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BlackC55

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Feb 8, 2007
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Location
Portsmouth, Hampshire.
Car
E55K SL500 E250X2 Smart44 Brabus Track car E450Cabriolet X350 Pick up
Hello all.

We decided to get a track day car for a bit of fun. I have raced Karts for years but don't anymore so wanted to fulfil my need for track time. We used to do lots of Smarts so know them well. We bought a Smart Brabus forfour. I found one for just £2k and bought it. We put some TOYO888's on it and went to Goodwood. It was epic fun. A great little car with so much potential. The engine is a 1.5 Turbo from a Mitsubushi CZT and shares the same floorpan as a CZT. 175BHP standard.

I thought I would do a few little upgrades to it as the brakes were not great and there was potential for more power.

Fitted some uprated discs and pads, a hybrid turbo, 550cc injectors, straight through exhaust, 6 paddle clutch, Quaife ATB diff. It was mapped on the rollers and now had 220bhp :) . It was certainly a rapid little thing. Got some BC racing coil overs and poly bushed everything. All the panels are plastic so it doesn't weigh much. The next go at Goodwood it blew the engine on lap 1 :mad:. We had a look at what happened and conrod 4 wanted to say hi. We thought that it got oil starvation as the grip is quite something when cornering. I got another engine for £500 with 32k on it and fitted it with a baffled sump and off we went again. Lap 10 it blew up again......:mad: A different failure this time. It looks like it ran lean. Back to the mappers to see what happened. The jury is still out on this as we haven't taken the engine to bits juts yet to fully diagnose it.

So. Two blown engines, a Smart that doesn't work and I am a few grand down. What to do.....

I contacted Simon Norris from Norris Designs who has a race car with this engine in it to consider my options. I have ordered a 425BHP engine from him and we should get it at the end of jan. Stand alone management, the works.

This is his one: ND Colt Ralliart Race 2 August 1st 2020 - YouTube

We hope to get out during springtime for another session to see how she performs. I will have to straight cut the gearbox at some point but for now this will do nicely. I have some 4 pot callipers on order too.
 
Hello all.

We decided to get a track day car for a bit of fun. I have raced Karts for years but don't anymore so wanted to fulfil my need for track time. We used to do lots of Smarts so know them well. We bought a Smart Brabus forfour. I found one for just £2k and bought it. We put some TOYO888's on it and went to Goodwood. It was epic fun. A great little car with so much potential. The engine is a 1.5 Turbo from a Mitsubushi CZT and shares the same floorpan as a CZT. 175BHP standard.

I thought I would do a few little upgrades to it as the brakes were not great and there was potential for more power.

Fitted some uprated discs and pads, a hybrid turbo, 550cc injectors, straight through exhaust, 6 paddle clutch, Quaife ATB diff. It was mapped on the rollers and now had 220bhp :) . It was certainly a rapid little thing. Got some BC racing coil overs and poly bushed everything. All the panels are plastic so it doesn't weigh much. The next go at Goodwood it blew the engine on lap 1 :mad:. We had a look at what happened and conrod 4 wanted to say hi. We thought that it got oil starvation as the grip is quite something when cornering. I got another engine for £500 with 32k on it and fitted it with a baffled sump and off we went again. Lap 10 it blew up again......:mad: A different failure this time. It looks like it ran lean. Back to the mappers to see what happened. The jury is still out on this as we haven't taken the engine to bits juts yet to fully diagnose it.

So. Two blown engines, a Smart that doesn't work and I am a few grand down. What to do.....

I contacted Simon Norris from Norris Designs who has a race car with this engine in it to consider my options. I have ordered a 425BHP engine from him and we should get it at the end of jan. Stand alone management, the works.

This is his one: ND Colt Ralliart Race 2 August 1st 2020 - YouTube

We hope to get out during springtime for another session to see how she performs. I will have to straight cut the gearbox at some point but for now this will do nicely. I have some 4 pot callipers on order too.

