Well….it’s definitely been awhile. A year and two weeks, or 389 days to be exact. It’s been an interesting journey so far but things definitely slowed down by late October last year. Questions, after questions, after questions flooded in…
“Whatever happened to the Rywire ITR build?”
“Any updates on Ryan’s Integra?”
“When are you going to give us an update on the Rywire ITR?”
“Did he sell the car?”
“Did he abandon the project?”
It’s been a steady stream of questions throughout the 2013 calender year. You never got a response because there wasn’t a response to give. I started answering the questions towards the beginning of the year but it became so frequent that I eventually just either let Ryan answer or just left the questions unanswered. The truth is, the build became less of a priority for both Rywire and ASC Speed Metal. There are a ton of factors to consider, as a whole lot happened since the last update. Some personal, some business, but none of it worth elaborating because, well, it really isn’t my place to say nor is it really anyone’s business to know. Frank as it may sound it is true. The guys at ASC had some stuff going on that they had to take care of, both personal and business-oriented, and they had other projects to finish before they could fully devote their time back into finishing the fabrication work on Ryan’s ITR. It’s not finished yet. With custom fab work you sometimes just never know the time table. They can give you an estimate but those deadlines come and go. When you have other issues to arise, well then, you better expect to wait. We don’t want to sit here and not give you guys any updates. There just wasn’t anything to update just yet. We are all understanding of what everyone has to go through in their everyday lives so it wasn’t one of those things where we would be upset about it. It’ll get done when it gets done, that’s just how it goes. So far, I think I speak for Ryan when I say that we have been overwhelmed by the quality of work that ASC has provided us and we are anxious to get the car back because we want to be able to display their labor and skill for all to see…
On the other hand, Ryan has been pretty busy since late October of last year as well. 2013 was a huge year for him and even if he had gotten the car back from ASC early, it would just be sitting there and collecting dust. He did build himself an E-AT Civic this year, for those of you who might have forgotten. The E-AT is still not 100% complete and whatever free time that Ryan was presented, he devoted it to that project and to get that car running. You got to see the E-AT everywhere this year because it was a priority to get the car out there in 2013. The ITR was put on the back burner because our efforts were devoted to getting the E-AT build out there. The response has been phenomenal, and I don’t think it would have been this great if Ryan had to divide time between two builds…
Whatever the case may be, we finally have an update for you guys, and that is all that is important at this point. It’s not a huge update, but if you’ve been following the build up close, you’ll quickly notice the minor detail changes. If not I will do my best to describe to you what you are looking at…
Since it has been over a year since we last saw the Rywire ITR, I invite you to take a look back and to do some catching up. There are many of you who are new to the site as well so if you are unfamiliar, you definitely need to go back and do some reading. This is a build that you do not want to miss…
The Rywire ITR Build…Introduction…
Now onto the latest developments…
What you’re going to be looking at today is some more updates to the motor, as well as your added fab work within the interior of the Rywire ITR. If you remember, the Golden Eagle intake manifold that was custom made by them just didn’t sit correctly on the motor. It ended up being much too high so it wouldn’t clear the hood so the manifold had to be taken off and redone. Ryan had planned to go with an 8-injector dual-feed set-up so the manifold didn’t look like your conventional piece. They had to figure out how to streamline the set-up once they received the new manifold and ASC altered it some more as to make the entire set-up cleaner…
Here is how the engine bay currently looks. Those of you who have been following the build will notice the new changes. The most obvious is the Golden Eagle intake manifold and the new plenum mount design…
The new plenum mount for the manifold is actually a piece that came from Speed Factory. ASC did the rest of the work and attached it to the custom Golden Eagle center-fed manifold. They weren’t really keen on the original dual feed design where the secondary fuel feed was coming from the bottom-side. With this new piece, all eight fuel injectors will deliver fuel from the top side and will be fed through that custom fuel rail you see pictures. The fuel system is still in its mock-up stages as we do not have the fuel injectors on the car and are just using OEM injectors to test fitment….
