sebsta Posted March 5, 2013 Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 (edited) hi all thought i might do a build thread on me and my dads 1977 ra23 rally car. the specs: 18rg 2 liter twin cam running hi comp pistons with bathurst cams out of the 1981 chickadee ra40 , and twin 45mm webers w50 gearbox 4.88 liteace diff which is locked brakes are hilux calipers with 4 pot Hilux calipers, stock drums on the back we brought it at the start of 2013 as a tarmac racing car so nice and low and couldnt get it on the trailer, we set to work on turning it into a rally car :) We set about fixing the interior first like moving gauges and making them nice and neat not just cable tied to things :/ we also fixed the dash pad up as it was all cracked. The next step was fixing the little things we needed on the rally like heater , demister and radiator fan Then we set up spare wheel carrier , co-driver seat, co-driver panel ,interior lights ,reversing light and terratrip. then the most important thing for any rally car stickers :) i made them up myself . Then we ordered some stiffer springs to give her more ground clearance , and stole a stiffer front sway bar out of our parts ra40 it was time to take her out on the first outing thanks to my mate craig for the photo , it was only an autocross but it was a good chance for dad to get a feel for the car before we took it out on our first ever rally :) on the rally it was good fun we damaged the car a little but nothing to bad and placed 9th outright Edited March 20, 2013 by sebsta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbonboy Posted March 5, 2013 Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 Looks great Seb! I'll bet it sounds good & is a blast to drive too! :yes: What race series are you & your Dad competing in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebsta Posted March 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 thanks luke, it does sound good and goes just as well we are racing in the Victorian club rally series :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimi91 Posted March 5, 2013 Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 Dw luke he is in good hands ;) Looking good seb hope u can get it fixed mate See ya Jimi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supra2 Posted March 5, 2013 Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 Well done to you and your farther seb. The car looks great. Might catch you at a rally sometime if you decide to venture north for a amsag event. My 2nd rally car was a ra23 and I learned a lot from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebsta Posted March 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 Dw luke he is in good hands ;) Looking good seb hope u can get it fixed mate See ya Jimi haha she will be fixed ready for the next autocross then marrysville :) Well done to you and your farther seb. The car looks great. Might catch you at a rally sometime if you decide to venture north for a amsag event. My 2nd rally car was a ra23 and I learned a lot from it. that would be fun to do a rally up north , yeah they are such a great car, do you have any photos of your 23? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted March 5, 2013 Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 Any idea of the compression ratio? Does it oversteer easily?? The couple of things you listed like the thicker front sway and big front brakes but stock rears suggest it will understeer. Is it hitting the ground or having the diff hit the floor?? We have managed to transform the RA40 from a 'too-low' understeerng pig into a car that is easy to drive and place where you want it facing the way you want. The rear brakes lock just before the fronts and the tail steps out to aim the nose into the corner. http://www.rollaclub...089#entry641089 So much to learn and experiment on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimi91 Posted March 6, 2013 Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 yeah I'm sure it will mate :) See ya Jimi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebsta Posted March 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 [quote name='altezzaclub' timestamp='1362519475' post='649281'] Any idea of the compression ratio? Does it oversteer easily?? The couple of things you listed like the thicker front sway and big front brakes but stock rears suggest it will understeer. Is it hitting the ground or having the diff hit the floor?? We have managed to transform the RA40 from a 'too-low' understeerng pig into a car that is easy to drive and place where you want it facing the way you want. The rear brakes lock just before the fronts and the tail steps out to aim the nose into the corner. [url="http://www.rollaclub...089#entry641089"]http://www.rollaclub...089#entry641089[/url] So much to learn and experiment on... [/quote] not sure of the compression ratio sorry. yeah it is a bit tail happy, but dosen't under steer surprisingly but it does need more brake bias to the back as the front lock up. it now does not hit the ground or bottom out . it is at standard height haha yeah i saw your ra40 it looks awesome nice work on it what the engine like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebsta Posted March 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 damage from the rally bent the strut tower :( but now fixed with our high tech strut realignment device Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted March 6, 2013 Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 ouch... So you will be wanting a copy of our cross-strut bar design.... wind on the bar and push the towers apart! Was that hitting a vertical object with the front? It looks like the damage that we replaced, but worse. Some front-end many years ago I expect. Get a pair of RA65 rear slave cyls, they are the next size up and a bolt-in job, for more rear brakes. I think they were only $30 each brand new. I intend to pull all the fancy diagonal system and bias limiters out of the RA40 sometime, just go back to a straightforward system with an adjustable limiter. The current motor is pretty stock, hauls OK and doesn't give trouble. Steve has a spare 18RG that we will build into something better, but at the moment we need the chassis at its best. Have you taken out the rear arms and checked the rubber bushes recently?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebsta Posted March 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 haha yeah bit of a ouch , yes that is what i had in mind , i saw it worked a treat on your car :) here's what happened just missed a corner at speed and hit a mound of grass sideways , it was lucky we didn't go straight as it drops away and then lots of trees. were going to upgrade to disc brake hopefully soon but thanks for the pointers :) yeah we were looking at it today and we thought the same then just pull all the factory stuff out and go basic. ok cool, they are a great motor and have plenty of power :) cool can't wait to see the new motor we had it up on the hoist on sunday and the rubbers appeared ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted March 6, 2013 Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 Ah, the dreaded understeer! So that chassis damage is from the strut bottoming out and pushing the turret over. Definately time for a cross-strut bar to throw that force over to the other side. How is the crossmember and LCA mount?? The only advantage of rear discs is that they are faster to change pads in, but I expect rear shoes to last all season. We had to adjust the rear shoes up quite tight then they bedded in very quickly with a nice high firm pedal. We fitted the RA65 master cyl too, it is a size bigger than the stock RA40, as Steve is really tall and I set the pedals as low to the floor as I could to give him legroom. You never need a lot of pedal pressure on gravel as the brakes lock up so easily, so you can run large diameter short movement master cylinders. We're discussing 11:1 or 11.5 :1 pistons for the new motor, I'm not sure abou performance gain versus longevity. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebsta Posted March 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Ah, the dreaded understeer! So that chassis damage is from the strut bottoming out and pushing the turret over. Definately time for a cross-strut bar to throw that force over to the other side. How is the crossmember and LCA mount?? The only advantage of rear discs is that they are faster to change pads in, but I expect rear shoes to last all season. We had to adjust the rear shoes up quite tight then they bedded in very quickly with a nice high firm pedal. We fitted the RA65 master cyl too, it is a size bigger than the stock RA40, as Steve is really tall and I set the pedals as low to the floor as I could to give him legroom. You never need a lot of pedal pressure on gravel as the brakes lock up so easily, so you can run large diameter short movement master cylinders. We're discussing 11:1 or 11.5 :1 pistons for the new motor, I'm not sure abou performance gain versus longevity. . Correct.the lca and crossmember are fine only bent the strut Are you still running the brake booster and stock bias/balancer thing? With the pistons they still seam to be very reliable even with such hi comp pistons have you found any one in aus that make rg pistons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altezzaclub Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Yes, we're running the RA40 booster on the RA65 m'cyl, and all the funny line dividers on the firewall. That will all go later on... I want to find a smaller booster to give the rear Weber socks more room, maybe an earlier Corona or something, or run a rotating tube right across the firewall with the booster and m'cyl on the passenger's side. Steve is chatting to someone about the pistons, we can get either compression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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