Blog: Micra Rally Car build

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Hi All,

This is the car that I got last November, it is a LHD micra challenge car, from Nissan Motorsport Europe, the MSA log book picture shows it in the white with blue flecks and the NME logo on the side. I will scan in and post it up soon.
I picked it up as a bare shell and a mass of parts. In this pile of parts was a Pectel ECU, coilovers, Janspeed exhaust, 20+ alloys, flocked dash, tripmeter and spot lights pods for the bumper and bonnet & Full weld in cage. uprated discs and pads, and a lightly modded engine and standard gearbox.

i have got a photo of the parts in the back of the van i'll post that up soon too.

micrablast.jpg


This is the car being shot blasted as we went for a full strip and re-build.

micraprimer.jpg


micrafull.jpg


It then went to the paint shop in Feb and the photos are from then, and its finished in Nissan Blue.


I have also got from Matthew Humphris a dogbox with a LSD, and a Peter Vaughan built engine with 773cams, 1litre pistons, and Nismo engine mounts.

DSC02158.jpg


DSC02159.jpg


I have also just got a JUN flywheel from China it is only 3.6kg!!! So that will be going in the car soon.

The car is in Wales at the Mo being put together and I will be going over this weekend so more photos then of the build.

I hope to be out rallying it in July doing just two or three events this year reay to do a championship next year.

Thanks
Peter
 

NeX

You're after my robot bee
Club Member
ha i know that engine :D

that is an awesome colour, what paint code is that?

looks really good mate cant wait to see it running.
 

Craig

Unofficial Member (Gold)
Club Member
Very nice, does is have the MNE VIN plate?

Also, is that 'Calsonic' blue as seen on the Impul Super GT cars?
Craig
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
This is a video from when we picked up all the bits from the barn, as you can see its a van full!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUEe3AE69PM

And this is JUN 3.6kg Flywheel that has just arrived.

DSCF0271.jpg


DSCF0272.jpg



The Dupont colour code is a Nissan code, its
B37: BLUE EFFECT: X1705


The vin is **NE*AK11********

As I said I'm going to see how things are going at the weekend so more photo's then.
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Honestly I dont know, I agreed a price for doing to whole job, the full re-build so the cost was included in that.
I think the sand blasting was fairly cheap tho, its the painting that cost so much, would £200? sound about right? I can find out at the weekend if you want?
 

NeX

You're after my robot bee
Club Member
Honestly I dont know, I agreed a price for doing to whole job, the full re-build so the cost was included in that.
I think the sand blasting was fairly cheap tho, its the painting that cost so much, would £200? sound about right? I can find out at the weekend if you want?

thanks for the paint code mate :D may have another micra that colour in the uk soon ;)

my car was £280 sandblasted, so thats about right.
 

Craig

Unofficial Member (Gold)
Club Member
Lol at the video, who's she and what doesn't she believe?

That Jun is different from the ones I have seen previously - they've been solid to the ring gear, how'd you source it?

Craig
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Lol at the video, who's she and what doesn't she believe?

That Jun is different from the ones I have seen previously - they've been solid to the ring gear, how'd you source it?

Craig

Hi, it is solid to the ring gear, the photo isnt the best and that is just shadow that makes is look as if its not attached to the ring gear from the drop in depth round the edge, I will take a side photo tonight.
I sourced it from;
http://www.junauto.co.jp
JPY 56,000 to my door, and then had to pay duty and tax on top of that for around £40!
 

Craig

Unofficial Member (Gold)
Club Member
Oh, no, I mean that they were just a solid disk of alloy without the 'speed' holes in it.
Is it one piece, or is the ring gear detachable?
Craig
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
jesus £320 for the fly wheel, mine cost far less than that (DIY job) and its 0.35kg lighter
DCP_0108.jpg

Fantastic, in that case can you make me two and I'll send this one back then!:grinning:

Really time was aganist me with this as the guy wanted to get the engine in asap so had to buy it instead of DIY.

I would be interested if you could do another one though.
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
jesus £320 for the fly wheel, mine cost far less than that (DIY job) and its 0.35kg lighter

And it's untested! You can't say the JUN one is expensive when you know it's a professional, tried and tested job.
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
And it's untested! You can't say the JUN one is expensive when you know it's a professional, tried and tested job.

And that is the reason why I got the JUN one, which will be going into my rally car.

I just wanted to see if superls could do what he is claiming to be able to do. As I know its not as simple as drilling a few holes into the flywheel.
It needs rebalancing after each bit of work and then as you say it won't have been tried or tested, but still superls if you are up to it?

