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by Maxime Rieman on November 5, 2014 | posted in Life Insurance coverage
Far more than 95% of American households give to charity. Some do it in the form of time—volunteering on the weekends, for instance—while others do it by donating money or other products of value. For folks seeking to maximize their charitable donations, whole life insurance policies supply yet yet another way to spend it forward.
According to the 2012 Bank of America Study of Higher Net Worth Philanthropy, 62% of people donate to charity due to the fact they want to give back to the neighborhood, and 32% cite tax positive aspects as their major motivation. Utilizing a entire life insurance coverage policy for charitable giving permits policyholders to satisfy each of these desires although offering an alternative to basically cashing out a policy —for instance, because your young children are now grown and wouldn’t need to be offered for in the event of your death.
There are different approaches to assist a charity employing your life insurance policy.
Charity as beneficiary
You can name the charity as a beneficiary, permitting them to reap all or a portion of your death benefit when you die. Simply because you preserve ownership of the policy, you can adjust your mind at a later date, deciding on a diverse beneficiary if your situation or preferences modify. Although this does let an estate tax deduction, it does not have several short-term benefits.
Transferring policy ownership to charity
Transferring ownership of the policy to your charity will provide the very best short-term tax rewards by way of an earnings tax deduction.
By donating your life insurance policy, you are usually able to deduct the fair market place worth of the policy from your revenue tax liability. This could equate to tens of thousands of dollars, based on your policy specifics. But this isn’t the only revenue tax advantage of policy donation.
If you choose to transfer ownership of your whole life policy to charity, the charity becomes each the policyholder and the beneficiary. They can money the policy in or maintain it for the remainder of your life. Normally, if they opt to keep the policy, you will continue to pay premiums as you had prior to. These premiums are now tax-deductible, nevertheless, unlike when you were the policyholder. This signifies in addition to deducting the fair market value of your policy, you can deduct the premiums you pay each and every year.
Of course, there are limitations on signing over your policy. If the “basis” of your policy is significantly less than fair industry worth, the basis quantity is the quantity you will be allowed to deduct. The basis is the total amount of premiums you’ve paid on the policy, minus any withdrawals or payments you have received, up till the donation. Your insurance organization can decide what your deduction would be ask just before you make a final selection.
For numerous, donating a entire life insurance coverage policy permits them to give much more than they would be able to if they were donating money. If the life insurance coverage policy is no longer needed or the tax positive aspects are seen as a priority, it is a charitable act that gives multiple advantages.
The automotive planet and beyond is buzzing about the huge airbag recall covering numerous millions of vehicles in the U.S. from practically 2 dozen brands. Here’s what you need to know about the problem which automobiles could have the defective, shrapnel-shooting inflator parts from Japanese supplier Takata and what to do if your vehicle is 1 of them.
* SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR Full LIST OF Affected Automobiles *
The situation requires defective inflator and propellent devices that might deploy improperly in the occasion of a crash, shooting metal fragments into vehicle occupants. A lot more than 7 million cars are potentially impacted in the United States.
Initially, only 6 makes were involved when Takata announced the fault in April 2013, but a Toyota recall in June this year—along with new admissions from Takata that it had little clue as to which automobiles employed its defective inflators, or even what the root trigger was—prompted more automakers to problem identical recalls. In July, NHTSA forced added regional recalls in high-humidity regions including Florida, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to collect removed parts and send them to Takata for review.
Another main recall issued on October 20 expanded the impacted vehicles across many brands. For its component, Toyota mentioned it would begin to replace defective passenger-side inflators starting October 25 if parts are unavailable, nevertheless, it has advised its dealers to disable the airbags and affix “Do Not Sit Here” messages to the dashboard.
Whilst Toyota says there have been no related injuries or deaths involving its autos, a New York Times report in September found a total of at least 139 reported injuries across all automakers. In specific, there have been at least 2 deaths and 30 injuries in Honda cars. According to the Occasions, Honda and Takata allegedly have recognized about the faulty inflators given that 2004 but failed to notify NHTSA in prior recall filings (which started in 2008) that the impacted airbags had really ruptured or were linked to injuries and deaths.
