Backdraft Motorsport S3 Endurance Race Car build

Race regulations is partly to do with it. A lot of the race series we plan to do are catagorised by power to weight ratio. If we make it too powerful we will end up racing against cars that have simillar power but much more mechanical grip, and we wont be competetive. Once built, we will need to do a few races in the car and see what needs developing. Maybe in the future we will go big turbo. Like you said, the engine is certainly built to handle big power and torque.

We are currently building an S3 8P big turbo set-up for a hill climb car and I plan to put a thread up in our forum soon.
 
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Race regulations is partly to do with it. A lot of the race series we plan to do are catagorised by power to weight ratio. If we make it too powerful we will end up racing against cars that have simillar power but much more mechanical grip, and we wont be competetive. Once built, we will need to do a few races in the car and see what needs developing. Maybe in the future we will go big turbo. Like you said, the engine is certainly built to handle big power and torque.

We are currently building an S3 8P big turbo set-up for a hill climb car and I plan to put a thread up in our forum soon.

Thats fair enough, i thought there had to be something to do with race regs in there somewhere.

Looking forward to seeing it! :)
 
Yeah the stage 3 will be more than capable. Are you pleased with your spec clutch? What do you use your car for Alex? Daily driver or track toy?

I went for the Spec Stg3+ as we wanted to be sure it would deal with 500+ lbs and still be road friendly.

It's done all of that for me and us really light and easy to use.

The car is a daily driver by the way.
 
Are you keeping a record of hours and money spent on this baby!?
 
We have worked with Forge Motorsport for a long time and once again we have come together to work on our S3 race car project. Obviously Forge are renowned for their quality products and once again they don't disappoint.

Keeping intake temperatures low is very important because rising temperatures sap power from the car. The standard intercooler simply wouldn't be upto the job. What we needed was an intercooler that enables us to maintain sustainable high performance levels for long periods of time. So we spoke to Forge about making a custom FMIC for our race car and this is what arrived late last week...

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Custom design large single pass intercooler .

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Forge also made us the beautiful radiator.

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Neat, precision ali welding.

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OEM fans are still usable.

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And from the look from the front.

Needless to say that we are really happy with the end result and want to say thanks to Forge for pulling out all the stops for us.
 
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that looks superb!!!does it fit as oem one? way better than twintercooler combo.
why they didn't make one bigger ic in the first place?
 
Loving the integrated intercooler / rad, bet that didn't come cheap!!!

Remember the Forge FMIC on my Leon Cupra R was over £700, and that wasn't anywhere near that size (and didn't include a rad).
 
Lovely work on the intercooler and rad,and hopefully Forge will filter the rad out onto the market soon,as I am sure there would be scope there.
 
At a guess,that should fit the S3,but I'll check with them sometime,once all the other bits are ready,and if not,there's always ProAlloy.
 
that looks superb!!!does it fit as oem one? way better than twintercooler combo.
why they didn't make one bigger ic in the first place?

The intercooler fits in as the OEM but you have to get rid of the AC.

Lovely work on the intercooler and rad,and hopefully Forge will filter the rad out onto the market soon,as I am sure there would be scope there.

I've been beaten to it, but yes Forge already sell the rad. It connects up to the OEM pipework.
 
The intercooler fits in as the OEM but you have to get rid of the AC.I've been beaten to it, but yes Forge already sell the rad. It connects up to the OEM pipework.
Thanks to yourselves and Forge!
 
I couldn't live without the AC! But understand on a race car it would be out anyway (power sapping & weight!).

Loving the build, so rarely get to see builds of this level of detail in the public domain these days!
 
Latest updates...

We took delivery of our H&R race suspension kit earlier in the week. We have been waiting a little while for the kit but looks like it's worth the wait. In our excitment we decided to build a corner to see what it looks like, suspension, arms, brakes and all ;-)

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Really happy with the result. The whole assembly fits well. SuperPro alloy arms give us more castor, and the top mounts give us plenty of camber adjustment. AP Racing 355mm discs and 6 pot calipers should also give good stopping power. Centre lock conversion means we can also ditch the 5 stud pattern on our race wheels.

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Suspension adjuster can be seen under the bottom of the strut.

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Adjustable top mount.

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Rear subframe is ready to go.

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Rear damper adjuster.

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Hard lines for the brake system are all being custom made but are nearly done now.

So thats where we are at the moment. Coming along slowly but you cant rush a good job :)
Next job is to finish the fuel tank pump system and then look at sorting out the steering column. With the drivers seat and steering wheel being further back than std the OEM column isn't going to work for us. Let see how we get around that!
 
Nice going.....the Superpro arms I'm sure you'll be pleased with as they look like a pretty robust piece of work,and the rest of your work there looks great.
 
Love this build thread.

Ohhhhh to have the time and money!!

Keep up the good work gents.
 
Happy new year boy's and girls. Hope you all had a good one.
We have got a few more updates for you to cast your eyes over...

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Front corners are now all together with the latest addition of a set of Whiteline adjustable drop links.

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Some in house engineering... Solid ali bushes get made from scratch for the rear subframe.

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The end product. This completes the rear subframe and it is now fitted up to the car.

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Fuel cell and fuel filler system are installed. A fire wall (the stainless box) is required as part of the regulations.
This should take 25lts of fuel in a little over 5 seconds.

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Extinguisher system is all plumbed in and routed through to the bulk head and to fuel cell. Battery is fixed into possition. Brake lines, master cylinders and resevoirs are all connected. The birds nest in the box is the wiring harness which has been stripped of all the plugs and connectors that we no longer need.

