For the longest time I've been a huge fan of the 4G15 cars mainly because I've owned 2 (separately) across a span of 19 years, one of which I rebuilt with my own two hands with the help of 2 other friends. I've seen the potential of the puny 4G15 engine (Merrill Performance anybody?) and it being the cheapest car to maintain and own in Malaysia sure helped its case (arguable yes I know, but I have an answer for anything you can throw at me)
DeCatacombs (real name witheld due to circumstances outstanding and will be referred to as 'Bob') opted for the Satria variant of the 4G15, which essentially is just a hatchback housing the venerable 4G15, for his budget no f*cks given racebuild.
Produced since the 1970's, the 40 year old "4G" series engine has countless amount of aftermarket options. Ranging from the premium Japanese import to the cheap and sometimes nasty China copies, there is no lacking of choice for parts. The usual work was done to this 4G15 : mild port & polished cylinder head, 55mm throttle body, 288deg cams, adjustable campulley, valve springs, titanium retainers, lightened crankpulley, 182cc injectors, twin layer radiator, oil cooler, real carbon fiber intake and so on. Since this is a DIY feature, it's expected that everything just listed was DIY installed, and rightly so since these are relatively easy to do given the proper tools. Bob however isn't your average DIY-er. I've seen him concoct up some insane mods that sometimes work, sometimes don't work, and sometimes will destroy other parts that don't quite work with it. One such concoction was the custom teflon intake gasket. I actually have a sheet of teflon sheet bought off Bob some years ago but I couldn't make it work as the intake studs were too short to fit the thick gasket (and I was too lazy to bother to extend them). The purpose of this special gasket was to ensure the intake manifold doesn't soak in the heat from the engine block when in operation. This theoratically ensures the air sucked in stays cool and therefore is dense in oxygen, resulting in a more efficient bang (combustion). Side effect? More power. Does it really work? Theoratically yes. But this is a no-f*cks-given build. If Bob thinks it'll work, he'll install it.
Custom pillow top mount and custom roll center adjustor anybody? While we're at it, let's dial in maximum camber! For the uninformed, the often-overlooked disadvantage to lowering your car is that the roll center drops more than the center of gravity on normal cars. Although lowering the center of gravity is one of the most effective ways to reduce weight transfer, over lowering can cancel any weight transfer advantage that lowering the center of gravity can have. In this case Bob custom fabricated a made-to-fit adjuster to prevent the lower arm from scraping anything during aggressive turn-ins and for assisting with weight transfer cornering he does a lot of in races.
Fully adjustable coilovers make sense in a build like this. If you're going to go racing, whether it's Grass Roots (GRA) or track, adjustable coilovers are a must. If you don't have coilovers and run on stock suspension (or OEM replacement 'sport' suspension) but still manage to achieve respectable times in your races, then my hats off to you because you're either a very skilled driver or a driver with titanium balls!
Bob one day was just hanging out at a friends workshop and just decided to borrow the friends workshop welder and DIY spot weld the suspension towers. He tells me that it was a spontaneous decision, not planned. It was just there so he just decided to do it, like how you'd ask your next door neighbour for eggs because you didn't have any at home for that omelette you were cooking.
As I mentioned earlier, it's that type of build. NFG (no f*cks given). If it works, it works! And yes, those are gorgeously sticky Toyo R888 tyres.
The minimalist cockpit is all in the name of weight reduction. Whatever you see is essentially what Bob needs, everything else was removed. Aircon was removed, carpets removed, stock seats and plastics all removed only to be replaced by a 12-point rollcage, a plethora of meters, Bride seats and a relocated battery hooked up using industrial grade cables. Everything was DIY installed, as mentioned earlier, Bob isn't your average DIY-er. Besides being a NFG build, he also wanted this to be a budget build. Why pay for something you can do yourself right?
The chopped off 2" exhaust pipe is exactly that, chopped off. Right now sporting a straight flow exhaust, the car apparently has an empty 'spot' in the usable power band range and Bob has mentioned that the noise has become somewhat unbearable as well. So the next time you see this car, it'll have a proper muffler installed.
Bob is easily a good 7-8 years my junior and he has a full time job pushing pencils and jabbing computer keyboards. But like all the DIY-ers featured, he has the passion to learn and makes the effort to implement ideas to improve his cars whilst saving money in the process. I've known Bob and the 3 earlier featured DIY-ers (Justin, Johnson and Drex) for a long time but that's not saying much considering I've only ever been online-friends with them, and only just last year have I started to meet them in person. Except for Drex, I turned into his guinea pig for a period of time for some of his DIY experiments back in the day so we communicated a lot in person.
I've learnt a lot from these guys and if there's one thing that's been ingrained and indoctrinated into me, it's that if a mechanic can do it, so can you. All you need is the proper tools and time to learn. Mistakes are part of the learning process and you can only get better!
- Izso
The Heart
4G15 engine - mild port & polish cylinder head
55mm throttle body
288deg Squirtcams
Arospeed adjustable campulley
Jasma valve spring
Jasma titanium retainers
Jasma lightened crankpulley
Custom Teflon intake gasket
182cc injectors
Double layer radiator
Oil cooler
Carbon fiber intake
421 stainless steel extractor
2-inch exhaust
Driveline
Stock manual
Suspension and Brakes
IMPROVE HLSH bodyshift coilovers
Front & rear nylon bushings
Custom pillowball top mount
Custom roll center adjuster
Adjustable rear control arms
23mm front antiroll bar
19mm rear antiroll bar,
Chassis alignment kit
3-point fender bars
Front and rear 1.6 disc brakes
Jasma steel braided brake lines
Slotted & vented front disc brakes
800deg RapidStop brake pads
Racetech brake stopper,
Exterior
Custom fiber lightweight hood
Mitsubishi Mirage front bumper and grill
Interior
Bride lowmax bucket seat
6-point takata harness
Fire extinguisher
Racetech solid and smooth shifter kit
Racetech smooth shifter kit,
12 point bolt on rollcage
Reinforced subframe
Autogage tachometer
Innovate MTX-L wideband O2 gauge
Apexi water temperature meter
Apexi oil temperature meter
Apexi oil pressure meter
Voltmeter
Emanage blue
Relocated battery
Custom internal & external kill switch
