Hello Speedhunters, Darren McNamara here bringing you an update on the DMac86. In this post we are going to take a brief look back on 2011, and more importantly a look forward to what lies in store for 2012. We will also take a look at some of the other '86s in my life which reside at MCNSPORT HQ. In the above photo, some panels from the DMac86 have been removed in the off-season which suggests some activity. Well read on and my master plan will be revealed ... This was our final lap in anger in 2011 and it was quite spectacular. We have to declare how pleased with how our 2011 summer tour went. We brought a brand new experimental car to the table and got a fourth and second in our first two events. I must say we got a fantastic reaction to the car from everyone we met and I have to thank everyone for their kind words during that time. As a tuner, the fans reaction is one of the most important things to me. Since the above picture was taken, we repaired the damaged sump and ran the Hayward Rotary motor in anger and all is well thankfully. Having to rebuild the engine would have taken up precious time. I have to say I fall more and more in love with these motors every day. Not only are we making silly power from 1.3 litres, we lost enough oil to cause serious damage to a piston motor but yet our rotary is still in good health. More panels scattered around our upstairs canteen area hints towards maybe a bigger rebuild than you might be expecting ... That's the roof that has been removed ... ... and that's every other panel! Almost every panel will make its way back onto the car for 2012, but not the front bumper. It was destroyed during our kerb hop in Mondello but still, it lasted two events which is not bad! Before we get down to business, let's take a little tour around MCNSPORT HQ ... A 1985 chassis is getting the full treatment and is ready to be reborn and live a second life. There is always something satisfying about bare shell rebuilds like these. Everything has been re-worked better than factory and it's nice to know when it leaves our doors, it will last for another twenty plus years. Keeping the AE86 alive makes us happy! My personal AE86 history goes back eleven years when I bought my first AE86 at the age of 16. This is that very car and it needs no introduction. It remains Europe's most successful drift car and it's hard to see any other car topping it. Back in the day, we took on Europe, Japan and America with great success and had some legendary battles and some of the best times of my life. I owe an awful lot to this car and I will never part with it. What a shame I hear you say as you look at the pic and see the car now in a state that can only be described as a shelf. The reason the car sits like this is, after four years drifting with a lunatic driver learning to drift and trying to punch above his weight, the frame no longer points in the right direction on basically all four corners. But, rest assured one of my goals for 2012 is to fully rebuild this car using a screaming NA 4A-GE which is the whole reason I started drifting, trying to emulate Katsuhiro Ueo beating all the more powerful cars. Maybe you guys would be interested in Speedhunters following the rebuild later in the year? Let's move on to this one. Something I've always wanted was a genuine Black Limited Trueno and when the opportunity arose last year and I snapped it up. Over the winter I sourced some perfect orange panels and the car went to the body shop to get all the panel gaps straightened. It now lies in our storage unit and will be fully rebuilt this year also (hopefully) with sensible upgrades but with a stock exterior as the Black Limited should be. By the end of the year our shop car collection will be legendary and our very controversial Carina TA60 is going to be a big part of that. As it sits now, it's a 'rat' look sort of lifestyle machine but it will not remain that way. It's current job is to get noticed and show off the new range of Work Meister CR01s, which it is doing very well. But its primary purpose will be as my drift practice car. Using parts we have lying around the shop we will build it into a cost effective but very capable drift machine and the best part is it will have four bucket seats and harnesses with a four person rollcage, meaning we can take three passengers at a time for a heart stopping ride with myself. No, this isn't an old shot from six months ago, this is how the DMac86 sits right now so let's get back to business. The reason behind the total rebuild is we planned to do a lot of modifications during the off-season and then Prodrift released a new rule book which will come into effect in 2013. This meant we would either have to re-modify again in 2013 or do everything at once, so we chose the latter. Eagle eyed viewers will notice the AE86 crossmember and steering rack. There are two reasons behind this - One is we are now developing a full new range of AE86 suspension and steering arms which will be available from MCNSPORT. Our arms will make the AE86 chassis more competitive and we are putting a lot of time and effort