Update: The Team America BNR32 Is On Its Wheels Again!

Brian at Afterhours redid the-oven with more insulation and with better accessibility to the BorgWarner turbo and Turbosmart wastegates. If needed the-oven can also be removed completely. Thanks to Afterhours this is also much easier to accomplish than it was before.

It looks like a grill could be installed there to get some food going if you had to!

The driver’s side of the car has been simplified and is much tidier now. This will help tremendously with any troubleshooting necessary in the future.

The first order was to get the previously installed steering column out since it suffered from horrible flexing under loads. To improve weight distribution the driver was set back as far as possible in the car. This meant a long steering column was needed. The first version of the custom steering column would flex back and forth several inches. As you can see above a properly supported steering column has been fabricated to remedy this issue. A new switch panel the driver could reach was fabricated and installed to the left of the steering wheel.

Previously this entire section of the unibody was cut away and a gaping hole was left behind. There was nothing good about this and it really weakened the chassis. The cage didn’t triangulate to the shock tower either. Afterhours added this rolled and embossed section to repair the void, close off the unibody and triangulated the cage to the shock towers. The car is now a lot stiffer in this critical area and much safer too.

The previous steering box mount flexed and had u-joints with too much angularity in the shaft. All of which was causing binding issue.  A new stiff mount for the steering box was fabricated. This new piece doesn’t move with the steering shaft and has minimal angularity for bind-free operation. All of the improvements combined are a huge improvement over the previous steering system.

18 comments

  1. Awesome, it lives! Always looking forwards to seeing where this puppy goes and glad to see it hasn’t been forgotten.

  2. Mmm… yes, more updates on my favorite car of all time, I was wondering when I was gonna see this beauty again!

  3. Finally!

    Like most, I have been waiting to see this thing tear up time attacks. Great work, and the simplifications are tremendous improvements

  4. Interested to know which drive by wire setup you used with the Tilton pedal box, also which throttle body you use too. Looks awesome, keep at it!

      1. Awesome update, is there one by chance for the 86? I’m curious what had been tried for the bearing issue. Have you used awrx scavenge pump for the heads or is the oil accumulating elsewhere?

  5. Damn finally we get to see this beauty again!
    Any plans for the coming season? It needs to see some time attacks again! It’s been too long.!

  6. It lives!

    Wonderful to see an update on the car’s development. Hope to see it down here in Australia for WTAC sometime in the future.

  7. Mike,
    Any reason you guys decided to route the downpipes/ wastegate pipes under the tunnel instead of routing them out to the passenger’s door?

      1. I see.
        I figured that by boxing the exhaust out of the passenger’ door you can seal up the belly of the car with flat panels…..

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