To me the money I spend on my rally car is equal to finishing an event or not, its a waste of money if you are let down by a inferior cheaper product that you have cut corners on, always said if a job is worth doing its worth doing right!
 

frank

Club Member
my flywheel was tried and tested to near 9000rpm :D
regardless of the money, i get more satisfaction from making or modding a part
 

superls

K10 Tuner
how can you say mine is untested, ive had it fitted to the car for almost 2 months now and its been fine perfectally ballanced and regularly hits 7k+ rpm, how is the ''super expensive, haha ive had ur pants down'' flywheel any more profesional than mine?

if you have got £320 to throw down the drain then do it, its just that ive got and equally good and lighter flywheel for about 60 times less then that one

oh and btw whats the point in sending me a flywheel to machine if you want an over priced, ''profesional'' job done by some 12 yr old in japan or hongbong or where ever there made?
 
how can you say mine is untested, ive had it fitted to the car for almost 2 months now and its been fine perfectally ballanced and regularly hits 7k+ rpm, how is the ''super expensive, haha ive had ur pants down'' flywheel any more profesional than mine?

if you have got £320 to throw down the drain then do it, its just that ive got and equally good and lighter flywheel for about 60 times less then that one

oh and btw whats the point in sending me a flywheel to machine if you want an over priced, ''profesional'' job done by some 12 yr old in japan or hongbong or where ever there made?

AGREED
I see so many idiots on other forums spending £00,000 's on their cars - to then bi##h about more power, then to b#t#h it doesnt work, then to #i#c# their selling it, then their not, then they are and were to feel sorry for these fools?
i say mod your car the cheapest way possible-because nothing-nothing is more sweeter nor satifying than beating a rich boy in his so called race car!!

my favourites are scooby drivers in my other cars!!

^5 mate if you can do it on the cheap for better gains - big up to you my friend!!!!!!
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
how can you say mine is untested, ive had it fitted to the car for almost 2 months now and its been fine perfectally ballanced and regularly hits 7k+ rpm, how is the ''super expensive, haha ive had ur pants down'' flywheel any more profesional than mine?

if you have got £320 to throw down the drain then do it, its just that ive got and equally good and lighter flywheel for about 60 times less then that one

oh and btw whats the point in sending me a flywheel to machine if you want an over priced, ''profesional'' job done by some 12 yr old in japan or hongbong or where ever there made?



Hi, the reason I wanted to send you the fly wheel was because I have two micra's
and I wanted you if possible to do the lightening on this one as I dont have £320 to throw
down the drain, I'm pleased to hear that yours has been running for 2months,
I didnt say that your fly wheel wasnt profesional in fact quite the oppostie,
I am offering you my standard flywheel to show what good a job you can do!

Now can we please can we get back to what this blog was set up for and that is
the build of my rally car.

I went to see the car at the weekend and he is an update with photos, the build is picking
up pace now as all the bits are back from the paint shop, as you can see the cage is in but not
fully fitted, the loom is in and the rear beam is back and has been shot blasted painted and
re-built.

See the link below to the photos;

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee70/k6pfs/DSCF0267.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee70/k6pfs/DSCF0268.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee70/k6pfs/DSCF0269.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee70/k6pfs/DSCF0270.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee70/k6pfs/DSCF0272-1.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee70/k6pfs/DSCF0274.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee70/k6pfs/DSCF0275.jpg

Hope to update you with more soon, as this week the engine, gearbox will be going in and it will be rolling by the end of the week.
 

frank

Club Member
peter

coming on well (Y) , will you transport it home, once its rolling, or are they doing the full "drive away" rebuild ?
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
peter

coming on well (Y) , will you transport it home, once its rolling, or are they doing the full "drive away" rebuild ?

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the message it should be a mint looking rally car once its finished, they are doing the full "drive away build" including getting the spot light bonnet pod and bumper pods working so then I will trailer home. And I plan to do some testing in it first before my first event in it.
Cheers
 

superls

K10 Tuner
k6pfs, feel free to send me the flywheel, and ill see what we can sort out, but all i can gaurentee you is that it will cost you far less than £320 lol.

pm me if ur interested and ill give u my address

i wasnt meaning to sound like a Tw*t or owt but i just dont like people saying that my things arnt up to scratch, i just get all defensive.
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Gutted that the old blog has been hacked, well an update so far.
The rally car is with my mate still who is doing the MSA stuff and the loom.
Picture of the car before it went to him.
micrabuild18Aug08.jpg


micrabuild18Aug08a.jpg


So the Richard Burns Rally is this weekend and I will be using my other micra for that. the Spec is not as good as the other car but should still put in a good days motorsport! Another Micra is on the entry list now too. I am car number 83 so if anyone comes along please could you take some photos of me.

micraredwoodbridgeGymkhana.jpg


You can still pay on the door to come and watch, see the website for location details. www.richardburnsmemorialrally.co.uk

I have also seen this for sale on the net, its in Finland and the guy wants 25,000 Euro for it!!!!

micra010.jpg
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Hi Frank and all,

The word disastrous springs to mind.

