Kiwi156
New Member
- Messages
- 5
- Location
- New Zealand
Hi Viewer.
I've been mucking around with this project for several years now (pretty normal for anything I do) and have taken a lot of photos along the way (some even appearing in PPC magazine) so thought its about time I started a thread to record progress for anyone who may be interested.
My problem has always been too many projects, the biggest one being building my own home which I started around 25 years ago and still haven't finished! It is progressing reasonably well now after lots of stops and starts for various reasons and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
However, I do have a decent shed & workshop (which is almost complete) and about 2 years ago I installed a 2-post hoist I had imported direct from China. It's actually quite a nicely built piece of gear, but like a lot of Chinese machinery, there were a few items that needed attention before I was happy with it.
I've always liked the N14 Pulsar. We had a GTi for a while for my son to get around in, nd although it was a little rough, it was an awesome little car to drive with good handling and quick steering.
My son and I also used to race a KP61 Starlet at club events before he left home to go to uni at the other end of the country. That was after be bent the Starlet pretty bad at a hillclimb, and although I had it repaired, it sat for many years deteriorating in a damp storage shed. As much as it galled me, I eventually stripped it and sold off the parts.
Some years later, after lots of thinking, I came up with a scheme to build my own club car using a Pulsar GTi-R rolling shell fitted with a Mitsubishi FTO 2.0L Mivec V6 mounted longitudinally and driving a transaxle at the rear. I want to be able to use it legally on the road so that I can compete in road (targa) racing as well as hillclimbs and trackwork. That then is the basis of this thread.
I'm now onto my second rolling chassis. The first (a black 89 model) sat outside for far too long, deteriorated in the weather and suffered vandal damage to some panels. After steam cleaning the mould off and putting it on the hoist, I decided it was going to be far too much work and I'd be better off looking for another one with less rust and panel damage.
I sold it to a guy from Wellington who was rapt that it was a series1 as he was planning to do a full restoration. He was keen in my view, but in all honesty it was probably in far better condition than the cars in the UK as we don't use salt on the roads here in NZ. A while later I purchased a complete red 92 with a suspect engine (blown head gasket). It wasn't mint, but pretty tidy and ideal for what I wanted to do.
I soon stripped out the motor, trans and interior and started listing the parts on our local on-line auction site Trademe. I didn't make a profit, but I did end up with a fairly cheap rolling chassis.
I've got three FTO engines, two complete runners and one in parts. They average out at about NZ$300 a piece. Last week I set the block from the parts engine in place on a wooden box I constructed to give the ground clearance I wanted. I'm planning to semi-dry sump the engine, so it sits fairly low in the engine bay as you can see, with plenty of clearance either side for a decent set of headers. I plan to use a length of 50x50 box section either side running from the suspension arm mounts forward to the original front cross member to support the engine.
Edit: Made some spelling and grammar corrections after accidentally uploading (this thread business is all new to me!)
I've been mucking around with this project for several years now (pretty normal for anything I do) and have taken a lot of photos along the way (some even appearing in PPC magazine) so thought its about time I started a thread to record progress for anyone who may be interested.
My problem has always been too many projects, the biggest one being building my own home which I started around 25 years ago and still haven't finished! It is progressing reasonably well now after lots of stops and starts for various reasons and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
However, I do have a decent shed & workshop (which is almost complete) and about 2 years ago I installed a 2-post hoist I had imported direct from China. It's actually quite a nicely built piece of gear, but like a lot of Chinese machinery, there were a few items that needed attention before I was happy with it.
I've always liked the N14 Pulsar. We had a GTi for a while for my son to get around in, nd although it was a little rough, it was an awesome little car to drive with good handling and quick steering.
My son and I also used to race a KP61 Starlet at club events before he left home to go to uni at the other end of the country. That was after be bent the Starlet pretty bad at a hillclimb, and although I had it repaired, it sat for many years deteriorating in a damp storage shed. As much as it galled me, I eventually stripped it and sold off the parts.
Some years later, after lots of thinking, I came up with a scheme to build my own club car using a Pulsar GTi-R rolling shell fitted with a Mitsubishi FTO 2.0L Mivec V6 mounted longitudinally and driving a transaxle at the rear. I want to be able to use it legally on the road so that I can compete in road (targa) racing as well as hillclimbs and trackwork. That then is the basis of this thread.
I'm now onto my second rolling chassis. The first (a black 89 model) sat outside for far too long, deteriorated in the weather and suffered vandal damage to some panels. After steam cleaning the mould off and putting it on the hoist, I decided it was going to be far too much work and I'd be better off looking for another one with less rust and panel damage.
I sold it to a guy from Wellington who was rapt that it was a series1 as he was planning to do a full restoration. He was keen in my view, but in all honesty it was probably in far better condition than the cars in the UK as we don't use salt on the roads here in NZ. A while later I purchased a complete red 92 with a suspect engine (blown head gasket). It wasn't mint, but pretty tidy and ideal for what I wanted to do.
I soon stripped out the motor, trans and interior and started listing the parts on our local on-line auction site Trademe. I didn't make a profit, but I did end up with a fairly cheap rolling chassis.
I've got three FTO engines, two complete runners and one in parts. They average out at about NZ$300 a piece. Last week I set the block from the parts engine in place on a wooden box I constructed to give the ground clearance I wanted. I'm planning to semi-dry sump the engine, so it sits fairly low in the engine bay as you can see, with plenty of clearance either side for a decent set of headers. I plan to use a length of 50x50 box section either side running from the suspension arm mounts forward to the original front cross member to support the engine.
Edit: Made some spelling and grammar corrections after accidentally uploading (this thread business is all new to me!)