V1 Dastrups Track Goblin #243 - 08 SS TC

[dastrups]

In a lousy attempt to make a build log, I am going to post pictures of the process that I started back in October of last year and just give a few details along the way. I have never been good about writing things down. Luckily I took plenty of pictures and have the memory of it all fresh in my mind. I will add a little at a time until I am fully caught up.

I want to say thank you to all those who have helped me through the process. I really appreciate all of the help. Looking back, I may have bit off more than I could chew in taking on this project. It has been a big learning process. I will post a little at a time throughout the coming weeks.

 

[dastrups]

I had known about the DF Goblin for a few years but didn't have the funds to purchase and wasn't sure if that was the kit I wanted to settle on. I had looked at the exocet as well but ultimately wanted a setup like the ariel atom. After seeing the video of Justin Reed doing donuts I was sold.

Here is a picture of the donor. Had a crazy time trying to find a TC donor. I had the most success on facebook marketplace. After three months of searching I found this 2008. The car was in good shape on the exterior but the engine had problems and with 176,000 miles on it I was already looking for a crate motor and tranny.

 

[dastrups]

Here are some pictures of the teardown process. As weird as it sounds I had some of the most fun tearing down the car. I was able to sell off many of the parts on facebook marketplace or ebay. I payed about $3000 for the donor which was not the greatest of deals. Got a bit desperate. I was able to get just under $2000 back in selling parts so it ended up working out okay. Taking out the dash was intense. I luckily had my wife to help me. She has become accustomed to me opening the garage door and yelling, "honey, I need your help!". I removed the engine by cutting out the front portion of the frame and giving myself a little more room. This made things a bit easier. I didn't think I would have much luck selling the frame.

 

[dastrups]

This should give you guys a good laugh. I was told by several junkyards that in the state of California you have to have a junk title for them to accept the frame. I really did not want to give the title up in case it was needed for registering the goblin. Well I read online that if you cut it up in to at least a certain number of pieces that they will accept it and that’s what these other guys found success doing. Well even after taking it to three different junkyards, they all denied me. Turns out there are a lot of people willing to take it off your hands that swear they’ve done it before and they have a “friend” at the junkyard who won’t have any problem with it. Stripped the VIN numbers off and said have at it. My neighbors weren’t too sure about me after this one haha. Had to do a lot of explaining myself.

 

[dastrups]

Re-wiring the harness took me about a month. Not hard but tedious. Looking back I would have just paid for the service. Great to be able to say I did it. Had one major issue where when I put it in the goblin and hooked it all up the car would not start. With absolutely no electrical experience I decided to send it in to DF to get it looked at. They found the problem without having to dig too deep. Turned out to be a shorted out data wire. Not sure how I goofed up that one. Ross on the forum was trying to tell me that but I had no clue how to diagnose it so I gave up. Super grateful for everyone on this forum. Can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been stuck and received help from you guys. Got it back and the car fired right up. All gauges working properly. We’ll sort of. I had plugged the speedometer plug into the coolant temp plug and vice versa so my car was throwing a code. Finally figured it out and got them switched back.

 

[dastrups]

This was where things got pricey. With 176,000 miles on the donor I was not interested in using the engine and tranny. I purchased a crate LNF from ATK performance. I also purchased an F35 with the quaife lsd installed from DF. I went with the Fidanza light weight flywheel and the clutchmasters fx300. Spare no expenses! Haha. My wife hasn’t been too keen on the whole idea. What was once a $20,000 dollar project has quickly become more like a $40,000 dollar project. I haven’t been keeping track but luckily my wife sternly reminds me every month how much I’ve spent so far haha.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

My wife has given up at this point reminding me how much money I have already spent on my 'retirement' hobby - and I still have a bare frame and an engine/transmission I'm pushing around on a cart. Just remind her it's a male sanity thing and could be a lot worse - spending nights and weekends at the bar.

 

[Chris_WNC]

I started a spreadsheet at the beginning. Week three after ordering the chassis I deleted it.


CHRIS

 

[k.rollin]

I started a spreadsheet at the beginning. Week three after ordering the chassis I deleted it.


CHRIS

I haven't deleted mine yet, but it also hasn't been updated since I placed the order for stage 2 back in 2018 lol

 

[dastrups]

My wife has given up at this point reminding me how much money I have already spent on my 'retirement' hobby - and I still have a bare frame and an engine/transmission I'm pushing around on a cart. Just remind her it's a male sanity thing and could be a lot worse - spending nights and weekends at the bar.

Haha sounds likes a success to me!

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Haha sounds likes a success to me!

It took 40 years of marriage to get there tho...

