Ex SEMA 2013 Wilwood 818S

[Hendow]

Hello all,

Well after a year or so of pouring over everyones fantastic build threads, I figure its time for me to make a contribution, with the details of my own project. I must confess, I feel like an imposter on this forum, having purchased my 818 basically complete, rather than build it myself! Being new on here, no one will know me, however I suspect that anyone with a passing interest in the FFR 818 will know my car...

I was the lucky one who bought the carbon fibre and green Wilwood car from SEMA 2013, yep this (https://www.factoryfive.com/galleries/project-818/factory-five-wilwood-818s/) one!

As far as I know (and I’m happy to be corrected), this car (# 28) was the first right hand drive 818 off the production line, and was built by the factory for Wilwood to display at the 2013 SEMA show. Following SEMA, prior to shipping Down Under, the NA engine and transmission were removed with the car then exported to Australia by the Australian distributor, Component Cars Australia.

After researching the new FFR 818, I approached Chris from CCA back in August to add my name to the waitlist for an 818S kit, however upon visiting his showroom, I was met with this:

37695 and 37696 and realised this was my opportunity to own a really unique example of a really unique car!

By this time, the car had been fitted with a stock 2012 WRX 2.5L engine, ECU, transmission, loom, steering column and instrument binnacle, and despite consistent advice suggesting it would never work with the later engine, the engine was running like a dream.

Since convincing Chris to sell me the car back in August, I have gradually been preparing the car for road registration here in Western Australia, which as many of you know, is an exercise in hoop jumping. Along the way I have learnt an immense amount, both in particular with the 818 and with the kit car industry in general. I’m happy and to say that I am getting very close to the car being ready for inspection by the authorities, with most of the ‘big ticket items’ being ticked off the list. As we all know, many of the jobs that ‘have’ to be done, invariably lead to plenty of jobs that ‘could’ be done, or improvements that could be made. In doing so, there isn't much of the car that hasn't been disassembled and rebuilt since its arrival in Oz, so I guess, I kinda qualify as an 818 builder… sort of!

As time allows, I hope to detail the various tasks that have been completed on the car since SEMA, along with the future improvements that I plan to make to further its street and track potential and performance. A bit like a retrospective build thread!

In the meantime, thanks to Chris (CCA), Tony Z, Wayne P, Junty, Mechie3, and xatudor for your help and advice to date!

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[Junty]

Welcome Hendow, Amazing coincidence that soon the first two completed RHD 818S will both have the same 2012 WRX engine. I look forward to seeing your car soon - I'm due in Perth for work within the next few months!

[Kalstar]

Great write up and welcome.

[Hendow]

Thanks Junty, yes, I was very surprised to see another 818 with a late model engine, let alone one with RHD in our region!
I look forward to meeting with you when you make it over to the 'West Island' which hopefully will be after I have number plates on the 818, so you can take her for a spin!

Back to my 'build'...

The first task I tackled after purchasing the 818 was having the wheels aligned and the chassis tuned, as I found the car was quite 'nervous' and 'twitchy' at most road speeds. I'm glad I did this early as all four wheels pointed in different directions, and the cambers, castor and toe settings were all wildly out! More concerning was the steering rack, which allowed a tighter turning circle one way than the other, indicative of an off centre alignment. Further investigation revealed the steering rack ends were too short, with one side threaded into the tie rod end by around 20mm, with the other side only held in with about 2 threads. Glad I discovered that on the hoist, rather than on the highway! Some aftermarket, longer rack ends fixed this problem and with the wheels correctly aligned, the car now went in the direction it was pointed.

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Another interesting discovery was the significant negative castor, which was traced to the upper wishbones being reversed, left to right... A quick flip over and they were on again, with the castor setup in a much more 'apex friendly' fashion!

Lastly, the ride height has been wound up about as high as it will go to allow 100mm of ground clearance, as required for registration. Once it passes the registration inspection, I will reset it back to something more akin to 'SEMA mode'!

The next step was trying to get the 2012 ECU to talk to the rest of the car...

[Mechie3]

Glad you finally made it on the forums!

[gwarden]

congrats sounds like your on your way to a fine machine

[Speedy G]

Awesome car! Congratulations on your find. I especially dig the rear end. Any modding plans?

One question that I can't find an answer to. Are those really carbon fiber panels or is it just cosmetic wrap? If they're really carbon fiber panels, is there a way you could put the car on a scale to see how much it weighs? I'm considering redoing some of the panels in carbon fiber to save some weight, and I'm wondering if it's worth it.

[Erik W. Treves]

Those are REAL carbon fiber panels!