Takata initial mentioned that propellant chemical substances had been mishandled and improperly stored for the duration of assembly, which supposedly caused the metal airbag inflators to burst open due to excessive stress inside. In July, the organization blamed humid weather and spurred additional recalls.
According to documents reviewed by Reuters, Takata says that rust, negative welds, and even chewing gum dropped into at least a single inflator are also at fault. The identical documents show that in 2002, Takata’s plant in Mexico allowed a defect price that was “6 to 8 occasions above” acceptable limits, or roughly 60 to 80 defective parts for each 1 million airbag inflators shipped. The company’s study has however to attain a final conclusion and report the findings to NHTSA.
UPDATE 11/7:The New York Instances has published a report suggesting that Takata knew about the airbag problems in 2004, conducting secret tests off work hours to verify the difficulty. The results confirmed main problems with the inflators, and engineers quickly began researching a answer. But instead of notifying federal security regulators and moving forward with fixes, Takata executives ordered its engineers to destroy the information and dispose of the physical proof. This occurred a full 4 years ahead of Takata publicly acknowledged the issue. Needless to say, the supplier has a lot of explaining to do.
AFFECTED Cars (total quantity if known in parentheses):
Acura: 2002–2003 CL and TL 2003–2006 MDX 2005 RL
BMW (627,615): 2000–2005 3-series sedan and wagon 2000–2006 3-series coupe and convertible 2001–2006 M3 coupe and convertible
Chrysler (371,309, like Dodge): 2005–2008 Chrysler 300 2007–2008 Aspen
Dodge/Ram (371,309, including Chrysler): 2003–2008 Dodge Ram 1500 2005–2008 Ram 2500, Dakota, and Durango 2006–2008 Ram 3500 and 4500 2008 Ram 5500
Ford (58,669): 2004 Ranger 2005–2006 GT 2005–2007 Mustang
Honda (5,051,364, including Acura): 2001–2007 Accord 2001–2005 Civic 2002–2006 CR-V 2002–2004 Odyssey 2003–2011 Element 2003–2007 Pilot 2006 Ridgeline
Toyota (877,000, like Lexus and Pontiac Vibe): 2002–2005 Toyota Corolla and Sequoia 2003–2005 Matrix, Tundra
We will update this list as quickly as new information is offered, but you can access NHTSA’s ownoperating tally of affected vehicles here. For further details about your specific vehicle, go to the manufacturer’s customer site or use NHTSA’s VIN-lookup tool.
This story was originally published on October 21, 2014. It has subsequently been updated to reflect the newest findings and official list of impacted vehicles.
The main purpose of whole life insurance is to provide for loved ones when you die, but it can also deliver a host of investment and savings benefits.
Whole life policies cover you throughout your lifetime, unlike term policies, which only cover you for a specific amount of time. Each time you pay premiums, the guaranteed cash value within the policy grows on a tax-deferred basis. The cash can be withdrawn if you need to pay for big life expenses.
Costs of whole life insurance vs. term life insurance
Although a whole life insurance policy can cost up to 4 times as much as a term policy, it offers long-term financial benefits term policies can’t. Because term life insurance policies are not permanent, the death benefits expire at the end of the predetermined term. You can often renew the policy, but at a higher premium. Also, unless you have level premium term life insurance, term life insurance may be more inexpensive at the outset, but premiums can increase after a certain amount of time.
Financial benefits of whole life insurance
Whole life insurance is permanent, meaning as long as you pay the fixed premium regularly, your designated beneficiary will receive your death benefit. These funds should be sufficient to cover funeral and burial costs, as well as support the beneficiary for some time in the event of your unexpected death.
Premium rates are determined by your age and health; the younger and healthier you are, the more favorable policy terms will be.
Dividends
Whole life insurance doesn’t only deliver benefits when you die. Owners of a “participating policy” typically receive dividends, which are paid out annually over the whole life of the policy. Policies that are considered “non-participating” won’t pay out dividends.
Tax-free loans
Because a portion of your premium goes into a cash-value account, you can typically access the money in this reserve through a cash payment or by taking a policy loan. Withdrawing from the cash reserve does not mean ending the policy. You may choose a cash reserve that accrues in addition to the death benefit or a cash reserve that becomes the death benefit. In the first few years of owning a policy, its cash value will usually be lower than the face amount. You also may have to wait up to 3 years before accessing money for a loan.
