26/08/17 *post 262* Toyotec's 'JENVEE'. The 6 speed era

Thanks for the kind words.
The engine is very throaty indeed and in addition to having a special Hotgolf flywheel, is calibrated to have maximum response.
Best thing about the whole exercise, the main head and block is in no way modified. All standard, all very durable.

I hope to run another dyno clinic type day in the near future, so stay tuned for that in due course.

In hindsight, the pressure in those rear P6000 tyres, were only reduced, due to the feedback, from driving in those conditions on the track and the suspect tire condition itself. They seemed fine on the road, where I could not legally push the car to the same limits, as out on the track.
It is a very different on the current Uniroyal Rainsport 2 rubber, that is run on all 4 wheels, as you will see in another wet video at a different track

 

Eddie,

After your pm I've just caught up with this thread, bloody brilliant!!

Dyno clinic day / meet, yes please..... want to know where mine is sitting compared to the rest of you

 

We swap to Toyo R888 rubber, thanks to a generous Roy8v.

Later that evening we had a chat with Roy8v, another racer from the Production GTI series, who indicated that our rear tyres had possibly gone off.
As he was finished driving his racer around the track, he offered to let us swap to his R888s, as seen fitted to his car in the picture below.



At first we were apprehensive to use R888s in the wet, but then thought that any track tyre must be better than our dodgy rear P6000s. So we swapped the back ones and Henry went out, having driven the car last. Even with R888s in those conditions, with set tyre pressure to achieve around 28-30psi, there was a huge transformation in the corners. No longer did we have to be very careful in balancing the car around corners, we could actually attack them without the need for opposite lock on exit and the back tried to overtake us. After a few laps, Henry started to complain the front Rainsports were now limiting his turn in speed, so we came back to the pits and swapped the fronts to the remaining 888s from Roys race car.



We now had 4 R888s on JENVEE and I was eager to experience the difference before the OPL day was finished. So out I went, this time with Roy as the passenger.

Here is the the video with myself for the first time, being able to drive the car with more vigour!

[youtube]Gmbx5kre_ZY[/youtube]

So there you have it. JENVEE's first ABF trackday. The car has come a long way from my first track outing at Llyden Hill when it was an 8v

For Bedford and now with ABF power, a good gearbox and suspension, the unique opportunity presented itself to look at tires and the effect on maintaining vehicle control in slippery conditions.

Tested that day were:
Crap rear P6000 tyres, Uniroyal RS2 Fronts, with average driver (30-28psi rear with fronts on 30psi for all)
Crap rear P6000 tyres, Uniroyal RS2 Fronts, with race driver (28-25psi rear)
Track rear Toyo R888 tyres, Uniroyal RS2 Fronts, with race driver ( not videod but reported) (30psi rear)
All track Toyo R888 tyres with average driver ( 30psi all around)

Conditions wet.

Many thanks to Henry and Roy for their pointers on that day. Those pointers and tips were very beneficial in subsequent trackdays for the rest of the year, all of which were wet.

In the next segment, after some regular road miles as the daily driver, Taks and I give the car a check over.
I go and get some more experience in the wet with a modern super car.
And JENVEE tackles the Brands Hatch cirucit, along with it's infamous Paddock Hill, in the soaking wet.


Stay tuned Stay optimised

 

Superb read as always Eddie.

Shows you how much difference it makes with some tuition and decent tyres.

Sounds a very healthy car on track

 

Thanks Eddie

Some personal tyre comments:

- I have always found it an advantage to put the best road tyres on the rear of a FWD car ... dry or wet
- Why did you not put the P6000`s on the front, any specific reason ?
- How old were the P6000`s ?

Thank you
Andrew

 

Good point and questions.
I expected to be at the track with 4 Rainsports ( for wet use) or 4 Dunlop Direzzas ( for very dry). I had fitted the front rainsports, hoping to acquire rear jobs in time for the trackday. I was not able to have these tyre sets in time and I was stuck with 2 pre scrubed Rainsports in the front and rear P6000 tyres, used in dry conditions, when the car was an 8v.
In hindsight, we could have swapped the rear tyres to the front, although I believe that would have encouraged serious understeer in those conditions.

