GRM $2009 Project DeathBox

[dok33]

Faster than your old deathbox? :rofl:

ALOT:naughty: Same HP, 1000lbs lighter

Tonight was test night, we had a blast for about 20mins until the cops showed up We tried to be polite and explain what we were up to and for the most part they were understanding especially when they saw the tow dolly and realized we hadn't driven the car there without registration inspection etc.

In the end they cited us for no insurance (failure to prove financial responsibility). The upside is it's not a moving violation, downside is the fine is $250 plus $250/yr for 3 years :eyes:

Enough of that... Hittin the drag strip Saturday night and an autocross Sunday, more pics and vids to come!!

 

[zambini]

:love::love::love:

 

[dok33]

Testing weekend went awesome! We're very happy with the way the car ran, especially considering this was our shakedown run! We had a few minor issues but it ran great at the strip and tore up the autox course. It's pretty insane and fairly hard to drive even at 8psi, we're working on devising a plan for lowering the boost at launch and for autox to help with this...

Few pics:

The strip was packed and we were running late due to a dead BOV we had to swap out (involved welding etc because it was a different style), so we only got 2 runs in. Best was a 15.3 with a 2.8sec 60' time, but it trapped at 103mph! The announcer loved the car and donned it the "Cracker Box", a name that might have to stick Definitely need some traction help (looking at options now), the slicks were also crusty from sitting, they got alot stickier on Sunday after a few autox runs so it should hook up better next time and hopefully get us into the low 13s

Drag video (unfortunately no sound, what camera company defaults video sound to off from the factory???): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGK-q78UeTA

We finished 29th and 44th out of 92 cars at the autox and got a good feel for the car. It was very neutral and actually handled really well aside from the tires immediately spinning when the turbo spooled. The $40 ebay coilovers did great even on the worn Aspire struts. We had some PCV issues that caused the blue smoke you see in the pics/vids below, but hopefully a 323gtx PCV valve will fix that.

Autox pics:

Houston, we have a problem:

In true Apollo 13 fashion-a little heat shrink tubing+some zip ties+a water bottle = catch can!

Autox videos (one I took on my cell has sound):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzFBtLGv51o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOOzoa7fuk0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKCiPRePKLg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89cmWRBhOVQ

 

[aye mate]

Excellent documentation and project! I'm trying to put together a MD team for the '10 or '11 GRM.

 

[dok33]

Thanks! Definitely go for it, it's alot of fun!

 

[dok33]

Forgot to mention, the car weighed right at 2000lbs with myself and a full tank of gas in it which puts us at around 1700lbs dry weight

 

[SupraDreamPDR]

Great read. Keep up the good work.

 

[dok33]

Update time! We've been making some minor tweaks and fixes over the past few weeks and hit the track a couple of times. Most significant improvement is the addition of a solenoid to switch between high and low boost for drag launches. Had some issues the first time out but we got it pretty dialed last night. Also came to the conclusion that our used Hoosiers are dry rotted crap after the car ran much better on street tires...

Made a decent improvement on our 1/4 time last night, car is definitely a handful to drive! Track was empty and we probably made 25-30 passes (with no mechanical failures!). We were running low 15s but after swapping the slicks for some Falken street tires ended up running a best of 14.8@103 with a 2.4sec 60'. The solenoid we put in to switch between high and low boost helped launch alot but i still had to feather the throttle until I got to the top end of 2nd. The search for better tires is on with only a few weeks left! With some better grip I think low 14s are in our future!

Couple of autocrosses and hopefully 1 more trip to the strip and we'll be ready to go...

And BTW-car will be for sale after the challenge if anyone is interested, think we're gonna change gears and do LeMons next year...

 

[SBM713]

ahahahahaha dude that is so awesome just a bunch of buddies a bunch of random parts beer and it all comes together haha thats great man good read i bet thats a blast to drive lol its like super sleeper... haha you could beat stock mustang gt's with a festiva hahaha they'd be pissed thats great man and so awesome keep up the work

 

[dok33]

Last trip to the drag strip last night, seems 14.8 is the ceiling for this little beast on the tires we have. Dropped the pressure in the slicks to 15psi and it helped some, managed a 2.3s 60' and a 14.76@100. Doing final prep and some cosmetics before we make the 1000mi trip to Gainesville!!

