*WANTED* Genuine RS200 for measurement gathering...

[John.H]

Hello, My name is John Hoyenga, I have been poking around here for a bit looking for info on building these cars.

I am co-owner of a company in La Center, Washington, USA called Nameless Performance Inc. (www.namelessperformance.com). We are looking to build a couple of these cars for our personal use, but are having no luck finding info on building them.

What we need is a car (preferably an EVO) in the Portland, OR/Seattle, WA area that we can have in our shop for a few days to take measurements from. The measuring would be non-destructive of course.

We would be measuring with our Romer CMM arm so the car we built could be within .0001 of the car we measure.

Please feel free to email John @ john.h@namelessperformance.com or call the shop @ 1-360-263-5001 and talk to Jason Griffith, the other owner.

Thank you,

John Hoyenga
President, Nameless Performance Inc.
La Center, WA - 360-263-5001

[Justin Smith]

Hi John,

I've just seen your PM to me and this post - that's one hell of a task you have set yourself !

Are you planning to re-make the chassis and then the tube and then the body panels ?

I seem to remember that Arch Motors, the original chassis producers, still have the ability to make new ones so you might save a lot time talking to them ?

http://www.archmotor.co.uk/

What's the plan ?

Justin

[144]

@ justin
arch motors dont have any info or ability to make the rs200 chassis, they did make a few front subframes for vidar but that was all.


@john
the original cars were never that accurate
we have romer, faro's, and 2 full laser systems too, no use to you on the rs200
cars can and are upto 10mm different on any point, thats why they were made so adjustable on the suspension.
the chassis, (aluminium tub) the front and rear steel sections that attatch to it and most of the upper frameworks we have remade, the suspension uprights we have made our own billet cnc units that replace the oe ones,
as for body panels I am the only person in the UK with a full set of genuine moulds, as far as i know the other people claiming to have them actually have copied bodies that came from these moulds but ill stand to be corrected, there was 3 full sets of moulds and then some extra ones for cetrain bits (apparently 10 sets of bumper moulds were made) one set is in norway/finland I have a set and then the last set got badly damaged some time back and as far as i know never repaired that was in spain.
weve also done a lot of work to remake the evo engine, and there are gearboxes available that replace the original unit, a 6 speed sequential i beleive has been made. you can still buy original boxes if you only want 3 or 4 itll be cheaper many rebuilt ones and the odd new one still exist.
The point of the front mounted transaxle was weight balance, the replica rear engined 200's are rather early porsche 911 prone in there handling

hope that helps

[Justin Smith]

#144 - Hi - I'm glad you chipped in, I didn't want to disclose quite how much of the car you were already able to supply for John to save him re-inventing the wheel so as to speak

[Mike 2]

"the replica rear engined 200's are rather early porsche 911 prone in there handling"

Strange as the engines are inboard of the gearbox not outboard like the Porsche 911's, some KARA's may have a 911 G/Boxes but they are turned & inverted to suit. Mine does'nt handle like that either with the engine and gearbox inboard of the rear suspension.

"as for body panels I am the only person in the UK with a full set of genuine moulds, as far as i know the other people claiming to have them actually have copied bodies that came from these moulds but ill stand to be corrected,"

Paul Banham Conversions owned a genuine set of road car moulds which were kept at Kent fiberglass, He had the inner and outer panels, the lot. 30 plus replica kits were made using the outer main body moulds. I bought my set in 2002! RSR bought out the Banham stuff.

About a year ago I was also offered a different set of genuine moulds although they were not a complete set.

Personally I don't see the actual importance of having a genuine car set apart from the cudos factor, as the gaps and fitment are not the best, they need a ton of work prior to paint, are different lengths down each side of the car and across it, and they are 25 + yrs old!

When Ford produced the cars for rallying I dont think they ever intended to sell cars to the general public, they were for rally teams so panel gaps etc were not an issue. Luckily for us (road car owners & replica nuts) the group B class was cancelled and the potential rally cars turned into road cars, more importantly, the moulds and bits and bobs eventually filtered down to the replica market.

Yes I know that genuine is genuine, but its the replica guys that have better panels now.

We are also lucky to have people like 144 who are taking on chassis work which may also help the replica market one day especially with the introduction of reverse direction transfer boxes and cheap jap front and rear diff units.

It has never been so easy to build an RS200!


CheeRS
Mike

[stuartg]

I have a number of genuine moulds - the front bumper, bonnet, both cills, dash, transmission tunnel and evo rear bulkhead. I believe 144 has most of the missing moulds from my set. Mine are all genuine and are in good condition.

[Justin Smith]

thanks StuartG for joining in also in this thread !

It just goes to show that between us, as a group, there isn't much we can't deal with now...

Unless you have your lower wishbones of the back off your 200 and you are trying to find what the inner bushes are.

I'll start another thread about my wishbone problems rather than hi-jack this one !!

[John.H]

Oh my! I am in heaven...

I hever thought there was so much information and this many resources out there.

the only thing I am discouraged about is that everything is over in the UK (everything good as far as...well...everything car related ).

I have been meaning to vacation in the UK sometime, what better time than when I am buying the parts to build my race car?

In light of the amount of resources available for re-making one of these cars, I will probably not be building the entire car unless I get a chance to look at one in person and it looks like it is manageable. now I just need to save a bit and convice the wife that an 80s car that costs more than the BMW we are looking at is a better buy for me...

[Justin Smith]

John - Glad you have found some like minded people - I am sure with enough notice some of us will be around if you come and visit.

P.S - Good luck with selling it to the wife though

[John.H]

Oh the wife wont be that much trouble . She wants my Datsun project: a 1966 411 w/ z32 300zx Twin Turbo running gear (trans, IRS, IFS, fully built engine (Ti valvetrain, forged rods/pistons, oversized valves, giant cams, aluminum flywheel...the engine is capable of 1600whp...only about 450whp when I pulled it from my 300zx)

if she can have that, she will be ok with me getting this...I hope.