Duke Racing Celica GT-Four Time Attack Racecar

  • Thread starter Thread starter Punknoodle
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Cool video. Lots of great cars out there.

The YouTube link is a bit broken though.

What have you done to the dashboard? What sort of material is that? I've been wanting to flock or cover my dash in suede to stop the terrible sun glare. The design of my car and my seating position creates a constant glare patch right in my field of view. Wrapping the dash in suede would be a major mission and cost a lot.
 
Oh is it? I'm doing it off my phone, do you know the tags I have to use to fix it?

The dash just has a black dash mat on it, which is moulded to suit the dash. It looks tidy in my opinion and protects the dash from the harsh Queensland sun. If I ever get real serious with the car I'd love to get it covered with Alcantara but yeah. Cost lol.

Nevermind, fixed the link :D
 
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You ought to fire the videographer who filmed the first 3mins, that was just terrible footage, but after that it got really good.
 
So, it's interesting how my thought patterns change. I always thought my car was too nice, too tidy to do proper racing in. I've slowly come to the realisation that it's not. Sure, it's presentable, but it is now 23 years old and it shows it. It has rattles. It has imperfections. The flaws are starting to take the enjoyment out of using it as a street car, sure it's fun and it gets looks, but to be honest I don't really need to use it - I have a work vehicle and my partner has a family car we use the majority of the time in the weekends. I find myself just wanting to drive a tidy good looking but newer car, the kind of thing you just get in to with no hassle.

I'm at a cross roads. Although I'm not ready to commit to a full time track car just yet - I have a baby on the way and want to get in to my own place with my own sizeable garage - I want to have a long term goal in place, and it involves time attack.

My first option is to sell the Celica as it is, lose heaps of money on it and start again with a more traditional race car. I'd love a late series RX-7 and you can buy pre-prepared race cars for a fraction of the cost of building your own, you just can't register them for road use. Fast, good handling and the works been done for you. Financially and practically it probably makes fractionally more sense.

My second option is to pull the Celica off the road and strip it and turn it in to a dedicated time attack car. It's heavy, it has a pretty unimpressive 4WD system and would need a bit of money to make the engine and brakes capable of track work, but I'm attached to the thing and it has a benefit of being the only one out there, and looking really good and so it gets the looks and attention, which I'm not going to lie - I love.

Because I'm not really aiming in being totally competitive - it's just fun and I'm looking at getting serious in time attack which is just racing your own time - it doesn't NEED to be the best, as long as its fun and doesn't break. I'd like RWD but the Celica would still be fun, and the actual process of converting it myself, as in getting it stripped, getting a cage, doing the wiring etc is all part of the fun of it, in my opinion and I get excited thinking about it.

So yeah. That's my thought process now. Any other opinions?
 
Personally I'm all for the uniquity approach: strip the Celica, track it, have the time of your life with it.

However the big questions that really hang with the Celica are: after all is said and done, it's been stripped, you've done all that you feel is necessary for it...will it all be worth the time and the money that you sink into it? Do you feel that you will have the best time out on the track with the Celica or with something more suitable for track work? It is a pretty big decision and in this case I feel it may be easier to contemplate going with the heart rather than the head.
 
That's the way I'm leaning too, to be honest. I have a vision in my head of what it would look like as a track prepared car and it would look very tough :)
 
One thing you always have to remember, no matter where you go, what you do, or what you get, EVERY time there is somebody faster than you, there is somebody with more money than you, so it makes much more sense to be unique and follow the heart. Plus, with bub on the way, rotaries (if you get that RX-7) tend to be high maintenance. I suppose you have to ask yourself how hung up on RWD you are too. After all is said and done with the Celica should you choose that route, will you miss RWD dynamics?

BTW, you know my suggestion is going to be a V8 :lol:
 
Wise, wise words dude. I do feel like the GT-Four could be satisfying to make go quick, a proper mechanical LSD in the back as well as getting the centre differential stiffened (there is a company in Europe that do this, I would need to send it there and they remove the viscous fluid and replace it with different fluid that stiffens it up and give it a service while they are at it) would make the car handle quite well, and there are a few prototypes of front LSDs kicking around but the cost of them is very high. That coupled with a good lightening, maybe a custom set of suspension from the likes of KW to replace the TEINs a roll cage to stiffen it all up and it should handle pretty well.

I'd need to sell my SSRs and get something with more space internally to run bigger brakes. AP Racing sell a huge brake kit for the front that would be ideal and for the rears just some later model ST205 rears with upgraded pads and rotors is all I'd need.

