Well it all started about 12 months ago. Dad and I had been arguing over a track car for a long time but due to a weird set of circumstances we decided to get serious. Dad wanted to go down the Caterham / Westfield road but I was more interested in the EVO / STI road.

We also looked at bringing in a Radical (think modern day caterham, rear engine on steriods) but my long term goal is to do a targa tasmania and at present you can not road register it.

Anyways, we sat down and nutted out what we wanted and settled on either a evo 5 / 6 lancer or a v5 / v6 sti.

For the life of me I could not find a lancer anywhere but I found a V5 STI type RA limited up at JWS. It had been in a bingle and had gone in reasonably hard in the front RHS. Because it was a limited it had air bags. Then the inevitable happened. A week after I got mine I found the perfect one over east that would have saved me a lot of head aches but anyway.

Why a V5 / V6? The cost of the shell is pretty irellevant when you look at the cost of everything else that you have to put in but we decided that the 150kg odd weight advantage could not be ignored. Also the GC's perceived lack of rigidity would be solved by the addition of a full weld in roll cage. NVH levels were obviously of no concern seeing as the car was never going to have carpets / underbody insulation anyways.

The engine was already out of the car and I had to strip everything out before the panel beater woud start.

Below are some photos of the car before and after I stripped it.







Once the panel work was done it was up to Race Torque to get a cage put in.

Below are some photos of the cage in various stages of completion









Once the cage was complete it had to go and get the interior painted. Once this was done the refit could begin to take shape.

Below are some photos of the interior as it was taking shape.







The car has been sign written and is now up at race torque getting autronics, a tune and a few other things.

Everything being equal I should get it back in the next day or so.

I have tried to keep the car as standard as possible with the ultimate veiw of going to Targa Tasmania where you are allowed to change very little.

In terms of mods the car is standard fare:

I.e.

EJ207
DCCD
R180 Rear Diff
No ABS
No Air Con
No Sound Deadening
Thinner Glass
Quick Steering Rack
LSD's Front and Rear

In terms of the mods I have done they have been limited to the following:

Autronics Plug and Play
Group 4 Coilovers
Front and Rear Sway Bar
Anti Lift Kit
Camber bolts
Silicone air intake
BPM exhaust / up pipe
2l Catch Can
DBA 5000 Rotors
Ferodo FS3000 Pads

The car could very easily be changed to run in Improved Production up at Wanneroo.

The immediate goal is to run at MC / Max action etc. I will be doing the Dutton and Taga West.

As soon as race torque get their ass into gear and tune the car I can get it back and get it licensed. It will be B reg only though.

The car has taken far longer and cost far more than I thought it was going to but we are nearly there. If everything goes right I am hoping to run at the drags on Wednesday 31st Jan. This might be a bit ambitious but we are getting very close.

Brendon

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