into them and I'm really excited about how they are progressing. Ever present team member 'Happy' Darren Butler has learned to love and hate this project, but all the time spent grinding is worth it once we hit the track. Reason number two for the use of an AE86 steering rack is that the new rules do not let us push the engine through the bulkhead so the old bulkhead had to be removed and a new one made. This will move the motor forward and that would interfere with our previous front steer system. The bulkhead is not the only thing that has been removed, the transmission and driveshaft tunnel have also been replaced. Using AE86 steering rack means the engine has to now sit on top of it and anyone who knows rotaries will tell you they are only made for a front steer steering rack system, and you have to mount them very high for a rear steer steering rack which takes away from their very low centre of gravity, which is one of their main advantages. So how do we prevent the centre of gravity being raised? Well here is our plan ... Introducing the Saenz TT Series Sequential Transmission. One of our new partners, Saenz Transmissions Europe, have supplied us with their TT 5 speed sequential gearbox. Saenz also make a 6 speed but we don't need so many gears in a drift car. Mike at Saenz has been very enthusiastic about what we are doing and supplied us with custom ratios to my specification. One of the great advantages of the Saenz is the layshaft lies alongside the main shaft and not below like most transmissions with keeps the weight lower down and lowers the centre of gravity It's also lighter than the Supra transmission it is replacing and is ready for 9500RPM flat shifts! This is my new gear lever which I must not mistake for the e-brake! Now that our engine and gearbox sit higher, this has caused us to remove our axle third link mounting point. We have re-engineered the third link mounting point as it carries a surprising amount of load and it's life will only get tougher as we develop more grip and more power, which is planned for 2013 in our final evolution of the car.
Also looking forward to 2013 and the completion of the master plan, we have enlarged the rear wheel wells. This is to give us the option of running 18inch wheels when we make more power. We would also like to welcome OBP Motorsport to our program for 2012. OBP have supplied us with their Pro Race Floor mounted pedal box system. I'm 6'1" so I fit just about perfectly in the AE86 chassis so OBP have supplied me with their rear facing cylinder setup and nice alloy false floor. We will now have adjustable bias on the bias bar for our much enlarged braking system. The bias is adjusted easily with the cockpit mounted turn knob. This should also lower the centre of gravity Among this box of disassembled parts lies our only motor upgrade for 2012. Hayward Rotary have supplied us with a dry sump kit for the 13B they built us. And yes you've guessed it, this will allow us to mount the engine lower, and lower the centre of gravity even further. It will allow us to rev to our 9500RPM limit at ease and we will be mounting the oil tank in the passenger footwell. This will help with weight distribution which is difficult to get even on a lightweight car I have just returned from Charlotte, North Carolina with Falken Tire where we were testing the Falken Tire Saturn Sky for the upcoming Formula D season. Whilst in NASCAR country, I decided to take advantage by picking up some NASCAR parts for the rebuild like this adjustable track bar or panhard bar mount. If you've ever wondered what they do in the pit lane when they wind a wrench at the rear window, well most of the time they are tuning this part. This is a chassis mounted panhard mount and can be screwed up or down easily thus raising or lowering the panhard bar pivot point and changing the setup. The final upgrade waiting at the shop are these MCN/GRP4 alloy front hubs. These are much lighter than the steel items they are replacing and are unsprung, so it's a weight saving exactly where we want it. With all the above parts installed I hope the overall weight to remain the same but time will tell. I hope you've enjoyed our first post for 2012 and we are looking forward to bringing you lots more. My plan for the second evolution is take what we have learned from running the car in 2011, make the setup changes and upgrade the more stock items of the car like the gearbox and brakes. We are modifying the chassis to the ultimate level of spec and forward planning to our third evolution which will involve more power and more rotor(s). In just a few months this car will truly be a formidable AE86 in our eyes and Europe's best drift car, capable of taking on any D1 or FD competitors that visit our shores ... - Darren 'D-Mac' McNamara Check out the article on Speedhunters.com BUILDS>> DMAC86 - THE EVOLUTION PT.I - Speedhunters
Yeah I like this! How's the pedalbox? We have got an obp pedalbox one as well, but we have had some problems with the plastic throttle linkeage as they tend to break. Just make a metal linkeage and then you are good to go!