When borrowing from the whole life policy, the cash value of a policy is used as collateral and a pre-determined interest rate will be charged, but the loan won’t be taxed. Typically these loans have low interest rates. If you choose not to repay the loan, the loan amount would be subtracted from the death benefit. These loans can be used for pursuits such as paying off a mortgage, as capital for a small business, or for college tuition. Upon the death of the insured or the surrender of a policy, any outstanding loan amount will be deducted from the death benefit or from the cash value if cash was withdrawn.
Paying for estate taxes
You can also use a whole life insurance policy to set up a trust that will provide funds to pay estate taxes. These funds, much like a loan, are usually not taxed because the IRS generally does not consider death benefits to be taxable income.
Other investment benefits
A whole life insurance policy is overall a stable investment. The cash value is guaranteed by the insurance company and, unlike a traditional investment, is not subject to the ebbs and flows of the stock market. Because this kind of savings account growth is tax-deferred, funds will accumulate faster with a whole life insurance policy than with investments that are taxed annually.
So you’ve bought an old ASCAR on a whim, and it’s sitting next to an old tired Toyota AE86 Corolla that doesn’t run right. What do you do? Well, when you first suggest the idea that you will be melding the 2 into one, there are ‘some’ concerns from the worlds Hachi Roku fans. But as the build progresses, and the vision of Drif2rks company directors Phil Morrison and James Robinson starts to become reality, it quickly becomes one of the most popular drift car builds the world has seen.
So what is the goal of this build?
To create a unique and competitive drift car that allows the use of big tyres and a big NA engine, but is at the same time respectful to the original AE86 styling.
This is not the worlds highest budget drift build. We have recycled as much of the ASCAR as possible, and used our knowledge of building our past competition cars to hopefully keep this as simple as possible.
Below is a timeline / summary of the media surrounding the build of the car. There’s plenty of pictures and videos, and this page will be kept up to date with all future media, so please check back!. NOW LETS GET CRACKING!
A quick look over some of the ASCAR components as we take it apart: It’s an awesome bit of kit with it’s frock removed. LS1 engine, dry sump, Jericho dog box, Winters drop gear axle, AP brakes and some trick suspension parts.
For our international followers, and those too young to remember: An ASCAR is a low spec NASCAR built for the UK. It runs a very basic LS1 engine. The cars were built in the US by Howe Racing for a series held at the UK’s brand new (at the time) Rockingham Raceway. Aside from the engines they share a great deal of components with a real NASCAR. So as a donor car for an old live axle Toyota it ‘could’ work very well! Before we stripped it, we had to have a little blast in it.
Prepping the shell
The Corolla was stripped, and, Dynotorque, who are doing the vast majority of the build for us threw an LS block in to see exactly how much work we were looking at to get it in the hole.
Here’s a quick picture of the original 86 axle verses the Winters drop gear axle. There is a considerable size difference! It might be a tight fit.
The cutting out, and strengthening was started on the 86 shell. Phil had already had a lot of the car welded before it was ever intended for this project, but none of us anticipated how much prep and welding would have to go into this shell to make it structurally sound enough to handle the power and grip we intended to throw at it.
We mocked up the front suspension. The car uses Drif2rks CS2 Nissan S13 coilovers / Geomaster hub knuckles / Drif2rks lower arms / tension rods, all mounted simply using a modified original AE86 crossmember with an S14 steering rack fitted and some AE86 CS2 coilover top mounts. Then Craig set about clearance for the front tubs. We loved posting this picture on FB as people thought we were grinding into the actual block. In fact it is a cracked block Dynotorque use for mocking up LS conversions. I think that our AE86 is the 31st car that Dynotorque have converted to LS power!
Some slight clearance needed for the Jerico gearbox and prop.
New tunnel going in.
The car went on the spit so we could stitch / seam weld the underneath.
After many ear bleeding and lung filling days of grinding and welding it’s starting to look quite strong!
