Hello everyone,
I'm finally getting around to starting my build thread. Almost two years ago I decided to seriously look at build an 818R and started cruising this forum, asking questions and learning as much as possible. My kit arrived Dec. 1, 2015. Progress has been slow due to some of my plans, which I'll explain later, and I had to have surgery on my shoulder which sidelined me for 2.5 months.

The car will be built to race NASA Super Touring 2 and Western Endurance Racing Championships E0 (since ST3 cars run in E0 we will detune it to meet ST3 wt/power specs for enduros). BUT... with this years changes to ST3, went from 9lb/hp to 10lb/hp, I may rethink trying to fit in E0 and may end up in ES.

Our race team consists of myself (Daniel) and two of my friends (Steve and Andrew) who are helping with the build and will also drive/crew. Here is a quick background on each of us:

Daniel: I am a mechanical engineer by profession for the last 21 years. I've worked at companies that made turbine engine components, semiconductor equipment, and biomedical robotics. My first job out of college was more of a manufacturing role than mechanical design, in addition to fixture and process design I also did the CNC programming of the mills, lathes, grinders and edm's. That experience served me well when I moved on to a design engineer job since understanding how a part will be made is very important when designing.
I really enjoyed the machining and have acquired machine tools for my home shop over the years. Now I have a side business, Daniels Design and Machine, designing and fabricating one-off prototypes (no production runs, after the first few parts I get bored and it starts feeling like work). I have done a lot of design and fabrications for Davidson Racing's Norma and Eagle.
Racing experience: I went through NASA's HPDE program to get my racing license and raced Spec Miata for a few years. I sold the car and put racing on the shelf for awhile because of family commitments.

Steve: A mechanic by profession, Steve worked for Davidson Racing for several years as the Norma Car Chief, including when they won the Overall at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill in 2014. He has also built Spec Miata's that have won two NASA NorCal SM region championships, a PTE NorCal championship and a PTE Western States Nationals. Steve also holds a NASA racing license and has races several seasons in Spec Miata.

Andrew: Also an engineer, Andrew was a certified welder before going to school for mechanical engineering. He has built a 24hours of Lemons car and races a few times a year.


The project started with adding a recessed mid height scissor lift to the shop.IMG_2216-1.jpg
A 2007 WRX donor.IMG_2219-1.jpg

The Kit arrived!IMG_0014-1.jpg

Weighed the chassis, just to know what we're starting with.IMG_0015-1.jpgIMG_0016-1.jpg

Removed the X under the seats and welded in plate. This allows the seat to set a little lower. IMG_0058-1.jpgIMG_0060-1.jpg

That's it for now. I'll post more after I take some more recent pics.
Cheers,
Daniel