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And finally we get it on some wheels. It's been a while but it is starting to look a little bit more like a car now!

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Next job is to work out what wheel size we want and order some wheels. Looking forward to the next update and hope you all enjoy the snow.
 
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Looking good and getting closer to the track!
 
Love that tank setup. Where is your lifter pump, HP pump, filters, swirl pot and fuel lines located? I also love your oil setup as I was looking at the daft plastic thing and thinking hmmm how do I get a laminova on that and then along you come, sweetings :)
 
Love that tank setup. Where is your lifter pump, HP pump, filters, swirl pot and fuel lines located? I also love your oil setup as I was looking at the daft plastic thing and thinking hmmm how do I get a laminova on that and then along you come, sweetings :)

We have 2 lift pumps in the tank. In opposite corners.These pump to the swirl pot in the middle of the tank. Fuel lines haven't been fitted yet but I think we will probably do hard lines inside the car with a dry brake connector at the bulk head. We also plan to use an inline fuel filter.

Hopefully I should have some more photos soon. It's all coming together slowly. We get the wheels on Thursday so were looking forward to that.
 
That's really nice.

Should keep the fuel going in the corners.

On my old Escort,which had no fuel guage,the sound of the pumps picking up a bit of air was a good sign I needed to go to the garage. Lol.
 
Took delivery of our new custom race wheels at the end of last week. They are a thing of beauty. The wheels are made by Spanish firm BRAID. They specialize in motorsport wheels. Picture below.

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Because we have the space we have gone an inch wider than the standard wheel; 9 x 18. Each wheel weighs 10kg.

So as first looks go we are really pleased with them. A stealth matt black finish and nice detailing on the spokes. Chamfered edges look trick and the back of the wheel has been machined out to reduce the material where possible.

We will have to get some boots on it now :yes:
 
Took delivery of our new custom race wheels at the end of last week. They are a thing of beauty. The wheels are made by Spanish firm BRAID. They specialize in motorsport wheels. Picture below.
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Because we have the space we have gone an inch wider than the standard wheel; 9 x 18. Each wheel weighs 10kg. So as first looks go we are really pleased with them. A stealth matt black finish and nice detailing on the spokes. Chamfered edges look trick and the back of the wheel has been machined out to reduce the material where possible.We will have to get some boots on it now :yes:
Those look really very nice indeed.
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I somehow think you aren't going to have the same problems fitting your 9x18s under the arches as we did!.....you've got more room under there without all the plastic bits.
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I think the TeamDynamics 1.2s I chose came in at 11kgs,with a nice set of R888s,but I expect you'll want something slightly slicker!
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Cant wait to see the finished article, get a move on Backdraft!...

LOL. I know, it's got to be the slowest build ever! So frustrating because we want to get it done and on track, meets & shows but with the regular work there just isn't enough hours in the day. Cant rush a good job.
 
Those look really very nice indeed.

I somehow think you aren't going to have the same problems fitting your 9x18s under the arches as we did!.....you've got more room under there without all the plastic bits.

I think the TeamDynamics 1.2s I chose came in at 11kgs,with a nice set of R888s,but I expect you'll want something slightly slicker!

Cheers Alex. Having no arch liners will certainly help but it will still be tight on the standard wings because the thing will be so low and be running quite a lot of camber. We are looking into having some carbon wide arch wings made to give us more clearance. Also probably going to commission some carbon bumpers and front splitter.

We are pleased with the wheels. We have also ordered 1 set of BRAID 'I beam forged wheels' which are 8KG ea. Only one set though because they are ****** expensive! They look trick as. Will get some photo's up soon.
 
LOL. I know, it's got to be the slowest build ever! So frustrating because we want to get it done and on track, meets & shows but with the regular work there just isn't enough hours in the day. Cant rush a good job.
Absolutely,but it's looking really good,and very professional indeed....will be great when it's running.
 
Cheers Alex. Having no arch liners will certainly help but it will still be tight on the standard wings because the thing will be so low and be running quite a lot of camber. We are looking into having some carbon wide arch wings made to give us more clearance. Also probably going to commission some carbon bumpers and front splitter.We are pleased with the wheels. We have also ordered 1 set of BRAID 'I beam forged wheels' which are 8KG ea. Only one set though because they are ****** expensive! They look trick as. Will get some photo's up soon.
I bet you're pleased with them,but I won't ask the price!....I'm running 2.5deg negative at the front and 3 deg negative at the rear,and everything fits without rubbing and the liners are still in place.
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Having done all of that,plus the Clubsport suspension and R888s,even in these condition, the car feels much more direct ,planted and responsive,so what your race car will be like,I can only guess.
 
These are the BRAID forged I beams I mentioned. These weigh 8 KG each.

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Sorry picture quality isnt great but they give you an idea. You should be able to see that each spoke is machined to save weight. These are fitted on a customers car that is used on the road & track. They are the same size as ours @ 9 x 18. In fact this car is running a very similar set-up to ours but because of the lack of clearance on the standard arch we have had to raise the car to stop any rubbing. This is why we need flared arches. Plus I think they look nice.
 
Those do look good,and amazingly light.
Very impressive.
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We just managed to squeeze mine in by using a bit of camber and adjusting the wings slightly to allow it to fit without rubbing,but the flared carbon arches sound the business,and I'd be very interested.
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I've got a lot of other pics of how mine looks now if you're interested down on my thread rather than cluttering yours up!