Well i'm back in good old IRL after FD Round one with both the Falken Tire Saturn Sky and me bruised and battered after this... So some progress was made on the D-Mac86 I decided to run with as short of an exhaust manifold as possible to increase spool and reduce lag. To do this the exhaust has to run on the drivers side of the car and not the passengers like before. This will leave space on the passenger side for the alternator re-locate and dry sump pump. We are also using the Tial Stainless exhaust housing which sould also increase spool and it uses a "v" band clamp so no more annoying turbo gaskets. The 60mm wastegate is now mounted extremly low as well so over all everything will be mounted much lower in the engine bay keeping all the weight down and lower in the center of gravity The down pipe is now 3 inch and expands to 4 inch under my feet. "v" bands everywhere equals no leaks!! The original seat cross member has been removed as they are too ugly to be included in my perfect 86 so we are these on each side. Interestingly these will continue through the tunnel and basically be one complete box section from sill to sill. Inside the tunnel this will be used to mount the Saenz Sequential gearbox Darren
Time for an update on the D-Mac86. We are a bit late with these so we will be bringing you two updates close together. First off a quick update on parts and paint with a new colour for the chassis that I hope you all prefer to the white we used on the 2011 build. Above you can see our new dry sump pump and alternator bracket which will make the engine bay much neater rather than have the top mount alternator like on a stock rotary. We will take a more detailed look at the bracket later… I have developed a new Skyline brake conversion for the ae86 using 296mm floating front discs and R32GTR rear discs with 4 pot front calipers and 2 pot rears. We will be also fitting alloy front hubs as you can see above. I might get the rears done with alloy bells and floating discs at some stage… Here is the completed front hub and disc and it really is a thing of beauty. These weigh less than the stock steel hub and disc combined so we have shed a little bit of weight here, and rotating mass more importantly. Lets take a closer look at the oil pump bracket. We have changed to a 12a front cover using an FC crank sensor as Hayward Rotary supplied the dry sump kit to work with this cover. We are using a the very popular Pace oil pump. We made sure to allow for enough space to remove the plugs easily as any rotary man will tell you plugs get changed a lot on a 13B. I’m not sure if we will get time to give last year’s motor a fresh lick of paint before Gatebil, but we will def have it done for Silverstone. The Chassis is now fully painted in silver this time, which i think is so much better than the white we had before. The silver will work much better with the carbon fibre paneling on the inside this time. The last job before paint was to cut the front off the chassis legs and plate them, and also to weld on the tabs for the bumper bar. I can’t wait to get all our new suspension arms fitted to this beast. The new arms will be the first in a range of D-Mac Spec drift specific control arms. Be sure to catch future updates for a look at these. Here you can see we added strips for the carbon fibre paneling to sit on and separate the cockpit from the ludicrous amounts of Falken Tire smoke. Tunnel vision And again… A Saenz Sequential transmission now sits here, so be sure to check our next assembly update. The car will be slightly heavier than last year, but should have better balance with more weight on the left front and on the rear. The third link was a problem for us last year, so the mounting has been changed and improved this time around. Hopefully it will be a very long time before the car is a bare shell again. When we took it apart at the start of this year I never thought it would take so much work for the rebuild. We have gone a step further with everything again to a point where we are using the ultimate in parts and geometry Even silly things like the half moon rear wheel tubs to get the Falken Tire smoke out the rear as quickly as possible are signs of a very well thought-out design. I’m really digging the new colour!! As I write this we are hard at work on the dry sump lines, rear axle shock mounts, fuel system, exhaust etc etc. I felt this time around it was important to have as many bolt-on parts as possible on this car. So items like our D-Mac/AVO suspension is the same as we sell all over the world to our customers, and i think it is important to show just what they are capable of. Our D-Mac spec front suspension arm system is also nearly ready and will be one of the key components to unlocking the potential in this car, and again these are all straight bolt-on parts that will fit any AE86. We feel like we have really perfected the design this time and we are hoping for a much more competitive car in 2012.
