Rhyscar

Got radiator side mounts, fans and pipework all sorted over the holidays. These had been holding me up until as their location determines a lot of other engine bay related constraints so was great to get it ticked off. Without a radiator cross-member mounting the top of the radiator was tricky. I ended up welding a boss on each end and finding a shackle bush to mount to the headlight frames. I bloody hope I never bend the front end cause everything will get damaged..... Might need a good crash bar post-cert for bumper-to-bumper racing! Made a shroud for the fans (which are the wrong direction currently due to a brain-fart on my part), mounted 15mm from core so hopefully enough to draw air from whole radiator surface. Have included rivnuts for future addition of bonnet ducting. Now I'm in the process of moving the header tank over to the guard to make the bonnet duct simpler. Should be a great layout when header tank, catch can, rad overflow, bonnet duct and airbox are all finished up. These may take a while to finalise as I'm focusing on jobs that get the car started.. ] This is a HUGE step for me. And super happy with how it worked out. The end is feeling a lot closer and achievable now! Just got to keep moving forward.

This is a great investment and the swivel seats are so lush. Will be great for sleeping at the track and general adventures! How good is 1kz towing life? This has IRS correct?

Awesome thank you!

Hey Phil, looking over your ideas for brake upgrade. Where did you find that booster? Is it NOS or from another model? Might be keen to upgrade to boosted brakes in the rally car one day. Thanks

some more detailed shots of the wiring loom front loom is very tucked up against the bottom rad support. Very minimal most of this area will end up getting covered by a catch can so won’t see most of it. Nice and tidy through the firewall. Tight space so stoked I could make this work. Power steering pump still needs wiring from nearby relay. super happy with how it all fits under the dash Gauge lights all working. All the steering wheel buttons and control panel are working mint. Just another plug needed for the rear part of the loom. This makes me happy. So stoked we wired up the yellow fog lights they look great!

Loving the slam on this car. Can't wait to slay some backroads in this (at a bit higher height) @vk327 cranking into the wiring. Body loom is 98% complete and working. Very exciting to see lights flashing and wiper going. Starting to feel like a real car, not just a collection of parts thats been sitting in my shed for too long...

Thanks to @Guypie for machining my intake manifold on a 7deg angle. This netted me 16mm of additional bonnet clearance so I'm happy. This should be enough to design some funky-shaped trumpets to fit under the bonnet. Very interesting seeing @kpr testing results, it seems shape doesn't matter too much, as long as length is correct. IIRC 130-160mm trumpet (330-360mm total) is what I was aiming for. Lots of wiring progress lately. A bit more on that soon, but for now here's some satisfying pictures of general tidyness/not being hory. Made a sweet bracket for the speedo sensor pickup off rear hub. This will drive the Monit (for wof purposes), but also allows ECU to do some launch/traction control things (compare front vs rear wheel speed etc) Sweet bracket for clutch and brake pedal switches. Included clutch to do launch control/flat shift at some stage. Lots of holes because aluminum isn't lightweight enough I guess?

Yeah by the looks on silvertops manual to auto driveshaft bracket is different (axles are the same). Unsure if there's enough meat to slot the holes. Toyspeed seems to be down but the answer should be on there. It's been too long since I've done any of these swaps I can't remember anymore. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/ae111_forum/driveshafts-interchangeability-t6172.html If you don't have any luck finding a manual hanger bracket, I've got a 1-piece driveshaft sitting here for you. Might get you going/rule out

As summer arrives, have been using this for the odd Sunday drive. Passed a warrant with no issues which was slightly surprising. The more I drive this, the more impressed I am with the performance. It hauls ass for a factory car and has super short gearing. My daughter Finley loves it so that’s the main thing Just a couple of 90s jdm classics out for a cruise gave the engine bay a good clean/detail. Came up pretty good. thanks to @Guypie for machining the centre bores for the speedlines out to Subaru size (the reason they were cheap). Also fitted a set of very used 215s as the 235s they came with were a bit balloney. End result is it looks great on the speedlines. Classic Colin McRae/95 WRC car look Next on the list is replicating the Group A back muffler and looking for some wind up windows and door cards?

