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1987 TURBO ESPRIT, $200K INVESTED

34K views 43 replies 21 participants last post by  MRDANGERUS 
#1 · (Edited)
My friend stopped collecting receipts at $145K back in mid nineties.
After that, it came Quaife 6sp sequential (total junk), a few different clutches, the AP Brakes, center lock wheel conversion, Sparco CF seats, RBT ZF 25DS-2 5-speed manual transaxle (16,000) with BMW M1 CWP+LSD and shafts, new interior ($7,000), minor paint work ($3,500), the upgraded charge cooler and radiators, two more steering wheels (Sparco - pretty, great grip but too small and another Momo which is the right size but lacks all of the qualities of the Sparco), new ID 1000 injectors, etc. etc.
Power is in the 450+HP range, maybe 475 but it's limited by the GT3071R turbo.

In 1996, fitted Sport 300 intake valves and the ID of the intake seats were opened up to take advantage of the larger valve area. The seats were ground to 3 angles.

When the motor was first built with old T3/T4 hybrid turbo, factory chargecooler and OEM wastegate the motor produced 415hp and 368 ft-lbs on Hasselgren racing engines dyno at roughly 18psi of boost running through the stock cat, but no pre-cat.

Since then many improvements have been made. Mapping refinements, a knock retard system, an electric charge cooler pump, higher fuel pressure, a GT3071R turbo, a Random Technologies metal matrix race cat, a Tial wastegate and it now runs 22 psi. It now also has an Aquamist water injection system running a 50/50 mix of methanol and distilled water, injecting 500cc/min with the water injection also controlled by the ECU. In that guise it was run on a chassis dyno, making 450 crank hp and 400 ft-lbs. Turbo flows about 45lbs/hr.

Recent installation includes a custom built charge cooler with 3x the OEM core volume, and much less restrictive on both the air and water sides 9" x 33" Ron Davis Racing custom charge cooler radiator with a 1.25" core and 2" end tanks, two more electric charge cooler pumps to boost flow and a 21/4" core alloy radiator from Wizard.

Everybody has been very impressed with a ride. It takes a little seat time to get used to it. It'll be a very different driving experience to a V8, more like a F40, very visceral.
Folks who have driven a Porsche Carrera GT, thought that, at least up to 120mph, this car was comparably as quick. It won't do 200mph and probably is slower above 140mph, but it also costs 1/10th the going price for the Porsches ($540K to almost $900K).
Porsche Carrera GT in Cars & Trucks | eBay

Attached mod sheet was updated 2 years ago. Since then, the serpentine belt conversion and Denso lightweight alternator were added.
Motor still has the Bosch 351 injectors, but I have a set of the ID1000's, which are not installed yet. While there was a lot of weight stripped, ZF-DS25 transaxle, chargecooler, radiator and plumbing, water injection, etc. added some back. The S4's are close to 2900lbs. This car was built with a target of 2400-2500lbs.

The overall chassis mileage is about 25K with perhaps 15k on the motor post rebuild. The transaxle and clutch have around 7 or 8K miles as do the brakes. The wheels were custom made by Kodiak Motorsports; they're impeccable, 8.5" x 17" F and 11" x 17" rear. The tires are Nitto NT01 DOT race rubber. The rears have 5K miles and are half worn.

The car needs to be owned by someone prepared to maintain it himself, but it's far more reliable than a stocker and certainly it is the nicest and fastest G car in existence. That being said, it's a real hardcore car - no radio or A/C and a minimal heater, which does a good enough job down to 40F or so.

$200K includes the development costs, like the Quaife box which was over $15k (junk!), various break systems the Sport 300 transaxle with LSD which I also gave a ghost, 8 clutches, 9 turbos, etc. There's probably "only" $150K invested in the car as it stands, but that's excluding several thousand man hours at zero cost plus a great many parts purchased new over the past 20 years for much less than they could be had today, if you could even find them.

If interested, please PM me for details.
 

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#30 ·
<sigh> this 'extreme' Esprit is probably the only car that makes me regret living in California.

