Ibiza Cupra Sport rally project....CODENAME PROJECT: CHAV

Love how this thread has turned into an oldschool British Leyland thread instead of a VAG one.....no complaints here!!!

 

Finished racing these monkeys in 92, long before a 296 was the cam. Last motor had a reverse sprint cam, not many if any will know what that is!
Jon

 

makes you go really fast backwards??

 

LOL. Sprint cam (next one up to 649) with the inlet and exhaust duration/lift swapped around
Jon

 

Ok, so you've seen some action shots, now for some technical shots of all the bits and bobs i've done to the car since buying the car a little over a year ago.

First up was to sort out the knackered suspension. All the previous owner had done was fit some Eibach lowering springs - trouble was the shocks were goosed and the suspension bushes all shot.....seeing as a picture says a thousand words, here are a few with what i did. Warning - if you are expecting sexy shots of overpriced coilovers, think again. Rallying can be damaging, so the thought of ripping a grands worth of Proflex off a corner makes me feel sick, so sensibly priced suspension for me it is!!!









Last one is of the springs i've used. Standard height 'normal' springs. I know I will be shunned by 99% of you for running standard height, but I managed to rip a hole in my exhaust manifold on one event due to the car hitting the road on a particularly harsh compression!!! So since then, the only way is up (suspension wise!!!).

Next up, tackle the goosed bushes.....

Out with the old....



And in with the new....



I decided to use Powerflex ploy bushes as i personnally think they are very good, and because this isn't a track orientated build I still want some refinement (ish) as i do use the car on the road so rock hard harsh rides ain't really my aim.

Next up was a new water pump, cam belt, tensioner, and powersteering belt.



After the issue with the exhaust manifold, I decided to get a sump guard fitted quick smart. Ebay threw up an old one from a Sierra Cosworth that just managed to fit in the back of the wifes Focus....result!!! Made of Dural, it may be old, but it is strong and huge!!! I thought that it would need to be cut down to fit (hense the pen lines on it), but after welding up a frame (made of 3mm angle) that drops down from the front crossmember thingy and a couple of spacer brackets (made from 3mm plate) mounted off the rear subframe mounts, the guard fits without modification and covers the chassis legs and the manifold so the underside at the front is well protected.

 

Here are some more photo's of bit i'd got up on the car pre christmas.

First up, seeing as everyone loves a nice shiney motorsport wheel....got these ebay bargains....





And a selection of the rubber I use on rallies. Might seem like overkill to some of you, but some of the lanes we go down are really rough, muddy and potholed, so the last thing you want is to be heading off into the undergrowth or picking up a puncture - these tyres have super stiff and therefore strong sidewalls.

 

Strong wheels ... my wheel of choice for the Mk1 GTI, not the lightest but no matter to me.

Thank you for keeping us updated

 

I was surprised how heavy they are.....but they are 'the' wheel for any rally car....although i'm partial to a TH too!!!!

Got them super cheap on ebay with some part worn Yoko AO48's on - sold the tyres on so the wheels worked out at 80 for a set of 4 in very very good condition....or a least they were until my DS3000 pads started splattering them with red hot brake dust and they have since got a bit of gravel rash too (look more authentic that way!!!)

I've since got another set of 4 that someone had rattle canned in satin black - look pants!!! In the process of stripping them to get them painted up to match the set above. I know powder coating might be more durable, stronger, better....bla bla bla, but rally car wheels take a hammering so pointless spending good money on powder coating. Paint you can touch up or blow over fairly easily too. Plus I ain't a wheel tart and money is better spend elsewhere.

 

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here so a little update of what I've been up to.

Mid February saw myself enter the Rali Bryniau Clwyd in north wales. I was originally from this area and feels like my local event so seeing as i'd missed it previously I thought It rude not to have a bash. Trouble was my nav (and wife) fell ill the week running up to the rally so there was a last minute scramble to find a super sub. Luckily for me (unlucky for the other bloke) another nav had become available as he managed to crash his drivers rally golf the week before the event....resulting in him needing a seat and so a last minute partnership was born.

The build up to the event was all straight forward (apart from a missus spewing up!) with minimal pre rally prep needed...just the usual spanner check and that was about it (gotta love VAG cars). On the day of the rally it had snowed on the tops and I thought 'great' as I like driving in the snow - trouble was it had melted through the day and as night fell, all that moisture on the roads froze making the north wales lanes more like ice rinks than tarmac roads!!

