In reply to P5Racer :
Seems I may need to stock up on one or two more E351's for my MR2 while they're plentiful lol The SW20 crowd will be using these more and more as well and will make these harder to source knowing Mazda folks are after them too.
Love the car!
In reply to Mustard :
Swapping the E351 into the Protege is a very new idea. I'll be the 3rd one to do it (at least with the newly-developed swap kit), and the first one to do it on a track car.
No update on the car, but the team finally has a logo... might have to create some stickers or other merch soon
Only 4 weeks until the first race... will I make it?
Ok, now I'm getting a little excited. The E351 swap kit arrived Friday.
Some of the other major components are ACT clutch and pressure plate, Fidanza lightweight flywheel and a Monkey Wrench Racing short shifter topped with a Grimmspeed shift knob. Still lots to do, but we're getting there.
What's the plan for axles on the trans swap?
Ever get that back brace i sent? It was held up twice in customs and returned. Hope you did or else its still in limbo(been like a year since i first tried sending it).
In reply to kevinatfms :
It did show up in early December, I'd completely forgotten about it. Much appreciated I might add.
In reply to bumpsteer :
The matching Corolla axles are an almost perfect fit, only the ABS tone ring area is a smaller diameter, but I don't have working ABS anyhow.
Almost ready to bolt up the Toyota transmission.
Junkyard parts in Canada pose some challenges of course.
Still need to come up with a shift cable solution, but we're getting there.
The Mazda engine and Toyota transmission are now mated together. Not an easy process by myself, but it's getting there. A few more things to sort, and then we can put it in the car.
Still following, and I'm happy to see your progress!
Powertrain is in place. Still need to sort out things like coolant hose routing and shifter cables, but we're getting there.
I saw that you completed the first sprint race of the season. Congratulations! I'm sure that felt good after the work spent on the car over the winter.
In reply to nuthunmuch :
It felt great to take a checkered flag for the first time ever. I'll post an update here soon.
We made it to Shannonville. The car came off jack stands Friday morning and hit the track Saturday.
It was not without small problems, but over the weekend, we managed 3.5 hours of track time before blowing a coolant bypass hose under the exhaust manifold.
All of the hard work paid off with a 3rd place, albeit 1 lap down, in Sunday morning's sprint race.
Love the progress!
How is the E351 Shift feel wise? Awesome to see how quickly this was right back out on track.
In reply to Mustard :
Still some work to do on the shift cables. The lateral shifter motion wasn't right, so we stuck with just 3rd and 4th on track. Otherwise, the transmission felt great, and it survived better than the OE trans did last year
Lucky Dog Racing Canada – Canadian Tire Motorsport Park May 13-14 weekend report:
What a weekend.
We started off by rushing to re-assemble the engine on Friday afternoon. When a head stud started spinning in the block, we half expected that our weekend was over before it began. Fortunately, we installed a heli-coil, and it held up to the required torque spec for the head.
Later in the afternoon, while installing the exhaust on the turbo, a stud in the turbo snapped off as well. We decided to finish assembling the car to make sure that the engine would run, which it did. We packed up and finally arrived at the track just before 8pm on Friday.
Early Saturday morning, we started tearing the car back apart to replace the snapped turbo stud. Unfortunately for us, it broke inside the turbo housing. We missed the Saturday sprint race as a result. Tony, our mechanic/chef, made a quick run to Canadian Tire in Bowmanville for another heli-coil kit.
Finally, around noon, we were able to start up the car and run it. Everything looked good, so we strapped Doug into the car and sent him out to bed in the new front brakes, and scrub in the new Falken RT660’s. An incident-free 40 minute run (almost half of it under full course yellow), and we brought the car back in to check on everything. The repairs seemed to hold up, so we swapped on some well-used Hankooks, then Taylor and myself each did 40 minute test sessions at 80% effort. We called it a day and prepped the car for Sunday’s sprint race.
Sunday morning came, and we were cautiously optimistic. Taylor strapped in for the race, and off we went. It was immediately clear that the car and driver were working well, and Taylor was chasing the #75 Honda Civic of RD Racing for a potential podium. The race itself was interrupted by one of the endurance cars having a hard crash between turns 1 and 2 that led to a 15 minute stoppage. When the race re-started, we were around 2-3 seconds behind the Civic, and well clear of the rest of the sprint field. With one lap to go, we were still around 3 seconds behind, but the traffic gods smiled on us. Taylor closed the gap on the Andretti straight, and pulled even through the Esses, setting up a drag race across the line. Our horsepower advantage came through, with Taylor taking the checkered flag by a nose. Our first win as a team!
Thanks to our partners/sponsors, Bruiser Automotive & Tire, Haven Brewing Company, GoFast Photography, Fast Wheels and DriverCal nd thanks as well to the entire Lucky Dog Racing Canada team for putting on another great event.
Now to start prepping for the next race weekend at Calabogie Motorsports Park.
It's been a while since I updated this. We raced at Calabogie Motorsports Park in late June, and ended up with a pair of 3rd places, and new personal best laps for myself and Doug.
The car is now being prepped for 2 more races at Shannonville this weekend. It'll be interesting to see the difference in lap times now that the shifter issues have been sorted.
Also, here's onboard video from the E36 M3 that I was battling. I chased him for about 10 laps before he waved me past. I ended up letting him back through about 3 laps later as I was low on fuel. My driving needs work, but I'm happy with my improvments since last year.
2023 Season Recap:
What a year it was for Last Place Motorsports. Coming off a disappointing 2022 season, things came together nicely in 2023. We finished 2nd in the Lucky Dog Racing Canada Sprint Championship, behind Divebomb Motorsports - congratulations to them on an excellent season.
Season results:
1 win (Mosport - Taylor)
1 2nd place (Calabogie - Taylor)
3 3rd places (Shannonville - Geoff, Calabogie x 2 – Geoff, Doug)
1 4th place (Calabogie - Doug)
1 5th place - DNF - axle (Shannonville - Doug)
1 6th place (Shannonville - Geoff)
1 DNS - turbo stud (Mosport)
A huge thank you to all of our partners for the season:
Fast Wheels
GoFast Photography
MS Gear
Haven Brewing Company
Bruiser Automotive and Tire
DriverCal
Also a big thanks to Jason Garcia for developing the Toyota transmission swap kit, which turned out to be a game changer for us in terms of reliability.
There are some big announcements coming for 2024, the first one being that we’re planning on moving from the LDRC Sprint class to endurance racing next year.
Come race with us in 2024!
New rims and rubber sourced, season starts in only 5 weeks :D
Weird question, was this car for sale in Newmarket Ontario around 2016-2017 ish?
You'll need to log in to post.
