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Pitman's Toyota Sprint Series car

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On a slightly less tongue in cheek note...

Firstly every car on this forum is a folly. We've deliberately bought something cramped, not particularly efficient and more expensive than strictly necessary purely so we can go 'wheeee' whilst tackling bends. The non-folly choice as a daily driver (coincidentally) would probably be a nice sensible Yaris. Several million pensioners can't be wrong...

Arguably the 86 is a massive folly for Toyota full stop. Commercially is it really viable? Glad they made it though...

Secondly, surely the reason this project and others like it are cool is the engineering challenge. Modding an MR2 would certainly be effective, but a more satisfying challenge to make this thing competitive surely? I imagine the build is half the fun. Wish I had the skills.

So I'll add this to the list of brilliant projects I follow along with some others, like a guy I know from another forum that's built a Talbot camper van running a tuned Saab turbo motor, another guy with a mid engined spaceframed Reliant kitten, and the Saab specialists that have busied themselves mating a heavily modded classic 96 bodyshell onto modern 9-3 Aero running gear.

All completely mad. All brilliant.

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You have hit the nail on the head there Nicebiscuit!! It is all about the building, and a little bit of ,"look what I have made".

Anyone with unlimited funds can go and buy any car they want. I could have bought a C3 GT86 rally car, but where would the fun be in that. I know it would be a factory developed bla bla bla... NFI

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Tareim said:

yes, do you really have one?

I would have one, if I had the car and two engines to put in it, but I'll tell you one thing, I wouldn't feature it in a build thread on this forum!!!

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On 24/11/2015, 20:17:29, Lauren said:

It's up to you, but that's a huge amount of effort for car that will have no value in monetary terms at the end of it and probably won't be eligible to compete in very much apart from what you're buidling it for. You may end up with no competition in your class as well. I always think it's better to evenly match cars, but that's just me of course. But your money and choice of course. I think you're mad, but that's just my opinion. :P

Mark has a stock Yaris, it's crap. I'm being kind. ;)

I've a friend of a friend who spent £250,000 on some jewelry for a girl he met in a night club.  He didn't blink at that and the money is effectively thrown away.  I see some girls spend £4000 on fake tits and they are ugly - again a total waste of money.  I've another customer who spent £125,000 on a non-running ex-motogp bike just to hang it on his living room wall.  People can do what they like with their money.  Knowing how many of these guys think, at least half the enjoyment comes from actually building the car.  Better to have a year or more of fun creating something that some of the previous examples i've given ;)

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20 minutes ago, Nigelr32 said:

I would have one, if I had the car and two engines to put in it, but I'll tell you one thing, I wouldn't feature it in a build thread on this forum!!!

that's a shame as I love reading projects that are unique

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I could be wrong in this but I don't think Lauren's opinion is against the build of cars etc, all petrol heads can appreciate the effort and passion of building a car themselves, what she might be querying more specifically is why a Yaris and I'm kind of the same. Don't get me wrong, love what you're doing Pitman but with the amount of money you're spending, I personally would have brought another 86 to do all this to. Fair enough I can understand having something different/unique or maybe because you already have an 86 and wanted something different but I love the 86 so much that I'd love to have 2, one mega race car build and one fancy show street car build.....but alas that's just a dream as I can't afford any of this :(

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Firstly, a MASSIVE thank you for all who have taken the time to post in support of the folly of a mad man :rolleyes:

As Mr Nicebiscuit stated so well in his post, for me the pleasure and challenge of building something unique and different is probably 90% of the pleasure for me.  After completing my Engineering degree, I started my working career as a Product Development engineer for Toyota, so cars mean a lot more to me than just the bragging rights as to how fast I can drive around a given bend, or hang the tail out on a public road!

It has been intimated that I am spending a lot of money on 'just' a Yaris - the reality is, I paid the princely price of £600 for the car, and all the T sport bits I have got to convert it have come via very judicious eBay and breaker yard shopping, and then refurbished.  I am MAKING as many of the special bits myself as possible (for example, the bias pedal box cost about £70, which includes the two master cylinders).  I could have bought a DC Electronics Power steering system for £2692 ( http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/electronic-power-steering/dc-electronics-motorsport-electronic-power-assisted-steering) plus their steering ECU for a further £1713 (http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/electronic-power-steering/dc-electronics-ultra-race-ecu-for-motorsport-epas-system), but instead i have made my own (using exactly the same mechanical and electrical components which just happen to have been fitted to a certain small hatch back which cost me £30 from a breaker yard), and am making my own ecu interface which will take the speed signal from the ABS hub on the rear wheel to make the power assistance speed sensitive.  The result will be exactly the same functionality as the DC Electronics one, but at a cost of less than £50 all in.

The same applies to the fully adjustable front suspension, and the inlet and exhaust manifolds etc., all of which I have / will be making myself.

So, by the time the car is finished, it will have cost me a LOT less that what I could possibly hope to buy even the tattiest used GT86 to use as a basis of building a dedicated track car.  None of the 'high cost' items I have / will be buying - turbo, ecu, front brake calipers, electronic dash etc. are in any way unique to the Yaris, so if I do ever get bored of the car and decide to strip it down and sell off the parts, I will loose a lot less than the depreciation on any car on the road.  

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Great post Dave.

I read with interest your talk of making the electric steering work with the clever fiddling of your fine hands? I am looking at keeping my stock power steering, but moving it down onto the floor. I would like to make it work with the MoTec ECU or PDM. I will be keeping all wheel speed sensors for the traction control and launch control the MoTec offers, but that's about it as far as the stock loom goes?? (Other than lights obviously, but connected to the PDM).

Do you fancy being my advisor in this challenge? I'd like to come and see the Yaris sometime soon any way, we could compare notes...

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14 minutes ago, Nigelr32 said:

Great post Dave.

I read with interest your talk of making the electric steering work with the clever fiddling of your fine hands? I am looking at keeping my stock power steering, but moving it down onto the floor. I would like to make it work with the MoTec ECU or PDM. I will be keeping all wheel speed sensors for the traction control and launch control the MoTec offers, but that's about it as far as the stock loom goes?? (Other than lights obviously, but connected to the PDM).

Do you fancy being my advisor in this challenge? I'd like to come and see the Yaris sometime soon any way, we could compare notes...

Now that picture has cracked me up Nigel

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That's cool, Dave, but didn't the car have power steering as stock? Okay I have to admit, on Mark's Yaris it is pretty dreadful, thought it was a hydraulic system on the stock car?

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On 26/11/2015, 10:17:47, Nigelr32 said:

You have hit the nail on the head there Nicebiscuit!! It is all about the building, and a little bit of ,"look what I have made".

Anyone with unlimited funds can go and buy any car they want. I could have bought a C3 GT86 rally car, but where would the fun be in that. I know it would be a factory developed bla bla bla... NFI

 

 

 

 

Yet I endure vindictive personal criticism on this Forum for doing exactly what you propound (with my auto GT86).

And, unlike anything so far propounded from the UK,  my mods will be offered on sale shortly and improve the breed.

What the word that comes to mind . . ? Perverse? Hypocritical? No . . it escapes me at the moment . .

 

 

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21 hours ago, Lauren said:

That's cool, Dave, but didn't the car have power steering as stock? Okay I have to admit, on Mark's Yaris it is pretty dreadful, thought it was a hydraulic system on the stock car?

The Yaris does have power steering as stock.  My 1 liter 'donor' car came with electric power steering.  The problem is, it is integrated with the main ECU for its input signals.  In addition, it does not have the best reputation.  I am going to be using a stand alone ECU (most probably Link G4+), so I need to be able to have a totally stand alone control system for the power steering.  The T Sport comes with a hydraulic system, but I don't want to use this for two reasons - 1) the parasitical drag on the engine of the pump, and 2) I want to be able to control the level of assistance at higher speeds, to improve the feel and feedback through the steering 

23 hours ago, Nigelr32 said:

Great post Dave.

I read with interest your talk of making the electric steering work with the clever fiddling of your fine hands? I am looking at keeping my stock power steering, but moving it down onto the floor. I would like to make it work with the MoTec ECU or PDM. I will be keeping all wheel speed sensors for the traction control and launch control the MoTec offers, but that's about it as far as the stock loom goes?? (Other than lights obviously, but connected to the PDM).

Do you fancy being my advisor in this challenge? I'd like to come and see the Yaris sometime soon any way, we could compare notes...

Thank you, Nige :D

I take it you mean moving the control unit of your power steering down onto the floor?  I haven't actually seen the GT86 unit, but usually the servo motor is integrated into the column.  it would take a far more knowledgeable person than me to reverse engineering the interface between the GT86 power steering control unit and the cars ECU - sorry :unsure:.  You know you are always more than welcome to come for a visit - we just need to find a mutually suitable time when the weather is at least semi-decent, and I am not having to work - the next month is our busiest period of the year.

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Yes Dave, the motor is in the column, up high in the dash.

If I keep power steering I will move the motor and gears down onto the bulkhead, behind the pedal box I'm installing. I thought you were knowledgeable in this field by your explanation of your planned changes to your ECU/steering interface?

 

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