My first project! I need help!!

Sweet. thanks for the advice guys. Ill check out the other forums base on what I'm looking for. Hope to talk to you all soon when the project is finished. Ill let you know if its gonna be raced, but as of now building it is the priority.

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The Rookie with the "BIIIIIIGGGGGGGG"!!!!!!! plan

Tain't no point in building something without a plan. Otherwise you just have a very expensive boat anchor. If you want an evil Focus, I have a prepared autocross Focus with a 190+hp normally aspirated Zetec (race gas only), Quaife gear set and limited slip diff, cage, slicks, lots of fiberglass and carbon fiber for $17k OBO. Not road legal. Not rally legal. Not really anything but autocross legal unless you do something with the cage, as it was originally just a roll bar, but then some more stuff was added willy-nilly to stiffen up the chassis. Money spent on this car would buy a nice house in flyover land.

http://forums.focaljet.com/showthread.php?t=643040&highlight=

http://forums.focaljet.com/showthread.php?t=643036&highlight=

http://forums.focaljet.com/showthread.php?t=643037&highlight=

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

..and building a one off total custom drivetrain swap right off the bat to gain experience is like jumping off a building to gain basejumping experience before learning how to open a godam parachute. Start small, learn more.

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Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2012 09:39PM by Jay.

There is a shelby cruz in puyallup on facebook...


but I sort of vote troll too.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

I smell troll.

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

Quote
TheRookie
I need on advice on what to use to accomplish my build. everyone thinks just because I'm building a street legal rally car, they think I'm going to race. I'm building because i want to gain experience.

You keep using the phrase "street legal rally car" but ALL RALLY CARS ARE STREET LEGAL, they have to be in order to enter a rally, which have transits on public roads.

What you are describing is a rally-style show car that you are building for experience. Thats cool. As above, don't bother with a roll cage, it actually makes a car very dangerous if you are not wearing a helmet and full belts, and as you said, you wont need it. You should check out Grass Roots Motorsports magazine, they have the $2000 challenge for cars like you are talking about.

I say make it rear engine/rear wheel drive. Thats do-able project, and it'd be super cool. Building a AWD turbo Focus is too much.

(..sniff sniff) mmmm trrroollllll

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Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...

For your show car 4wd conversion there are a few ways to go. John has everything to make a Ford 4cylinder into a NON transverse mounted 4x4 with all ford parts. It will NOT bolt into your shell without major fabrication. That is going to be the best layout performance wise, as you can get the front axle in the middle or slightly forward of the center of the engine. Your car has a transverse layout, so to adapt for the rear driveshaft you could look into the setup in a Ford escape, or some similar Ford product with a 4cyl and 4x4. A Merekur has been sucessfully converted to 4x4 with truck style stuff like Astro Van, but I have a feeling that is WAY over your head, I don't think even I could make that work.

I will say this, if you are ded set on 4x4, start with a shell that came 4x4. Jay, who made one of the best responses to you has built a 4x4 car that did not come 4x4, so his advice is golden. I have one of Johns Merkurs in my driveway that he converted to 4x4, so his advice is alsop valuable.

There are off the shelf V8 RWD Focus kits, why not do that?

Amswer a few questions for me.
Can the car be off the road for 2-5 years?
Do you have shop space to work on it?
Can you weld, do you own a welder?
Do you have mechanical common sense?


Thats all you are getting from me on this project. I have a life, a car to build, a job, and a family, which are more important to me than spending time helping you fail.

Clearly you need to think farther out of the box.
I recommend a surplus turbine such at a PT6-A driving an alternator mounted low and behind the rear seats.

Then place two big ass electric motors, one at the rear and one in the front, build a bunch of custom control software then you have something truly special, hell use 4 motors and then you do not diffs at all, easy to fit in, light and very powerful.

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In the long run reality always wins.

Quote
fiasco
Tain't no point in building something without a plan. Otherwise you just have a very expensive boat anchor. If you want an evil Focus, I have a prepared autocross Focus with a 190+hp normally aspirated Zetec (race gas only), Quaife gear set and limited slip diff, cage, slicks, lots of fiberglass and carbon fiber for $17k OBO. Not road legal. Not rally legal. Not really anything but autocross legal unless you do something with the cage, as it was originally just a roll bar, but then some more stuff was added willy-nilly to stiffen up the chassis. Money spent on this car would buy a nice house in flyover land.

http://forums.focaljet.com/showthread.php?t=643040&highlight=

http://forums.focaljet.com/showthread.php?t=643036&highlight=

http://forums.focaljet.com/showthread.php?t=643037&highlight=

Sounds cool. Got a link to a photobucket or somewhere one doesnt have to register for?

Oh, crap. Focaljet wants registration and stuff....

Here are some images:

https://picasaweb.google.com/116228894741544114843/Focus

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Quote
TheRookie
Sweet. thanks for the advice guys. Ill check out the other forums base on what I'm looking for. Hope to talk to you all soon when the project is finished. Ill let you know if its gonna be raced, but as of now building it is the priority.

You are leaving us? We were stoke to see your mad scientist build, day by day as you fab a Ken Block replica from pick-n-pull... I guess you are going to be too busy building. Keep those priorities straight.

"Jay, who made one of the best responses to you has built a 4x4 car that did not come 4x4"

I'm d-u-m dumb but not that dumb. Mazda sold a few 4wd proteges for 90-91 and so that's what my dd and rallycar are built from. I hear tell of an MX3 that's had 323 gtx 4wd running gear forced into it but I ain't stoopid enough to try something like that. No, all we did was take the weak ass gearbox out of the rallycar and (attempt to) graft a toyletta GT4 box in. In the name of reliability. On and off 2 years of work later, 1 rallyx and 3 stage miles after that, we find we ain't done yet. So custom front halfshafts and who knows whatall else. If I had known even a quarter of what we'da been up against from the beginning, I never woulda started. We're now fondly hoping to get the last bugs worked out in time for Olympus..and if we do and that effing car breaks down in stage 1 again, I shall be MOST pissed. Coulda shoulda built a gp5 car. Or Derek's turbine electric....

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Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2012 10:21AM by Jay.

^^^ each time I read about your great tribulations dealing with the E153 swap, it makes me kinda want to sell all the stuff i've got to do the swap, and just buy an EVO instead, lol! Subconsciously, I'm probably just avoiding the world of hurt it's going to put me in, to start in on it.

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---** To be in compliance with the Anarchy **---
Jorden R. Kleier
Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA
1990 Mazdog Protege 4WD
1973

Quote
SgtRauksauff
^^^ each time I read about your great tribulations dealing with the E153 swap, it makes me kinda want to sell all the stuff i've got to do the swap, and just buy an EVO instead, lol! Subconsciously, I'm probably just avoiding the world of hurt it's going to put me in, to start in on it.

Didya read what he said? ^ drüber?


Let me quote:

Quote
Coulda shoulda built a gp5 car. O

I'll mod your struts to fit.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

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