Supercar Rebuild.

[Risking]

This is an ex tander/GRM supercar that I recently bought for something different to have. Ive always wanted a supercar after racing GTR's and what not for years there has always been that ellusive touring car ive always wanted.

The car has a decent history and begun life as a VX chassis built in house at garry rodgers motorsport for Garth Tander to use in 2001. It was known as VX04 and was the sister car to VX03 driven by Mc Conville in the same 2001.

The car ran 2001 and 2002 with Tander and had some shining moments with a couple of race wins and podiums. It competed at bathurst with a top 10 and a DNF due to broken headers the year after.

Jamie whincup tested the car in late 2001 before taking the GRM drive for 02 and using the Mc conville VX03 chassis.

The car was retired when the VY was release and sat in the corner at GRM being used for the odd ride day and testing. Team Kiwi leased the car for a while but couldnt find pace from it and it sat in their workshop not being used. Garry took the car back and it was sold to the sydney based team Sydeny star.

The car was stripped down and sent to Paris Ascott who carried out the mamoth task of cutting it off at the fire wall and doing a wishbone VY facelift on the car. It received a face lifted front and rear end before being sent back and Aaron used it as his first touring car in the shannons nationals, it was now known as GRM04 instead of VX04. (VX04 was its V8 supercar chassis number, as its now raced in a national touring car category and had a face lift it had to be renamed hence GRM04)

It didnt do alot of work and was latter leased to several people none of which had the knowledge or money to back the car properly. It fell into the hands of the colourful Derrick Hocking and was repossed in 2011 after DNFing about 3 of the 5 meetings he entered. (last of those 5 meetings doesnt really count as he was arrested from Eastern creek on the sunday after practice)

I bought the car from the finance companies and it was in a dizmal state when it arrived. The car had been severly neglected and required alot of parts and work. Loads of stuff had been pilfered from sitting in an auction house for a couple of months. The major components were all there.

Having a couple of other supercars in and out and knowing alot of people in the industrie I was able to source all of the missing gear and located the original parts that were not handed over to the finace companies with the chassis.

The photos here show how the car arrived

First thing it got was stripped down to a rolling shell and sent off for a paint job. Unfortunatly these cars may look pretty good on TV but in the raw they are very rough around the edges. The body is reasonable, pannel gaps are terrible but when quarters are pop riveted on and can be replaced in minutes what do you expect.

It came back looking like this

Engine bay was stripped down and painted at the same time

The car had an 18Deg chevy engine with Morrison injection which ill reuse for the time being. Upon opening it up we found all sorts of nasty things caused by neglect. Cracked rocker arms, a broken exhaust guide and a very average looking oil pump.

The engine is off to Chris Abe to be freshened up and have all the lifed components replaced ( they require 3000Km rebuilds )

The car never came with a gearbox so ive sourced an RD6S hollinger for it and tilton clutch.

If people want to see the project develop and how it comes along im happy to update the thread, and if there is specific things you'd like to see detailed photos of just post here and ill post some up.

[Duncan]

Now that is something different....thanks for posting it up

[tweety bird]

i do like.

please keep updating as i'm keen to see how it turns out.

[sinistaGTR]

Ahhhh a supertaxi, i thought it was an actual supercar from the title.....

[Marlin]

Good thing! My neighbor at work owns and races/leases some, I'd like one. And you've got one!

Keen to follow your progress.

[Tai1or Made]

I like.

[Risking]

If your keen to see more ill keep it coming.

The car is getting its new livery on the 14-16th of January. That'll brighten it up somewhat.

The inlet manifold is away being reconditioned at the moment so hopefully have that back in a week or so.

The fuel system has all been replaced including the bladder tank.

It's funny they use 4 VN commodore pumps inside the tank as lifters to feed a 15L swirl pot that's mounted directly to the top of the bladder. I seem the VN Delphi pumps and thought wtf someone's a tight arse. Couple of calls latter at yep confirmed that's what everyone in the field runs.

