08/31/08

Gareth Nutley (Raz)'s 1800Ti race car

Raz bought this 1800Ti for motorsport, and in 2007 was Modified Class runner-up in the RSSOC Speed Champioship.  For 2008, he's progressed to circuit racing in the RAF Race Challenge.

Preparing a car for a sprint series, where your running time is usually a minute or two, is totally different from a race, where you are talking 20-30 minutes per run.  All of a sudden, cooling requirements take on a new aspect - plus there are numerous different issues to contend with.

First on the list was, quite rightly, a proper roll cage.  For one, it stiffens the chassis up, but most importantly when circuit racing, there is not only the immovable braking devices to cope with (Armco barriers, for example), but also the rest of the cars on the track.  Safety first as always.  Raz was amongst the batch of SS1 compies who have had cages made by Protection and Performance in Skipton.

One of the compromises of this is having to fit a smaller, custom fuel tank so as not to interfere with the rear fixings.

Cooling - things that might not worry someone in a 60-second sprint become a major issue in a race - brakes being a major factor!  With some slight surgery in places, Raz's car now sports some modified Rover 800 discs, using the original (but spaced out) calipers

Just incase brake fade might be an issue (!), then there's also some ducting to help things out..

The front suspension has now been modifed to use inboard coilover units, despite a slight hiccup with balljoint location (with the original spring no longer holding the balljoint within the wishbone).  This allows for much easier fine tuning of spring rates as he's now using standard size coil springs.

Other modifications include a front mounted oil cooler and plumbed in fire extinguisher.

The original T2 turbo has now been replaced with a T25 unit, mated to a side exit exhaust:

Now, Raz has a car which is able to take on allcomers; composed, balanced, safe and with a bit more power..

Home | 1800Ti Racer | Razza's Racing 1800Ti

This site was last updated 08/31/08