Project KP30 « Racer86’s Weblog

Archive for the 'Project KP30' Category

Feb

Project KP30: Strut-Out

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: 1000, Coilovers, GAZ, KP30, Rebuild, Starlet, Struts, Suspension, Toyota

Two crashing tubes of leaky awfulness is pretty much all that is holding up the front of the KP these days; 34 year old internals and no OEM replacements are not conducive to a well damped suspension. Having rebuilt them more times that I’ve dragged the exhaust over a speed hump, I decided action was required.

A couple of emails to Gaz suspension (I’ve ran Gaz stuff on my cars for year s and it’s always been good) and they confirmed they could do what I needed: new internals whilst retaining my top mounts and coilover stuff. Good times.

With Spring only just round the corner (hey, I’m an optimist…) I stripped them off…

…boxed them up and shipped them out.

See you in 2-ish weeks….

Dec

Retro Cars Feature: 3am Touge

By racer86 13 Comments

Categories: Media and Project KP30
Tags: 1000, Feature, KP30, Magazine, retro cars, Starlet, touge, Toyota

Full 7-Page feature and a poster:

Massive thanks to Simon Jackson for the words and Jamie Lipman for the photos!

Just out: Jan 2010 Issue

www.retrocarsmag.com

Dec

Project KP30: Hibernation

By racer86 1 Comment

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: 1000, KP30, Starlet, Toyota, Winter Mode

Roll on Spring…

Oct

Project KP30: Track Car Fitment

By racer86 7 Comments

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: 1000, exhaust, Gaydon, Jaguar, KP30, Landrover, retro cars, Starlet, Toyota, Wheels Day '09

Last Friday was wheels day at work. Basically, they cone off half the car park and everyone brings in their toys for a bit of show and tell. There was also an opportunity to have a few laps of the emissions circuit. Luckily, someone dropped out so I got a place and made some emissions!

Spectator photo: Got track fitment?

Here’s a better pic of the exhaust fitted. I drove it a decent distance for the first time this week since fitting it; it was so loud it made me feel sick. At least now I know it’s loud enough.

Oct

Project KP30: Industrial Estate Racer

By racer86 5 Comments

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: 1000, KP30, Starlet, Toyota, Video, You Tube

Just threw a quick vid together. Yes, it’s pretty poor and I’m clearly not Josh Herron, but you get the idea! Ha Ha…

Oct

Project KP30: Single Box of Doom

By racer86 1 Comment

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: 1000, Bike Can, exhaust, KP30, Starlet, Street Fighter, Toyota

A simple bolt on replacement can was never on the cards. I Only wanted enough silencing to take the harshness out at idle, but still enough noise to rattle windows and upset the neighbours. I picked up this street fighter can, pointed it roughly at the car, then took it to bits. It was fitted with a baffle and the internals were only 1 1/4″ diameter.

Drilled out the rivets and pulled the guts out:

Seriously, look at the state of that! It was promptly removed!

I opened out the end and on the baffle out of an old can I had.

Comparison shot with the new 2″ internals

adapted some of the brackets that came with it and fitted it up

I’ll get some proper pics and a vid up soon. Oh yeah, it’s pretty loud!

Oct

Teaser Pic: Grainy Single Box of Doom

By racer86 2 Comments

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: 1000, back box, enjoy retro car, exhaust, KP30, Toyota

Just picked up the new silencer for the KP tonight. I say silencer in the loosest possible terms; it’s straight through, no baffels and about the size of a coke can.

Did you hear me coming? You will now…

Sep

Project KP30: Loud Pipes Save Lives

By racer86 3 Comments

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: exhaust, KP30, open headers, Starlet, toyots

I’ve been messing with the back box on the KP and am seriously on the lookout for a new one. The up-sweep looks OK, but it burns soot all up the back of the car; not cool.

I had some pipe knocking about so welded on an old bike can down sweep and ran this set up exiting under the car!

Yep, no silencers, boxes or so much as a bung. This is as close to open headers as I can go without, erm, running open headers!

It sounds pretty horrible at low revs, just moving the car and stuff, but on over-run and between 4 and 7000rpm it sounds amazing!

This has lead me to the conclusion that if I do get a new silencer, It doesn’t need to be very big!

Aug

Car Park Shooting

By racer86 5 Comments

Categories: Project KP30
Tags: 1000, KP30, Starlet, Toyota

I headed out the other day to snap a quick pic for my latest RC Mag Voice mail column. After a bit of a drive round I ended up at a local multi-storey car park. I got the snap I needed and took a couple of extras too. They are pretty lame as I had no tripod and security were on me.