S197 Drift Car Build...

[Brian W.]

I'll be watching the build also. BTW, just happened to run into Vaughn Gitt Jr. this weekend and talked to him for about an hour. Very cool guy! Checked out his play car, his personal car and found out info on the build of his play car......If anyone knows who he is..lol

yeah he was up in Michigan this past weekend showing off a couple of his cars. sounded like fun.


ill have some pics up this week of some progress. i have a new laptop so i can finally upload decent quality pics.

 

[explict]

Moar.

I want to see moar!!

 

[2k05gt]

Hey
I just got back from Brians shop picking up the auto Trans, this is going to be a Hot Car..

Thanks Brian for the Transmission.

 

[akS197]

you are the fucking mannn

 

[SonicBlur]

Updates!!! Do it!!!

 

[Brian W.]

i have done a couple little things to the car, but not enough to post.

-started to cut lexan windows
-finally got seat brackets
-started on dash work
-ordering a fuel cell this week(lil 5 gal. guy from ATL)
-deciding what im going to do for more power
-Also picking up the fiberglass doors, trunk and front end parts next week i hope!

i need to get back on teh cage. next week or so i will post some pics, but as for now i dont feel like much has happened with her.

 

[Joser281]

Subscribing. I like it. Something out of the ordinary. Looks like Mustangs are about to dominate in every motorsport guys! Welcome to the forum too. Pardon my ignorance but if you strip the doors on our S197's wont it be almost the same as the fiberglass doors? I remember someone on here was thinkin of getting carbon fiber doors but it was determined that the weight difference is only like a pound or two and that the electrical motors and stuff is what actually makes the door heavy.

 

[foolio2k4]

Subscribing. I like it. Something out of the ordinary. Looks like Mustangs are about to dominate in every motorsport guys! Welcome to the forum too. Pardon my ignorance but if you strip the doors on our S197's wont it be almost the same as the fiberglass doors? I remember someone on here was thinkin of getting carbon fiber doors but it was determined that the weight difference is only like a pound or two and that the electrical motors and stuff is what actually makes the door heavy.

Seibon has the dry carbon doors out that are a little over 10 LBS. I dont think it would be that much more weight once you readd the power windows and interior pieces. But they do look badass

 

[Brian W.]

the doors ill be getting are old fiberglass seibons that they no longer make(they only make carbon now, i think*). I know with nissans and other cars we have done fiberglass doors on even without the internal parts a fiberglass door is much lighter than a metal door, especially considering the lack of side impact beams in the fiberglass doors. I will not be running ANYTHING in the door except the oem latch mechanism so i can open the door from the inside.

 

[SoundGuyDave]

Are class rules restricting you to the OE latch? Most of the race cars that are production based use a slide-latch epoxied to the door that just runs into a hole in the door frame... a lot lighter weight.

 

[STEVE_POE]

the doors ill be getting are old fiberglass seibons that they no longer make(they only make carbon now, i think*). I know with nissans and other cars we have done fiberglass doors on even without the internal parts a fiberglass door is much lighter than a metal door, especially considering the lack of side impact beams in the fiberglass doors. I will not be running ANYTHING in the door except the oem latch mechanism so i can open the door from the inside.

I wouldn't bet on that. I've seen some pretty heavy fiberlass doors. I've gutted my stock doors to nothing.removing the impact bar and structure for side mirrors. they still open and close fine and I bet they are as light as a fiberglass door.

 

[Brian W.]

I wouldn't bet on that. I've seen some pretty heavy fiberlass doors. I've gutted my stock doors to nothing.removing the impact bar and structure for side mirrors. they still open and close fine and I bet they are as light as a fiberglass door.

yeah Steve i know the difference wont be much for sure so i wont make any bets(haha), but for the price im getting them for, im doing it regardless. I have gutted some nissan 240sx oem metal doors and removed impact beam and all and they get pretty light, but in that case not as light as doing the same thing to a fiberglass door.
maybe ill be disappointed... but probably not as this isnt my first rodeo. Ive cut stuff out of cars expecting it to weigh a lot and ive been sadly surprised at how light weight it was.

i think the Twin turbos or whatever power adder i decide to go with is going to ruin my lightweight plans anyway, hahaha.

 

[SkyMarauder]

sick project. btw DO NOT buy anything from HP Performance if youre getting a turbo. If you want to know why just ask me. other than that, cant wait to see how it looks!

 

[s197 slyder]

Brian,
Congrats on going with a s197!!!

I have enjoyed drifting mine since 2007 (at a grassroots level in the atlanta area). I look forward to seeing what you do with this thing.

David Jones

 

[Brian W.]

couple pics i snapped tonight...

The cage is all done less a couple gussets ill weld in soon. I wanted to keep it simple.

And we started fitting the 2010 front end. It needed a new core support as none of that lines up with anything. The fenders fit ok, but not that well at the door.... its obvious they were meant to be there. Im still not sure how much work we will put into making them fit the door line but we shall see.

Step 1: Cut out the oem core support...

Step 2: start making our own core support!...

Hopefully get some more work on the front end done tomorrow night. next would be finishing the core support, which is really just 2 uprights down to the frame rails. Then make some headlight brackets and figure out bumper mounting also.


For a powerplant i got my hands on a "blown up" 04 Cobra Terminator long block. Im going to take it apart and hopefully only need to buy 1 piston and ring set or so. Then ill put all the internals in an aluminum block of some sort... hopefully a mark viii block will work but im still new to this modular stuff and figuring out what works and what doesnt.

I also picked up a damaged T56 and aluminum driveshaft for an S197. So thats cool!

Im going to pull the mounts off my oem 3v engine and bolt them up to this Terminator motor i have and see how that fits. With tubular long tube headers im going to need a custom steering shaft/ column setup(plan on mounting the motor pretty low) which id like to do anyway to shave some more weight.

so hopefully ill have an all aluminum cobra motor of sorts. Plans are to port the stock eaton and make about 450-500whp with it. I can get a blower and intake cheap i think so this will keep the budget in check.

 

[SkyMarauder]

sick project.

 

[alloy6ix]

couple pics i snapped tonight...

The cage is all done less a couple gussets ill weld in soon. I wanted to keep it simple.

.

oh yeah man, cage looks simple enough.. Looking great man, I'm real curious how this thing is going to look with that 2010 front..

 

[Brian W.]

So my pal Ray and I do this thing where we work on each others car to mix things up. I personally love working on other peoples cars, but when it comes to my own, i just dont put as much love into it. So while i worked on his Supra swapped Volvo wagon he about finished up the front end for the stang...

The night before i had buttoned up the core support and got it tack in. Then Ray located the bottom of the head lights...

The bumper as far as we know is suspended by the headlights so we had to make the headlight brackets pretty sturdy. The upper headlight bracket and front fender locator he made is pretty bad ass. Its made of 1/8" aluminum which we had planned on since setting the height of the core support...

in this one you can also see my monster Griffin radiator i had made. IT still needs brackets and such made for it also....

...those are identical from left to right except the direction of the dimples. We made a template for spares in case we smash one up.

and here it is all fit up. Ray did a great job despite his hatred towards body work, haha...

The core support is still only tacked together, ill remove the front end and weld it in for good this week.
Im also going to cut most of the structure out of the underside of the 2010 hood to save some weight and probably mount hood pins in our core support this week also.
Then id like to finish our dash and fab mounts for that in there too.

also... here is my Terminator!...

im hoping to take that apart soon and see whats really wrong with it.

 

[Matt D]

wow looking really good. Everything pieced together perfect!

 

[Axes-Of-Evil]

cars lookin great! you should unwrap that pretty terminator and take another pic