We haven’t updated you much on Project Elantra. From the previous post on it, we haven’t exactly been idle with it. We’re still going one step forward, two steps back with our crabby competition car. But surely it has evolved, much in the same way as we ourselves have.
This website was started as a web log in 2011. It has been 6 years hence, and today we find ourselves running a little talyer called Kuhol Garage. Much has gone on in those 6 years, and much has been done to our ratty race rod.
When we started writing about this project, it was already a modified car, and we were just fiddling it to race in a slalom event. As I write this, we will be fiddling it to race in this weekend’s slalom race. Nothing has changed, yet everything has.
What was once a janky, scuffed, black exterior has become, well, less scuffed. And a whole lotta less blacker. In fact the opposite of black.
I’m proud to say we did the paint and body work in-house. The color used was K92 BC White, the most optic white I could find straight from the can, with streaks of Weber flat black on certain panels like the hood, front fender flares, and the steel rear bumper supporting the 3D aerofoil.
That GT wing is an unknown brand that I picked up from a random Cavite surplasan. I had it for a year or so before having the chance to mount it to the car. We fabricated tubular mild steel supports (aluminum plate is très coûteux), bolting it directly to the chassis for proper transmission of aero loads. We eliminated the stock rear bumper for this purpose. We made some bash bars to protect the body from collision, also fabbing up a mount for a pintle hook should we want to install one.
We added a little KDM touch with OEM badging on the trunk lid. The Avante emblem is for an MD Elantra, I think. We also added the ‘200 Turbo’ badging from the Korean model of the Genesis Coupe 2.0T. Our car is after all a 2.0 turbo.
A lot has been done to the front end, more than skin deep. Most visible additions have got to be the fender flares and the front splitter. The fiber-composite flares were made to accommodate our wide front tires. Our inspirations were the flares you see in OEM SUV applications. It’s a bit chunky looking but definitely not cookie-cutter.
The front splitter consists of a honeycomb core with a fiber-composite outer layer. The end plates are sheet steel, integrating an air dam in front of the tires to divert air from them. The assembly is supported by a very sturdy bracket below the radiator support, as well as the four tie wires making sure that the edges are taut.
The vented fiberglass hood is an old piece from 2011. It was resprayed to flat black, mounted in a way that it is easily removable from the car, and secured with new flush hood locks. It’s hard to see but the air intake is at the passenger-side fog light hole. Intake piping had to snake through the right headlight to get to the turbo. A LED spot lamp serves as lighting at night, and should work well if aimed correctly. There are also brake ducts peeking through the fog light holes.
Stay tuned for the next installment of this series to check out other updates to the car.