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Spring 2019 mods started

14K views 118 replies 19 participants last post by  DrPyro2k 
#1 · (Edited)
This Spring’s mods are going to be a combination of adding more engine power, a gearbox cooler, a few suspension tweaks, several proactive road rash repairs and mods and a very exciting all 3inch tubing valved exhaust with three pipes and big tri- trapezoid exhaust tips that will fill out the entire area between the two vertical bars on bumper. Should be a very exotic looking and sounding exhaust with it’s quiet setting to be very quiet and with it’s a loud setting screaming loud, completely catless and shooting fire. I can also adjust it anywhere in between the two setting via an electrical switch on the dash.

After 22,000 miles on the car with about half of them track miles, I am discovering some body maintenance needs. Although I’m doing this mostly for my tracking, I think some of them might be interesting for people who want to protect the car from the street road rash.

Big plans for some really fast laptimes at many big tracks around the West. I think I can do it.

Car is in many pieces now. Sucks that she has to sit in the shop for weeks right next to that blue Corvette. I can hear them jawing at each other.

Punch list:
Make new metal fender liners of aluminum and plastic sound deadened.
Make abs plastic skid plates underneath lower rocker panels to support worn body panels and protect for scraping on curbs on racetrack.
Repair and paint lower rocker panels.
Install modified turbo.
Install Racing ECU.
Custom tune ECU for my custom engine mods.
Change turbo oil inlet piping.
Change banjo bolt turbo micro filter.
Install metal turbo to intercooler pipe.
Install 3 new Nomex intercooler hoses
Install mod intercooler (57% larger and good for 2.9 bar)
Install mod larger fuel injectors.
Make a cold air intake and air filter system.
Install gearbox cooler in the intercooler area.
Raise car so it is 1 inch higher off ground than it is now as it was too low and rocker panels were grinding on curbs when I went around some corners.
Full suspension alignment and camber check to be -3.5 camber.
Switch out front worn out Girodisc brake rotors to new Girodisc rotors.
Rebuild rear brake calipers install new PFC 13 brake pads.
Change brake fluid.
Make the hood quick remove.
New custom exhaust with electric valved catless-LOUD/2 muffler-quiet exhaust with tri-piped hexagon tips.
Install Pro-Tint 8 mm windshield protection film.
 
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#2 ·
NICE! My rocker panels don't look THAT bad, but they are the first item to go on track that is for sure.
 
#7 ·
My exhaust should be amazing.

You know you might have an excellent idea for the fender liners!
My fender liners were pretty much destroyed but for someone else with ones still in good shape, they could possibly take their stock felt fender liners and get them coated on the inside with that truck bed material then the inside part would be much stronger and they would still be felt on the inside so you would get some sound deadening.
They would be a lot heavier and you might have to do some kind of reinforcement to keep them held in place.
FYI new stock ones cost $2,000 for the set. That’s about what I’ll be paying for my custom aluminum and plastic ones that are sound deadened.

But I’m sure to take the stock ones out get them coated with that truck bedliner and then put them back in would be quite a bit less. For street use they might be just fine but I’m not sure they would not as strong as the ones I’m building. Also I’m making mine a bit oversized to fit my really big street set up tires.
 
#10 ·
Don't know about ALFA sponsorship since he isn't actually doing competitive sanctioned races (more cars at same time rather than time atack) but maybe some of the aftermarket companies he deals with would be willing to help out just a bit....maybe deals on pricing in turn for sponsorship decals. I am pretty sure those following his car have also bought some of those mods for their own car due to his comments about those mods....so they owe some of their sales to CallMeAl.
 
#9 ·
Looking great!

Very complete list.

I want to point out that the turbo kit is the Hybrid turbo we sell from Jamie @AW.

This will be the 3rd USA car we've set up with the Hybrid and Race ECU. Already a 4C using this turbo runs at Sonoma consistently and his lap times were hugely quicker with the turbo / ecu combo alone.

Please PM or email with any questions about it.

One of the differences with this car, is that it has the C&B camshafts. So getting a little extra bump in terms of HP.

Looking forward to following this thread.