The thing was, I was oblivious to this as the run out from the start to the first selective (we don't call them stages) was fine and the car felt planted. In the queue for the start I was doing something at the back of the car and the car behind me pulled in - the driver got out as exclaimed how "F'in slippy" it was. I just shrugged and thought he was playing at a bit of gamesmanship. Then the bloke from the car in front of me joined us saying much the same - again I didn't know what he was on about either.

I did however, know what he was on about as I approached the second corner!! mud and ice all over the road and I sailed straight on...luckily not hitting anything but sliding off the road into mud! A quick reverse back and luckily I had enough grip so as not to get stuck!

That was my last 'off' of the night but there were several bum twitching moments on black ice all the way through the event. Loads of cars went off and we almost crashed in to one of the recovery trucks pulling a car out on a super icy open 90 right on a moorland section....the face on the bloke in the truck was so funny as I was understeering towards him...ha ha.

Anyway, we had a decent run and apart from the ice all went to plan...even managed to catch and pass a BMW. Ended up finishing 10th overall and 1st class....both of us were very happy with the result and considering neither of us had sat in a car together until that night I reckon we did alright. Event was won by a Subaru Imprezza - reckon 4 wheel drive was an advantage!!!

 

Now for some technical stuff again.....

After the suspension was sorted I was fed up with the amount of engine movement I was getting - figured 90k miles had taken its toll on the mounts so new ones were in order. So stupidly I bought a standard new one as I thought the old one would be completely shot and a fresh new one would sort out any engine shaking....errrr...nope!

A quick search on internet land and a bit of advice from a fellow rally/Ibiza owner revealed the hockey puck idea. At first I was all for it as it offered a cheap and simple solution. Then I remembered that behind a place I used to work at was a rubber fabricators. So I went round and had a chat with the owner - very helpful bloke and clearly saw that I was interested in all the machinery and how 'stuff' is made so showed me round. After a quick mental design I gave him some dimensions and decided on a hardness of rubber (can't remember the 'shore rating' now though so stuffed if I want another pair making) and for a few quid more than a hockey puck I've ended up with a mount that sits very nicely in the OEM mount and has reduced vibration no end.




Standard on the left....new custom uprated mount on the right. I did end up drilling a few 10mm holes in it to soften them ever so slightly as they didn't offer much movement in solid form. This is all experimentation anyway and seeing as they weren't expensive I figured so what if I get them wrong as I can always go back and get some more made.




I replaced front and rear mounts with these new ones and got a new genuine VW one for the gearbox end......they ain't cheap are they!!!!

 

Obviously because the sort of rallying I do happens at night, lighting is quite important. Standard bulbs have made way for some Osram and Philips uprated efforts that off 100 or so Watts but only draw 55W so as to not overload the standard wiring. You can buy silly expensive bulbs but seems overkill for my budget motorsport philosophy.

Most events allow spotlights so a cheap and rather rusty set of Cibie Super Oscars were found on my favourite auction site so I set about welding in some fresh steel to the shells and then media blasting them and giving them a fresh coat of satin black for the backs and a layer or two of 'kiwi' for the rims. Look smart if I don't say so myself. Philips Extreme plus bulbs sit in their - again fairly cheap and very powerful for what you pay.

The 'spots' are mounted on homemade brackets fabricated from 5mm steel plate. They look simple and almost as if they are just a straight but of bar....but looks can be deceiving. I didn't want to cut a big hole in the bumper as this looks messy and if doing an event in the West Mercia area you have to remove any extra lighting - so a big gaping hole in the bumper isn't exactly neat is it?

Due to the way the front panel behind the bumper sits I had to dog leg the lamp brackets and after a little fettling and a tickle with the welder and grinder a neat set of brackets were knocked up and if I want to hide the slit holes in the bumper, all I have to do is move the number plate back up to its original position....now that is neat.

Top lamp steadies are mounted off 3mm alloy plates that bolt to the top of the front panel and kink under the bonnets front edge - again, didn't want to be drilling holes in the bonnet...like the steel brackets, why do a job the easy way if you can spend hours fabricating a solution!!!! Daft I know but that is me i'm afraid and I get just as much enjoyment out of fabricating than I do the competing.

