3.2 24v 4WD Track Corrado, trial build ready for Easter

New cables from Tuthill/Cablecraft. Note the adjustable linkage too, one end is a left hand thread so I can put a spanner on the flat in the middle and turn it to lenghten/shorten the linkage to alter the neutral postion of the lever. M6 ends for rosejoints and ball connectors.



Shifter fitted. I intend to have it fitted a lot higher in the caged shell on a new alloy bracket, incorporating the crank bitand return spring too. But for now it's all experimental just temporarily fixed to the tunnel on a bracket. Once I know it all works I'll weld the proper brackets into the other shell in the correct place up out of the way of the passenger's seat/leg




It's all fully adjustable, will take some setting up but I can fine tune the throw and positions how I want
I still need to make up the mount for the stop which the centring spring rests on. Again this will be incorporated into the new bracket. I can't ally weld so that will have to be another job I sub out to a mate.

shifter tower mods coming next.

 

Good stuff Paul

 

The late nights continue....

Drove to Bradford mid week to collect a Skoda Octavia 4x4 gearbox...he didn't even have one...prick...

Hopefully nutter4x4 has one in the post for me today, cheers buddy! EDIT, yup, here it is! note the 2 needle roller bearings near the cup



In the meantime I tried to fit a passat G60 syncro transfer box, but the shaft wouldn't fit in my diff as it has a washer in the way for bolt in flanges, and the VR6 syncro shaft I have wouldn't fit that tranfer box as it was too long...hours wasted and lots of cursing done... I could have got the passat box to fit by trimming 5mm off the end of the shaft, but it wasn't mine so i couldn't, plus that would have meant my driveshaft would be 5mm too short.

So I took the 02J shifter tower out, removed the old cable mounting pins and fitted the new 6mm dia M8 ones mk2vivs machined up for me, cheers fella.



I'll get some better clips for them when I can find some, for now E clips do the jib, they're just hard to fit and remove.



The left to right movement one is bolted through in the original location, as the throw is adjustable in car at the crank mech I made. The front to back one goes into a cast shifter weight, it has to be flush on the bottom as any nut underneath would catch when you go for reverse, so I drilled and tapped a new M8 hole closer to the pivot (to reduce front to back throw at the lever). I will weld up the old hole eventually, just haven't done it yet as I may increase the pins to M10 if M8 isn't strong enough or may want to move it back to the original hole if the throw is too short. I did want to slot it for adjustment but I can't as it has to be a tapped hole. I could always drill another hole in the gear lever itself if I wanted to alter it further.

It works great front to back, but something on the shifter tower is binding as it's really stiff side to side (up and down on the tower) making finding 3rd/4th nigh on impossible and meaning it's too stiff for the self centering spring to work. I will investigate and sort it some time. the main thin is I can select all gears and it feels REALLY positive, I can't wait to drive it.

If the shaft and brake fitting arrive by Saturday I'm hoping to have it all together and racing at York Dragway this weekend.

 

Mocal oil cooler setup



I don't think I have ever done so much graft in all my life! 3 nights in a row after work up until 11:30pm, then 3 solid 12 hour days. bUt I got it all working and had it down at York Raceway today for it's first outing.

On the trailer late last night



Free plug for Graham Edwards Trailers if I may?

Struggling with grip off the line, just not used to fwd cars, and I've never even driven this one before. 60' times were a good half a second off what I've done in the past and I haven't quite mastered how to get a good lanch with this setup. The clutch bites quite sharply so you can't really ride it off the line, but as it's got a really long 1st and a light flywheel you have to keep the revs up to avoid it bogging or even worse stalling. So that usualy results in wheelspin, which if you back off turns into bogging, so it's best to just ride it out or go for 2nd. once it grip it feels amazing. I am actually in love with that gearbox and shifter, it is immense :-)

A great day out and a good reward for my week of hard graft. I'm gonna have a rest now them get the nitrous kit wired in in time for GTI festival on sunday.

 

good to see some positive progress on it.

 

Looking good Paul

 

Some great progress Paul, are you taking the car down to gti festival at the pod next sunday?

would love to see it!

 

Top Job! I really didn't think I'd see the day where your car would be up and running again.

Maybe I will see you at the Pod.

Gurds

 

yeah, should be doing gti fest and curborough.

 

how was the shifter after?