Can’t have carpet that doesn’t match the drapes

I don’t do wood things so only have steel-related power tools. Increases the non-desire to do wood things/house Reno’s

Bought a cheap dereg shell to steal a windscreen out of it as they don’t make them anymore for these cars. Could of got one custom made but was real spendy. so now I’ve got a windscreen, mirrors, wipers, bonnet pins and all the trim back together, it’s starting to look like a car again! Hoarded heaps of Levin parts from the shell for future Rhys also. this is starting to look great

Little bit of progress over the last little while. Got chassis loom back from Drew and got it fitted to the car. Super happy with the fit up and quality.

Thanks for the info! Yeah I was planning on sandblasting and strengthening up the frame, maybe even adding a reverse triangulated brace (dunno what these are called) underneath. And yes wider wheels and higher rated tyres are on the agenda. I’ve got a set of 13” work wheels sitting behind the shed that should do the trick. No suspension on this one, axle just bolted straight to the frame. Keeping the fixings lightweight will be a priority I’m thinking I’ll make a lot of stuff in alloy and get it powder-coated. small bit of progress getting this thing onto the back lawn. Required modifying the back steps to be removable to get it past the garage. Win. Now I don’t need to look at it outside my kitchen window every day!

I was on a forum break. Detailed most of the build stuff on a instagram page though (might have to scroll back a fair way) - https://www.instagram.com/backyard.advanture/

Wow thanks @Stu I know nothing about caravans. Anything to look out for? Unsurprisingly, it is very lightweight and my key concern is repairing the frame so I don't need to run my wooden stripper pole setup long-term. Might beef up the trailer while I'm at it too. I'm guessing these are pretty common issues? Somehow, Hamilton is the capital of caravan manufacturing so I'm sure I'll find an old barry to help with bits and pieces.

Basic specs we are looking to achieve; - At least 4 berth - Off-grid solar system - 200L water tanks - Hot water/shower and larger bathroom - Gas heater - still towable with the Lexus/mid sized car. Here's one basic concept that might work... will develop a few of these sketches until we land on something we like and then convert to 3D... So the idea behind this project is to apply everything we learned from building a transit campervan during Covid. We travelled the country for 4months fulltime in this and loved it. We sold it, made a stupid amount of money off it so why not rinse and repeat right? Ultimately, the transit was only suitable for 2 people so now with our daughter we want something with a bit more living space.

I've enjoyed reading other people's 'other' projects including campervan stuff so will try to post some non-car-related stuff I get up to when I'm not working on the Levin/Corolla/Subaru or Lexus.... So we purchased this sight-unseen at the other end of the north island. Previous owner had stripped it back, had a baby and then realised how much work it is. What could go wrong?!? Last weekend, I towed from Paraparaumu back to palmy with the front of the body flapping around in the wind, roof collapsing etc. 100% dodgy. Wasn't actually attached as welds had broken. It's a 15ft generic 80's caravan. 1930mm inside height currently. Bearings and frame seem to be in OK condition, everything else needs some work. Good thing it was cheap. Aiming for basic use summer 2024 and completion by summer 2025 as finishing the Levin is taking the priority currently. We were looking for a blank canvas to start with so this should be perfect once we address some key issues; - Replace roof skin & frame. Aiming to make it 100mm higher in the centre - Replace front and rear panels (lower) - Relocate a few windows - Repair frame, particularly where it's been cut to run elec wires. Might rebuild parts of it to allow optimal window placement. - sandblast & paint frame. New tow hitch/weld mounting plate - New brake calipers (brackets and discs already there) - maybe replace 12mm floor with new ply Have now propped up the roof and bolted the frame back to the trailer in preparation for towing it back to Hamilton.