Many other states (NJ, TX, NY, IN) don't require smog inspections for cars older than 20 years.

California would never allow this Esprit on a public road legally and would surely seize the car if it were caught out on the road doing what it does best. :facepalm
 
#32 · (Edited)
<sigh> this 'extreme' Esprit is probably the only car that makes me regret living in California.

Many other states (NJ, TX, NY, IN) don't require smog inspections for cars older than 20 years.

California would never allow this Esprit on a public road legally and would surely seize the car if it were caught out on the road doing what it does best. :facepalm
Eddie, this car meets SMOG and is currently plated and driven on public roads in CA.
 

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#33 ·
What I did, I'm afraid, it won't be of much use to other owners. They'll need to come up with their own solution and here's why.

1. I no longer have a vacuum pump, nor a P/S pump as later cars used in that location.
2. I've deleted the AC as well, meaning I no longer need three belts. I only have the water pump and the alternator.
3. The alternator has been relocated lower for better access and it's pulley aligned with the water pump pulley to allow for a single belt.
4. I bought a universal serpentine belt pulley from Jones racing but had to have a custom mounting hub machined for it.
I verified all of the pulley alignments with a Gates laser alignment tool.

My system works, but I'd like to improve it. I still have to run far more belt tension than I'm comfortable with due to the limited wrap around the crank pulley. The remedy for this would be to add a small idler pulley inboard and above the cam belt tensioner pulley to greater wrap around the crank pulley, but there's no room to work out the precise location and mounting of the pulley with the motor in the car. So unless I have to remove the engine for some other reason, it's not going to happen. Running a lot of belt tension it doesn't slip, but that's not the proper solution.

Anyone wishing to convert to a serpentine arrangement retaining all of the original accessories would have to follow a similar procedure.
Points to consider:
1. The water pump is fixed and there's little room to change its pulley alignment rearwards. So I would start there with a universal serpentine water pump pulley (available in various diameters) from Jones Racing. Your machinist will need to machine the center bore of the pulley to the OE bore and remove some material from the ID of the pulley for it to seat properly on the pump hub. Jones provides a set of thin shims for fine adjustment but I didn't use them.
2. Use the water pump to set the belt longitudinal position, swap the pulleys of the vacuum pump/PS, AC compressor and alternator to serpentine pulleys. Alloy universal pulleys and shims are available from Jones Racing, steel OE pulleys are available from a variety of sources. The vacuum pump may need to use a crank pulley with a center adapter.
3. Align all of the pulleys with a Gates laser alignment tool maintaining the alignment within the tolerance specified in the instructions as a function of the distance between the pulleys. The alignment will be achieved by moving the accessories forward or back until they align with the water pump pulley.
4. The last step is to machine a crank pulley hub align the crank pulley with the water pump.
Once all of the pulleys are aligned then the belt length routing and need or not for a tensioner pulley can be worked out.

I'm not sure whether it can be done with the motor in the car, depending on whether an idler pulley is needed or not. The first routing I would attempt would be from the water pump pulley around the vacuum pump from the outside, as in the OE arrangement, then over the top of the crank pulley, then down around the AC compressor. Beyond that, it may be necessary to move the location of the AC compressor and alternator up or down and add one or two idler pulleys. A modern OE arrangement would use a spring loaded belt tensioner but that's not absolutely necessary. The belt can be tension with the vacuum pump and/or alternator.

You must have forgotten how much has changed in my engine compartment. All of my solutions were custom, based on previous decisions. Nothing is directly transferable to a stock car.

Bottom line is the motor probably has to come out or at least the gearbox so the engine can be lifted and moved back to provide more room to work, and it would best be done in the shop doing the machining, otherwise there's going to be a lot of time wasted with back and forth trial and error fitting.
 
#44 · (Edited)
Earlier this year, the car had some cold start problems and Mike has replaced engine sensors, cleaned up injectors, etc. B+ maintenance performed. To view it, you have to come to Santa Cruz. By appointment only. POR.
 
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