along
Great project great charity
Q1) What is a sensible power figure to achieve from the NA engine (i.e. without adding SC or turbo)? Endurance racing is first and foremost about reliability so keeping the car normally aspirated would be a good step in this direction.
On a VQ35DE as Dan (sorry Ekona) said without cams porting etc probably 310 if you get a good one to start.
Q2) What sort of weight figure is achievable? The car would be pared back to nothing - all interior and sound deadening gone, a single light carbon racing seat installed, multi point FIA welded cage, all aircon out, all non-necessary electrics out, all glass bar the screen replaced with lexan, possibly light weight composite panels etc.
Speak to Jez at Horsham Developments he not only did this but has all the weights as he went - you can loose around 200 - 250KG but you can also make the Zed nose heavy - however if you are putting a cage in you put back on what you save but re-balance the car.
Q3) Electrics - obviously with the airbags, stereo, a/c etc all taken out this can mess with a modern car's ECU. Has anyone had any experience of this? Would a bespoke loom be required or could we delicately hack away at the existing loom? Obviously don't want to end up with a dash full of lights or, even worse, running issues.
Yup it is a CAN bus system - you can if careful remove lots of bits but you will get silly results - like take out the aircon controls the fan stays on flat out - remove the fan However if you are going for power you will need ECU work and the best option for cost would be an uprev - that will allow you to disable a lot of the warnings associated with de-cats and wiring removal. If you want traction control (proper traction control) you want a syvecs S6 which will also allow you to get rid of the faults.
Q4) Catalytic Converters & exhaust - these cars will be pure race cars and not road registered. Does removing the cats cause issues with back pressure or are they easy to just bin? We need the cars to be below 105dB at 3/4 revs, that's the only consideration.
They can go - the map will take care of the rest.
Noise will not be an issue on a standard zorst - plenty of aftermarket options that will pass scrutineering
Q5) Suspension & dampers - is there a proven race package available? Interested to know if anyone sells kits.
Also worth a look are tein - I think Clarke Motorsport do a nice setup.
Hope it helps