The Cal-look Lounge

Hello all,

Its been a very long time since doing a build thread and now I have another project, mean while my respectful 'Never Forgotten' VW Gasser has changed hands, id thought id bore you with this one... ::).

So back in July 2021 the previous owner of the John Maher Racing chassis oval car had a engine fire when the pauter block threw a rod, Causing some serious damage to both the car and engine... however the safety equipment did its job and he was safe...!.

This is where I come into the picture, at this point I was given the opportunity to upgrade my racing programme with the offer to buy the car (which i did and I've never looked back).

Pre fire:

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Post Fire:
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Thank you for reading and i hope you like this thread as i update it during the rebuild phase (Lots to catch up on  ;D)


Clarke

Well as you can see there was a lot of work to do but also a great opportunity for me to upgrade and put my very own stamp on the car that had a good history link to the VW Drag racing scene.

Here's where i was very grateful, yet lucky to have the previous owner commission so much work to build the original car up to modern safety and tech standards of the car. Giving me a great chassis platform for my racing programme to work with and hopefully achieve some great times and also make my own history with the car.

Thanks to McCallan Automotive for adding a funny cage, panel work, mounting the racetech seat and front suspension upgrades to name a few.

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So over the last 2 years I've slowly been changing things on the car that i was ether not happy with or I wanted to upgrade for the benefit of the project and the goal I want to achieve with it.

First job of course was the strip down to see what could be reused and what couldn't be. Thankfully the chassis was powder coated so that held up pretty well with the fire, however unfortunately the body didn't which would require repair work and paint at a later date.

The biggest and time consuming job was stripping all the aluminium panels of the car to clean and put back on, this is where i had a idea and a vision of how I wanted the car to look and made sense at the time to powder coat it all in a semi gloss black.

This of course will be more durable in a fire again (I hope NOT  ::)) but also changed the look of the car straight away and was very pleased with the outcome.

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Upgrades ;D

This is where I went off the rails a little bit with the build itself but was and has been so worth it in the long run. I was and still able to continue to finish this car to the best of my budget can allow me too, hoping that I have something cool, fast, future proof in the long run. - (noticed I didn't use 'reliable lol :D).

Ive added and changed the following,

- new dash and layout of gauges, position of shift light and tacho, tablet for the digital dash on the Maxx ecu system, fire extinguisher activation box.
- new dual adjustable by car sponsor GAZ Shocks (currently fitted with 700lb springs but will corner weigh the car on completion and order the correct rated springs for the car).
- new Racetech car seat cover as the other one melted from the fire (wasn't the nicest purchase on the bank card :D).
- powder coated the wheels to much delight of a good friend of mine haha. - The semi gloss black gave it a modern look that linked to my vison on the revamped car.

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And this is where the project went silly lol...

Under crap circumstances I was given a opportunity to upgrade my gearbox to something special. This is where the build went mental but for the better...!.

After much thought and with the ability to sell my race spec'd turbo bus box, I was able to upgrade my race programme to a fully sequential race bus box with some outstanding design features which required a serious look and re jig of the cars drive train combination and parts.

It was a mission but i managed to fix the box in the car ok, along with fitted the new and improved ladder bars made by McCallan Automotive (please don't ask why haha ::)). This also allowed me to upgrade the car to air shift capability and also air release system for the chute.

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More of the upgrades :o

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Moving on rebuilding the car, came the challenge on what to do with the car. Ie name and look of the car. This took time but decided to keep a link to the cars history but give it a modern look and feel to the new improved car which was built in the 90's.

So with the permission from John himself I decided to name the car JMR 2.0 and had a vision on a modern promod look to the car with a complete new livery. From here with great recommendation I reached out to Darren at Power Race Graphics to take my vision and put it down on paper or jpeg lol. Darren has been involved with some of the nicest and fastest drag race cars here in the UK including Andy Robinsons Promod.

We spoke and i gave him the ground brief of what i was thinking and let him roll with the design and concept.

JMR 2.0 Livery 8)

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Needless to say Darren nailed the concept what i had vision and feel it brings a new fresh look to the car, but keeping links to its history.

Many months past in 2022 and 2023, Then last month back in June something big happened...! a huge step forward with the rebuild project itself.

So working away overseas with limited leave dates back home I had the task to reassemble the car to be prepared for the body repair work and fresh paint to be laid down, a couple of late nights the car was ready to be collected to start the major revamp of the car.

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its PAINT TIME...! well not quite, I decided to ask if Bruce at WRP Paint & Restoration would like to do the work and bring this car back to life. It was such a great service and experience with the work Bruce did on the car bringing back to life on the repair work.

After much thinking and test samples, I chose the colour which I think made the car so slick and modern using a BMW metallic Red, with a stage 1 pearl and lovely shadows in low light and insane change in the sunlight.

Repair and Body work prep stage 1:

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Lets skip to the good part ;D

Over a 3 week preiod during June it finally happened. The car was fully repaired from the fire, fresh new paint laid down and then graphics added thanks to some very talented people involved in the project.

First comes a vison and a well executed design livery of the revamped JMR 2.0 from Power Race Designs.

Secondly a huge thank you to Bruce at WRP Paint & Restoration for the unbelievable repair work and painting the car a awesome finish.

Then comes the amazing work and support from 3SixtyWraps for making the livery a reality, but tuning out far better than I could imagine.


JMR2.0 Livery to Reality :o

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From here without my best mate taking some photos of the JMR 2.0 finished with all the paint work, graphics installed along with the sponsors and supporters of the project, I was sent these and wanted to share with you all.

I'm very pleased how its come out and hope I've done the car justice with a modern look to the OG car but more looking like a vision in my head. Still to date I've not seen the car in the flesh due to returning back overseas for work on the day the car was collected and secured back at my unit.

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I finish this thread this a current progress update after the mile stone of the rebuild from repair to paint.

We have everything ready for the new power plant to be assembled, Once built and fitted back on the car we can look at arranging the new exhaust and inlet to be made with the new heads and turbo combo we have for our race programme.

Thank you for your time to read this, I hope you like and if you do then follow the cars progress on here and Instagram @jmr_vw_promod2023

regards,


Clarke and the JMR2.0 Race Team

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PS the vert isn't mine lol - Another completed ECU installation and configuration from LP Motorsports

Woow very cool. Nice work.

Wait. What!?! a fully sequential bus box?  :o


Your car is very cool. Well done Sir.

What a fantastic job, i saw it at Dave's when he was selling off oil etc after the fire never thought it would get such a thorough update.

Nice job!  :)

I’m a bit confused with three line locks inside the cabin?

The far left is clutch management, but the two others? Is it for the dual staging brake master cylinders? One front, one rear?

I actually don’t know lol… this was a system my best mate put together for the previous owner and used in a few other cars he’s worked on.

I’ll try and find out.

Impressive workmanship! Looks very cool.  8)

(Note to self: when did race cars get so complicated?  :o  ;D )

Thank you all for the kind comments, hopefully with the spec and configuration along with race proven technology it will deliver some impressive numbers.

However, I think I mentioned it further up on the post that I’ve got a lot of learning to do with this car, which I really can’t wait to get in and drive it.