Nickson Motorsport take over for a beautiful T45 cage build and some further chassis reinforcement… One of the major criteria for Phil Morrison who will be driving the car, is that it’s safe. Which means a lot of metal has to go into a 30 year old shell. Yes you heard right. We’re not tearing every bit of metal out of this car to make it as light as possible, we’re adding a shitload in to make it strong and safe…. Luckily Nickson’s work is second to none, and he listened carefully, and delivered on this point. Nickson’s website is here Nickson Motorsport
The Throttle Bodies
The Jenvey Throttle Bodies arrived! We actually won’t end up using the carbon airboxes as it would need a huge bonnet extension which would suck!.
Here we’re looking at the rear tubs, so machine out the centre of some of our Rota MXR wheels normally used on the DW R32 to test it all.
And the other side, along with a new floor and mounts for the tank.
After getting ripped off by American Company: Thunder Racing for £3,000 of parts for the LS1, we decided to cut our losses and invest in a brand new crate LS3. Here it is with the dry sump and clutch fitted.
The engine sitting on its mounts ready for header fabrication
Here you get a small idea of the work that was involved in getting the engine low enough with the oil pan, whilst clearing the S14 steering rack that is custom fabricated to fit the AE86 crossmember.
The Winters rear axle came off the Nascar with 3.5* negative camber on one side, and 3* positive on the other (as it was designed to go round in circles). We really wanted to run it with -0.5 negative to have a good compromise between drift and track setup, which meant ordering and replacing the outer tubes on the axle. First they go into the freezer for a night to shrink the metal.
Then into the press! Or if your press isn’t big enough, use a 4 post ramp with your mate’s really sweet Camero on it!
Here it’s reassembled
And back in the car with it’s custom dropped brackets laser cut from stainless. These amongst other parts are made to help give as much traction as possible!
You can also see how huge the wheel wells are in this shot.
Some of the pipework is now going in along with the dry sump tank. You can also see one of our Drif2rks hydraulic handbrake handles!
We want to use the ASCAR AP brakes, but as we’re using Nissan 5 stud front hubs we had to make some new bells and brake bracket adapters.
Thanks to Rota Wheels for lending us some wheels to check clearances and offsets, We are one of the biggest Rota wheels dealers in Europe, and have a great working relationship with the guys.
Huge thanks to Samco for supplying all silicone hoses for the project.
We got the car on it’s feet and on the scales. It’s still got a load of parts and weight to go in, but it’s a promising first figure of 946kg in it’s current state. At this point we estimate a full weight of 1100-1200kg
Craig made the shroud for the rear Drif2rks SuperCool radiator using recycled interior panels from the ASCAR. This shit’s more environmentally friendly than a Prius!
James got stuck in to routing the rear perspex screen.
Craig then set about making the exhaust
The whole system has perfect ground clearance, and we used a couple of decent quality low profile Magnaflow boxes to take the edge off the inevitable volume.
Here’s Craig Taylor, the man himself from Dynotorque showing you that perfect ground clearance on the exhaust.
First fire up
We started the car for the first time – It’s on a generic map so won’t run properly yet..
And here’s the first time Phil ever drove it. Just onto the trailer on its way to Protuner – Still without a map so almost impossible to drive.
And here’s a quick cameo from Greg at Protuner, running the new engine in on the dyno.
Unfortunately then we got some not so great news: The second time we went to the dyno after changing the oil. The car was partially mapped, and it made 560bhp, which is very good for the spec. However it developed a small rattle. On investigation all of the shells are worn, and one of them had deformed slightly. Everything was spot on with the car with new oil and great pressure. The issue appears to be that the dry sump system is aerating the oil. So we are replacing the shells and invested in one of these.
The Arches
Magic Aero were the company we tasked with the aero on this car. You can check them out here: MAGIC AERO FB PAGE
Phil is incredibly particular about how a drift car should look, and lots of the many weeks of work done to the shell, were done to ensure that it could ride super low despite the 18″ / 17″ wheel setup. Paul from Magic Aero and Phil had many discussions, and it was agreed that they both had the same thing in mind, so Paul came to stay in Birmingham for 6 days for the original stage of the design process.
Expanding foam is poured into makeshift cardboard boxes to give a block ready to model.