The car came with the those P6000s, hence the reason Roy suggested they had gone off on closer inspection. Putting Roy's Toyo 888s on the rear certainly proved this point when the car was driven after.

Thanks to a mishap in logistics, I was able to learn from the day, what I would not have, if I had turned up with 4 rainsport tyres.

 

Great source of informative reading yet again Edd

I do enjoy reading your thread updates. Vids were great too, especially that point where Henry corrected that twitchy rear end!

Will be staying tuned and optimised

 

JENVEE Brands Hatch pre prep, and some modern car wet track experience.

Assessing any bruises from Bedford and my tire collection grows.
As JENVEE returned to daily driver duty, some evidence for wear became more evident.
The exhaust back box, was beginning to hang from the rear support, the clutch seemed to be slipping when shifting quickly and the rear brake seemed to be binding and with little handbrake efficiency. I was also not happy with the gearbox shift quality especially on 4th to 5th changes ( Henry noticed this too on the track)
With a trackday booked for Brands Hatch, there was no way I would turn up unprepared, so to start the improvements, as shown in post 168, the remaining Uniroyal RS 2 tyres were fitted to the rear.
I always had a pair of R888s, used for drag racing. After using Roys 888s at Bedford even in the wet got, another pair to sourced to make a set.



I picked these up from a drag racer, who was moving to full slicks. They maybe used, but these can work even when bald!

Also in case of a warm track, I also purchased a pair of Dunlop Direzza's DZ03Gs to have a complete set.








So my tyre collection is now sorted with Road/Wets, R888s for mildly wet/dry and Direzzas for summer dry days

Some wet track refreshers with a Supercar.
While in the process to rectify serviceable bits of the JENVEE, an opportunity came up to drive Audi Renn Sport (RS) vehicles, at the Stowe Circuit in Sliverstone. So I fired up ol' JENVEE and headed to Silverstone.







Once there, the opportunity allowed me to drive the latest 350bhp TTRS I5,



the 450bhp RS5 V8



and the mighty 550bhp R8 V10 plus around the track (yes the same type of car as seen in the youtube dyno advert).





The drive experience allowed drivers to experience the vehicles on handling (RS5), Elk test (R8 V10+ and RS5), Slalom+Braking (TTRS) and at high-speed around the Stowe circuit course (TTRS and R8V10+). Guess what for the high speed testing, it was wet, in fact many times with standing water! I thought it was brave of the organisers to let us out in the R8 V10 + on a fully soaking wet Stowe with just a radio to communicate with the lead race driver!





However remembering what I had learned on Bedford, I was able to respect the car and feel it communicate with my senses, making it very, very rewarding to drive with all 550 horsepowers all tamed. It did not mean I drove like Miss Daisy though



A big go kart that thing and I left very impressed with it and what ever engineering went into the electronics to keep the chassis always in check.



The TTRS was a also very good and felt like a bigger Golf MK1 track car, that you could go also go to a prom night in.



The RS5 though it had a thomping 8000rpm V8 between the grill, was my least favourite. Still a capable car though.



As I climbing into my rattly Golf Mk2 on the way home, I had time to reflect about the track conditions and the methods of car control I had to employ to keep those RS vehicles on the tarmac. The TT was mostly FWD biased and the R8 RWD biased.

With more wet experience gained, I was eagerly looking forward at Brands Hatch with it's infamous Paddock Hill in JENVEE.

In the next segment

• We borrow a warm garage on a rainy day.
• JENVEE gets some updates.
• I tackle a soaking wet Brands
• Complete brakes fail at Druids Hill.
• And I demonstrate JENVEE is a daily driver, as we complete the school run in the evening.

Stay tuned Stay optimised.

 

Car prepared and ready for Brands Hatch.