Yes but no for a few reasons. I've gone with a MR2 electric PS pump because they've proven to be very reliable in different racecar applications. On-the-column electric powersteer units are good, but are tricky to get feeling right and typically involve welding/replacing the steering column (difficult to get road legal). On the AP4 rally cars they use a Woodward column and mount and have some technical document with LVVTA on how they get them through the cert process. I pretty much wanted to avoid this level of complexity so have stuck with a tried and trusted electric-hydraulic system.

That’s a good idea. Doesn’t need to be a full shroud just a piece of decently strong stuff to absorb any impact. I really do need to run a pulley kit for 9000rpms but it’ll be a little further down the track. So best to play it safe in the meantime

Been chipping away at this thing slowly. 1. Engine mount mod 2. Remount headlights (I made mounts to suit headlights with broken tabs. Since then, I've picked up a mint set of headlights with all mounting tabs that I'll be wanting to use) 3. Top radiator mount 4. Remote swirl pot/radiator filler cap 5. Radiator piping 6. Radiator shroud & fan mounting A few cool things in this pic. Head light mounts turned out mint. Love me some speed holes Cooling system swirl pot coming along. This will provide high point in the system for filling/bleeding. Still a while until I can confirm exact position & welding in/out pipes for a bunch of complicated & uninteresting reasons... Had to purchase a new oil cooler as I couldn't find fittings to suit the one I had (not AN or ORB or NPT grrr). Along with that went an unholy amount of $$ on fittings.. But at least it's looking a little more finished. Braided hose runs are super nice, no tension and sit nicely. Although I did wonder whether snapping/throwing an Alternator belt could take out a hose. Anyone had this happen before? Might need a belt guard (that meets AS/NZS 4024 and painted yellow of course ) I had the throttle cable extended by Apex auto centre here in Hamilton to reach the front of the engine. Super tidy route I'm very happy with how this turned out. My wife got me some DOORTY personalized plates for fathers day. Always wanted this plate for this car but could never justify the cost. Now its getting closer to running I'm super excited about it. Got the slim option and it fits the rear diffuser MINT. Looks like it was made for it, and much more aerodynamic. Has anyone had experience with non-standard plate mounting like what I've done? Might be fine, might not. Drew has been working away on body wiring loom. Steering wheel and dash sub looms are done. Super happy with quality and finish of work. 1000x better than what I could of achieved. Forgot to add, I started mocking up sheetmetal for the powersteering cooler ducting. Have had this sitting in my head for a while so good to see it come to life in cardboard. Need to do similar ducting for oil cooler once I work this side out. I think I'll add some 'bypass' holes as the powersteering cooler is so tiny and won't let much air through/doesn't need much cooling.

What an epic time to be involved with Ralliart! It's amazing what they did to make production vehicles survive the beating they got.

Yeah I agree the group A era was the closest WRC has ever been to production cars and it produced some amazing cars from Toyota, Subaru and mitsi. The European manufacturers couldn’t keep up with what Japan was producing. I need to take you for a ride when you’re in town it’s quite an experience for a factory car from 1996. Toyota was actually dominant in 95 and I’m not certain Subaru would have won the championship if Toyota hadn’t been caught cheating. But I look at a Toyota GT4 (even an RC) and I’m not inspired the same as there is such a massive disconnect between the production and rally cars as they were marketed as an executives fun toy with plush leather seats etc. Whereas I feel Subaru and mitsi were selling type RAs/RS’s in a form that was true to their rally beginnings.

Oh also added a genuine Subaru air filter cause the k&n filter was giving me anxiety about my MAF fucking out.

Speedo cable fixed by local company apex auto centre for a fraction of what a new cable would have cost. Massive win. drove it to brunch with family this morning and god damn it goes like a cut cat! And then the clutch decided to start slipping…. So will put that on the next-year list to sort… Here’s an engine bay shot because speedo cables aren’t very interesting. Everything is mostly there, bar a few bits of trim on intercooler and turbo shroud. These are common to all v1-2s so shouldn’t be too hard to find. interestingly, the RA’s never got the red sti manifold cause this one has an extra unused injector in it. It has an aftermarket radiator which I’ll paint the top of black (not available through Subaru anymore) and generally give everything a once over with black rattle can.