PS- Let's get you some rocker protection before they are all gone:wink2:
 
#11 ·
Update, apparently it’s impossible to get a new mod intercooler from anyone within a reasonable time or the time that was quoted. So I’m having my race shop build one. May turn out to be better this way anyway.

If anybody knows of a supplier of a mod intercooler please let me know.
 
#14 ·
@Call me Al - I agree that some of the custom A-arm modifications that have been executed lately are the way to go. Far easier adjustability, and will prevent tub slapping of the arm at high camber rates (at least in the front).
 
#16 · (Edited)
Spring 2019 mods

I’ve got a whole lot of mods being done this Spring. Some of them are pretty exciting even groundbreaking. Parts are showing up and being installed so I thought I’d start a post on it.

Install modified turbo.
Install Racing ECU.
Custom tune ECU increasing turbo pressure for my custom engine mods.
Change turbo oil inlet piping.
Change banjo bolt turbo micro filter.
Install metal turbo to intercooler pipe.
Install 3 new Nomex intercooler hoses
Build and install mod larger stronger intercooler with pressure rating up to 40psi.
Install mod larger fuel injectors.
Make custom cold air intake and air filter system.
New custom electric valved exhaust all 3 inch piping, catless with two volume (DB) positions: extremely LOUD (105+ dB) and quiet (90dB) with 2 mufflers. Large tri-piped trapezoid and trapezium shaped tips that will fill out the entire area between the two vertical bars on the rear diffuser.
Install gearbox cooler in the intercooler area.
Raise car so it is 1 inch higher off ground than it is now.
Custom front control arms with a heim joint and easily adjustable camber no shims required.
Full suspension alignment and camber check to be -3.5 camber or more.
Switch out front worn out Girodisc brake rotors to new Girodisc rotors.
Rebuild rear brake calipers install new PFC 13 brake pads.
Change brake fluid.
Make the hood quick remove.
Make new metal fender liners of aluminum and plastic sound deadened.
Make abs plastic skid plates underneath lower rocker panels to support worn body panels and protect for scraping on curbs on racetrack.
Repair and paint lower rocker panels. Protective film the front bumper, hood and side rocker panels.

Mod intercooler still needs modification to one tank end. Much larger and stronger than stock one.

Modified turbo, improved impeller, stronger bearings, lightened and balanced.

Exhaust cut out valve 3 inch

Exhaust tip template (final one will have the center section so much smaller and the two in pieces somewhat larger)

The type of quick hood release latch I am going to use.

Rocker panels all repaired, painted and ready for protection film.

Larger fuel injectors
 
#19 ·
While you can do a lot to a 4C....CallMeAl is breaking new ground as one of the most dedicated performance modders here in the US. If you are an AROC member you can read all about what CallMeAl is doing in upcoming issues. That is a good reason to join the AROC ;-)
 
#22 ·
@Call me Al - I think you need to add Jabroc to the side sills on your car. You could bolt a small sheet of it along the whole length since there are a bunch of bolts ready to use. This way you won't need to replace the side sills and the wood would take the brunt of any off track issue. They use this high density wood laminate in F1 cars (and others) to protect the CF tub.
 
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#23 ·
Thanks David, I think that’s a good idea. We were just going to use black ABS plastic but Jabroc might be a better choice. Thanks for the suggestion.
I think when I raise my car close to an inch I won’t have as much curb scraping issues.
 
#24 ·
Further progress on the mods.
Custom front control arms with a heim joint turned out great!
Exhaust 3” downpipe done.
2 custom build mufflers will actually be in halfs with the straight pipe going through the middle of them with Big slits cut in the straight pipe that will feed right into the mufflers. This design saves a lot of space and weight.
Large trapezoid exhaust tips and skid plates are designed in 3D on computer.
A flurry of activities!
 
