Ibiza Cupra Sport 16v iTB Track Car - Aero & Engine Rebuild

Yeah only did the 1.8t and diff last year.
I'll have to try and see the snot on track this year, what's the furthest north you get? Myself and pals will be at cadwell at some point..

 

Got to do Cadwell Park again! I love that place, got to be my favourite track at the moment.

I'll go to any track, ideally I want to get around them all so keep me updated on your track days!

Maybe heading to Spa in the Summer, my mate wants to do a Motocross track out there so going to load my van up with tools and his bike and trailer in tow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Croft is also a local circuit to me which is one you must try also.
Spa is class, not driven round but I've been 3 times pre and post ring trips to watch mates do track days.
Enjoy.

Ps. My car was half full of fuel when we weighed it..

 

Also you can't miss us, our hotel is a mint silver warrior....(aka stepvan)

 

Nice choice of weapons there and I'm loving that Van looks like an American UPS delivery van, puts my T5 to shame lol. At least I know where to go for a cuppa if I make the same track day

 

It's an ex American RAF security van( same as ups ones but aluminium body) kettles always on

 

Keep me updated on the track days, if I'm off work then I will see if I can make a few with you guys! I am fancying Rockingham soon. Only been there once for French Car Show where I booked a load of sessions when my mates looked around the show (not a french fan lol) but I did really enjoy the track so would like to revisit.

 

Did you do any track last weekend then Dave? I did my local circuit on a track evening, proved head gasket ok and new rad and oil cooler all good but the car got intermittent issue with map sensor collecting a little oil and not allowing car to boost. Ive blocked the turbo inlet pipe return from catch tank to help eliminate it now so I'll need to have a sneaky run up the road on trade plates to make sure it's fine before we go to croft on 02 May( bank holiday)

 

Pembrey Circuit April 2016

The morning started off damp, cold and extremely windy! Stupidly decided to put up my tent which is "heavy duty" but before I managed to support it the wind bent and broken some of the bars!

The sighting lap saw me coming off the track, which wasn't my finest hour! Totally my fault, getting a feel for the car and making sure there was no knocks got a bit of understeer (cold tyres, damp track) lifted off and then oversteer I was too rusty to correct it quick enough and off into in grass! Doh.... some abuse in the paddock and even one of the marshals giving me crap.

First session out and going into my 4th lap, braking and downshifting into the hairpin and something didn't feel right.... went to accelerate out of the corner and all I had was the engine rev'in. Red flagged the session to get me towed off where I found I hadn't tighten the gear linkage up enough.

After that the car felt good, the areo work really showing it was worth doing and lap times were a second to second & half quicker than when I was at Pembrey in 2014. A lot less steering angle being put into the car but the rear end was a bit loose! Here's a video clip comparing a lap from 2014 and a lap with the aero;

[video=youtube;AZ3vfIr9m7E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ3vfIr9m7E[/video]

One problem I found was that my oil catch tank was filling up quickly to the point I drained almost 1.5 litres through out the day from the tank, after a engine leak down test it's pointing at the Accusump emptying when oil pressures drop in the engine and the increase of pressure from the Accusump and then the pressure increase from the engine along with the slow refill of the Accsump.... Excess pressure & oil got to go somewhere! Fix is under way which involves a new larger oil catch tank and a return to sump feed.

With the rear end feeling loose on the left hand bend I decided to take Nige's advise on the rear wing and raise it up into cleaner air, rather try this than add more angle and instantly the rear grip improved. I couldn't believe it was like day & night once I raised this wing!

I just need to learn how to drive with the aero now and start to get into my head that I can take some corners without lifting to very little braking but that will come to me over time. Got to believe in the laws of pyhsics I guess.

Here's a few photos from the day and a video clip of some of my sessions & breakdown (sorry I wasn't recording when I was on the sighting lap).















[video=youtube;y0yTD-WXFmk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0yTD-WXFmk[/video]

 

Always good to read your reports and especially to find you're still doing things that bring down you lap times. Inspirational!

 

Hi Dave, I notice your not using the weighted arm on the gear change, did you notice much different with it off?

 

It was removed the same time when the shifter, gearbox and new cables fitted. If you look there are different to standard ones so the weighted arm wouldn't fit.

 

I thought I`d typed a long reply earlier.

Good to see you feeling the benefits, but I can`t pretend I`m surprised

Now you know why i said you`d need a spoiler once you added that splitter !

What are your apex speeds ? Did you datalog or just look at the laptime from the video ?


