2002 Hyundai Elantra - Champ Car Build/Story

kevinatfms

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Oooo, if i have some free time I'd like to come down and watch! I could help crew if you needed/wanted.
You can watch but i need to know if you want to crew as you need to have a champ car membership plus be signed up through the registration site before the race.

Watching from the paddock or trackside building is free from what ive been told and doesnt require prior registration you just cannot come into the pits.
 

kevinatfms

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More progress on the Champ Car this past weekend. Cleaned alot of the faded or ripped stickers off it. Looks much cleaner.

Also, car is sitting on 215's now versus the old 205's. Alot more tire for a car this light.
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kevinatfms

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15 hours on track, 880+ track miles, 2nd place finish both days and a 28/52 and 21/52 overall placement. Car did excellent.

Sitting in our garage space fixing a few things after tech inspection.
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On pit road. This is start of day 2 around 10 minutes before the start of the 7 hour race.
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Pit stop / Driver change. That is me in the car.
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Getting ready for my stint in the car.
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Coming into the pit after the checker flag. Car did great both days and we are all itching for more next year.
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Car in the garage after day 2. 15 hours on track, 880+ track miles and zero major failures. It finished which is what we all wanted. Couldnt have asked for a better team and car.
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kevinatfms

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One of the wheels that was destroyed on an off track excursion....shoved the sway bar end link into the back of the wheel/tire. Ground it down to the bead.
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CobraBob

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Very impressive, Kevin. The Hyundai transformed nicely under your direction. Congratulations on the great track results. The best is yet to come, sir. Looking forward to what your team does next year.
 

kevinatfms

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Very impressive, Kevin. The Hyundai transformed nicely under your direction. Congratulations on the great track results. The best is yet to come, sir. Looking forward to what your team does next year.
Thank you. We are already looking into 2 races next year. Everyone is back on board for the next one.

Changes to the car are going to be big. We found huge issues with the coilovers on the car which we want to eliminate. That was the biggest problem the whole weekend.
 

kevinatfms

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Started making some changes. We swapped back to standard struts and springs to reduce the chance of the camber slipping due to the slotted coilovers. We battled them slipping every day at the last event. Cost us alot of time and laps.

So, KYB AGX front dampers/KYB GR-2 rear dampers, H&R Sport springs - 1 coil cut front/2 coils cut rear with refreshed rear sway bar end links.

Spring rate dropped from the coilovers to the springs. Even with coils cut we will have a pretty good rate to start. Some body roll might help plant the front tires a bit better. Still contemplating camber bolts up front over drilling the top mounts farther inward on the tower.

Also cut out more useless metal. Hood has been mostly gutted and rear doors have had all extra material removed.

Started procuring new tires to replace the two sets we burned up/destroyed. Instead of going to 215's we are going back to 205's but this time 205/50R16's. Went cheap on the 200tw tires and will try out some Accelera Sport 651's. For $432 a set shipped they are a steal. They are a bit taller than the last set 23.6" to a 24" tire so gearing should be a little longer.

Also changed up the intake a bit. Open filter was nice but i went and picked up a Spectre intake box which we will plumb with a hose to feed it from the front of the car. Hope to pair this with the ported throttle body and intake manifold.

Finally, a new Vibrant muffler was purchased for a new exhaust system which is forthcoming. Going with 2.25" from the exhaust manifold back to the new muffler. Should open up the exhaust sound while not being ridiculously loud.
 

Crimson2v

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6 currently. 5 drivers and 1 crew member. Hopefully that crew member will accept our invite to drive in the March 12 hour race.
Is that number required for the race or to help break the cost of the fees associated with it? I was wanting to turn my camry into a chump car or lemons car one year.
 

kevinatfms

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Is that number required for the race or to help break the cost of the fees associated with it? I was wanting to turn my camry into a chump car or lemons car one year.
Maximum time per stint is 2 hours. Minimum time between stints is 1 hour. Minimum driver count for VIR was 2.

Technically you could do a 2 driver team but i cannot fathom doing everything associated with it - fueling, breakages, timing and communications. Just too much to do. Most teams we raced against were anywhere from 4-8 drivers.

We did 5 to reduce costs in the end. Its much more affordable as the driver count goes up and you still get 2+ hours of track time. We split costs for: 1 set of tires, fuel, entry cost, garage space and food/drinks.

For the next race in March the entry fee gets cheaper but i will add two sets of tires and another set of brake pads to the cost list.
 

kevinatfms

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Found that Lancer Evolution wheel studs work in our hubs. Purchased a set of studs for a new set of hubs from Rock Auto. Also went with Muteki SR48 open ended lug nuts.

Everyone complained that the original studs and nuts were a royal pain to thread during the race. Easy solution and these ARP studs should last a significantly longer time than the OE studs.
 

CobraBob

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Kevin, your progress and evolution is really noteworthy. When this thread started, I kind of saw your goal as just wanting to have a bit of fun racing a low budget junker. But that Elantra has evolved nicely and it a true racer. And your team development has been awesome as well. Hope you do nicely next year and that you all have some fun in the process.

Keep us posted, of course.
 

CobraBob

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Yeah, that is definitely a great photo. How did you do in that 2nd race?
 

kevinatfms

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Yeah, that is definitely a great photo. How did you do in that 2nd race?
2nd in class also. Car had some serious alignment issues both days which held us back on two occasions for more than a half hour trying to get it back to where it would be drivable.

If we didnt have the two big alignment issues we wouldnt have gone through 2 sets of Azenis and would have been higher up on laps.

With that, the car was far more reliable than most in our class. Out of 5 cars in Class B, only 3 finished both days. One left with a blown engine on the first day and the second one blew up mid way through Day 2.
 

kevinatfms

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Some videos of the VIR 8+7 races in car with me and others.


Here is video from the Garmin Catalyst unit that we had in the car.

 

kevinatfms

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Car has had a few updates since the last race from lessons learned.

We changed the suspension setup due to the Ksport coilovers slipping camber nearly every single driver change. The slotted lower cups were a disaster as far as tire wear, camber setup and overall grip. We removed the coilovers and went back to a strut/spring combo of KYB AGX front struts/GR-2 rear struts with H&R springs which have 1 coil cut up front and 2 coils cut in rear. We installed Whiteline camber bolts up front to ensure we had some camber built in. I tacked them into place once set at full negative camber(-1.75). Its not the best but they wont move like the coilovers.

Current ride height is a bit over 24" front and 24.5" rear. This is around half an inch higher than the coilovers.
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With that, we replaced the worn out lower front control arms. Bushings were completely shot. New control arms are updated units with solid bushings by Moog.
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We also replaced the tie rods - inner and outer - on both sides as there was a bit of play in them.
 

kevinatfms

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We also have replaced all the tires with a taller tire. Photo below showing the 3 sizes we have used to date:

215/45R16 Azenis 615K+, 205/45R16 RS-Pro and the new 205/50R16 Sport 651.
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We also replaced the full exhaust system with a 2.25" exhaust with Vibrant muffler out back. This removed the original 26" resonator and secondary catalyst.
A small bumper cut was required to clear the muffler tip and exhaust some of the air from under the car.
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We also have added new Phillips halogen headlight bulbs which are stated to be 130% brighter than factory, tinted the headlights yellow, added LED lighting to the hood and added a little color to the hood surface.
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I also threw some LED bulbs into the instrument cluster. The original halogen cluster bulbs were not very bright. The new ones illuminate the cluster significantly more than before and will be easier to see during the evening portion of the 12 hour race.

Tach has the new LED bulbs while the speedometer has the old bulbs. Massive difference.
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With all bulbs replaced. Huge lighting difference.
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