Tackling the repairs.
The Audi Experience now history, it was time to concentrate on JENVEE again, now that another trackday was looming. So I head to Delford PT Racing, a Honda specialist, to get my exhaust sorted. We make a custom hanger for the exhaust and eventually get the exhaust tail pipes to permanently to set like this will no knocking on the over axle what so ever.







I had told Delford about my Bedford experience and how impressed I was with the performance of the Toyo R888s. Delford then gave me a pair of R888s, he no longer had use for. I had a pair of R888s that were used for my WOLF R. So it was decided to put these on my remaining Estoril rims and create a full set of R888s as seen in in my first picture of post 189. Thanks Delford

After a few days of daily duty, it was the weekend and on the Sunday, it was pretty crap outside to do some work.
The trackday was the Monday. So I requested some aid from Taks and we went to my man Matt Burgess and the cover of Kilburn Auto, to have a look at the slipping clutch and a dodgy rear caliper.



Prior to this, Richard Mk2 gave me an assortment of rear calipers he had knocking about in his lockup. Back to the garage, and we got the car stripped to swap the clutch.



The gearbox removed, we could see lots of oil in the bellhousing. But we were not sure if it was engine oil or gearbox. On closer inspection of the engine there was a major leak coming from an oil switch. The gearbox seals looked as new, just as when Gurds rebuilt the gearbox.
With the oil switch replaced, rear of engine/gearbox cleaned up and the clutch renewed.











[

We then tackled the gear relay shaft. I had picked up this replacement from MK2 Turbo on here. This replacement had a plastic ball.





Next we replaced the dead rear caliper with a good unit from Richard Mk2.









We topped up the fluids and the car was now rready for the following day.



Thanks Taks and Matt for the assistance

Story to be continued for what happened the following day.

Stay tuned stay optimised.

 

JENVEE tackles a soaking wet Brands Hatch OPL, Oct 2013 *with video*

The School run and Brands Hatch

Next day I get up early and packed the car up with all the gear for the trackday.



After a journey that involved horrible stop start traffic and dropping off my son at his school, I arrived at Brands Hatch for a full day OPL.





Unfortunately the weather had other plans, and by the time I got on track, it was raining. In fact it started to pour quite badly and was greeted by these conditions!



To play it safe, the Rainsports were left on the car and checked for correct tyre pressure.





Then I braved it and wail of a time!

Here is a video of one of my wet stints.

[youtube]ytrzy3i2XRM[/youtube]

http://youtu.be/ytrzy3i2XRM

After killing my brake pads completely, hence the lock up at Druids @09:06, I swapped them for some others that were in my spares and was back out on track for round 2.



The pads also damaged the discs.



However with the DS3000 pads being so abrasive the disks were soon turned down to be 'flat' and lived for another trackday!

Despite the wet, the Rainsports were definitely getting heat into them as shown by this picture.



Later that day close to closing time, the track was forming a dry line,



and the Rainsports were affecting turn in as a result of flexible sidewalls. However, with my son to pick up from school, I there was not enough time to try the R888s which was a shame

Still overall was great day

Tyres and more wet driving skills all helped to keep the car on the asphalt and drive home in one piece.



He was certainly happy to see JENVEE and I return to pick him up unscathed!






In the next segment.
The clutch starts slipping again
I head out the country and on return get ready to tackle Snetterton 300 .


Stay tuned Stay optimised.

Toyotecwerke.

 

cool it`s good to get out in the rain and try the slippery conditions

Is it not worth sticking some new discs on? for what they cost?

 

I did not have another set of disks to swap at the time (but I did have more pads) and I do know the pads would have cleaned them up to allow me to drive the car without, which did happen when I went back out on track.
Time did not allow me to get them changed after the trackday but to help preserve pad life it is recommended to replace and they do cost peanuts. You will see what is meant in the next segment, when Snetterton was tackled.

 

I await the next instalment

 

Coming up...

 

Great video and write up again Eddie, look forward to see what you find regarding the slipping clutch, does your car run a manual or automatic adjusting cable?