The underside is very trick and next in line to be stripped down. Ill get before and after photos of the undercarriage.

[MBS206]

Very keen to see this progress!

I may even have to find a time when you're around on a Saturday and come for a looksee Brad!

[Risking]

I'm here today.....

[MBS206]

I'm here today.....

I'll head up now. Still need to grab my crap I left at yours so I'll bring the trailer.

[sav man]

Does GRM build it's own engines, or do they use customer engines?

Do the 4 VN pumps pick up from different locations to prevent fuel surge, or are they just used to flow more?

Are you going to race it in the Shannons Nationals?

[Risking]

GRM have an in house engine builder who does their own engine freshen ups.

The engines they are now using are aurora 5.0Ls which is based on a block GM performace designed for Indy cars. They started to produce a short deck version for the supercar, it allowed extra bonnet clearance and a symmetrical valve allignement to be used.

I've bought an ex888 KRE built engine for this car but its a while off arriving due to the KRE engine agreement.

The engine this car originally raced with is an 18deg chev Motorsport block with alloy chev heads, T&D rocker gear, its currently got a HRT counter weighted crank shaft and HRT rods.

The engine is currently fully of HRT components. They supply parts a lot cheaper than other teams so a lot of national guys buy HRT parts.

Ill b ripping the sump off it next week so ill take photos of the inside.

A lot of the parts your can actually buy off the shelf. Besides the cam shaft, team specific cranks etc.

I'm planning to either run this one or another one in the Shannon's yes, up till November 2011 this car was still competing, unreliable as hell but it was there

[Risking]

There is two types of tanks they use in the cars, ones a fuel safe and the other is an ati.

This car has a fuel safe 80L tank. It's about 700x350x300. In the middle of the tank there is an area partitioned off that's about 250x250mm

There is foam surrounding the outside of that area and a membrane wall creating the 250x250mm

There is trap doors that are 100mm wide which allows fuel to flow into the cavity. The four pumps are mounted inside the cavity in the corners.

The swirl pot is really complicated.

The four pumps feed the swirl from inside the main tank.

Again ill take some photos on Monday to show you how it works.

[Marlin]

Are you planning on running this as Production Car so you can fully kick some arse?

[dkbcleaner]

This is pretty cool!

Someone early on said this is a supertaxi. Whats the difference between this and a supercar?

What suspension and setup does is run?

[Risking]

Are you planning on running this as Production Car so you can fully kick some arse?

Production cars all the way. Gun to a knife fight is the best way to win.

[Risking]

This is pretty cool!

Someone early on said this is a supertaxi. Whats the difference between this and a supercar?

What suspension and setup does is run?

This is a genuine real McCoy V8 supercar. "Supertaxi" is a slang term used for them.

The suspension in this car is a Morrison live axle 10inch rear diff, GRM build 4 link with watts linkage in the rear

Front is a Paul Morris designed and Paris ascot built wishbone suspension using racer industries upper arms and ascot fabricated lowers.

Rear shocks are ohlins and front shocks are sach. The ohlins are in the rear as they are original GRM. The car started as a strut front end in 2001 and ohlins don't do a conventional shock to suit this setup so Paris used the sach coil over instead.

[Marlin]

Seriously though, are you planning to race it, exercise it, or simply build then admire it?

All are good options.

[noone]

Seriously though, are you planning to race it, exercise it, or simply build then admire it?

All are good options.

I thought thats how you admire this kinda thing,

with ya foot pinned to the floor down the main straight, lol!

[Risking]

I plan to race it in the national touring car category.

A mate of mine runs a GRM VZ and I've got customers who run in the category as well.

The car is probably still capable of top 5 finishes despite its age. Ill upgrade what's nessiary to make it competitive.

A lot of components are controlled which pushes the cost up. ECU's are leased, cam shafts controlled and engines sealed etc

I could honestly leave it idling for an hour a day just for the sound though.