180 track car project
 

After owning 2 Zs's, 2 ZR's a TF and an F, I have finally managed to get a 180 ZS. We already have a Pumesta track car from which we have learned a lot about preparation and requirements so have decided to go bigger and better with the 180.

It's an 03 plate Mk1 in Silver with 62k on the clock. It's taxed and tested until February. Only things wrong with it are it has had a very small bump on the rear that has been repaired and repainted, although not to the highest standard. A small crack on the front splitter and a small crack in the rear bumper. Also the front O/S CV joint is knackered and clicks like a typewriter.

Engine is very smooth and powerful and other than the clicky drive shaft it drives perfect. Drove it back 60 miles without a problem.

Someone has fitted 40 profile tyres on 3 wheels and left a 45 profile on one, it has a ZR stainless big bore back box and an open K & N in the engine bay....bless em they tried.

It has a rather nice JVC stereo and the interior isnt bad at all, the drivers seat bolster is still in one piece although there is a small cig burn in the seat bottom.

All this for the princely sum of £400.

Starting tomorrow, I will be stripping everything out to take it back to a bare shell and measuring up for the roll cage.

Will start posting pictures from tomorrow.

My god, you can pick up a 180 for as little as this :ohmy:
Quite looking forward to seeing how you go about this, will stay tuned :wave:

Here are my current MG's

ZS company car - just a 120 though
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...20727-1516.jpg

and the wifes car

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...20707-1239.jpg

Finally our current track car
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...20709-1157.jpg

Good little buy there - looking forward to what you do with it.

Hi and welcome to the forum - sounds like you've got tracks sussed.

Sounds fun, look forward to seeing the end results.

What track to do get round???

:yes::yes::yes:

Will this be a bought or made cage? I made enquiries but found it very expensive. If I was going to seriously go back to tracking it I was going to make my own which I have done before when I raced on the ovals.

Good buy that.

we will make our own cage....buying them is prohibitively expensive £800 plus. We can make one for around £150.

To be honest we are on a bit of a budget as we are only a small garage and we currently run one track car - the Pumesta. Running a 2nd one will mean doing it gradually and as cheaply as possible.

Pumesta stats -
Ford Fiesta Setec S.
Engine - 1.7 Puma analogue, Pipercross cold air induction kit, silicone hoses throughout, silicone plug leads - Straight through handmade exhaust system with 4 into 1 manifold decatted - Magnaflow back box to keep within noise limits for track.
Electrics - all Puma transferred into Fiesta right up to the lights and cable driven speedo transplanted
Body - completely stripped out with much of the none stress point steel cut out. All sound deadening removed, Rear shock mounts braced with welded heavy gauge tubing, lower and upper OMP strut braces on front fitted. Carbon bonnet.
Suspension - standard Zetec S shocks with Eibach 45mm lowered and stiffened springs. All bushes polybushed with powerflex bushes. Puma racing rear axle 1" spacers with 2 degrees camber.
Wheels - Team Dynamics proline withe Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres.
OMP steering wheel - 4 point harnesses - lightweight fibreglass racing seats

Rolling road tested 127BHP top speed 138 Mph weight 735Kg - We are currently making a cage for this so will be good practise for the ZS. All of what we have done here will be carried over int the ZS with a few more mods and updates and each car will teach us more about building performance cars.

The last track this was driven on was the full Silverstone GP circuit, unfortunately we were outclassed by a lot of much more powerful cars, Evo's etc as this is a speed track and not one that totally benefits the superb handling of the Pumesta. That is where the ZS will come in.

Silverstone Track Day video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ObYn8BU6bk&feature=plcp

PeterZS - Our nearest track is Blyton Park, but Cadwell, Oulton and Croft are all about the same distance away. Don't like Elvington, its seems a waste of money. Donnington isn't too far away either.