When we first posted this picture, some people thought that this would in some way reflect what the arch would look like….
Many days of pouring and sculpting later, Paul and Phil had settled on the arch design, and are very happy with the overall look, which ticks the most important box of all: To be truly respectful to the original 86, despite the MASSIVE wheels…. “Hey everybody! Come and see how good I look!”
At that point Magic Aero pull the whole foam plug off the car, and take it away to make the first set of moulds. There are 3 stages to the moulding, then re-sculpting and moulding process before we will receive a finished product. Even at this early point Magic Aero have put around 60 hours work into the car.
So now the car has essentially been 95% built, and kind of driven. So it can finally be broken down for stripping and paint. So back to Dynotorque it goes:
And it was delivered to Soda-Blast-Systems UK to take care of removing all the remaining paint and mess from all of the welding. They are a Midlands based company, and you can check them out here: SODABLASTINGLTD
After blasting – How much better does it make all the fabrication look!
Because of the weather and a lack of an enclosed trailer to get the shell back to Drif2rks, we had the Soda-Blast guys prime the car too. They did an awesome job.
And the car was brought back to Drif2rks, where Phil would take on the unpleasant job of a few days of structural foam reinforcement and under sealing.
And Paul from Magic Aero’s back with the first set of moulds and overfenders
They still need a lot of work at this point.
The wheels arrived from CCW in the States! They are 17×9 ET-15 5×114.3 front, and the rears are 18×10.5 ET-15 5×5″. We received them unfinished as at this stage we were on an extremely tight deadline to get the car ready to show at Autosport international on the British Drift Championship stand.
The wheels would be powdercoated Satin black centre and gloss black outers. Sacrilege to some to paint a polished lip! But all part of the bigger picture of making this car look right. Phil felt making the wheels black would balance out the fact that they are effectively way too big for a car of this size.
We’ve obviously been contaminated by all these parts from the US that we’re using in the build, as we thought it’d be a good idea to change our rig for the 2014 season to a jacked F250 XLT SuperDuty and Pace trailer.
Time for paint
We had dropped off the shell at a local painter, who we have used for years. Collecting it was supposed to be one of the major high points in the build, as finally all the hard work that Dynotorque and Nickson put into the shell prep would be shown with it’s shiny covering of bright orange paint.
Unfortunately that is not what we saw when we arrived. The paintshop had possibly done the worst job possible to the most important car we have ever asked them to paint. See-through thin paint over the entire car. It looks more like brown than orange it was that thin. There were areas missing paint completely. It was an overall completely half arsed terrible rushed job.
After 12 months of more work / stress / cost than most people could have ever imagined, we literally could have cried. The worst bit was that he wouldn’t even admit it was a terrible job. His words “no, that’s the best that any painter could do. I won’t re-do it”. The car was promptly removed, and we set about finding someone to sort out this complete mess, as we were now put back massively on a ridiculously tight deadline to get this car assembled and to Autosport.
Our buddy Paul Jackson came to the rescue. He only normally does small smart repairs, and his ‘booth’ was our dusty freezing cold second unit at Drif2rks. We painted until the middle of the night, and pushed the car into our new Pace race transporter with a gas heater in there to cure the paint. It came out AWESOME! We can’t thank Paul enough for stepping up under such difficult circumstances.
After a night curing the paint, we got the car back into Dynotorque to start assembly (very gently).
Craig worked his ass off, and things started to go back together very quickly.
The Oil Aeration in the dry sump system had done more damage to the crank than we’d originally thought. So we decided to pull it apart properly and fit some new parts. It’s still a relatively simple spec of a standard balanced crank and rod setup, just with some forged pistons, a lairy cam, valve springs, pushrods and roller rockers.
The damage to the old crank.
And the new forged pistons going into the block. The crank, rods and pistons were all balanced in the states for us by a company called Nook and Tranny who are great to deal with.
At this point Phil started work on the fibreglass doors and the bootlid. They were ‘rally spec’ parts, and quite honestly we’d never seen fibreglass with such a bad finish before.
The TRD spoiler was glassed to the bootlid and Phil set about making it look like it was meant to be there.