The event itself (Richard Burns Memorial Rally) was amazing a great turn out top drivers and the weather was fantastic. We did get to start and had our photo taken and then moved on to the queue to the proper start, and then the car had problems, battery was dead so got a tow back to service, the only thing I hadnt checked as it had been fine for me started each time no problem but now it just died. We put another battery on then they wouldnt let us start until the Trophy rally which was the last stage of the day Saturday, Sunday first stage was great really on it micra moving dancing around loads, second stage Sunday the engine blew! I havent had chance to look to see the damage but I was gutted.

I really didnt want to use this car for the rally but I wanted to do the rally, im lucky that I have a spare that I can pop in, but I need to look at the damage first.
Photos are here http://www.mandh-photography.co.uk/events/RichardBurns/
managed to get two photos yey!!!!
any advice on over heated engines, the rad cap wasnt even on when we stopped and lots of smoke and oil in the rad!!!
 

ronin_kid

61 cubic inches of power
wow!. looks like a good day, great to see such a seletion of cars! - a few of the pics on the link you posted show multiple cars on track at once, were there conventional races, or were these display/shakedown laps.?.

also sorry to hear about your bad luck, but i guess when pushing a car to its limits theres always the chance something will give out - hope you get it sorted easily enough.. :)
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Hi ronin_kid,

Yes it was a great weekend with lots or different cars doing the rally.

a few of the pics on the link you posted show multiple cars on track at once, were there conventional races, or were these display/shakedown laps.?.

No conventional races, all rallying!!! As it was on an airfield to get the miles up to around 14miles per stage they have to do two maybe three times round the stage, it ends up with a few cars being out at the same time and then slower cars being caught by the quicker ones. A great photo of Marko Martin in the 2008SWRT behind a Mk2 Escort!!! The guys in the escort are on another forum and the have put that they S**t it when he came past them!

I do take the highs with low its all part of doing motorsport, should get the engine swapped over this coming weekend.
Always pushing the car to its limits!! :laugh: Just cant wait to get the other one finished.
Of the stages that I did the car (road trim with rear seats in) was only 40sec off the full stage trick KA's so if only I had the other Micra ready I would have had them!!!
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Right before the hack of the site I had a few more photos on here and a bigger blog so if you dont mind I was going to update it now.
Most of the pictures are of the build of my rally car, it was an ex-challenge NME car picture below
MicraP972FJOpic.jpg


I got it as a bare shell, and have been trying to get it built since I got it back from Wales a couple of months ago the photos below are of the build.
DSCF0275.jpg


DSCF0268.jpg


DSCF0267.jpg


micranrside.jpg


20julymicra.jpg


20july08micraleft.jpg


20july08micrarear.jpg


20july08micrafront.jpg



And I do own another rally car a red one picture below, this is the car that I was in at the weekend and the engine blew up on this one, so this friday a couple of mates of mine are going to help me swap the engine over. So photos of this car having an engine swap will be up soon. And hopefully some photos from the rally too! I aim to keep this as standard as poss, maybe!
micraredmsaphoto.jpg


And I have owned a micra before but that ended in a very bad way! see the photos below! Dont worry it polished out :upside:

micraFNSide.jpg


micraOsideF.jpg


micrafront-1.jpg


micraoside.jpg


micrarear.jpg
 
And I do own another rally car a red one picture below, this is the car that I was in at the weekend and the engine blew up on this one, so this friday a couple of mates of mine are going to help me swap the engine over. So photos of this car having an engine swap will be up soon. And hopefully some photos from the rally too! I aim to keep this as standard as poss, maybe!
micraredmsaphoto.jpg


Get a 1ltr put in and do F1000 :laugh: :laugh:

any idea what bracket is holding them spots on?

Bad luck at the weekend but i suppose that is rallying....
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Get a 1ltr put in and do F1000 :laugh: :laugh:

any idea what bracket is holding them spots on?

Bad luck at the weekend but i suppose that is rallying....



I was thinking about it, I have a 1ltr engine with a broken chain so might do.
The bracket is just a home made section bolted to the bumper nothing sexy but does the job and doesnt move.