Was going out at Trax, got to 9 miles of Silverstone and popped a turbo pipe of the ZS Derv. Spent the day getting a new jubilee clip and fitting it. Missed the talk, so didnt go out 14.20 should have been on track, it started raining just about then, so wasnt too bothered.

Like your vid, as someone said, at least two should have been black flagged for overtaking on the right, plus another one in the bend area.

:clap::clap::clap:

That fezzy looks like loads of fun could do with some uprated cams though get close to 150bhp then although buying the ZS was probably cheaper lol with all these track cars Im tempted to strip mine out :)

Loving the track car threads & the more I see the more I want to do one of my own.
ZS180 MK1 just seems perfect as can be on track for silly money.
Look forward to your updates.

Put the car on the ramp today to have a good look around. Very clean underneath all bushes and ball joints are good so very little to do really


As promised some pics, started the big strip today....anyone want any interior bits?
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps69d1f655.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps70a3dd25.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ps24fdb769.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psa8231028.jpg

Next job, get rid of all the sound deadening...that takes ages of scraping....

Have to have a guess at the weight of all the stuff you have stripped out.

Bet it would be more than you think!!!

I'm guessing around 80 Kg, the carpet is very heavy as are the front seats but the drivers seat is the heaviest. It will be replaced with a fibreglass race seat but is in there for the time being so we can move it about - no passenger seat

There was three large pieces of steel at the back and under the rear seats that weighed a lot add all the seat belts and it does rack up a bit....

So technically I've removed a large passenger so far lol

The sound deadening is everywhere and weighs a lot, hope to get the car down to somewhere like 1000 - 1100Kg

Hi mate, nice to see you over here and that the garage is doing well. Over a year since we were all there for the opening.... Doesn't time fly.

Hi mate, yes a full year since we opened and it has done pretty well.

Upgraded the MGF to a Cool Blue TF but also added a couple of ZS's.

Ive sold the TF, ZTT is going tonight. We have got a ZS180 though to make up for it, plus the V8 MGB project.

Anyone know how much all the sound dedadening weighs. Started removing it and its a bit of a task as its on nearly every panel. When we took it out of the Fiesta it came to 10Kg and it wasn't as thick or as prolific.

I'll try and bag it up as I go along and weigh it at the end

About 6kg came out of my ZR track car, so I'd expect the zs to have a touch more

well I managed the rear passenger footwell and three quarters of the front passenger footwell today....that little lot was 3 Kg. with the back seat area, boot and parcel shelf and same again on the drivers side, I'm guessing its got to be worth 12Kg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...20926-1637.jpg

Nice! Good buy there too, wish i could spare the cash as i am approx. 20 mins up the road from Donny! But don't have the cash, it all goes on the fam and keeping the Zed on the road lol. Though i may strip it for a few months to see if the MPG changes....And i could find the leak....

Not even started on the engine yet, the 50 mile return journey from buying it certainly saw the petrol gauge drop....didn't measure how much though.

Mind you MPG isn't top of our list :smile1:

Have some friends in Burton on Trent and have done Donny a couple of times.

Yeah good point, i guess tracking it throws MPG out the window lol.

Might have to get to Donny sometime soon, will see.

The track we will be testing on will be Blyton Park. Its a relatively new track based on an airfield. It's fairly quick an not too technical , almost a mini Silverstone. The best thing is its cheap at £99 for a full open pit lane day. Its a bit narrow but overtaking is OK.

think i got 14 kilos sound deadening out of my hatch when i did it, i heated it up first so it scrapes off quite easy

It does mount up, when I was oval racing I too heated this stuff up and scraped it off, so much easier. Even the inner door skins have it, on hotrods this is not a problem as we de-skin the doors to save more weight and also fabricate the door bars so they enter the door and touch the outer skin.

Yeah, I've been using the heat gun to scrape it, some of it comes off better cold, depends how well its stuck down.

However today the heat gun spat out a few flames and gave up the ghost.....

Plan B...lets decat it..