I think this photo was taken about 2 days into the relentless sand/fill/sand/fill process. The patience was wearing thin.
All coming together
Meanwhile, the awesome Cobra Sebring Pro seats turned up. Huge thanks to Cobra for getting them sorted!
And local Alloy Wheel refurb specialists Speedwell Tyres are doing an awesome job on the wheels. They also did a great job of all of the general powdercoating on the car, like the crossmember, panhard rod, hinges etc. Check them out here: SPEEDWELLS
And to mount the rear wheels we had some custom wheel studs made that convert the ASCAR Winters rear axle to an M12x1.5 stud. Keeping the NASCAR style quick start dome heads that theoretically eliminate the chance of cross threading during our ever so frequent wheel changes.
We’d had Paul Jackson and another buddy, Twin, come in to finish the prep and paint on the doors and bootlid which came out very well again, especially considering our unideal paint booth (the toilet in our other unit).
Once again our temporary ‘drying booth’ came in handy.
They were fitted, and Phil and James spent an age drilling and mounting the NACA ducts in the bootlid to vent air into the front of the radiator.
Speedwells finished painting and assembling the new wheels!
The engine was back in, using some Pipercross filters on the Jenvey Throttle Bodies.
Phil had a go at the bonnet, and quickly gave up… Damn massive engine!
Off to the Dyno
So it was loaded up to go back over to Protuner. The stupid tall rear tyres fitted here are our dyno tyres. They are 275/40/18 and give us the ground clearance needed to keep the rear lower arms off the rollers.
It had a long running in session, then an oil change for some Motul 300v
Then a quick map. At this stage only taking it to 6900rpm. It made about 585bhp again, and 610ft/lb torque. After there’s a few more miles on the engine we’ll be revving to about 7400rpm, which will really bring the massively peaky cam into play.
A little throttle blip after a pull
Meanwhile, ‘oop north’, Magic Aero was busy making the second version set of plugs
And the moulds
Testing with smoke
Craig wasn’t looking forward to this job. The rear firewall between Driver and the hot radiator / oil tank etc. It’s made from thin aluminium shaped around the back of the seat (which sits through the main hoop of the cage)
It was then flocked by Speedwells, and although it’s difficult to see, there’s 3 pieces of perspex fitted and sealed around the cage at the top. You can’t see much in the mirror as the NACA ducts in the rear screen warp everything, but it was done so we didn’t make the cabin claustrophobic.
Here you can also see the extended steering wheel boss made that’s mounted to the Drif2rks Nardi steering wheel. The clear pipe is a filtered cold air feed that goes into the top of the drivers helmet.
We had a little smoke test to see where the leaks are that need filling.
One of the small things that bugged us that you can see in the 2 pictures above is the lack of black trim around the front side windows, so they were removed, some lines masked and painted in a satin to match the trim colour of the rear side windows. A set of carbon mirrors were fitted as well.
Magic Aero came back to Drif2rks to check the fit on the version 2 overfenders. These are still not the final items, they are just to get us to the Autosport show, but they look incredible!
Paul Jackson again came and painted them for us. Again he had the privilege of using our incredible spray booth: The bathroom in our second unit.
And the bumpers were sprayed black
Ready for Autosport
And the day after, after months of work by lots and lots of people, the car is visually almost complete and ready for Autosport.
Off to Autosport it goes:
So we made it to the Autosport show, and the car went down very well with our friends. But it is being used competitively this year, and as we all know, new builds have their teething problems and bugs to be worked out. So again we push to complete the mechanicals and electrics so we can actually test the car.
We weigh the car with half a tank of fuel, (we haven’t set the corner weights yet) and we’re very happy with the results. We always knew it was going to be quite a heavy car, so 1193kg is okay, but the balance is what matters, and a perfect 50/50 weight distribution should make this perform incredibly well.
First burnout test
You know what we were just saying about bugs to iron out? Well this was the first burnout test (an essential first test before heading to the track).