#25 ·
You are raising the car a inch I see, how much is now? Mine will be 50mm (rules) so it is about half the normal height and I was wondering how much is the risk of bottoming (though mine will be track only).
Very curious to see how you go for the quick release hood, we are thinking of doing the same for practical reasons, and also rear hatch. We are also thinking of putting a pneumatic lifter system as it will make life much easier but it is all in study phase.. glad to see you use Girodisks too :)

Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Tapatalk
 
#26 · (Edited)
I think mine right now is about 50mm (2inches). This low COG is great for handling but you better have stiff springs and stiff swaybar if you’re going to drive the car really hard or it will bottom out.
I have the Track/Race springs with rates are 375lbs front and 456lbs rear. And a stiff swaybar. But if you look at these pictures you can see if I really hammer it with compression it’s almost touching.
And on some tracks you could bottom out a little bit. Or the problem I have is I would come close to the inside of the curbs and the curb tops would get in between the front and rear tires and rub on the rocker panels. I had to repair the structure and bottoms of my rocker panels and now I’m putting some ABS plastic skid plates on the bottom of my rocker panels and raising the car a bit.

Im going for 2.75 inch (70mm) from ground in the front and with a very slight rake in the rear.

If you don’t have stiff springs or stiff sway bars you can I have more body roll and I do and could be in trouble. Just look at how close I am to the ground in this extreme compression pictures when I was taking a sweeper. Also cutting a sharp curb or driving over the corner of a bus stop can you hit your rocker panel.
 
#29 ·
Clarification on my controller arm photo.
I only screwed the heim joint into the arm just a few threads to show where it’s going to go. I thought people knew that.
No it’s not going to ever look stuck out far on the threads like that! It will be screwed in almost all the way.
And these racing quality heim joints are extremely strong and much stronger than ball joints.
The only downside to them is after a couple years they might rattle a bit and be a bit noisy. Then you just replace them and they’re relatively cheap.
 
#35 · (Edited)
Being a combo street and hard track car takes it’s toll on the lower parts of your car.
Those splitter like side skirts you show might give a slight amount of aero. And there’s other very extravagant side skirts that might actually get some decent aero but look how fragile they are? And they are there right where you slide your lift jack underneath and also step out of the car over. Also there’s track and street curbs that you could hit with them.
They are mostly just for show and I know that I would smash them. I have a hard enough time with my front splitter going into parking lots!
Here is a pretty extravagant one I saw it at SEMA.
 
#36 ·
Daily progress now.
Skid plates completely installed.
Fender liner cardboard mork up done to be duplicated in aluminum.
And the crazy fun valved exhaust is starting to come together now. The loud straight pipe portion goes through the muffler and then terminates with a large trapezoid exhaust tip. The quiet portion will have some U bend pipes attached to muffler and then terminate at the 2 smaller trapezium exhaust tips.
It’s going to look awesome like a hyper car exhaust! See photo.
 
#39 ·
They are identical to the ones I put on last year.
As I have said they are extremely durable but not impact proof. At the track last year I lightly banged a Corvette that stopped on the track and it damaged one of them. But because they’re in 3-D CAD it’s easy to make another identical one. I actually made three grills so now I have a full spare set.

These grills are especially nice because they replace that part of the car that gets so much road rash and is impossible to put film over. And because I painted them black they look pretty much like the stock ones. Also because they are angled louvers I can put my splitter stays rods through. So they actually solved four problems:
Added a brake cooling air inlet.
Added a way for the front splitter to be attached with 4 stays.
Replaced an area that was troublesome for road rash.
Gave me a nice flat surface to stage photos of Time Attack trophies LOL
 
#40 ·
More progress!
Intercooler mod complete.
Skid plates under repaired rocker panels complete with added extra bracing.
Mod valved exhaust bracket complete.

Trapezoid and trapezium exhaust tips are at water jet welder for a very finished look. Very excited about this first of its kind exhaust.
 
#42 · (Edited)
More progress about two weeks away from lift off!

Huge intercooler in place with thematically controlled sucker fan.
Most all the intercooler piping is going to be rerouted for better flow and less heat from the exhaust. Also less hose lengths with that length being replaced with stainless steel tubing so less hose flexing which gives less turbo lag.
Going to mount the gearbox cooler up in that same intercooler area.

Exhaust is coming together so nicely. My valved design is so much better and simpler than the akrapovic exhaust. Mine is all 3inch tubing and with a variable position exhaust butterfly so I can make it any volume I want from really quiet to screaming catless loud.
Just look at the difference in design.
And those trapezoid and trapezium exhaust tip shapes were formed and welded so nice and smooth.
They’re such unique different shapes and the end tips have with no equal sides. They are really fun to hold in your hand and play with LOL.

 
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