Imagine the scene; a crowd of car enthusiasts huddled in a group on a Saturday night gossiping about the performance increase with a K&N filter or fully-sik 2-inch exhaust. One of the young Hyundai enthusiasts - who must have stepped up from a Datsun 120Y - tells the story how he can now pull away from a 3-0-litre VL Commodore at the lights. And then you decide to add your two cents worth from afar. "I know that when I switched to stronger rods in my Accent it made all the difference - I can now boost it so I've got over 450hp at the wheels - all four wheels. It's done 10s down the quarter mile, which wasn't too bad considering it was wearing street tyres..."
Now that's how to stop a conversation dead in its tracks!
Being a cheap'n'cheery mode of transport few enthusiasts ever modify a Hyundai beyond simple bolt-ons; it doesn't usually make much financial sense. This example, however, is a purpose built drag car that's built to upset, running a Mitsi VR4/GSR/Evo driveline and pumping out over 450hp at the wheels; it's the product of a truly demented mind!
A syndicate of three people in South Korea owns the car and the build-up project was entrusted to Sydney's Tony Rigoli Performance way over on the other side of the world. So why on Earth go ballistic with a Hyundai Accent you ask? Well, Hyundais are big stuff in Korea and the owners' original plan was to build up a 10-second Lantra; this changed when the Accent was brought onto the market to replace the faithful Excel. The Rigoli guys recognised that cracking 10s with a front-drive chassis would be a challenge, however, so convinced the owners to make the move to AWD. A Mitsubishi driveline, it seemed, would be able to fit quite neatly...
Upon depositing a sum of money into the Rigoli bank account the guys bought a brand new Accent and tore it apart in a manner that would have you fall to your knees. The first job was to annihilate the rear of the car in preparation for a complete rear-end swap. Lower arms and struts from a local Mitsubishi Lancer GSR (the 1.8 AWD model) were slotted in along with a mini chrome-moly tubular rear frame. An Evo Lancer diff was installed initially, but later blew at the track; a standard GSR diff is now in service for the time being but is soon to be replaced. Rear suspension is pure Lancer GSR, while the front-end retains Accent suspension hardware - Sam Rigoli says some suspension work is likely in the future. Oh, and the brakes are standard as well - this isn't built as a circuit car.
Sam Rigoli tells us an original (but shortened) GSR tailshaft slipped under the Accent's bum with a minimum of hassle and off-the-shelf GSR rear axles were a perfect fit. Further toward the business end, you'll find - yet again - a standard Lancer GSR 'box; Sam says their gears are quite beefy and strong, not like a standard Subaru 'box.
And what kinda engine is being used to power this Accent down the quarter mile in 10-seconds? Well, you won't recognise anything as standard Hyundai that's for sure! The boys dropped in an ex-Mitsubishi Galant VR4 4G63 2.0-litre DOHC, 16-valve, turbo motor that's equipped with an Evo Lancer head, reground cams (to HKS 262 specs), adjustable cam sprockets and heavy-duty valve springs. The head itself is left un-ported - gotta love the combination of big turbos and a modern engine design!
The bottom-end has caused a few dramas along the build up trail, however. A combination of Wiesco forged pistons (delivering a static compression ratio of around 7.5:1) and custom billet rods let go in spectacular fashion during an all-out dyno run - the rod all but snapped in half, mangling a piston and ruining the block in the process. That particular dyno run, mind you, involved 48 psi boost and a power plot surging past 520 horsepower at the wheels...
After this incident - which remains a source of much amusement in the workshop! - a set of Eagle rods and Aries forged pistons were slid into a replacement block. Sam says the Aries are quieter and more stable from an expansion point of view. The block and head have been O-ringed, head studs are employed and a 2mm copper gasket is the meat in the sandwich.
Pushing the 4G63 to such extremes is a giant Turbonetics T66 roller-bearing turbocharger and 42mm external wastegate package. These serious bits of hardware are united to the engine with a custom tubular exhaust manifold, which is HPC'd to keep under bonnet temperatures down and to maximise turbine efficiency. Induction air is sucked directly from a hole punched through the right headlight - no filter is used - and is blown through a giant Hybrid front-mount air-to-air intercooler measuring 600 x 300 x 76mm. A TurboSmart Type 2 blow-off valve flattens any induction piping pressure spikes and allows the turbine to maintain good pace during gear changes. The intake manifold is a relatively small volume part that was pulled from a US-market Eclipse.
With a vast quantity of air blowing into the engine an equally vast quantity of fuel has to be tipped in as well - but more than usual since the lads decided to run with methanol. A total of eight 1750cc methanol injectors are aimed down the 4G63's throat - four primaries are used for boost pressures up to 30 psi, after which the secondary four are phased in. These massive injectors are hung from custom rails and are fed by three Bosch Motorsport pumps drawing from a 10-litre fuel tank in the inner front guard. Controlling the injectors is a MicroTech MT8 programmable ECU, which is also tied to twin MSD DIS2 units and Blaster SS coils. Spark energy is a major issue when you're making outa-this-world combustion pressures.
Body wise, the car is standard all the way down to its factory yellow paint - which means a considerable amount of weight can be pulled out using fibreglass panels. The only real give-aways to the drag racing performance is the battery isolation switch poking out what used to be the right headlight and the 215/45 Falken Azenis rims on 17-inch aftermarket rims. A full-length 3-inch exhaust (fabricated by Liverpool Exhaust) can also be seen poking out the rear; this was required for competition at the Eastern Creek drag strip.
Take a peep inside, though, and it's obvious this ain't your average Accent. The accent here is on lightweight minimalism, with just a race seat and harness for the driver and custom aluminium trims for the doors and dashboard. Luxuries extend to a Momo steering wheel and a MicroTech LCD dash. Stereo? Well, there's a big 3-inch exhaust and a whistlin' T66 turbo to listen to!
A project so off-the-wall gets those people involved in the build ultra enthusiastic and, well, the Rigoli lads just couldn't stop once they'd set to work. Even though they'd only been paid to make the conversion to AWD, they went the whole hog and wrapped up the entire development; before they knew it, the car was ready for competition. Curiously, the South Korean owners took a couple of years to pick up the phone and ask how the AWD conversion was going; you can imagine how surprised and delighted they were to hear the car had already been completed! Not only that, its performance had been established in some very concrete terms...
With the stronger Eagle conrods fitted, the engine has made 454hp at the wheels on a modest 30 psi and with the mixtures a bit on the rich side; Sam says it can make 490 reliably on 33 psi and with the tune sorted out.
And drag times? Well, there were initial problems with the clutch making gearshifts very difficult; the best time it managed in the first round was a disappointing 12.1. With a new twin-plate clutch fitted and some tinkering with linkages, though, the car then blasted down the blacktop to record a 10.8 at 135 mph - and that was on those Azenis street tyres! Seriously fast! On its next appearance, the car was wearing a set of Mickey Thompson slicks but, well, the stress of a full-bore launch was too much - the front diff and tailshaft went BANG!
As Sam says, the car is currently "over-tuned" for the South Korean owners' requirements - their tracks are, apparently, better prepared and slightly shorter than Australian tracks. Plans are to fit a slightly smaller turbocharger, ease off on boost pressure and switch from methanol to C16 race fuel. Sam explains that the smaller turbo arrangement should enable easier launches (as there is less chance of bogging) but comments that, in its current configuration, boost comes on quite early - about 3500 rpm. It is expected that the final set-up before being sent to Korea should be good for around 400hp at the wheels and easily capable of running 10s on their local tracks.
"So, tell me about that 2-inch exhaust again..."
Contact
Tony Rigoli Performance
+61 2 9726 6662