Gotta be happy with that though

 

I've fitted a Pitking Lap Timer but that failed me later lol.

I've been timing myself on the video to get the times, unsure of the apex speeds sorry.

Just got to learn to drive with the aero now, will sort out this oil tank issue and then book Combe before going further!

Aiming to head to Spa in my summer shutdown


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Looking very quick and lively through the fast stuff! Spa should be fun now with the extra aero added.

 

Yea thanks for the warning. I would have never of thought the rear wing would be so effective, even with one fitted (too low) the front end grip was a lot more than the rear could handle.

That double left (Dehli) was probably the ideal corner to test the aero... Can understand why Pembrey was a good testing ground for F1 & BTCC teams lol

 

Pembrey is awesome for testing. Super technical

 

There may not be any updates since May but every time I think of selling my Cupra to finance my MK1 build I just read a few pages here and I'm inspired again.

Love this little racer.

Cheers

Paul

 

Hi Paul, sorry about the lack of updates..... here's one

 

Right long time no typing!!!!

Since my last update after Pembrey, I had trouble with the oil catch tank and fitted a new one, did another track day at Combe, broke the suspension, went for another design oil catch tank, the wife was pregnant (which was a nightmare 9 months for us) and she give birth to another beautiful daughter!

And in-between all that been messing about with the Transporter, turning it into a day van with a leisure battery, 240v and swivel seats.

So lets get back on track with these updates:

After Pembrey I had a problem with the 1 litre oil catch tank spitting out oil, this was due to the recent addition of the Accusump. When it detected the oil pressure getting low in the engine it will dump 80psi back into it but they was causing it to spit out of the tank.

So after speaking to my engine builder we decided to got for a 2.5 lite tank (Accusump is 2 litres) and add in a return to sump feed.









CASTLE COMBE 25/07/16







The snot was performing very well and was hoping to see the improvements with the aero at this track since it's the one place that I was done many track days & action days at. The snot had never felt so good around this track, the turn in was so positive, with less steering angle and going into Quary in 4th instead of 3rd.

This corner was always a problem for the car because in 4th I was just out of the power and found I had to slow down to go into 3rd and then power out but now I'm entering the corner in 4th and the power is spot on.... this is down to entering the corner with more speed (thanks aero) with less steering angle on and I'm able to get on the power in 4th. That one corner made all this aero stuff worth while!!!

Entering into Tower Corner and the best way to explain the feeling of the car is like it was "dancing on tarmac" unreal feeling!!

But sadly I did bring out the only red flag of the day, lost gear selection going into Tower and had to limp my way to the exit lane where I had to get towed off. Turned out the circlip on the shaft running through the pedal box, clutch and brake pedal had popped off and the shaft worked its way out.... so lucky not to have snapped the brake pedal clip here.


Seat out and while making a clip to get me back out I found the missing one, refitted and back out!

The oil tank issue has been a lot better but still causing me concern


No where near the oil loss I had at Pembrey but still more than I want!! Engine oil level seemed good all day so thats the main thing I guess.

While out on my last session I felt something was a bit out on the steering, wanted to switch over to the slicks I had purchased a while ago to compare the Kumho V70 to the Dunlop Hard slicks so good time to have a look at any problems.

While jacking the passenger side front up the whole wheel moved, to my shock this was the problem!


A M10 bolt was used (instead of M12) to get a bit more camber on that side (I didn't do this), I did test the torque on the bolt the morning of the track day and although I couldn't get the torque it felt "tight"..... Stupid decision and I won't be doing again! The thread had stripped, this could have ended soon bad, I never overlook anything with this car and the one time I did and it could have cost me a lot!!!! Prefect time to go home and I leave this pic here


New rims

Few pics from the day












[video=youtube_share;iBibXG26JiA]https://youtu.be/iBibXG26JiA[/video]

On inspection after Combe, I had stripped the coilover down to get repaired and refitted new M12 bolts all around and still managed to get the camber I need on the passenger side. Fitted Oil Tank V3.0 that is now more like a swirl pot, tube shaped with baffles after chatting with Lars @ AH Fabrication of my problem he made this up for me.


The brake pads were shot after Combe, so a call to Godspeed Brakes and they recommended me some CL Brake Pads RC6




Just got to cut down my rear studs now to take the new rims and then I'm ready to get the suspension set up again and look for some more track time.

Sorry about the delay but the past few months have been mental and only last week I had finally got to work on the snot since our daughter was born in September let alone keep this page up to date.