 

[dastrups]

Definitely one of the most exciting days of the whole process. Kind of like Christmas. I was shocked by how small the frame was. I still am actually but I love that about the goblin. Couldn’t help but get inside as soon as I had stripped all the parts out. I was all too eager to get the frame powdercoated and get started on the build. Looking back I think I would have assembled first and gotten things all figured out and then disassembled and powdercoated. I like how some people have done that. I definitely would have kept the powdercoat in better shape.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

And we all know the first time you climbed into the frame and sat there with the pretend steering wheel in your hands, making motor sounds, thinking about how cool the Goblin will be - if I can just get it built!

 

[dastrups]

Installed these today. Would like to have a tilton pedal set but for now it sure feels better than the stock setup. Now if I could learn how to heel and toe. Hopefully the gas and brake pedal aren’t too close. With the manual brake setup they come up even with each other on med/hard braking. Feels about right but I won’t be able to drive with a regular shoe. I imagine the race shoes are not too wide. We shall see. Not only learning how to work on cars but eventually learning how to race. Only experience I have is with motorcycles as of yet so it will be fun to really get to know this car in the future.

 

[Rttoys]

Not only learning how to work on cars but eventually learning how to race. Only experience I have is with motorcycles as of yet so it will be fun to really get to know this car in the future.

The biggest difference is you turn the steering wheel left to go left and right to go right, plus you don’t have to worry about body position. Driving cars is just weird.

 

[dastrups]

The biggest difference is you turn the steering wheel left to go left and right to go right, plus you don’t have to worry about body position. Driving cars is just weird. View attachment 27953

Haha love it! What I really want is to be able to get to a point where I can safely and competently push to the limits of traction while still feeling in control. Master of the machine. It would be cool to learn how to drift too but this isn’t exactly the best setup for drifting.

 

[Rttoys]

Tires are the biggest thing. I had bfg something something sport tires 400tw and they were all or nothing on the traction. There was no “drifting” or recovery once they let loose. I switched to Toyo R888r’s at 100tw and there’s great feedback, with control, when the tire does let loose. Easy to recover. Gotta get tire pressure down correctly though, but you probably know all about that.

Did or do you do any racing or just track days? I “race” a ninja 300. I use that term loosely, though. I have had my cmra license for about 4 years now, but still a novice and run mid to back of the pack. Those guys are smoking fast and I’m just not committed enough to be that competitive.

 

[dastrups]

Tires are the biggest thing. I had bfg something something sport tires 400tw and they were all or nothing on the traction. There was no “drifting” or recovery once they let loose. I switched to Toyo R888r’s at 100tw and there’s great feedback, with control, when the tire does let loose. Easy to recover. Gotta get tire pressure down correctly though, but you probably know all about that.

Did or do you do any racing or just track days? I “race” a ninja 300. I use that term loosely, though. I have had my cmra license for about 4 years now, but still a novice and run mid to back of the pack. Those guys are smoking fast and I’m just not committed enough to be that competitive.

That’s really interesting actually. It will be fun to try some different tires over the years. I’m running the Nankang AR-1 and I have no idea how it will behave other than what the reviews have said. Still waiting on plates so only been around the neighborhood.

What tire do you like better? Do you know what pressures you have been running cold and hot?

I just did a trackday or two a year. Nothing impressive. Money was tight at that time. Miss it a ton. I want to get back into it in a couple years. Took a step away from bikes for a little. I lost my Dad in a motorcycle accident last year. That’s basically what pushed me to sell the bike and get into this. I miss the bike so much though.

 

[dastrups]

Sounds stupid but it would almost be fun to buy a separate set of rear wheels with a drift friendly tire compound and do some drift trackdays just to learn and understand the car a bit more. I’m sure it’s a difficult platform to drift with on such a short wheelbase and with the weight bias not being ideal. Still would be fun.

 

[Rttoys]

I can understand the bike thing. I have lost plenty of friends on them. Hell, I should be dead by now after a few of my crashes. One completely unexplainable.

anyways………

Our biggest problem is how light we are. You can throw just about everything you know about sports cars out the window. When I run autocross I’m only running about 11psi front and 15 rear. I bring them up to 20 psi when I’m on the street. I bring the pressure up on the street is because the tires seems to vibrate at sustained highway speeds if the pressure is too low. 20 seems good for street use.

love my R888r’s. Can’t say anything about anything else on the more race type tires because I haven’t used them. But love the r888r. I’m trying to avoid a track setup and street setup. I drive it so little on the street, I figure a race setup with some street use, would work fine. On my bikes, they are all set for track use. This works well for the street. Very confidence builder.