 

The shifter and gearbox package was everything I hoped for and more. I didn't even have to do any fine tuning to it on the day either. One of the temporary brackets for the crank is bending a little so i'll fix that to sharpen it all up a little more. I can't fault the throw as it is set now but I have scope to be able to adjust that either way should I feel the need.

I was having a feel (ooh err) the other night and I reckon there's less than 1mm of backlash in the entire system. It's rifle-bolt precise, just a bit fiddly to get into reverse.

Picking up the nitrous jets today, a place 4 miles from my house has the ones I need to give a 156bhp shot :-) so I'll get the bottle filled tonight and fit the switches and controller thursday night. I don't know if I'll get any time to do any more work on the car, might be tinkering on the day... I can see this being a common occurance.

Now if only my mate will lend me a trailer with a hydrailic lift in it like the rally car boys use...hmmm that would be sweet.

 

Great work - look forward to seeing it at Curby!

 

fantastic stuff! very interested in your rear axle geometry adjusters, something i want to do but i'm not quite up to it yet. did you decide it was only worth making the inner ones diagonally adjustable?

 

What gearbox internals are you running Paul?

 

Excellent work Paul
Delighted you kept at it.

Finnally getting my own 1 out on track shortly aswell,
Booked in on a Trackday on sunday 18th of this month.


Keep up the good progress

Keith

 

It's a Quaife 6 speed, dog engagement, 4.165 final drive, mad long 1st gear. Peloquin diff. Redline shockproof gear oil. Not ideal for drag racing really, I'm getting into 5th, but should be great for track use.

 

I need 5th gear my self on drag strip but that is with standard 6 speed 02m

I am looking into a set of gears from Elite racing, 6 speed Dog kit, also mad tall 1st, at redline will see about 56mph!

Tops out at about 150 mph

Cant wait to actually get it ordered but i am also going for a SQS Seq shifter to go with it, should be interesting to compare cars on qtr mile

Cant wait to see it on sunday

 

yeah, this is good for over 40 in 1st, but will top out at 147 last time I did the calcs. problem is that was all based on a 7k rev limit and this stock 2.9 only revs to 6600 ish, and is flat above 6k

hoping to have the nitrous running this weekend if I can get the controller wired up.

see you at the pod!

 

Paul, get it re-mapped.... I know a bloke

Mine revs to 7200...

 

Well, managed to get the nitrous controller sussed out and (sort of) wired in. Although it isn't working. It should pulse the solenoids and gradually slow the pulsing over the time you've set it to, so it eventually delivers whatever you have it jetted to (by not pulsing but just opening the solenoids fully). I've got around 150bhp jets in there.....

An intial test by brookster confirmed it was fiting the gas in but it was a bit of a "suck it and see" moment as the whether I could run it.

I'd done 5 runs, managed a 14.3, equalling the time set by the other corrado when it had the 2.9 in it and decided to try the gas. I cracked open the bottle and flicked the arm switch, but sambo could hear a hissing. I quickly turned it off and popped the bonnet to see the foggers all frosted up!! ARRGGHH! just filled the not running engine with nitrous and fuel....not good. Left it for a few mins with the throttle body wide open then tried to start it again with it still open. thankfully it was fine.

The microswitch I'd fitted to the throttle body was the problem. The throttle mech was pushing the metal arm of the switch off the side of the throttle stop and it was jamming the switch closed. So I retired back to the pits after another nasp run. I bent the arm but then had to do a few more dry runs to be sure it wouldn't jam again.

Once I was confident I had no leaks and it wasn't going to jam on me I hit the gas once I'd got into 3rd gear. The effect was unreal! the exhaust note just picked up into a viscous, hard-edged roar and the car was noticiably faster, so much so i was actually laughing hysterically as I crossed the line.

A quick tweak of the knobs on the controller and went for a proper run with it on from the startline. the result? 13.6, 3/4 of a second and 10mph faster! insane.

I tried the controller in a few positions but it didn't make any difference, it's not working right, but I got down to a 13.58@107mph, which is pretty damn amazing for a totally standard VR6 engine with just a gas kit on it and a fancy gearbox. I was even changing up at 6k...

Much more to come, I might even downsize the brakes and run smaller wheels for drag racing as these yoko's are just far too hard for sprinting.

I reckon it's got a 12 in it....