According to African legend, the wildebeest was put together by God using leftover spare parts. The results weren't the prettiest creature in the world, but effective.

After nearly ten years in business, Helix has accumulated quite a few spare performance parts, some quite tasty, some less so. We've even accumulated a spare mini: one we Frankensteined together a couple of years ago and has served as my wife's daily driver/kid hauler. Here it is:



Now the boys are getting older, we're either faced with amputating their legs or getting a car with a little more leg room. We've opted for the bigger car. we can finally put all of those good (and maybe not-so-good) leftover performance parts together to make the Wildebeest, and we're going to do it at the dragon.

This ain't no paint and paper job. We're going to crack open the motor, replace the Intake, pulley, exhaust, head, cam, injectors, tune. We're going to replace the suspension, overhaul the brakes, shifter, install a rollbar and custom seats. We're going to give it a complete vinyl wrap in a custom color (not your typical MINI color). The goal is to not spend money on new parts, just elbow grease. We have at least one vendor who will sponsor the Wildebeest with their wares and skills--to be announced very soon.

This whole project will absolutely, positively have to get done by the time we leave the Dragon, because it's our only way back (or should I say, it's Alex's only way back). Ralph, Eric, Alex, Mikey, will do the work on the car, with a little bit of help from handy friends-of-Helix. We're going to do what it takes to get it done.

Stop by the Helix tent periodically to see how we are coming, and maybe lend some encouragement, unless you'd like to see Alex's forced relocation to Fontana.

 

That's an awesome idea! Can't wait to see it.

 

It would be fun to watch a time lapse recording after you are done.

 

Sweet! Looking forward to hearing how this turns out

 

Oh, sounds fun! I cant wait to see it.

 

Alex is quite a photographer. I'll ask him if it's possible.

 

That's awesome!!!! Can't wait to see some pics!

 

WOW!! You know I'll be stopping by!

 

Very cool project... I'll definitely be following your progress at the Dragon.

 

The parts-gathering for the Wildebeest is gaining momentum with two key sponsors coming on board for the build. First Jan from RMW tuning has kindly offered his tuning skills which will be absolutely key in the project. We are using a hand-ported JCW head, with 520cc injectors (from our old TurboKompressor kit) combined with a hotter cam courtesy of FES and Dr. O. The motor would quickly make quite a mess of itself without Jan's generous time and effort.

We're also adding to the aero package with the help of Group 4 Autosport in the form of their front splitter: a fully track tested piece that has improved road-course lap times by more than a second per mile. Apparently, they have also crash tested the splitter, which popped off the car during an agricultural excursion. It was later easily re-attached. We're not planning to conduct any such tests.

In the mean time, we're doing more pre-dragon prep, including match-porting the intake runners and smoothing the intercooler bull-horns. More to come...

 

Sorry for the camera phone jiggly shot, but here's the hand-ported head, next to a stock head. Note the size difference in exhaust ports:cornut:



On the other side, the intake runners will be match-ported to the intake ports.

 

Home made seat bracket.

 

And the final (almost) product:



Drove home without a hitch. More details to come.

 

Saw you guys taking 'er for a shakedown, congratulations!

 

Nice job Eric and the Helix team!!!

Long hours looks like they really paid off.

 

CONGRATS!! looks great!

 

Hey guys, this is Alex... Im the redheaded Helix guy who you saw staring at this car for 4 days trying to make it completely green. Took some pictures along the way and wanted to post them up.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and encouraged the helix team to continue on the build even through the late hours. I am very proud of how the car turned out and I hope you enjoyed watching the transformation.















































BEFORE:



AFTER:

 

The car looks unbelievable (pictures don't do it justice.) Did you end up getting everything done you had hoped to at the Dragon?

 

Wellllll, not exactly. We didn't get to do all the mechanical and brake work we had hoped to do. We'll finish it here on the weekends. One thing we didn't get to do was to have RMW, one of the project sponsors tune it. That'll have to be done next time he's here in Philly.

A BIG THANKS is due to Group 4 for donating one of their splitters to the project. The quality and support were second-to-none. We look forward to installing many Group 4 products in the future.

Also thanks to Chili MINI PA for donating the stone guards and about a gallon of Black Wow--probably the first time in its life that the car has seen a car care product.

 

I caught up with you on I-81 around the WVA/MD state line. I was in a

Astro Black R53 but with all that rain it was hard to tell what any color

was.

 

May I ask what fairing and rack you have on the roof. I also have the factory roof rack and I am looking for a rack.

 

Yup, I saw you from our beautiful 1996 Ford F250 (305,000 miles and counting)

That's the factory rack, and a home-made fairing from Home Depot plexiglass and vinyl wrapping courtesy of Alex.

 

Looks good, I have never seen a wrapped bumper up close, I guess it is a 50' car. How about a pic with the door open so we can see the blue? I have NEVER seen a picture of a wrapped car with the door open.

Nice work!

 

Nice work!!!