I'd like to nominate this for the winner of the best post of 2021. Brilliant. Keep them coming.
 
Third time lucky?

Good luck, if it goes anything like that video you are in for some fun!!!
 
This time wait for the drive shafts to fail -- what fun ?
 
I'd like to nominate this for the winner of the best post of 2021. Brilliant. Keep them coming.
Even the experts have engines fail.

We have decided to do the livery in JPS colours as the car is black. We will do the "PCS" in the same font as the old Lotus F1 cars.
 
This time wait for the drive shafts to fail -- what fun ?
I thought of this. The longer we own the car we find out little bits of info on modding them. The driveshafts are apparently very strong. Lets see!!
 
Love these type of threads! Hopefully this time round it will behave itself. Cars love to piss you off but once they are sorted, tey are very rewarding. Good luck and keep this thread updated :thumb:
 
Hard launches are worse for killing drivetrains, rather than big power on its own. Not something you tend to do a lot on trackdays.
 
Even the experts have engines fail.

We have decided to do the livery in JPS colours as the car is black. We will do the "PCS" in the same font as the old Lotus F1 cars.

OMG. One of the best liveries of all time. Love it.
 
Hello all.

We decided to get a track day car for a bit of fun. I have raced Karts for years but don't anymore so wanted to fulfil my need for track time. We used to do lots of Smarts so know them well. We bought a Smart Brabus forfour. I found one for just £2k and bought it. We put some TOYO888's on it and went to Goodwood. It was epic fun. A great little car with so much potential. The engine is a 1.5 Turbo from a Mitsubushi CZT and shares the same floorpan as a CZT. 175BHP standard.

I thought I would do a few little upgrades to it as the brakes were not great and there was potential for more power.

Fitted some uprated discs and pads, a hybrid turbo, 550cc injectors, straight through exhaust, 6 paddle clutch, Quaife ATB diff. It was mapped on the rollers and now had 220bhp :) . It was certainly a rapid little thing. Got some BC racing coil overs and poly bushed everything. All the panels are plastic so it doesn't weigh much. The next go at Goodwood it blew the engine on lap 1 :mad:. We had a look at what happened and conrod 4 wanted to say hi. We thought that it got oil starvation as the grip is quite something when cornering. I got another engine for £500 with 32k on it and fitted it with a baffled sump and off we went again. Lap 10 it blew up again......:mad: A different failure this time. It looks like it ran lean. Back to the mappers to see what happened. The jury is still out on this as we haven't taken the engine to bits juts yet to fully diagnose it.

So. Two blown engines, a Smart that doesn't work and I am a few grand down. What to do.....

I contacted Simon Norris from Norris Designs who has a race car with this engine in it to consider my options. I have ordered a 425BHP engine from him and we should get it at the end of jan. Stand alone management, the works.

This is his one: ND Colt Ralliart Race 2 August 1st 2020 - YouTube

We hope to get out during springtime for another session to see how she performs. I will have to straight cut the gearbox at some point but for now this will do nicely. I have some 4 pot callipers on order too.

Jeez that Colt Ralliart shifts!
 
Enjoyed the video, nice one Olly!
 
425bhp in a 'kin go-kart!
Well before your time a pal had a home made space frame kart with Triumph 500cc engine, front brakes from a Mini, Triumph sequential gearbox, chain drive to some sort of Austin rear end and dual rear wheels each side.
We took it out for a shakedown at some disused airfield.
Good things: engine was manic for its time and kart was lighter than the bike it came from. Nice gearbox with clutchless upshifts. Great brakes. So much grip from 4 rear wheels.
Not so good thing: after 3 runs the power and grip off the line led to a bent rear axle.
 
I’m glad you’ve posted this, it will be a great thread, I’m absolutely sure. Good to hear that you landed on 425 too, good decision. Looking forward to hearing more.

PS I only watched a bit of that video but it sounds like he’s moderating the throttle for a long time after he started applying power - it must be a real monster!
 
That twin charged kit for the evos that norris makes is something else!
 

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