Evolution Fleischman Widebody.

We've decided to make some time for our own project cars lately so here's some pictures and ramblings of what we have done with the Fleischman over the years. We intend to have it on the circuit at the Origine RS and on the JL Engineering trade stand.

The car has an interesting background and had been in storage for 15 or so years. It was left in the corner of a workshop, half way through a twin turbo conversion, apparently the owner had died before the conversion was completed. Rumour has it he was a German porn star..

Once Tony Law had acquired the car it was still looking rather unloved. I remember when it was brought back and thinking it could be a big mistake but after a really good clean and detail the car looked like new! As it had hardly seen any road miles the structure and running gear of the car was immaculate with absolutely no rust. Bonus!




So we sourced a set of Le Mans rims for it to replace the 15 inch fagix split rims the car came with and built up the original engine with standard turbo GTA parts to get the car running. Clogged fuel lines and seized pumps caused some delays but it was soon up and running.

Beautiful

We used the car for a couple of years taking it to lots of club events including Macon rally twice, Croix and other various track days and also a couple of Bruntingthorpe testing days. Upgrades along the way consisted of switchable boost control, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, larger turbo and air filter. I made a custom chargecooler using a Cosworth core which worked well. We fitted a Davis Craig electric water pump with digital controller, great product. Although the car ran well and we had ironed out lots of the small problems along the way we wanted to develop the car into something much quicker that we could use on the road and circuit without the usual drawbacks that the GTA is let down by when pushed hard. This is when the car finally came off the road for an extensive rethink.

Love it.
Can't wait to see it in the flesh.
So what wheels does it have now then?

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Nice story and history. Did it actually run as a bi-turbo then , or was it never finished? Wow the wheels it had on it when your dad got the car... beauty really is in the eye of the beholder... even if they had loads more dish, they still would have detracted from the car... As Mr. Singer says, the wheels and rubber maketh the car... Well fond memories going out to Croix with you guys, fantastic weekend that was, must do it this year or I'm simply throwing the towel in...

Martin

Its got new wheels now yes.

It never ran as a bi turbo, it had some cool bits on the engine like a billet distributor with trigger wheel and custom plenum etc. Must have been pretty cutting edge for the late 80's early 90's. All those parts were removed before my Dad bought it. When we removed the engine I whipped the heads off to have a look inside and it had flat top forged pistons in. Weirdly enough I met the original engine builder who worked at green light tuning while the car was being converted.

The original split rims did it no favours, but they look pretty retro now and bidding went mad on them on ebay. Went to Spain in the end. I've seen a set on a turbo 2 and with the right profile tyres they do look cool.

That Croix trip was such a laugh, I remember the sleepless night you had soldering things up before we left after headbutting the patio door our of its runners!! I was worried you'd given yourself brain damage! It was a steep learning curve playing with this car, changing turbos on the side of the road, exploding water pipes and nursing it home from Le Man after it got a pasting around the circuit. We've all got to get to Croix this year without fail!

Here's a few more pictures before we stopped having fun! Le Mans classic 2006 I think and Macon rally 2008 and Nurburgring trip.

So we had an idea of what we were going to try and create, a road going Alpine that would feel at home at any trackdays or possibly some hillclimbs etc. We felt it needed at least 300bhp and a nice torque curve, new brakes, tighter suspension with adjustability built in, an efficient cooling system that could easily cope with flat out driving for at least 30 mins. We would also try and reduce weight where possible. As we were planning to develop the engine and test different ideas we decided to cut out the rear and make a removable brace. This was basically copied from the Legeay Sports A610 that was build for Le mans.



We wanted to relocate the turbocharger from above the clutch slave cylinder to the rear of the car. Benefits of this are less heat soak, shorter exhaust and lots more space in the engine bay. The design was fabricated from our scribblings on the back of a fag packet and fitted like a glove.

[BIG_MVS]

Hey hey hey what's this a pictorial reference document from someone south of Birmingham!!!!!

Nice one John thanks for sharing, very interesting and a cracking car. This intrigues me though, are you pulling our legs?

Rumour has it he was a German porn star..

As Mr. Singer says, the wheels and rubber maketh the car...

That Singer Porsche link I sent you left an impression then Martin? It is staggering engineering for anyone who hasn't seen it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJQ4hQSusjE

4mins 40 in case anyone wonders re the wheels.

Us southerners don't have time for uploading pictures, we're too busy down the gym, getting fake tans and going out down the Sugarhut.

This intrigues me though, are you pulling our legs?

I cant confirm or deny the rumours Im afraid. But what I can do is post some more photos of external wastegates, tubular manifolds and what not.

Custom exhausts with external screamer pipe and baffled turbo dump pipe.


V-band clamped manifolds with the rosejointed alternator adjuster- I make these for all my engines now so much nicer and easier to adjust than the standard item.



New fuel system throughout, the first development 2 1/4'' spring dampers soon to be going with new custom GT3 RS mounts. The tubular wishbones were wrong and didn't work correctly so have also been modified. 330mm disks all round and hubs with all four pressed in studs

We wanted to mount the expansion tank in the rear quarter window so made a template and fabricated an aluminium tank that fits really well in the space. The return is a -10an and the overflow is a -6an. I machined up an aluminium sleeve with the correct thread so we could fit a level sender into the side of the tank. This lights up a warning light on the dash if the coolant level drops.



This was the start of the exhaust downpipe. Its 316 stainless steel, I waterjet cut the flange and added the additional bracket to use as a mounting point for the turbo hanger which will steady the turbo and exhaust. The two m6 studs are the mounts for the heat shield. Its thinwall stainless and now has a single lightweight muffler in the system before exiting out from beneath the bumper.



Fabricated an aluminium turbo drain with -12an fittings to keep the manifold heat away from the braided hose.

Waiting on a few fittings and bits but the engine is almost ready to fire up, looking forward to hearing it- waited long enough. We had a problem with a shoddy fuel pressure regulator so bought a Fuel Lab one, quality is second to none.




Some pictures of the aluminium louvered under tray, stone shield for the radiators and the electric waterpump up front.




Before we cut the comedy length tailpipe down that I kept tripping over we fitted the new rear hatch for the sake of it. Looks pretty mad I think.

Looking good Tony, John.
Love it why the electrics water pump ? Asethetics or just no room with the repositioned turbo. Don't cut that pipe to short john haha

Just watched that video on the Singer Porsches, love Chris Harris, its like Top Gear but for people who actually like cars. Love the attention to detail, very pricey though.

Hey Dave, the water pump was fitted and tested before we took the car apart. Its got some great features with the digital controller. Helps the engine quickly get to operating temperature, does away with the thermostat, it can run for a specified amount of time on shutdown to disperse heat build up and pulses on and off to reduce its draw on the electrical system. Worked really well and frees up a bit of space where the old pump was.

Cool sounds like a bloody good idea!
I've been toying with attaching water lines to my turbos.

Still dreaming though.

Haha

And Martin is right the cover does look good.