Speedhunters feature number 3…
For my 3rd build feature I really want to change it up for you guys. Personally, I love it when people take a car and modify it in the complete opposite direction to what the manufacturer initially intended. So how about taking a car that was built with cheap mass-production and basic transportation in mind, gutting it, and transforming it into a track warrior?
Well, that’s exactly what Liam from my home city of Melbourne, Australia is doing. The car in question is an X3 model Hyundai Excel (sold as the Accent in America & the UK). As you’ll see from the following images, there’s not much of the original car left, but that won’t lessen the novelty of passing cars on a race track in what looks like an Excel on steroids.
Looking at the image above, we can only start to assume that some extensive work is going on underneath the tame bodywork.
But from the front, the story truly starts to unfold. A full custom built chassis has been fabricated to live beneath the Excel bodywork, housing a mid mounted SR20DE that sends it’s power to the rear wheels. The car is being built to compete in the Australian Sports Sedan category http://www.sportssedan.com.au/
With the body off, the maze of framework can be seen in it’s entirety. The choice of materials are chrome molly and mild steel.
To house the wider track created by the chassis, flared fenders had to be created. First a template was cut out of cardboard…
…and then transferred onto metal.
Moving to the front, we can see how the wider stance is affecting the face of the car. That tame bodywork I was talking about before is long gone!
Peeking beneath the rear of the car, Liam has made allowances to fit a Nissan R200 differential within the custom substructure. Also visible is the rear coilover suspension and custom fuel cell.
Enkei RPF-1’s are no stranger to Speedhunters readers. This particular set are sized at 17×9.5 +38 front and 17×10 +18 rear, with plans to fit 235 Michelin & 265 Dunlop slicks respectively.
So where to now for this humble hatchback turned track contender? You’ll have to follow the build here http://www.hyundaiperformance.com/forums/showroom/82732-hyundai-excel-x3-twist.html to see for yourself. With well over 1000 man hours invested into the job so far and a planned debut in August, it’d be a shame not to.
i epic failed to register on to hyundai performance. for anyone that has followed the build: what are the circular hoops that frame this excel’s custom wide fenders called? they are blue and seem to be rubber. where can they be purchased? thanks
Hey Faraistyle, what happened with the registration? Some forums don’t allow free email addresses to be used for sign-up such as hotmail/gmail etc, just for spam purposes, maybe it was that?
What country are you located in? The company doing the work is called Riverside Racing in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. If you are local you could look them up and give them a call.
the hoops they used to maintain a wheel arch shape looks to be a curved piece of 1″ square tube?
sick !!!!!