This was the tedious bit. Filling and sanding...... never again. (I have said that before) Fitted some aero catches I struggled to find someone who would sponsor a spray job. So I found a place that would rent their spray booth out. 3 hours for R500(about 40 quid) and I could do it myself. All I needed was to bring my own spray gun. In the spray booth ready to go 45 minutes later, its all sprayed, bake for an hour and let cool. A total of 4 hours from the time I loaded the car up to the time I arrived at my garage back at the track. Shiny
We tend to go with disc size (280mm vs 288mm) because, whilst on paper at least, the changeover matches the OBD 1/OBD 2 changeover it's not necessarily the case in reality! The "later" 288mm caliper along with the TT carriers does indeed allow the fitment of the TT 312mm discs.
Cheers! Thanks for the info. Ill hopefully be able to start work on the MK3 this weekend. Definitly looking at the 312mm disc route. Its awesome when you dont have to follow rules building a car!
One thing I am allowed to do in class A thats not allowed in the other classes is to run without a brake booster. The master cylinder must remain a VW part. Here you can see the adaptor plate in place.
The engine was the same one I took out my MK1 race car. Just cleaned it up a little and got it ready to drop in. Its a bit of a Frankenstein motor. Its a 2L sub assembly with a AGU 20v head. Obviously the 20v head has large combustion chambers compared with an 8 or 20v. 2L 16v nissan pistons re-pocketed for 20v works well. Problem with those pistons is they tend to break around the oil ring journal after a year or so on the track. Dave Ingle, the guy who originally built this engine has his own pistons made by Wiseco. I have dropped a set of those in with a set of Arrow rods. Dave also makes the ITB's, camshafts, fuel injection, vernier pulleys among other things. You can see from the pic that the head has 2 cam pulleys. He does this mod too and runs it with Opel(vauxhall) 16v belts. When this motor was first built, it made around 180kw (240hp). Alot of de-tuning was needed.
With a bit of fettling the motor is in and sitting 20mm lower Front back on and test fitting new radiator. Ended up using a Mk2 16v one. Its a little bigger than the original one Had to make up my own cooling hoses. Not a problem, just a couple of silicone bends and some hose clamps, some S/Steel pipes for the straight bits. Fuel hoses are -6 braided hoses with aeroquip fittings.
I waited for ages for the shocks to arrive, but I got them eventually. Next job was to make the camber plates fit.......... In here........ Not too much of a big deal. Angle grinder and pencil grinder and some patience. Get everything lined up and drill the bolt holes. All in and ready to hang the shocks
Thanks mate Its my favourite part of the car. I kept it from my old race car and will probably keep using it in future projects. I dont have any other pics with me now, Im sitting offshore right now but should be home in a few days. Anything in particular you would like to see? (Please dont say the pistons, it aint gonna happen) Shocks hanging, caliper fitted. 280mm disks on. Getting there. Disk slotted, Braided hoses fitted, wheel studs ready for the wheels. Do that on all 4 corners
Suspension in and on the ground. One of those big moments when building a car and having it on axle stands for weeks on end. Now that the car was on the ground, it was time to tackle the electrical side. I kept the standard loom and fuse box, stripped back and all the unused stuff was removed. I just kept the basics like the lights, indicators, wipers etc. For the fuel pumps, dash and engine management I made a separate loom to run them. I used the centre console as my switch and guage panel. I layed up some carbon fibre and laminated it to some light ply used in model aeroplanes as a base for the switches and gauges. Took ages to cut everything out and get it mounted. Behind the centre console Here is the console back in place and all wired up and working. I stripped the old instrument cluster out and used it as a base for the Race technology Dash2 display. It works!! Thats what it looks like from the drivers seat
After all the wiring was done it was off to Powerflow exhausts for the exhaust system. Back at my pit garage ready for some test laps
I have done quite a few laps with the car and still struggling to get the car to handle how I want it. The rear is definitly too hard for the shocks to cope with on our bumpy circuit. I took it out in the wet, big mistake. I haven't driven around the circuit in anger in nearly a year. Pushed it a little too hard and ended up losing it through the kink and putting it backwards into the tire wall. Bootlid slightly dented and some scratches on the rear bumper. Got off very lightly, brought me back a notch or two. I have spent a good few track days and practice sessions playing with ride heights and shock settings, learning the new tire pressures to run with the heavier car. Eventually came time for its first race meeting, 10 Dec. The whole idea of the race was part of the cars devolpment. Not interested in a position, just prove the car can finish a race and try sit behind someone in the same class and see if I can manage to keep up. Turns out I was hoping for too much. Lap 1 of qualifying saw me miss 5th gear and the guy slip streaming me tagged me on the rear left side putting me into the pit wall on the main straight. Whats the point in trying to slip stream a car that has never raced before with a driver that hasnt raced in a year? Another story.... Some pics of the damage
Once again my mate (who works for beer) was a champ. As soon as the car arrived off the flatbed, he started stripping and putting the spares in. We could have made it back in time for the 1st race, but then I saw this At this point I had had enough for the day and decided that the rest of it was best spent in the clubhouse bar.
A couple of old videos in the MK1 2L 20V. I havent loaded up much more for now. But Ill add some when when I can [video=youtube;mYstun0VmMc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYstun0VmMc[/video] [video=youtube;rpbMzP9tCL0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpbMzP9tCL0[/video]
