markrolston@mac.com

It has been a very slow fall. I started a new company and that's eating all my time. Nevertheless, there is some progress to report. The car is getting seriously close to finish. I am tentatively going to drive it in a race on December 13th. At least that's the deadline I gave myself. It would not be painted in time but at least mechanically race-ready. Here are some recent pics of progress: intake piping for the turbos aluminum tray under the motor for aero and protection of transmission heat shields for the turbos firewall heat shielding

After a long silence I have an update to share. In January I started a new business, argodesign, and that has consumed much of my time so this project has been going very slowly. On top of that, Andris has been swamped with his race team. But he's about to finish a few key things in the next 2 weeks and I'm going to take the car to get tuned and then start the last phase of fit and finish. pictured is the custom alternator and brackets it took to fit within the tight working space. Also, when it was up on the lift I managed to take a good set of pics of the underside of the car. There are still a few spots where we have yet to add aero panels, especially the diffuser in the back. I had found a guy to help me with the complex CF work but he didn't work out so now I'm back on my own.

I plan to bring the car to this coming Sunday's Nismo Fiesta (4/27). The car still has a lot of work to go but at least it's finally running. Most of the remaining work is cosmetic and finish.

IT'S ALIVE!!! After 5 years of work, we finally started the car this week. The tune is still rough and we haven't figured out if all of the sensors are sending correctly, but it runs. We should have it tuned (just a basic tune) before Nismo Fiesta at the end of April. Woo Hoo!

wiring takes forever.

Another progress report on the wiring. And if you look closely you can see the wiring for the smoke screen. soon the rocket boosters will go in.

wiring! it's coming along. The 'hope' is that we can start it next week (fingers crossed)

good eye. I've been working with Andris Laivins on the car since the beginning.

We have some progress to show on the rear diffuser. I showed the original wood mold a few weeks ago. Well this week we pulled our first part. You have to use your imagination a bit to see the final result. The flared plane at the back will get trimmed to about 1/8" and glued next to other identical parts to form a five channel diffuser with the exhaust pipes coming out of the center channel. That channel will be cut to allow for the pipes. Also the bottom of each of these channels will be trimmed to within an inch of the area where it flattens out under the suspension arms. That means the whole channel will not be as deep as it appears here. Lastly, the material is still covered in release agent so it'll look much nicer once it's cleaned up and polished.

I'm not sure what uprev will do. I'll visit that when I get to it. Any advice? As for the wheel wells, they will remain aluminum and get spray coated with undercoat on the wheel side and in a few areas like the back hatch bed it will be covered with a few layers of CF for aesthetics and some basic vibration dampening. So basically in the end you will see a mix of all three- Al, Cf, and undercoat.

you have to cover the foam with clay to get a smooth surface for the carbon. The splitter has a balsa wood core. By first z has a plastic sheet base with klegecell over it. After both tries I'd recommend a klegecell core. I love that stuff. basically really stiff light foam.

Here are the final mockups and a start on the wiring loom.

working on the wheel wells right now- lots of tricky angles.

another small muffler build update: added the cutoff valve to the piping. We had to create a remote mount for the motor that actuates the valve. The exit pipe is longer right now than it will be in the end. We left it long unit we're done with the diffuser to make sure they line up nicely.

That's a good question. I had not yet considered what to do. Cooler is better but more plumbing is a pita. I might just rig up a external cooler for the tuning session and see if it makes a difference in the tune. If it does then I'll run permanent lines.

I wish I had more but here's a small bit of progress to show. The mufflers and exhaust exit is tacked into place. Next up is to place the exhaust cutout valves in-between the in and out pipes of the mufflers. Also shown is the beautiful intake manifold sitting on it's own. I'm so glad we took the time and effort to make it but phew! was it a PITA to make.

It's the Tillet B1

The plexiglass window was designed first and foremost to solve the awful Z exhaust smell problem. My RBZ still stinks so bad my wife can tell when I've driven it. Everything else was designed subject to that decision. With that in mind, the open rear deck is a virtue. It looks cool without compromising for function. I can solve for rocks and water.

I have been in Germany (working) for most of the summer so very little happened. But, now that I'm back I have a little progress to share. First, the we ordered 2 custom mufflers and they came in. They have 2.5" inlets and outlets. These will be mounted side-by-side behind the fuel tank with the in/out facing straight down. The exhaust piping from the engine will intersect with these in/out pipes perpendicularly. Inbetween will be a electronically controlled valve. When it's open the exhaust will run straight through, mostly ignoring the mufflers. When the valve is closed the exhaust will be forced to run through the muffler. Also pictured is the early work on the wheel wells and the back deck covering (which has removable panels). It's aluminum now. We will either recreate these as CF pieces or just cover the AL with CF on the topside and paint with underbody-coating on the downside. Either way it's designed to abate noise while being as light as possible. Of course, I could leave it all off or just bare but the design of the car is a compromise between pure-race and street. It still won't weigh more than 2200lbs in the end so I can take a few luxuries in the design. Also, the deck covering is intended to cover areas where wind or water splash needs to be managed but otherwise leave the beautiful rear-suspension exposed. It's a compromise. Right now you can still see the driveshaft, diff, and suspension arms through the open areas.

Thanks. No, just wiring manually. There isn't that much to wire.

Things are going slow but I have a small update. The seats arrived. They look amazing. They forgot to remove the logo from the headrest so they're sending a new cushion but otherwise they are really nice to look at and sit in. Also the shrouding for the IC and radiator is done. Working on the wheel wells, plumbing, and wiring right now.

It's car porn time. No huge progress but I did take the car to Nismo Fiesta on Sunday and showed off the progress. It was a huge pain to haul a non-working car but it was fun to see everyones reaction. I hope to get the car started next week. Here are a few pics.

The valve covers are made of SLS nylon which can handle just over 400 degrees. A company called Solid Concepts did the printing.

April Update: Valve covers are printed. Wow. First 3D printed part. So cool. Planning to paint them red crackle texture- like a Ferrari intake. cooling shrouding is done. Front engine cover is blasted and clear coated. Now working on gauges. Windshield is on it's way. Hoping to get the engine started by Nismo Fiesta.

I have one. in Austin. north enough?