4g61t.org

I bought my '88 turbo as a daily driver/beater to keep miles off my Galant. But, than I got bitten by the speed bug and decided to make this beast a project car/hopefully an eventual racer in either SCCA or Solo. But, I need some help with the following things:

1. When I stripped the interior, I was left with a great deal of exposed wiring and what not. I've dealt with some of it to keep my feet/hands/head from getting tangled in it, but some like the large bundle along the driver's side door sil across the centerline, and up the rear of the car remain problematic. anyone know what I can do about this?

2. Also relating to the stripped interior, Is there a "better way" of removing the tar mats? It took me almost an hour and a half to remove a single one with a heat gun and a putty knife.

3. Weight distribution. Currently, the car has about an 80/20 weight distribution. I'm going to move the battery to the spare tire well soon, but is there a way to get some more of the weight of the car onto the rear axle?

4. Does anyone know where I can get my hands on a printed copy of either the SCCA or Solo rulebooks? Having the rules in my hand as I'm doing the build will likely save me some time in the long run from having to re-do things to meet spec.

5. Anybody who's already gone this route who has some pointers for a rookie just getting into this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

These could potentially be the wiring for the taillights, fuel pump, fuel sender and stuff like that. If you want to get rid of some of them, cut one at a time and see what happens.
I hear dry ice works well. Never used it though.
A rollbar would help.
http://www.scca.org They can be slow at getting the books sent to you. Also, check out http://www.nasaproracing.com. Their rules are posted on the web. While similar to SCCA rules, they are not exactly the same
I haven't gone this route yet, but I have been looking into it a bit. Before you go any further, find a class that you can race in. You'll be surprised how few there are. At some point, go to High Performance Driving Schools. I think they're a good way to get into driving on track.

Do you know what type of racing or class that you think you want to go to?

For the weight distribution, the only real thing I can think of is to dry sump the car.

Other than that there's not much you can do.

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I hear dry ice works well. Never used it though.



let the ice sit on the tar mat until it is rock hard, it might take a few minute, then smack it with a hammer, it will shatter like glass, if it doesn't just wait longer

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If speed kills, then i shoulda been dead awhile ago. There is no such thing as "Too Much Power". There is no excuse for a lost race. Do you view the rev limiter as a fun limiter?or as a shift point? And we all know, more boost=more fun.

Why do you want a different weight distribution? What do you see as your reason for added weight on the rear of the car. Considering it is FWD, you should want as much traction in the front as possible. Also, the majority of the braking will happen up front. The only reason for rear weight is to stop the car from spinning, and my theory on that is to further reduce the weight in the back of the car, but specifically behind the rear wheels. Reduced rotating mass will put less strain on the back tires and they will need less weight distribution to keep them their. Again, my opinion is to put the battery above or in front of the rear axle, not in the very back. You can see my preferred location in the pictures linked below. Additionally, ask Jmauld how much understeer is in the car with the stock weight distribution.

SCCA and Solo? I'm not a roadie, but I thought SCCA was the sanctioning body and solo was the "form". As in SCCA the body, Pro-Rally the form?

Here are lots of pictures of a colt that is race prepped:

http://geocities.com/colt4rally

Chris are those your pictures at the link above? The website is down because it looks like too many people have accessed it. If they're yours, let me know.

The 89's are actually balanced really well from the factory. Moving from my Talon which REALLY understeered to this car, was a bit of a challenge. Of course, if you overdrive the front end it's going to push and understeer. The trick is to not overdrive the front. Which took me years to learn. And when I get impatient or excited I still overdrive it badly.

I agree with what I think Chris is saying, don't move weight to rear with the intentions of balancing the car. When I'm going through ideas on car prep, I have two goals in mind. Make it as light as the budget allows, and make the front end grip. On these cars, making the front end grip is really the difficult part. Moving weight to the rear will actually decrease front end grip, but it does help the car turn in just a little quicker. Removing weight from any where in the car will help both. Don't worry too much about the rear tires, they are easy to adjust with springs to accomodate what the front is doing.

I currently have my battery in the hatch, but it's there simply because I wanted the space under the hood. Since I've got this tiny battery off of ebay, I've been considering moving it back under the hood, or maybe under the passenger seat. I've just been lazy and haven't made a battery tray for it.

http://geocities.com/colt4rally/assembl ... s_3-09.jpg

Is the cage up front required, or are you trying to protect that nice radiator from excursions?

Yeh, those are all my mostly current Mirage project pics. It is a little further down the road now, but not where it should be. Too many other toys (kart racing, dirtbikes and woman) to play with. The front is all painted now and looks much better.

No, it is not required by any rules, but it is required for not squishing stuff. The lower cross frame must be beefed up for rally because of nose dives which is why you want weight in between the front and rear wheels. The Eclipse had the same thing. Any FWD car that cannot "push off" from a jump will land front heavy so that heavy duty piece is really needed. The rest is there for three reasons. Because it made mounting that radiator, headlights, and other stuff easier, because by connecting it to the cage and the new crossmember it will protect the engine in a rollover, or "minor" altercation, and because I could. That entire front cage from the wheel wells forward is removable and you can pull the engine straight out the front though I am not exactly sure why you would need to, but you can.

Yeh, I checked the site, too many views this morning. check back later.


Chris