[Hendow]

Hi Speedy,

As per Erik's comment, yes, they are real carbon panels, or at least carbon fibre overlays in the panel. Tony Z may be able to clarify, but it looks like the panels are carbon fibre laid over a thin fibreglass panel. In any case, it is real carbon, with a relatively thick clear layer over the top. There are areas of slight imperfections visible through the clear, so it is definitely the real deal! Minor imperfections aside, they look awesome, and really compliment the additional factory carbon pieces like the splitter, diffuser and side sills. I also plan on fitting a carbon wing (pictured below) and have a set of canards winging their way down under, which both should match the panels.
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As part of the process to having the car registered, I was required to have the car weighed... So in future the car will be known as a Factory Five 910S...!
I'm not sure if this is due to the panel work, or possibly other differences with this car, such as the full 2012 wiring harness. Im currently stuck on the other side of our island with work commitments, but once I get home, I will weigh the carbon engine cover hood, so you can make a comparison with the standard panel.

As for mods, well yes I have a few planned!

[Hendow]

And for a little bit of inspiration for all those guys n gals working hard on their 818 projects... This is what you have to look forward to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFrN8JnofB0

These things are so much fun! Just don't mess it up like I did on the skid pan...!:cool:

[07FIREBLADE]

Can you post any details on how your got the newer engine to communicate with the older components? Amazing car, nice seeing another 818 ripping around the track. Also what tie rod ends did you use to fix your rack problems?

[Hendow]

Hi FireBlade,

When I purchased the car, it had already been fitted with the 2012 engine and transmission.

The builder had also removed the earlier loom, steering column, ABS module, instrument binnacle and ECU, and replaced these with the 2012 donor units. The new loom in the car includes the entire CAN bus wiring system, out to the various 'section plugs' like the ICE unit, the climate control plug and the door plugs etc. Without the OEM steering wheel, I had a number of warning lights on the instrument binnacle, however these were fixed by some tactical black sharpie applications!

The biggest drama I had was with the wheel speed sensors, as the newer speedo would not talk to the older ABS sensors (pic below), which caused issues with the speedo, odometer, ECU and various other systems. After looking into a couple of analogue to digital conversion options, I decided to have a closer look at the 2012 front spindles, and found that these bolt straight up on the 818, even with the Wilwood brake option. With the newer speed sensors plugged into the newer ABS module, the speedo came to life, along with a few other niceties. Interestingly, plugging the front speed sensors into the front plugs of the ABS module didn't work, but plugging them into the rear ABS plugs sparked the speedo back into life.
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Still have a few hurdles to cross, namely sorting out how to tune the OEM ECU, as my local tuner has had trouble getting his computer to talk to the ECU via the OBD port... It seems there are many different opinions on how to get around this issue, from 'simply unlock and retune the factory ECU' through to 'you will need a MOTEC to get it to work' ($5k). I need to sort out a lean mixture issue before I can put my foot down properly, along with a hesitation on the boost when exiting left hand bends, as demonstrated in the above video.

I was also getting an intermittent 'low CAT efficiency' (or something like that!) error code and CEL during the track day, however I suspect this may be caused by the O2 sensor on my new dump pipe. Im told I should be able to solve this problem with a tune...
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[Hendow]

Oh, and the tie rod ends...

I managed to source longer steering rack ends, off the shelf through a local power steering specialist. I did a lot of research to find that Subaru uses a couple of different length rack ends on their various models, however the ones I had were the longest variants they use from the factory. Fortunately the thread size and pitch on these rack ends is very common, so most steering specialists should be able to source longer rack ends that are plug and play. The ones I found were about 30mm longer than OEM, and were about AUD$20 each (new)...

Also to confirm, the tie rod ends are the original ones used in the original construction.

[Hendow]

Some detail of my newly fitted wiper and washer:

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Developed from an OEM WRX mechanism that was chopped and modded to fit a custom bracket that serves as a hood riser, preventing the need to trim too much from the flange on the rear edge of the hood (bonnet).

Here is a vid of it:


http://youtu.be/uiW79IYj2qU


The washer is a late model Holden VE Commodore (possibly sold as a GM or even a Pontiac in the US) , clip on washer nozzle, which are available elsewhere from various sources.

[wleehendrick]

Very cool... I hope to do something similar, a single wiper with no or little hood trim. FYI, older Holdens were badged as Pontiacs (GTO and G8) but the new Commodore is the basis for the Chevy SS stateside. Good to know one source to look at for a washer if I add one.

[STiPWRD]

I also like that single wiper design and will be trying to recreate it. Thanks for posting! I wouldn't have minded getting the FFR wipers if they just didn't force you to cut up the hood. BTW, Congrats on getting such a unique 818!

[Frank818]

Now THAT I am very interested in. :) How many degrees does the wiper cover?
Any details on all the modified parts?