2002 Hyundai Elantra - Champ Car Build/Story

kevinatfms

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Our poison of choice was a 91 Volvo 740 Wagon, it was a free car. Automatic and NA initially. Our goal was the same as yours starting out, get on track, stay and track, and complete a race. We finished Charlotte and besides being blown off the banks by the nascar pit crews in their thundering monte carlos (we topped out at 93MPH heh) we had a blast. Then we turbo charged it and manual swapped it and havent finished a race since haha. Did manage to complete 11hrs at daytona though.

My suggestion is find a way to get full life out of your tires. This means proper roll control so you arent eating the outside shoulders and proper camber. Find ways to make these things happen. Chump is supposed to be affordable racing but uneven wear will kill perfectly good tires. We are still searching for chump "legal" solutions to gaining the camber we need without incurring to many points.

Got camber bolts for the struts. They were $13 on Amazon. Going to dial in a stupid amount of camber front and rear and see at the first autocross of the year. That should tell us how far over it rolls. Thinking 2.5-3.0* up front and at least 2.0* in the rear.

Tires for us will be 195/55 and 205/50 size tires. Going for the 200tw to start but can go higher in the tw department if we are chewing through tires too fast. The UHP tires usually dont last very long though on track and ive corded a few BFG Sport Comp 2's going balls out in a Mustang. Wouldnt want that to happen in a shitbox Hyundai with terribly tiny brakes.

We are limited to whats available at the moment under our budget. So it was a set of Tiburon struts and some H&R springs. At a later time, maybe late this year or early next year we will see about cutting the perch tops and making our own coilover setup using a set from another car. For now though the H&R's should give us some useable spring rate increase as the factory is like riding a giant marshmallow. We can also go to Tiburon Koni Yellow inserts down the line if the spring rate is good but the damping rates are still too shallow. They are the cut-a-strut type so a few hours work to get them in.
 

kevinatfms

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I've been wanting to put together and SVTP Lemon Car Team. SVT Contour or Focus would probably be a good car to use.

Id find a ZX3 with the 2.0L Zetec and a 5 speed. The 6 speed in the SVT was a bit of a chore and had issues with the clutch and pressure plate setup. Also the VCT stuff on the SVT was a pain in the ass. It only made marginally more power than the non-VCT motor and had more issues.

A cool swap would be the 2.3L out of the 2004 ZX4 ST model into a ZX3 chassis with the SVT brakes and suspension. That would be a cool little car. 150+hp, 2000lbs gutted and factory balanced suspension.
 

SID297

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Id find a ZX3 with the 2.0L Zetec and a 5 speed. The 6 speed in the SVT was a bit of a chore and had issues with the clutch and pressure plate setup. Also the VCT stuff on the SVT was a pain in the ass. It only made marginally more power than the non-VCT motor and had more issues.

A cool swap would be the 2.3L out of the 2004 ZX4 ST model into a ZX3 chassis with the SVT brakes and suspension. That would be a cool little car. 150+hp, 2000lbs gutted and factory balanced suspension.

That does sound fun. Need some sponsors.
 

kevinatfms

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That does sound fun. Need some sponsors.

Shoot, I’d be game to help get one off the ground. Building one now and it’s not terrible.

When the time comes let me know. I’d be down to participate.


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kevinatfms

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More parts! Hub centric rings, lug nuts, camber bolts, wheels and GT500 hood vent(thanks AutoNation). The tires should be here this afternoon and i will drop them off tonight to get mounted by a buddy(has his own tire machine and balancer) for free.
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Big install day planned for Sunday. Clutch, flywheel, slave cylinder, springs, struts, rear sway bar, wheels/tires and some bracket making should start. Ill try to get pics uploaded on Sunday night or Monday morning.

Still waiting on the NRG hub and steering wheel, the Corbeau seat and brackets and the fire suppression system. Cage install will happen right after we get them in.
 

kevinatfms

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Welp, as of today we got completed.....

Struts and shocks assembled. Rear set are in. It broke the stock PLASTIC sway bar end links. Had to order some Tiburon metal end links.

Got the fronts completed but ran into a snag with the hubs and rotors. Rotors were frozen to the hubs. Beat on them for the better part of 30 minutes before the bearing gave out.

We also found the passenger side CV axle is shot.

Started on the clutch install. Took 3 of us to pry the transmission away from the engine. Stock OE clutch worked for 115k miles before giving up the ghost.

Took us more than 4 hours to get the trans removed. Was a total nightmare. So we stopped after that.

This week we will be installing the new clutch, flywheel and slave cylinder. Going to window weld the engine and trans mounts while they are out.

Had to order new passenger CV axle, rotors, pads, hubs and bearings. Hope to have them by next weekend to finish the driveline.