Hey, Speedhunters! Time for another update on the 86. The excitement is really starting to build and the finish line is in sight. As we are leaving the outside the same colour as last year all the panels just need to be re-fitted once the chassis is complete. It doesn’t look much like a car right now, but the exterior will come together very quickly. Paddy called while I was in New Jersey for Formula Drift so it’s good to have proof that the boys were busy while I was away haha. There is a lot going on in this photo… I see an OBP floor mounted pedal box, OBP dry sump tank, passenger footrest and the top of out Saenz sequential gearbox. Mmmmm… The axle is now in place so the third link is bolted in. It is adjustable from inside the car, which will make setup changes easier. We are also mocking up the fuel cell at the moment… …as you can see in more detail here. The rear mounted radiator mounts in the same position as last year. But the adjustable panhard rod mounts are new for 2012. Back inside the cockpit, our gear selector rod is a little short so we are machining up another one. Here is the Saenz unit. It really is engineering porn at its finest. The engine and gearbox have to come out one more time, and I’ll be sure to get a pic for you of the unit sitting on the shop floor. Hmmmm, I wonder how many of these will be left over when the car is finished. Then you have that moment where you second guess yourself and think you’ve forgotten something. Our Owen Developments turbo has a new location this year with a much shorter Martelius custom manifold to increase response. You can also see the flange for the external wastegate hanging down here. Everything is much more compact this year, and mounted lower We also sent the turbo and inlet manifolds to Martelius Exhausts in Finland to get ceramic coated. I was really impressed with the ceramic coatings we did last year and now we have taken it to the next level with the whole exhaust system, turbo, coolant pipes and inlet manifold being coated. We have deleted the old water pump assembly and replaced it with a much neater system. The two coolant pipes will run down behind the oil pump on their way to the radiator. As I write this, I have just received a new dry sump belt to replace this worn old one and we have most of the -12 oil line plumbing done. A place for everything and everything in its place……well kinda. This shot really gives an idea of how much work has gone into this chassis. Almost no area is without modification. If this wasn’t already, it is now surely the world’s most extreme AE86. I like how the dimpled holes on the passengers footrest line up with the dimpled holes on the seat crossmember. I cant get enough of looking at that gearbox!! It’s certainly a beehive of activity at MCNSPORT at the moment. The shop will get a nice break once we leave for Gatebil in two weeks. Still so much to do to the car though, and at the same time we have got to be further ahead than Fredric, who doesn’t have a 1,600 mile drive to get there….. The intercooler and oil cooler are ready to be mounted in this picture. Another advantage of the rear mounted radiator is the very low intake and oil temps we are getting, meaning we do not have to carry so much oil. Our new OBP oil tank is only 1.5 gallons. The two pipes in the middle of this shot are the new coolant pipes from the engine to under the chassis. They are quite complex and run under the throttle body, but allow us to run the two coolant temp sensors without them being visible. Here is “Happy” Darren fabbing up the intercooler brackets. Watch that fresh paintwork!!
Here you can see one of the coolant pipes running under the passenger footrest. Martelius coated these with a thermal dispersant or a thermal insulator depending on whether it’s the hot or cold pie from the radiator. So the work continues into the night everyday at MCNSPORT…. In the next update we should have the D-Mac Spec arms to show you and hopefully the rear axle will be fitted along with the driveshaft. We should be ready to get this thing back on the ground . The engine and gearbox will be removed one last time and re-fitted with the new sump pan etc. All bolts will then be tightened for the final time. Until next time… -Darren ‘D-Mac’ McNamara Photos by Paddy McGrath
Been so busy didnt get a chance to update Hey Speedhunters, it’s 11pm here in Ireland and we are loading the van and finishing off all those things that seem to take so much time when you’re packing for a trip. We have a 9am ferry to catch tomorrow morning to the UK, then to France and all the way to Norway… There’s just time to look at the final build pictures of the D-Mac86 in its Evolution 2 form. A lot of time has been spent routing the various AN lines for oil, fuel, brake fluid and vacuum. We made this pretty tasty carbon panel to allow the various lines to enter the cabin. Sorry about the poor quality… Our ‘Godzilla’ brake upgrade is complete. We called it the Godzilla kit because we are using Skyline GTR brakes. The cockpit has been closed off from the heat of the radiator and plumes of Falken Tire smoke with carbon-fibre and clear Lexan panelling. Our NASCAR track bar or panhard bar adjusters are in place and we have also changed spring-rate on our D-Mac/AVO double adjustable rear coilovers. The Skyline rear brakes have also been fitted along with zinc-plated link arms. And yes I know the disk is on the wrong