 

[JPsToyota]

You might want to bring a pipe to bypass your intercooler just in case!

I am worried that during the bumping and banging that thing is definitely gonna get severely torn up and then you'll be in deep shit mode with no boost and a broken intercooler!

Fab up a metal pipe to bypass and bring that along, it'll be okay like that. We run our Miata with no intercooler and don't inject alcohol until 8psi.

 

[dok33]

There's no bumping and banging in the GRM challenge, you must be thinking of 24hrs of Lemons. We just have to run an autox course and drag race!

 

[dok33]

Team Phostiva is headed back to Texas. We had a blast at the challenge and placed 14th overall out of 57 cars, much better than anticipated! Our last minute $30 drag radial purchase paid off and we were able to pull a 14.2@103mph before our boost solenoid crapped out and we couldn't soft launch anymore. The festy is now officially for sale and we're making plans for next year

 

[dok33]

Work got in the way of posting this yesterday, finally got through my 120 emails so here goes...

The challenge was a blast, lots of cool cars and a ton of like-minded cheap individuals. The 36hr drive was a little rough but having a 15 passenger van helped, plus we had time to plan out next year's challenge entries! The Festiva did alot better than we were expecting, out of 53 cars we placed 14th overall! We placed 22nd in the autox (6th out of all the fwd cars) after letting one of the pro drivers take the wheel. In his words the Festiva was "the most surprising car out there," not sure if that's a good thing or not....

We thought we had the best bribe for the concours judges locked but unfortunately got beat out by a long-time attending team that gave them flowers and chocolates. Everyone else loved our Beerstiva, we were dispensing ice cold Yuengling Lager all afternoon to other challenge participants




Saturday we made over 20 passes at the strip, including a pass with a 105mph trap speed, netting a best of 14.2@103mph with our $30 clapped-out drag radials pulling our 60' times down to 2.3sec. We had 13's in sight but unfortunately our boost control solenoid died and we could no longer launch at low boost after that pass giving up valuable 60' time and ran mid 14's the rest of the day until our $10 turbo bit the dust.

Overall it was an awesome experience and we will definitely be back next year with a couple of cars

Some videos of the Festiva and other cars: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7B1590D0F65B0486

Misc pictures
Phostiva lining up against a Kevin's AWD Tracer:


Team OMGWTFBBQ's super clean Campbell's themed "Soup-ra":




The Nelson family's crazy VW/Chevy concoction built from a few VW bodies and a '32 Chevy frame (ran a 10.8sec 1/4):


Team Gutty's insanely fast and well prepared CRX (overall champion) that ran an 11.84 and took 2nd in the Autox:


Team Mini Me's turbo Shadow, ran an 11.75 to edge out Gutty at the strip:


The Porvette, Porsche 944 with an LT-1 and rear mounted turbo, unfortunately had issues and couldn't make a full pull:


Georgia Tech's Lexus V8 powered Miata, cool idea but they couldn't get it to run right all weekend (who's the better Tech now ):


And finally for all you Aggies, A&Ms super clean first year attempt turbo Civic that ran a 13.1 and placed 5th overall:


More pictures: http://grm2009challenge.shutterfly.com/26

 

[dok33]

Got sort of an update

The dude we sold the Phostiva to contacted us last week asking if we were interested in buying it back. I met up with him last night and traded my DRZ400 for it and was giggling like a schoolgirl all the way home. He had an exhaust put on it and got it registered and inspected so it's 100% legal, kind of scary actually. Needs a few things fixed but it's still running just as good as when we sold it.

I'm getting married in October, which is actually why I was selling the DRZ because we needed some wedding $$, but I'm considering making the trek to Gainesville again if I can find a few crazy people to make the trek with me again, might even try for the longest drive in a challenge car award

 

[NTRA08]

I read your whole thread and just realized that your in austin. Nice to meet a fellow texan.

 

[dok33]

Cool, thanks for lookin