That is rallying my friend these things happen, just want to get the other car finished and get it out to see what it can do. I've only once driven a dogbox in a lhd 206 cup car that was very quick!
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
well the engine has been changed!!! :grinning: And now the red car is back up and running. Pictures are below, and I found out that the car is also fitted with a paddle cltuch and a lighten fly wheel. The engine that we put in was the one that came with the blue rally car so im not sure on the spec of it. It had Iridium spark plugs in it, so I guess with that kind of set up it might not be standard. And the front engine mount was a funny looking little number, I will take a photo of that later.
The blown red engine I plan to re-build using 1 litre pistons and a better head gasket. I might even have a little head work done, not sure yet.
Here are the photos;

First one is of the micra just back from the rally, blown head and very messy under the bonnet.
101_0247.jpg


The next one is my spare micra that I raid for bits, it has a good shell so might come in handy!
101_0249.jpg


Then we got to work, started at about 19:30 and by 21:30 we had the engine out.
101_0256.jpg

101_0259.jpg


Then we checked over the spare one going in and took all the working bits off the blown engine and moved them to the good engine.
101_0263.jpg

101_0262.jpg


The next job was getting it in and by the time we had everything done and got it to fire it was 3am!!!
101_0264.jpg

101_0266.jpg


I'm really pleased that we got it done as that means I can use it this friday for our car club event, see how we get on with that, the event on friday is really what this car was built for its a road rally so should be good!
 

frank

Club Member
k6pfs

nice one (Y) , i have,nt seen a cam with a blue band before (maybe it,s a 1.4 one ?) .
good luck on the event, and keep us posted ;)
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
k6pfs

nice one (Y) , i have,nt seen a cam with a blue band before (maybe it,s a 1.4 one ?) .
good luck on the event, and keep us posted ;)

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the message, the inlet cam has a blue band and the otulet has a red band. Not sure what thats for? Im taking it out for a country drive tonight so will see how it goes.
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Well that was interesting, I took the car out for a drive last night, first time after getting the engine in. It was ticking over fine, it drove off ok.
When I tried to put the power down it was like it was being held back, not a mis-fire but more a lag feeling, it drove fine with out putting any power on hard. Got about three miles down the road and I went up a hill and the clutch started to slip and power dropped then, a bang type clunk noise and then I had no gears!!!!!!:doh:
Got the car tow'd back to mine and will have a look at it over the weekend.
Any ideas?

Below are a couple of photos of the engine that we took out, it stinks of burnt oil!

101_0280.jpg


101_0279.jpg
 

frank

Club Member
k6pfs

has the shaft popped out of the g/box ?, the hold-back sounds like fuel/mixture related, did you swop the injectors over ?
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
k6pfs

has the shaft popped out of the g/box ?, the hold-back sounds like fuel/mixture related, did you swop the injectors over ?


It was dark and I havent had chance to look over the car just wanted to get it home, so maybe the drive shaft, I didnt swap the injectors over I will give that a go, everything else was swaped over.
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
I got home last night and it was still light so I had a look under the car and the driveshafts seem ok, so I took a video if it running if anyone has an idea why its running so bad, it would be helpful.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OLEsYynmbF4

i also uploaded a video of the shell when I went to see it the first time and thats this one.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0UbMTfQHdNw

As you can see it was in a state when I got it sorry its not great footage, but it was about 11pm and taken on my mobile.
 

frank

Club Member
k6pfs

a few people have had a problem of losing drive because the inner c/v joint was,nt snapped in fully (and the joint pops out of the g/box about 1/2"), but you usually get a g/box oil leak too, so maybe clutch ?
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
k6pfs

a few people have had a problem of losing drive because the inner c/v joint was,nt snapped in fully (and the joint pops out of the g/box about 1/2"), but you usually get a g/box oil leak too, so maybe clutch ?

Yes I had been keeping an eye on it to see if any oil leaked, I will get chance on it this weekend. Any idea about the video of it running?
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Hi all,

Well I have sorted the running problem and now it sounds amazing and runs great! It was MAS I swapped it over for a good that I have and that cured it. Next job is to sort out whats wrong with the gearbox, it might be clutch but until I get it in bits I dont know.

Frank what did I need to watch out for when taking the box off last time, it was something dropping inside the box and I needed to be carefull incase it happened?
 

superls

K10 Tuner
the diff basically, push something into the holes where the driveshafts come out to stop the planet gears (i think ???) dropping into the bottom of the gearbox, like what happened on my k10 many moons ago.
 

SuperUno

Buy & Sell Member
A good read, as you may have spotted there is going to be another Micra out on the Preston. But this will be a scrapper, bodged together for the Preston. Do you have any pics of how you mount the sump guard on and and other guarding bits i will need to know about for the Preston ? Thanks in advance.


P.S. I will be starting a similar blog on how to build a cheap rally car........
 
OP
OP
K

k6pfs

Ex. Club Member
Hey Matt, Good to see you on here, yes sure I can put some photos up soon, I sheered off the two front bolts when I took the guard off so I need to drill and tap to put new ones on.
I have a spare tank guard which fits over the tank under the two straps, I think I have found you a car too, I have seen your posts on here and CMC site, I have found one for £175 , best to email me direct [email protected]
Peter
 
Top