-
ODYSSEY in Motorsport: Sponsors of WORLD Racing Car information
Story: WORLD Racing and Chris Rado
For the past 19 months the team over at WORLD Racing have been building a purpose built road race car, an all out killer designed specifically to compete in multiple time attack sanctions such as Redline Time Attack, NASA-Time Trials, Super Lap Battle, and ultimately the mecca of all Tsukuba Circuit in Japan.
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...c_build8-1.jpg
Rado has ran times that are close to many of the unlimited AWD and RWD competitors in his ?Fwing? tC, but with this car he plans on bringing the pain.
The build started at Russ Wernimont's an icon in off-road chassis fabrication and design. Russ basically built the car with 3 key things in mind. Christian wanted a car that would be lighter, stronger, and way more rigid than his current "Fwing" tC because eventually it would see a more powerful Descendant engine package and the all new HP-76Turbonetics turbocharger.
Over past few years, engine builder Gary Kubo had been developing an update to the 2AZ-FE Descendant package that would include a 5-stage dry sump for the oil system a mechanical vacuum pump both very necessary to ensure the engine would retain its reliability while making close to another 200 hp under extreme boost pressures.
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...ntc_build1.jpg
The car remained at Russ's for quite some time while he and the Weismann brothers designed this AWD monster in their heads. The result after multiple hours of R&D on the transmission and stout front end suspension would be a perfect fitting engine package plenty sufficient for competition. The front end was chopped completely off twice before lead engineer Ron Mathis felt we had the best setup for this type of racing. Notice the redesigned exhaust manifold...could this be a sneak peak of what is to come for the next generation of Descendant's turbo kits?
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...OdsseyWR-1.jpg
After 14+ months the build was finally transported over to NuMovementz in Ontario, California where Paul Rivera and Scott Stanwood got down to business right way on the final carbon-fiber body work, naka brake ducts, Percy's window kit, and custom rear-diffuser. A job like this requires extreme patience and attention to detail and with the short 16 day window they were given to get the car finished and make the teams deadline there was absolutely no room for error.
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...ntc_build3.jpg
As the job was completed at Numovementz, the tC was transported to Esteban and his son Damian over at Auto Explosion in Gardena, CA where it was painted in light weight satin black paint throughout to prepare her for the wrap that would finally bring the Team Need For Speed livery to life. Ruben over at Spin Graphics in Huntington Beach is no stranger to vehicle wraps and easily took our rendering to reality on less than a days notice.
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...c_build4-1.jpg
Now that the wrap was installed the car was really starting to look like a car, and it was time for final installation of the Weismann gearbox and live engine commonly referred to as "the bullet". The entire project was built around this particular gearbox, a complex piece of aluminium with hundreds of hours of machining and years of development. Pat, and Chris Weismann have a long history of building transmissions, and lockers dating back to the early 60's and were very successful in Formula-1 among other types of racing.!
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...c_build5-1.jpg
Finally it was time for the wiring harness and MoTeC installation via James Lin a.k.a JMFL. JLM Electonic Solution is the leader in MoTeC tuning and installation and has been working on the wiring schematic, and new steering wheel for a couple of weeks and after hours of tedious work it's finally done. Once the harness was in, the guys installed their ODYSSEY Battery and within a few minutes they fired the car for the first time. Nothing feels better than firing up a new car without a hiccup the first time around.
You could see the weight come off of the teams shoulders and the end result from the well over 20,000 hours that went into this build as the beast came to life for the first time was precious. You could smell the methanol fumes in the air as the car warmed up. The vibe changed almost instantly as the team went from beat down tired to ecstatic. The new engine package definitely sounded much stronger right off the bat and in the words of JMFL it was time to put down some numbers, "fo-sho"!
Check the video to see how the World Racing 2AZ-FE powered World Time Attack car Performs
http://www.streetfire.net/video/world-racing-2010-season-part-7-redline-time-attack-las-vegas_2049437.htm
http://px5.sfstatic.com/thumbs/0002/...2049437_04.jpg
WORLD Racing 2010 Season - Part 7 - Redline Time Attack, Las Vegas