The first burnout went okay, the second not so much. We smashed the original ASCAR propshaft UJ which took out the nose of the diff, and a large portion of the exhaust. But heyho, at least we got to do one burnout
Some of the damage. This is what’s left of the bracket which mounts the UJ onto the front of the diff:
This was ‘inconvenient’ not least because we’d just received a parcel from Winters Axles in the US, so had to order again. However they are a great company to deal with and quickly we had everything we needed to repair the front yoke, replace a slightly leaky seal, and at the same time replace the unpredictable detroit locker LSD with a spool (a completely locked diff)
It’s easy to forget how massive this axle is when it’s hidden underneath the car.
All apart, ready to get complicated!
Phil and Craig fitted the ring gear to the spool, then set about shimming it. Doing this is quite tedious on a live axle, and even more so on a massive heavy one. They had to call upon a third man (James) to stabilise the one half while Phil lifted the other half on and off, and Craig did the shims…. Fun!
It came back together nicely though, and was shortly back in the car and mated to a new much stronger propshaft made for us by Dave Mack Propshafts.
Dry sump change
After the rather quick expiry of our first engine in the car, we still had that little question in the back of our heads: “Have we completely solved the issue with our dry sump system?”.
We fitted the Spintric air oil separator which we’re confident has solved that part of the problem, but after speaking with Gary from Armstrong Race Engine Systems for nearly 3 hours while he was over at the Autosport show, he showed us some potential other issues with the Moroso oil pan setup we’d used from the ASCAR, and we decided to eliminate this doubt from our minds and take the plunge by replacing the sump, pump and a few other components.
The new ARE dry sump parts are beautifully engineered.. Unfortunately we’re going to have to modify the sump to clear our crossmember as we suspected, but this will be done while bolted to Dynotorque’s dummy block to eliminate the chance of warping while it’s TIG welded.
Craig loves the thought of milling brand new very expensive parts.
While Craig was in the mood for some fabrication, he got onto making a drop mount for one of our tow hooks to come through the original hole in the bumper.
The front was a lot easier and just bolts to the chassis rail.
We’d had some issues getting the coolant to bleed, so we made a huge filling pot for the highest point of the pipework, this obviously is removable, and has worked perfectly.
And Paul from Magic Aero’s back (He can’t stay away!) to make the final plugs and moulds.
We’re giving ourselves a little more clearance on the rear arches, not to have more of a gap between arch and tyre, but so we have the ability to run bigger tyres at a later date if we need to.
Paul’s then done a lot of prep work, and is taking final mould actually on the car, which he will pull and take away to create the final arches in some posh semi flexible material.
Here’s the car as it stands with the gel coat layer of the mould applied. This will be left to go off a little before the fibreglass is applied. Then the lot will be left overnight to cure, and will be removed tomorrow.
The moulds finished and cured:
It takes quite a lot of effort to release them. The plug (completed overfenders) come off with the mould, as Paul has to complete the finer parts of the mould on the bench, like the edges around the lip. This is much easier to do on the bench than upside down while on the car.
Back in Fabricationville (Dynotorque) Craig’s making a mount for the Race Technology Dash2 – This is a great dash. Check them out here: RACETECHNOLOGY
While fitting the dash, Craig’s also wiring the Cartek wireless steering wheel buttons.
Craig wired in the front facing brake light required for the 2014 regs:
Does it drift?
We then managed to get a very last minute first test session in at our local track Birmingham Wheels. The car is brutal! A rear caliper bracket span on the axle so we lost 90% of our braking on the first run, but thought we’d carry on anyway, and managed to do 2 new sets of 285 Federal RSRs to the cords.
Delivery from Mr Magic Aero. The final overfenders! Made in a semi flexible and very strong Kevlar weave. With a nice touch on the back as well!
And we found a new local painter to prep and paint them in a bodyshop instead of the toilet here
. Looking at the quality of the ‘out of the gun’ finish, I think this one’s a keeper!
Craig has had the car next door again for a few days. The new Alcon clutch is in.
And he’s currently working on the optional rear silencers. These will not be used unless absolutely necessary for track DB limits.
And we got our air tank back from testing. It’s now filled with 4,000psi. Lets hope that’s enough to lift our heavy car.
Turns out it is enough pressure! Airjack test video!
Mr Magic Aero’s back in the DW house today! This time to have a look at the bonnet! Phil didn’t want a hole and was worried about a bonnet bulge being too big. There is a plan though! It involves cutting down one of the fuel rails to give much better clearance, and creating a subtle bulge. We’ll see whether it works out!