Here’s a shot of the Blueprint Racing water pump block-off plate and alternator mounting plate bolted to the motor. The alternator is a B-series piece I believe which is essential to work with the Blueprint piece. Ryan will be running an electric water pump so this is the base plate that makes this option possible. Also not the throttle body mounted to the Golden Eagle manifold. This build, like his E-AT Civic, will also be driven via electric drive-by-wire technology…
This new manifold and fuel set-up is much lower and should have no issues clearing the hood. You can see that the fuel rail is just a raw piece as of now and doesn’t even have the holes made for the fuel lines…
You had a chance to see the custom intercooler done in Part 11, but here are some shots of it on the car with one of the charge pipes completed on it. The only remaining piece to finish off the intercooler piping is the short angular piece that will need to be made to connect the core to the center-feed intake manifold. You can see both unions in the photos above…
Just in FYI, the silver ITR bumper being used is just for mock-up and to check for spacing. Ryan will be using a BackYard Special/Airwalker front bumper…
One of the pieces that was holding up the build back then was the custom radiator. There were some miscommunications between Griffin and Ryan and what core to use and how they wouldn’t have end tanks and what not, etc., etc., but they eventually got a hold of a radiator core. ASC then built the end tanks for it and this is the final result. Take note of the notched corners and the overall detail of the tanks. This is definitely a one-off piece made exclusively for this build. The blue marker indicators on the bottom of the core is where mounting tabs will likely be made to keep the radiator in place…
This is how the radiator will sit on the car once mounts have been fabricated for it. The tanks still need to be modified to hold -AN fittings that fill feed the radiator hoses to the motor. If you are familiar with his E-AT, you should already know which lines he will be using on his ITR…
Front angle of how the radiator sits against the back of the intercooler core…
Here’s a look at the engine bay from the other side….
The final mounting location for the brake resevoirs on his Tilton hanging pedals. This is probably one of the few times you will see these as there is a custom sheet metal cowl that was made to replace the OEM plastic piece…
Like the engine bay, there are also some changes that have been made to the interior…
The most obvious addition was this custom dead pedal that ASC made. This was a bit of a surprise as neither I nor Ryan knew that they had planned to create this cool piece…
An ongoing issue throughout the build has been Ryan’s final seating position in the car. Since the dash, steering column, and pedals are all custom, it is important to figure out how Ryan will sit in the car. The seat brackets and mounts are also custom. Since it had been such a long time since we last visited the build, they had to re-measure where Ryan was going to sit and figure out how the seat would be angled and aligned to work…
A view of the interior from the rear…
One of the new additions is the custom fabricated oil filler neck for Ryan’s dry-sump oiling system. The neck runs from the tank straight into the dashboard where oil will be filled through the dashboard. Pretty interesting idea….
You’ll notice the notch that has been made in the sheet metal door panels for the latch handle that will be later created. One of the reasons why we also went down to visit the car that day was to bring down all the windows and guides for the driver and passenger side doors. Since they are custom door panels, the guys from ASC needed the glass to measure where the top of the door panels need to be cut so that the windows open and close without issue. The top of the panels have already been trimmed but there will most likely be additional modifications needed once the glass is installed. There was always the option to not have any windows at all but it was a unanimous decision to put the glass back in for precautionary reasons…
Here is how the dash looks from the passenger side with the dry sump tank mounted. Once the electronics are in the car, it’ll look signficantly different because all the empty space that was made will be filled…
That was about it as far as updates go. Before we left, Dana showed us these custom trailing arms that he also made for the ITR…
…and here is another look at the control arms that were made by ASC. Not sure if Ryan has any plans to powercoat them at all. Might be kind of cool to just put a clear powdercoat over it to protect it. That way it still retains its very raw appearance. I guess we will deliberate and figure it out later on when the car comes back…
That’s a wrap on Part 12. I know updates aren’t coming frequently but there is definitely work being done. Just please be patient. Whenever there is something important for me to show you guys, I will, trust me. This isn’t one of those things were we are keeping anything from anyone. We are just giving ASC the time and the space to work their craft and when the car comes back to Rywire, I believe the updates will come at a much more frequent rate. For now, sit back and relax just like the rest of us. Thanks for looking…
Interested to know more about that custom RTA. I’ve been expecting a part like this for awhile as this is a significant place to shed some weight.
I’d be interested to know more about the custom RTA’s. This part is long overdo in my opinion as it’s a significant place to shed some weight, but I can understand getting the geometry correct could be difficult.
Good to see some updates on this, now to get this bad bish running, and hopefully see it get its glory that it missed at SEMA
Republicou isso em Curiosidades na internete comentado:
Add your thoughts here… (optional)
Really hope we’ll get to see this thing drive and even race…just more then only pics!…but really impressive what kinda oppurtunities/connections you guys have to create custom builds like this.
Build on!
Will this car be used or just trailered to and from car-shows?
Its a great car done very well, I just don’t understand with all the custom amazing fab work that went into this car, and obviously they are looking for big power if they need 8 injectors…..why choke the shit out of the intercooler end tanks. Theres gotta be a better way, theres no way you can say its not a choke point.
At least thats what it looks like from the pics. I’d really like to see a bottom shot of the cool mounting bar they made for the IC.