What discs do you run with the DS3000 pads?

 

im having clutch issues, im having to take gear changes a bit easier recently as it tends slip a little when i give it everything. looking into black diamond one or similar with a stronger pressure plate now im thinking? mine may have been due to an old oil leak, when i first built the engine i had the oil pressure switch leaking and it ended up all overthe bellhousing etc. sorted the leak and cleaned it all up, but its never felt 100% i get smells of burning clutch even when i pull away quite normally sometimes, i think the clutch plate was contaminated with oil from day 1!
Nice driving and nice car!

 

I have a stock clutch kit and a hotgolf flywheel. Pre- empting my story, I can say the stock items are actually fine in this application and the reasons behind what where my reasons for slip will be shown in proceeding installments of this story.

 

The discs were Brembo or now Padgid jobs std jobs.

 

JENVEE Snetterton 300 Dec 1st 2013

Following the wet trackday at Brands, JENVEE continued to soak up the miles as a daily driver.
Coming to the end of the track experience at Brands, it was noticed the clutch started to slip again. During normal start and stop traffic, there was also the unmistakable smell of gearbox oil burning on the exhaust. Oh dear that meant gearbox removal again

It was November and I had booked a trackday in Snetterton on the first Sunday of the following month. This was done with work colleagues and a couple VW enthusiasts. Regrettably I had to travel abroad due to a death in the family. This meant the gearbox work had to be outsourced, if I were to attend the trackday. The guys at Yaash Motors came to the rescue and pulled me out while I was away.
As I would not present to inspect and determine the root cause, I supplied the seals for the crank PTO, pushrod and input shaft main. The clutch face was requested to be cleaned of any surface oil and reused. I returned on the Friday before the event, picked up the car and did about 150 miles in the city, A and B roads. All seemed well.

Sunday and it was the trackday. The car was packed up with support gear and I blasted up the A11 to Snetterton. Arrive in one piece, so all good so far.



Had the briefing and went out soon after.





It was wet that day however I met up with Production GTI 8v driver roy8v (never lift) who said, "put on the Toyo's you will be fine!"...



Remembering the experience at Bedford, I had nothing to loose, so I did .



Good call that was. Even in the wet, I could carry much more speed, than when fitted with the Rainsport jobs and the car could be pushed until you would slowly feel the backend progressively moving, allowing you to apply throttle earlier with controlled steering angle to keep it on the black stuff.
Got used to it after awhile and went out with roy8v pushing me in the corners with his 8v race thing.

Later a small VW gathering accumulated at the far end of the pit area, comprising of (L to R) Murat in his Golf 2 VR6, Roy in his race car, JENVEE and Jonny in his stripped Golf 2 ABF.




Then I went out again, this time with Jonny as a passenger.
Unfortunately, I killed another set of pads ( due to worn disks) and the clutch started to slip again at the end of the sessions



Regardless I had a great time on track as this video demonstrates.

[video=youtube;9e65-2fSJVc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e65-2fSJVc[/video]

I got my money's worth, so I slipped in my road pads and swapped back to my road tyres and we left.



That was JENVEE's 2013 year from Apex festival to Snetterton 300. From home to the School Run to Work and back. That has been the cycle.

2014

We are now in 2014 and many improvements have occurred since.

In preparation for the great Club GTI Bedford trackday on the 17th of March:

• I travel to Wales to visit Mart (Hotgolf) to fix my weepy gearbox once and for all.
• Mart goes through 020 service and weak points and finds the root cause of the clutch combination all in 4 hours
• I fit a full Hotgolf stainless steel Linkage Kit.
• New headlamps and Osram Nightbreakers make a welcome change from candle light.
• JENVEE's Fahrvergnugen goes some, with the fitment of a OEM Momo Steering wheel.
• And soon a new BC racing coilover suspension kit is to be fitted.

Stay tuned stay optmised

 

Awesome thread this, some really nice driving vids up there too

Always love how much info you squeeze into all these posts - looking forward to the next chapter of the Wolf R as well