The plan for the bonnet worked! It was a rushed job so needs refinishing at some point, but Magic Aero did an awesome job! Looking at previous pictures you wouldn’t believe that the massive V8 is underneath there!
Finished article
We got the car back to Birmingham Wheels for the Banzai Magazine photoshoot, which was a lot of fun! Here’s some of Rich’s photos.
With just 5 days before our first round of the season in a brand new car, we finally got to properly test the car. Of course it being a brand new very complicated build, it wasn’t long until we broke it. But that’s already being fixed, and over all the test session was very useful. As this video shows, if it’s possible to learn to tame this wild thang, it might end up being quite competitive.
Warning, it isn’t a great quality video, but the soundtrack makes up for it.
Thanks and Spec List
Thanks to all the people that went the extra mile to help us make this car what it is:
The whole staff at Drif2rks
Paul Jackson and Twin
DW86 Specifications:
Engine:
Chevrolet 6.2L LS3 V8, Balanced crank, rods and Mahle forged pistons, 259/275 .624/.624 Comp camshaft, Comp Cams rocker / trunion upgrade, springs retainers & pushrods, ARP head and rod bolts, Clevite bearings – Spec and Build by Dynotorque.
Jenvey independant throttle body and linkage kit.
A.R.E. Dry sump kit, modified pan by Dynotorque, custom AN12 Aeroquip lines and fittings, A.R.E. Air Oil Seperator
Dynotorqe custom stainless exhaust with Magnaflow low profile boxes, and optional additional Silencers.
ATI underdrive Harmonic Crank Pulley
Samco Silicone hoses throughout.
Dynotorque custom hard pipes for the water.
Engine Mapped by Protuner
Drivetrain:
Quartermaster / Alcon triple plate clutch and super lightweight flywheel
Jerico 4 speed dog box
Winters quick change Nascar axle. 10″ spool diff.
Custom Dave Mack propshaft
Chassis:
By Dynotorque: Stitch and seam welded reinforced chassis, enlarged front and rear wheel tubs, fabricated transmission tunnel, engine & gearbox mounts, Panhard mount, Airjack mounts, rear upper suspension mount, all custom brackets and fittings. Rear bulkhead. Towing eyes. Petrol Tank cage.
By Nickson Motorsport: T45 roll cage, Nascar style doorbars, additional turret reinforcement and lower Apillar leg protection, seat and harness mounts.
Blasted and primed by Soda-Blast-Systems UK ltd.
Aero:
Magic Aero Drif2rks edition wide arch front and rear kevlar overfenders
Magic Aero custom fibreglass bonnet.
Fibreglass doors
Fibreglass bootlid with TRD spoiler
Bodywork, foam strengthening and paint by Paul Jackson, Phil and Twin.
Powdercoating by Speedwell alloys.
Suspension:
Dynotorque modified front crossmember for Nissan S14 steering rack
Howe Racing rear 4 link alignment arms with adjustable pan.
Dynotorque lower dropped links.
Brakes:
NASCAR AP Racing 6pot front, 4pot rear. Custom front bells.
Wilwood pedal box
Wheels:
CCW Classic – Custom finish by Speedwell alloys
17 x 9 ET -15
18 x 10.5 ET -15
Custom wheel studs.
Electrics:
Complete custom car body loom by Dynotorque
Emerald ECU. Loom by Dynotorque.
Race Technologies Dash2 dashboard
Cartek wireless steering wheel controls
Interior and Safety:
Custom steering wheel spacer.
Dynotorque fabricated dash mount.
Driftshack Stiggy flocked dashboard
Cartek electronic battery cut off
Filtered air pump to feed air to drivers helmet.
Modified standard heater matrix /screen demist.
Dynotorque fabricated rear firewall made from alloy and perspex.
Weight:
1193kg with 50/50 weight distribution.
Power:
585bhp and 610ft/lbs torque (first map before the revs are raised)
Written by Phil – Drif2rks Posted on March 26, 2014. Filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Written by Phil – Drif2rks Posted on March 26, 2014. Filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry