Chapter 10 - Wheels, tyres and other stuff.
Evening viewers. I must apologise for the lengthy delay in updating this thread, family and work must come first, and not to mention a new position with the local P&C.
It was at this time that I turned my attention to purchasing some new wheels for El Gato ('The Pussy' as some of you have decided to call it - bah, its all good fun!). The simple fact that we went to 8.4" brakes, dictated that the standard 10'' Contessa rims would not do. At the time of looking for new wheels, I honestly thought that there was not a lot of choice available for 13" rims in Australia - how wrong I was.
If I had taken a bit more time and done a bit more research, there was a whole array available to me - instead I rushed in. Even so, the Performance Superlites (super heavies in my book - ouch!) look fine, but unfortunately are quite common now. Since then, I realised I could have bought a set of Volk TE37's in 13" from Japan, that weigh an incredible 4.5lbs each!!!
When I bought my set of 13 x 7 Superlites in May last year, there were not that many around, so I decided to purchase them. The colour I chose was the platinum centre, with the standard polished outer rim. They did look nice. Next, I turned my attention to tyres. Man, did I do some research on this or what! There are not a huge (or even big!) range of tyres available for 13" rims. But, I wanted the best tyre I could buy, irrespective of the price (its the only thing between you and the road!). I finally found out that Dunlop make a 195/45 ZR13 in their SP9000 range. This tyre is regarded as one of the best performing tyres on the market, and fitted to a lot of high-performance cars standard. The problem was, they were made in Japan (yay!) but were not exported to Australia (crap!).
Read up on the Dunlop SP 9000 here, and discover why I chose it:
http://www.dunloptyres.com.au/
John (?) from Stuckey Tyre Services in Victoria was contacted to see if they could get the rims for me - all good. So, why did I contact a Victorian dealer when I am in Queensland, it is simply because Stuckey's were the only Dunlop agent who said they could get Dunlop SP9000 tyres in 13" for me. And they did. I ended up paying all up $1,650 for all four tyres and wheels, landed at my door. The tyres each were $220.
Contact Stuckey's yourself for a great deal:
http://www.stuckey.com.au/
The wheel and tyre combo:
Compared to the 10" Contessa and 165/70 R10:
In side profile, not a lot of height difference:
And finally, tyre widths - 195mm vs 165mm:
Since then I have sold my Contessa's for $200, so the new wheel and tyre combo in fact cost me $1450 all up. Would I buy a set of Superlites again?? - definately not!! For what they are they are an extremely heavy rim. I am going to paint the inner rim white though, to compliment the paint scheme I have chosen, and leave the outer rim polished.
Now that the wheels and tyres had been sorted, it was time to turn my attention to the exhaust. This required a new dump pipe, and entire exhaust system, because there was no way I was keeping the super restrictive dump/cat combo of the standard Starlet. So, I went shopping for the rear exhausts for the Mini, the only part that would be seen when the car was on the road. I purchased off eBay, 2 x Autotechnica carbon cannons. Man they looked good and light, holy cow these things weighed sweet FA! Price, and incredible $170 for both of them - hell yes! (Cant wait to hear the raucous snarl that will eminate from these twin beauties).
The cannons:
Now that the rear cannons had been taken care of, it was time to sort out the rest of the system. Because the rear boot, and whole car for that matter, has been masterplanned, I knew that a rear alloy drop tank was always to go in, so the rear part of the exhaust has to be a split system to go around it (hence twin cannons). The job was given to Les from Phat Pipes, who came highly recommended and is heavily involved in the custom rod scene.
Les' mandate was as follows:
1. The exhaust has to flow very high volumes and not be restrictive
2. The twin system at the back had to be 2 1/2" diameter (throat diameter of the cannons)
3. The twin system at the back had to leave enough room for the drop tank (we already knew exactly how wide it was going to be)
4. The whole system had to sit up high under the car to give as much under car clearance as possible
5. The dump pipe was to be engineered as to be cut-off when the new, bigger turbo was to go on (part of Stage II, and always included in the master plan)
So Les went to work, two days later and $450 saw me put El Gato back on the trailer and take it home. Man, was I impressed with Les' work. This guy is a master. The whole system is 3" from turbo right back to the beginning of the rear subframe, where it splits into twin 2 1/2" pipes and ends at the cannons. Les' engineering and workmanship is top class - I would recommend him to anyone.
The exhaust system from the cat back. 3" into twin 2 1/2":
The 3" dump - to be replaced when the TD04L is installed:
Les' handiwork is evident - 3" pipe bent around the rear mount so there is plenty of room to work on the mount even if the pipe is hot:
The flexible link so the pipe wont crack when the engine is under load and moving around:
The view from the back. There will be absolutely no restrictions with this system, guaranteed!
Next time in Chapter 11 - We engineer the boot space like no other!!
