Supercharged CSR for sale

There is a supercharged CSR for sale at PistonHeads with some interesting technical solutions.

As one can see the air intake is on the rear part of the bonnet through a remote filter canister and the plenum has its intake on the underside. The intercooler intake is below the radiator in the front.

I suppose the pedal box would make a solution like this much harder on a LHD car.

UPDATE: More pictures

Exhaust manifold leak

Last summer I bought new exhaust manifold because the old EU4 manifold was warped and had a crack in the collector. The new ones has been leaking as well. I don't know why, if it is a quality issue from the factory or if I have managed to warp them myself.

I've been asking around my local workshops if they could help me, but they all have been shaking their heads saying it would be too troublesome to fix the primaries at their milling machine and that it would be too expensive and not worth it. The last one gave me the suggestion to try to simply use some sand paper on a flat surface and grind them myself.

So I did.

I was sceptical at first but I think this will work!

I also went to a welder - Zanders - and had my silencer mounting brackets reinforced. They used to have a bit of flex and maybe that could be a part of the problem with the warped manifold. I still have a bit of flex. If this doesn't work I'll try to mount the silencer to the forward roll cage mount.

I made the brackets myself last summer. I think it is the third attempt, the others has cracked after track driving.

Read here to get an idea how it looks like on the car.

DIY Cornerweight

I've been looking for corner weight scales for rent at a reasonable price for some time now without success.

At the local Biltema store 130 kg analogue bathroom scales was only €5 each, so I bought a complete corner weight rig consisting of 8 scales for less than what it would cost me to rent racing scales a few hours. Not as accurate of course, but I thought that hopefully they was accurate enough and I can do it any time I want.

Well, they weren't.

When I was standing on a scale, my body weight shifted +/- 10 kg depending on if I was standing on my toes or on my heels.

First I tried with a piece of plywood to even out the weight, but it did not help much. I got the same readings without it and easier to handle.

I repeated the measurements multiple times and the readings was a bit more consistent than I expected, within 10-15 kg. Still not good, but maybe enough for a very rough corner weight adjustment.

Anyway I don't trust them, even for my own body weight.

Full rollcage

A couple of YouTube clips (here and here) made start thinking about getting a full roll-cage for my car. 

When a found one second hand in UK I went for it. DHL shipped it to me and even if the freight was not cheap it was not as much money as one could expect.

Big boys big toys

The forward frame bosses was easy to find through the side skin using a magnet. I drilled with a small drill and then enlarged the hole with a dremel tool. 

I put protective cardboard on the fenders and scuttle sides and test mounted the cage and realized that the cage fouled the FIA battery master switch. 

I filled the hole with chemical metal. I think that with some padding and paint will make it look ok, but I leave that for now. I've made a new hole 5 cm to the right of the old one. 

A couple of the cage bolt holes was a little bit off, so they had to be enlarged a mm to fit with the chassis.

The hood sticks didn't fit with the cage, so they had to be removed.

The standard half door doesn't fit. Maybe they can be modified and stuck between the cage and car? Lets see about that.

Rear view mirrors direct fit.

FIA Bar + pettystut 11kg

Rollcage 20kg

A bit heavier, but the chassis is probably much stiffer with the cage mounted. 

I need some cage padding, some paint for the old battery master switch hole, and half doors that fit. The trunk cover is also a bit loose now without the hood sticks. 

All of these changes can be reverted (except for the new hole), but it's not something you do every day. It feels like my car is more of a race car now than a road car. I suppose had to decide what path to take some day, and this is probably it. I also don't know what the yearly MOT will say about the cage.