speed corners to see. I do have a carbon flat floor that extends out under the nose which I may try before a proper wing as per the Levante. Cheers

No real pic updates but I have added a couple to here There is one showing the Levante intercooler for reference. I will add some more to show my intended route but it will be something like the red Omex Supercharged Westy (sorry about the Westy bit). Cheers.

Blimey - it's been a while since an update. It took a while to find me thread..... The car has finally run in anger after a few outings with fuel pressure problems and a few other niggles. I am really glad I fitted a fuel pressure sensor and set the Race Technology dash to a warning at 10 psi drop. We had designed a foam filled ally tank with an internal sump that gravity fed the Bosch 044 fuel pump, then in line filter to -8 hose to the fuel rail. After changing pretty much everything to solve this, including re-wiring with a relay, it turns out that it was not losing pressure under demand conditions but under cornering G. It had to be the tank itself. Options were to add a low pressure pump feeding a swirl pot, then feeding the high pressure pump etc............or change the tank. On the Bank holiday weekend madness (was there a wedding on?), I managed to source an FIA approved bag tank from the Caterham Levante, complete with internal sump, pump, filter etc. I sent someone to collect it and I delivered it and the car to Jeff Wilson at HWR. As the tank was designed to fit an SV car, I thought it would go straight into a CSR chassis but NO! The rear strut tops were in the way so AAS had to cut and re-weld various chassis tubes to get the tank in on the Saturday. Jeff finished the car off on Sunday when I picked it up ready for Croft on Monday! BIG thanks to Jeff and AAS. I was over the moon when the car ran without fuel issues at Croft so I could finally push it a bit. The car feels better than I imagined it could. The chassis set up and slicks are working well, steering is excellent, brakes really good (until a slight soft pedal later in the day). I had almost forgotten about the diff ratio change we had done as it seemed to be just right. The torque is impressive with no need to rev it at all. Apart from the soft brake pedal, the only issues I had were a battery light and a sticky throttle that caused the cable to slip. The nose cone ducts (that took me weeks to make) don't seem to be getting enough air to the intercooler so the power was way down and I took it easy. The only major work is a new nose cone set up that will feed air to the IC. If that doesn't work, I will make a new water rad / Intercooler set up like the Levante. We are nearly sorted............ 😬

Quoting dannylt: Quite a few people I spoke to weren't so enamoured with the throttle response (mainly on the K20A conversion) . Danny That is why I went with the individual TB's and all the hassle that caused - this should make response as good as it can be. Of vourse, it will never be as good as a NA engine on individual throttles....

Quoting dannylt: Thanks for the detail - you're making me feel much better about selling my Rotrex after sitting on my desk for a year! They make great paperweights don't they? Which one do youo have? The unit itself (particularly the C30) is such a nice compact piece of engineering, it looks like it would be easy to fit. Just like an alternator really! The monster C38-81 I used was a real challenge and not for the faint hearted!!!!

Quoting Billyboy: O yeah I love reading about these ground breaking projects 😬 Edited by - Billyboy on 3 Mar 2011 18:49:13 I would describe it more as bank breaking.......!

Quoting Mad Hatter: Any more update pictures for tech talk ? As I said in the marathon YOB thread, just finishing off a few bits (quite a few really) but the main work this week is trying to fit 9th generation (!) SC brackets in a very tight engine bay. My knuckles are knackered. Also got my new (3rd) bonnet which I now need to painstakingly cut for exhaust hole, inlet plenum clearance and 3rd row of vents in the middle. I might use my old (slightly bent) bonnet as a foam lined, noise insulated one for ststic noise tests . Might also look to line the side panels with something lightweight and fireproof (!). There is definitely a lot of noise from the engine bay - not supercharger whine or belt noise or even induction. It seems to be just mechanical noise. I do have a flat floor I made from an ex LeMans Porsche floor but was a bit worried about heat in the engine bay. Will try and grab some pics of progress if there is interest. Cheers.

Quoting Mad Hatter: *arrowup*Thank you I was joking about the Rotrex though, with the power curve being so smooth it should be great for getting the power down which might be compromised if i switch to forced induction I need a rest from it too, this upgrading lark takes it out of you Time to get back to some driving, then plan stage 2 How is yours going ? Projects like this are tough, especially if you are physically doing the build as well as planning and sourcing all the parts. Mine has had a few mods over the winter - some improved SC mounts, heat shields, better air filter location and cold air supply, shift lights, custom tonneau, etc. The big problem on our initial running was fuel pressure - I think this is down to needing a relay to power the pump properly. We will see. Also had the silencer re-packed and some reverse cones shoved up my exhaust

Quoting Mad Hatter: Rotrex is on my xmas list for next year 😬 Getting a Rotrex is easy. Fitting one properly in one of these cars is a little more difficult. The real issue is all the other changes that are needed to cope..... Congratulations on a fantastic build and the engine sounds like it will be awesome. Cheers.

Will be on ebay tonight with no reserve. Anybody interested for sensible money? Thanks.