side… Up front we have new AE86 tension rod pivot relocation brackets available now. They allow the aftermarket tension rod to pivot in the correct factory position. We will look at this in a little more detail below. These are the alloy brackets for the GTR calipers. Space is tight, but everything fits snug inside the floating rotors. Here are the tension rod pivot relocation brackets again mocked up on our new and eagerly-awaited D-Mac Spec lower control arms. The tension rod brackets are powder-coated black for a durable finish and mount the anti-roll bar without have to remove the bracket, unlike the factory ones. The tension rod comes with an extra-long adjuster in situ to make up the difference in length, meaning that if you do purchase the D-Mac Spec lower control arms you can upgrade to the relocated bracket and still use the same control arms. Here are the new D-Mac Spec AE86 lower control arms. Electro-plated for a durable long-lasting anti corrosion finish, they have in situ adjustment on the outside to give greater clearance so wider wheels can be used and caliper-to-tension rod clearance is increased. Extra track can also be added to the inner heim if needed and there is also a heim used for the anti-rollbar link. We use a very strong single bolt pivot to connect the lower control arm to the tension rod, so you don’t end up with the bolts binding when adding track, like in the factory two-bolt system. We have also added a lockstop to the rear of the arms so you can prevent your steering from going over centre on a drift car. Alloy plates can be added to stop the steering at the correct location and the alloy plate also prevents the arm getting scratched and rusting. And the good news for Silvia owners is that we are making D-Mac Spec lower control arms for you next!
Okay, so we mentioned the steering going over-centre above, and here we have the solution to getting mega steering angle and not getting the steering stuck on full lock. We have a pair of offset rack spacers available now for the AE86, and also pictured above is our prototype steering knuckle we will be testing at Gatebil. This was the engine two days ago still awaiting a turbo, etc. We have a pretty trick water pump delete on the front which routes the coolant pipes rearward. We have concentrated a lot on weight distribution for the second evolution. Small things like this make all the difference. All the aluminium panels from last year have been replaced with carbon fibre and the silver on carbon of the inside looks really great I think. . Again, everything just works so much better this time around. I love this car minus all the exterior panels just as much as I love it with them. I don’t think an AE86 chassis can get much better than this… time will tell I suppose! The car is a bit lopsided as the ride heights haven’t been set, but this is the rear. It doesn’t get more purpose-built than this. Another shot of the rear brakes with adjustable anti-roll bar added. I’m not in love with the shape of the turbo to intercooler pipe, and thinking of reworking it when we return from Gatebil. It looks like Fred Flintstone’s telephone at the moment… The engine bay is now complete and I’m loving it. It would have been nice to have a bit more time to paint some stuff, but so be it. We really concentrated on moving as many things as possible to the passenger side (right-hand) of the engine as rotaries are very right side heavy and we’ve done such a good job it’s now a pain in the ass to change plugs. I really wanted to make the exhaust manifold as short as possible to increase response this year over the long runner equal manifold we had last year. We are also using a Tial stainless steel exhaust housing, which should increase response further and lower the power band on the Hayward Rotary Bridgeport. The turbo oil and water lines are now very short, simple and easily accessible. I’m going to put a 120-degree fitting on the oil feed when we return though. Here is the obligatory steering angle shot with the D-Mac arms and knuckles fitted. We will be capable of making more with a few tweaks, but more importantly the geometry has remained correct and ackerman hasn’t been deleted like so many other brands out there. We will push the limits of the D-Mac steering setup when we return to Ireland, but overall the driver feel and feedback has been given preference over just getting as much steering angle as possible for the sake of it and ruining the car. We are also using the front of the car to generate rear grip, so this cannot be forgotten. Here is a closer look at the dry sump oil pump and AN lines. There is also an alternator hidden under there. Alternators aren’t really sexy are they, so we mounted it out of sight. We are also using a tiny alternator which is a significant weight saving over the stock Mazda one. A good thing about AE86 front struts is they can be mounted on the left or the right and it allows you to put the brake calipers in front or behind of the wheel centre. We mounted the calipers on the rear, again for weight distribution. We are not using the original brake hose mount on the struts, which would be the only problem with mounting the right strut on the left-hand side Finally this is the passenger footwell as we finish the interior wiring. The OBP oil tank sits as low as possible in the chassis and is also off-setting the weight of the driver on the left-hand side.