A better engine package is easy - I know plenty of built 3rd/4th gen 3SGTEs with various turbos and how much power they make vs their responsiveness so I know what I want in that regard. I'd just need to talk to an engine builder about it. Along with that I'd need a lot more sensors to be safe, a revised fueling system (to run E85) and various other pieces like a better clutch but its doable quite easily. Just costs money. There are even straight cut gear sets available if you want to go crazy.

Couple that with a nice racing seat(s), full harness, a complete re-wire getting rid of unnecessary looms and making a nice control panel where the stereo is, a Haltech logger dash and that is pretty much my vision for the car if I go down this route. I think even doing a lot of the work myself then getting the important stuff done by the pros and getting it certified and CAMS logbooked it would still be a huge figure, so I would have to really want the car when I'm finished doing it (gradually, over time!)

But yeah the alternative is spending not as much but in one hit on a package already produced that would probably be quicker! I would just like a light RWD as I think it would teach me more as you have to drive with greater precision to avoid losing control, I just think it would be a little more rewarding to get speed out of, you need to be more accurate.

So I mean financially it's a no brainer. Sell the Celica and try to get a descent amount for it on the basis of its high quality parts, then save and buy a complete package and go racing. Or build my dream GT-Four over time, spend a bit more money but have the enjoyment and experience of preparing a track car myself and be happy with the performance it offers and it's uniqueness.

It's not like I don't like other cars, on the contrary I love heaps of other cars and would love something else but I'm also attached to the GT-Four in a way. And I've already put so much in to it. It would be really sad to see it go.
 
So I'm thinking I'm going to sell the SSRs and pick up a set of Enkei RPF1s. Lightweight, and I can fit bigger brakes. More suited for track work. Love the look of the SSRs but I think now is the time to swap to a more purposeful rim. Should be able to do the swap over for pretty much no money due to the SSRs being a fair bit more than Enkeis and they are mint.
 
RPF1s are cheap as heck these days. Are you getting them from Perfect Run or elsewhere? The vendor I got my GTC01s from had a pretty good deal on Enkei wheels.
 
Most likely Perfect Run yeah. Can get them in 9" wide now in my offset. Hmmm... Do I wanna do a little more guard rolling?
 
Do it. You can fit 255s in there easily enough. You know you want to... ;)
 
Punknoodle
Most likely Perfect Run yeah. Can get them in 9" wide now in my offset. Hmmm... Do I wanna do a little more guard rolling?
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Autotechnik Tuning. That's the vendor I used; they specialise in Enkei/AME wheels and I got my GTC01s shipped size-for-size a couple hundred bucks cheaper than what Perfect Run quoted me. Pretty good service too, will be using them for mags for the next car, whatever it may be :)

Just a thought man.
 
Thanks for the info mate I'll send him a message. When I get enough money that is, I just bought a new car so I'm a bit poor now. Here is a picture of me sitting beside it.
McLaren_zps987a4b53.jpg
 
HAH! You wish!:p
 
Gonna need to ask for a piece of paper spiked over the gear lever...

:sly:
 
Lol aww come on.. I've been a member long enough that I don't need to jump through those hoops!
 
I like the silver, but I don't think the matte black comes across very well in pictures.
 
I would go for the black. I say that because I have been seeing other members doing this lately so I tried it too. I painted the Enkei wheels gloss black on my WRX and I LOVE the results. (You can see the pics in my WRX thread) So I would go either semi gloss black or gloss black. But I would not paint them flat black. Flat black looks more grey. I would lean toward gloss black.
 
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Black, but I'd go for a glossy black too if it was available.
 
My photoshop skills are pretty crap lol. Here is the Matt black:
enkei_rpf1_black.jpg


I've also thought about white but I decided against it, and I thought about gun metal or even a dark blue/purple

I have to order the wheels in Silver regardless, Matt Black isn't available in my size, but I'm planning on getting them coated locally if I decide to go away from the F1 Silver
 
That's not matte black. That's more of a semi gloss or satin which does look good. Matte black has NO shine or gloss at all. The wheel you just posted has some sort of shine to it for sure. Which looks great imo.
 
True, you're right. I suppose it is a semi gloss.
 
Yeah semi gloss looks great. Trust me, you don't want flat or matte wheels. They look like a dirty grey and if any oil or grease gets on them, its dang near impossible to clean. Semi gloss or gloss is the way to go.
 
Nice, I think I'll go with that, then. I'm looking at going 9" too, with staggered offset so I can ditch the rear spacers.
 
Yeah black seems to look better, but black wheels nearly always look great. I plan on going black wheels when I (presumably) buy a VF Ute, but then the car would be white so it's not really comparable.
 
Yeah, white or black cars are easy, you can pull off just about any colour even if its crazy.
 
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