 

Nice job

 

Next up on the techy front was a slight water leak I was having from the water take off union that's on the gearbox end of the engine. Looked at buying a new one, but plastic stuff just doesn't float my boat as it degrades over time - as mine had. The plastic rim on the inside of the rubber washer (see red arrow below) had perished so bad it came away in my fingers when I took the union off to try and reseal it. Also noticed that the union wouldn't sit flat on the mating face anymore as the force of the rubber O ring had pushed it away from the engine which was also causing it to leak.

Instead of buying new I went into work, had a chat with the machinist in the engineering department and came away with this......









No more coolant loss, much more durable, and we all love a bit of machined ally!!!!!!

 

Very nice and great ideas with the new parts

When are you next out bum twitching?

 

Cheers....When you can't get the right parts (or if the proper ones are silly money) then there is no option but make them yourself.

I've actually already been out 'bum twitching' (such a bad expression!) competing since the Bryniau....just haven't had time to write a report or post the photo from that event. Didn't do that well to be honest but had a really good time on the rally....and to be honest if i've got a smile on my face at the end of a rally and the car is in more or less one piece then i'm happy.

Rally report and more techy homebrew to come.......

 

Mmmmmmmmmmm alloy
Hi tech DIY rocks

 

Any leftovers? I'd love to get my hands on those!

 

Sorry no leftovers.....took a fair amount of lath and CNC work so wouldn't like to think how much this would be if I priced it up. The lump of ally at the start must have been worth a few quid anyway...perks of the job! I did think about making 2, but I seriously doubt this will ever break or wear out will it, so daft spending the time on a second one for it to sit on my shelf.....does look nice though.

Unfortunately this is the sort of thing that needs to be made in a batch in china to make it economical for you guys to buy it....the rubber O ring was cheap though!!!

 

Not been able to do any rallies recently due to a persistent top end rattle from the trusty ABF....so the car has looked like this quite often recently.




It all started on the Rali Bryniau in February. Engine started to rattle towards the end of the event and we both thought 'tappet'. So oil and filter changed for the following rally (Moonbeam) and all seemed ok for a while but by the half way halt the engine sounded more like a diesel than a lovely petrol valver!!! Made it round the rally and home fine (i'm not a trailer queen you see!!!) and then the following week saw me strip all the tappets out and clean them. Still no difference.

Next I discovered they were in fact the heavy ones rather than the light weight SEAT ones. A spare SEAT engine made its way into the garage along with other goodies so I set about stripping that to relieve it of it's tappets....stripped, cleaned, oiled, bled.....still no chuffing difference!!!!

So the hunt for a quiet engine continues - next up is an oil pressure gauge to test if oil is getting to the tappets.



Bit of techy homebrew happened over the last few weeks too....with the aid of CAD too!!!!......Cardboard Aided Design!!!!!











As you can see, I quite like a bit of fabrication. All this cost the princely sum of 20 including the windage tray.....someone on here was selling the same sort of thing (my baffle design was superior though....just sayin!) for 90, so saved a few pennies there that I can put towards fixing the shagged engine...ha ha

 

So......I've tried and failed to sort the current engine out and stop it from rattling away like a diesel. I've not given up on it entirely as i'm sure it is a simple (if expensive) solution.

I acquired this one for not a lot of money so seeing as it is already sat on my engine stand, I set about refurbing this unit instead of the one in the car.





It was local and a genuine SEAT lump, so to good an opportunity to pass up really. Due to unknown condition, mileage etc etc, rather than just plonk it in the car, i'm setting about checking everything and refurbing what I can before letting it loose on a rally.....don't want another ABF doing impressions of a diesel now do we!!!!

All ancillaries stripped off with no bother and setting about cleaning the block and head ready for in depth inspection.




All looks as to be expected in here - no lumps missing from pistons....or rather no pistons missing!!!!! Even the bores still have nice honing marks on them and this head ain't been off before so must be the original markings - these engines do wear very well (as in not at all!) thanks to VAG under tuning them....and designing them well in the first place!








Next up the head - nothing screaming "I've been shagged within an inch of my life" (or should that read 25mm seeing as its European?) here so a simple strip down, lap in of valves and a check of the guides should do the job here.....famous last words!





On a slightly different note.......might have got myself some light weight goodies of the car.....more on those later once project 'engine' is sorted.