One decat kit
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...20927-1557.jpg

result...not the best but will do until be buy a new exhaust system

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...20927-1556.jpg

Discovered an odd problem today...... I was continuing with the sound deadening removal, horrid job, when I noticed the gap between the rear passenger wheel and the wheel arch was quite high, so I measured it.

Wheel centre to wheel arch was 15 inches whereas all the other gaps were 13 and a half inches????

A good look at the shocks and springs didn't show anything and looking underneath the car doesn't show anything. I know the car has had a shunt in the rear, more toward that corner but there is no deformity in the shock mount area.... bit of a mystery at the moment.

Not a lot of progress this week, still removing sound deadening but I have bought some expanding foam.....all will be revealed later.

I had planned to spend Saturday on the 180 but had a big job in - MG related.

I had been asked to fit an engine into an MGF...not just any engine though, a 270bhp supercharged 1.9 K Series. This proved a bit trickier than first thought and took until 8pm on Saturday night.....consequently the ZS didn't get touched.

Oh well...there's always next Saturday.

Would love a go in that MGF ! How do you get 270 from a 1.9, but only the same from an SC KV6 ?

So what did you do with it then - just fit ? Was the engine all sorted for you or anything on your part in terms of fit or improvements ?

MGF turbo sound loads of fun :D

Hmm are you planning to turn it into a amphibious car top gear style :laugh:
http://www.topgear.com/uk/assets/cms...p=090518_04:25

Dan, I'm afraid I just fit it, it was a VVC engine with forged pistons bored to 1.9 everything totally brand new. It has been developed with Emerald as it runs an Emerald ECu with variable mapping. The supercharger is from a Mini Cooper and the owner has designed and built an amazing intercooler set up.

Emerald have predicted 270bhp but to add to that he also has a 100bhp NOS kit. The engine has its own plumbed in fire extinguisher kit and there is a hydraulic rear airofoil on the boot that is connected to both the engine output and the brake system with a manual over ride.

The whole car is a developent projectand the owner is a very competant and accomplished designer/engineer/mechanic. We were only facilitating the build engine swap as we had the equipment and some knowledge. The owner will be completing the rest of the build up.

Fairly major job dropping the engine, gearbox and subframe - Ed China style - onto my toolbox, then using the ramp to lift out the engine. once out the subframe and gearbox were lifted onto the floor and the partially built engine was hoisted into the waiting subframe. Then the whole lot was bolted back into the car.

This was all made a bit more complicated as the F runs hydro elastic suspension which needed degassing for detachment and then regassing once complete. Plus all the other bolt ons, pipes for NOS and extinguishers, wiring looms for data logging etc.

He has promised to bring the car round once it is complete.

this is the engine
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...percharger.jpg

this is the engine in the bay
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...6/enginein.jpg



and Walker.....nope no surfing in the 180...guess again

That sounds like an immense project

OK a few bits on order, nothing special but things to keep me focused in the job. Set of bonnet and boot pins, OMP Suede steering wheel and boss kit - seatbelt harness - eyeing up a seat.

Booked it's first track day for 28th December at Blyton Park.

Fianlly some bits arrived - I fitted the harness today, albeit to a standard seat lol but its there....

Today my OMP suede wheel and boss kit arrived along with 2 sets of bonnet pins, one for the bonnet one for the boot. Hopefully I may get some time tomorrow to fit them....pics will follow.

Interesting that, I have the same problem.

well steering wheel has been fitted and I started fitting the bonnet pins....one down one to go.

Can't believe I forgot to take any pics....I always take pics....I'll do it tomorrow

:hmmm: no pics............:whip: you tease!

:oops:

:lttd:

:rtf:

:morepics:

OK OK I remembered to take some pics today...then I posted them in the wrong thread doh... so now they are here

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...21110-1214.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...21110-1215.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...21110-1214.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...21110-1056.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...21110-1055.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...21110-1055.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...21110-0906.jpg