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'02 Eclipse Spyder GT LeMons Racer

45K views 355 replies 47 participants last post by  nitroram33 
#1 · (Edited)
I've been procrastinating on making this thread for nearly a year now, but at the moment I've got nothing better to do, so here it goes...

Bought the car off of a friend of mine almost a year ago following an accident on the day that we were supposed to be heading on a trip to Raleigh for another friend/business-partner/friend-I-got-the-car-from's-brother's wedding. She was heading to an appointment to get her nails done at about 8 in the morning and dosed off. She wasn't hurt and initially the car wasn't TOO bad off either, just a busted windshield, and a messed up hood and passenger side fender. Unfortunately, the tow truck guy was mildly retarded and decided it would be best to somehow manage to dig the windshield frame into the bank (did I mention it was on it's roof at the time lol?) and bent the crap out of the A-pillars and essentially totaling the car.

So after successfully surviving the 100* heat in Raleigh at the wedding we get back and after a little while I wind up buying the car. I figure the car (which my friend had dubbed "Vicky") had gave up it's life to save my friend's so I owe it another shot at life; in this case, $500-race-car LeMons glory!

Here's the car as it sat before the "modifications" started :ninja2::






More early pics in the following posts...



What the car looks like now:
















































Current Mods

Interior
See exterior...

Interior lighting
That day's weather forecast

Audio and Video
Open Exhaust
Wind Noise

Electronics
Master Kill Switch
Removed everything else not needed to make the car move
My cell phone in my pocket.. if I remember to bring it with me.

Exterior
Dust
Body kit courtesy of gravity, the planet Earth, and Milwaukee Tool
More Dust
Hood and trunk bracing removed; both now pin-on
Both doors gutted
Kirkey Intermediate Racing Seat
Some nicely polished spot welds
Roll cage
Some Dust
RJS 5-point harness
Longacre mirror
IO Port Seatback Brace
Stock wing
Oh, some Dust
Added Lightness

Exterior Lighting
Stock tail lights and 3rd brake light

Brakes and Wheels
Stock brakes
Black Evo VIII wheels
Random All-Season tires that came with the wheels, or whatever holds air pressure for now...

Suspension
"Stock" springs
Monroe Shock/Struts
Moog Rear Sway Bar End Link Kit
Moog Front Sway Bar End Links
Prothane Master kit plus poly rear knuckle bushings
Prothane side and Energy Suspension front/rear motor/tranny bushings

Engine, Performance, and Under the Hood
Intake? Ummmm.. No intake currently
Battery moved to trunk
Exhaust cut off in front of cat
A/C removed
Probably a dead raccoon, or a mouse nest or two..

Parts Waiting to be Installed
Evo VIII/IX brake swap
SS brake lines
Diamante upper and TB
New core support
'03 front end conversion

Future Modifications
Finish covering the area formerly known as the interior in Lotus 2-eleven style
Foam chassis
2 sets of Dunlop Direzza ZIIs and another set of Evo VIII Enkeis
Other random crap to make it LeMons/SCCA legal
Whatever else I can sneak by the LeMons judges

A Few Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDioPbKTMKU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flWcVuFXJU4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9AjYVUfLf8
 
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27
#97 ·
Here she is after a quick thrash to get all the salvageable parts off and toss the rest. Thanks to everybody that's helped fund things by buying stuff from my thread in the for sale section.
I'm going along the lines of what Jaloosk was talking about. The metral frame where the back seat normally butts up to, is that stucturaly integral to the car or is it literally just the frame for the back seat. I see in other pics that you cut it out. I had a subwoofer box idea that involved retaining most of that back wall, but I didn't want the body to twist or warp. I appreciate any info you can give. Look forward to seeing this completed.
 
#8 ·
Part of the deal with the 24 Hours of LeMons is you can count off money from the purchase price of the vehicle (down to $0, can't go negative) by selling off parts. I sold off $500+ already so I can put that back into the car for stuff it needed like the transmission cooler, engine mount, etc that aren't excluded as safety exemptions. The car still runs just fine and I'll post a crappy vid of that here in a minute lol...
 
#7 ·
Here's more or less how she sits right now. Should have the funds for the cage and pretty much everything else except the second set of wheels in 2-3 weeks and then it'll really start taking shape:

Can see the transmission cooler in this one...


Heater core and everything else from behind the dash is gone now, still gotta plug the holes though.










I've since cut the impact bars out of both doors so the cage can flare out a little more:


 
#9 ·
Lately I've been focusing and cutting out as much weight as I can to offset the cage weight and I just finished up the hood and the trunk last weekend, they're full lift-offs now and the hood is just a skin. I left the sealing surface for the trunk in an effort to keep water out as much as I can since the battery box is back there now.







The hood barely weighs anything anymore lol...


 
#21 ·
So I haven't updated this in a while and I'm bored, so I figure why not. The project I was planning on using to fund the majority of this build wound up getting put on the back burner for a little while due to some budget cuts, but in the mean time I've done just about everything that I could take care of without dumping a bunch of money into it. Since the last update its got a fresh oil and filter change, finished cutting the rear seat back brace out as well as some other little trimming here and there, battery box is in the trunk and kill switch is in and wired up. A/C compressor and bracket are off and I installed a shorter belt so the alternator still works without having to rig up an idler setup, the belts are REALLY close, but it's tight enough where it doesn't wobble and hit each other. It's sitting in the garage right now idling with some fresh premium in it trying to burn off the rest of the old gas. Anyways, here's a few pics, I'll upload a couple more tomorrow when I get back to the shop and can upload more, dial-up sucks.





 
#25 ·
Yep, she's totaled and without a-pillars and a windshield there isn't really anyway of working around the salvage title so it won't ever see the road (legally anyways again).

Here's a few more pics I had on my camera:

Ride height and wheel gaps as of right now (1.5" higher in front and 7/8" higher in the rear than stock), gonna squeeze some megan lowering springs in under the budget and get it back down to just a hair lower than stock in the front and probably about .5-.75 lower in rear when all is said and done




Here it is without the A/C compressor on there. Really close but doesn't touch even when revved to 6k



Kill Switch in driver's side cowl area:


Couple more random pics


 
#26 ·
Question; why is your + cable bigger than your -?

Also, you should have a grommet in the hole where the + cable passes thru the frame. It will only take a little rubbing for the frame to cut right thru the insulation, blowing your main fuse.
 
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