Some pics of the sway bar before and after. 12mm to 18mm should stiffen it up a bit.
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And the tow pig getting to the shop. We had more than 8 inches at this point and it’s still snowing....
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kevinatfms

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Got some more work done today. Flywheel replaced and clutch/pressure plate installed and torqued.

New versus old flywheel. Old was BEAT.
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New clutch and flywheel installed and torqued.
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Some pics of work done this past weekend.

Rear suspension installed. Waiting on rear sway end links.
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Front suspension completed. Waiting for some front end parts and to complete the clutch.
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Parts that came in....

Brake pads, rotors, front hubs and bearings.
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And the GeForce 5 point harness.
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kevinatfms

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Got the engine and trans together today. Took two of us to get it aligned. Total PITA. On top of it being a total pain we smashed one of the connectors to one of the coil packs. So time to hit the junk yard to cut off a pigtail.

Put starter back in and got bell housing bolts back together. Will finish the rest on Saturday morning.

Also picked up 3m window weld for the engine and transmission mounts. Will poly fill them tomorrow at work(and post photos of the before and after).

Only photo from today is of the rear end links installed. So with those installed the rear suspension is complete.
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kevinatfms

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Tomorrow is a big day of installs. Finishing putting the front end back together and getting the car on all 4's again.

Since we broke one connector for one of the ignition coils and getting to a junk yard in the next week or so is going to be a pain i just ordered a pigtail off Godaca which stocks OEM pigtail connectors for just about every manufacturer. $15 later we have a pigtail on its way.

Also, filled the motor mounts with 3m window weld.
 
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kevinatfms

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Huge install day. Got all 4 motor mounts back in, shift cables reinstalled, new CV axles in.
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Bought an Astro Pneumatic front wheel drive bearing service kit. Worth every penny on amazon.

After a lot of cursing and a TON of WD40 we finally got the bearings to come loose. Using the tool removed the old bearings and pressed the new bearings and hubs into the knuckles.
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Also had to drill out the wheel speed sensor which is located in the knuckle. Bolt broke off and I also broke the damn sensor removing it. $37.40 and Hyundai supplied a new sensor. Will install it on Monday afternoon. You can see the old one hanging in this photo on the left side of the knuckle.
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New sensor
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Wheels and tires are still MIA. Waiting on my buddy to mount and balance them. Hope to install them on Monday.

Here is our list of things left.
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Engine bay back together.
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kevinatfms

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Forgot on my list of things....

Battery box - we need to make one. Stock one broke.
GT500 hood vent install.
Brake ducts and ducting to front brakes.
Fire suppression is another that is missing.

Still lots to do but we are getting there.


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kevinatfms

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Loving this build - makes me want to do one as well.

Total out the door is right around 6k. that includes the car, cage/fire suppression, maintenance items, seat and other stuff documented here. Its a very attainable series for just about anyone.

We are already looking at a second car, a 528i with a 2.8L and a 5 speed, which may be our second team car.
 

kevinatfms

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Got our wheels and tires back. Also the race bucket and bracket came tonight. Will be going to the shop tomorrow to install them along with finishing up some stuff.
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The 205/50R15 Federals are on the left. Some 205/40R17’s are on the right on my stock Fiesta ST wheels. You can see how wide the Federals run.
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Corbeau Forza wide. For us portly gentlemen.
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With the Corbeau base bracket for the Elantra.
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kevinatfms

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Install day yesterday went well. Just wanted to see how the car looked on the suspension with the wheels and tires. It sits a bit high since we removed so much weight out of it. With the cage going back in it should settle more once we drive it a bit. Its stiff. Very stiff. We should have everything ready to go for a start up and driving video this weekend. Gonna put some miles on it on the local backroads to break everything in. We want to put at least 50-100 miles on it to help break the clutch in good and bed the pads to the rotors.

Car with the wheels and tires installed. Looks ok, a bit high, but will hopefully settle down a bit with the cage and some break in miles.
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Installed the Corbeau Forza seat and it was a royal pain to get fitted and doesnt slide as smooth as my past seats from them. It feels almost like its binding. Hope to wear it in a bit when multiple people drive it.
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With the door closed to make sure everything fits and there is room for the door bars.
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During the install of the wheel/hub we found that we cannot use the clock spring as it interferes with the hub itself. So, out goes the clock spring. Hub and wheel installed. Also a POV view of the dash gauges. We will be making a bracket to hold the stock gauge cluster in view. We will more than likely add some aftermarket gauges for oil temp, engine coolant temp and maybe trans temp.
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Installed...
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POV
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Car as it sits now.
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And our list of things TO DO
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Yes it grew a bit. But we are working to get the car ready for the first autocross event of 2019 on March 16th.
 

kevinatfms

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Install day! New seat, steering wheel/hub and the wheels/tires. Finally lowered onto the ground and looking good. The lowering springs were not enough with all the weight we pulled out of this thing. Once we add the cage back in we will see about lowering it more.
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