LOL....I've not forgot...promise...it's item number 1,450,567 on the list...but yr in luck, I'm just finishing off a couple of jobs so it'll be 1,450,565 after this week! lol
About time we had a blog update.... Has a great day all round at Castle Coombe yesterday! The main objective was to give Nick Penfold's ex Slick 50 Mk1 a shake down ready for the forthcoming Brands Hatch GP meeting of the VAG trophy, and when Nick said "bring yr crash helmet"..well..it would have been rude not to! Tim (Mitlom) brought one of his MK1 fleet along, and he & Nick had already been out by the time I got there, or I should say splashed my way there...good ol' British weather! After putting a stopwatch on both cars from the pit wall it was evident there was little in it, but what would a rusty old hillclimber make out of it.. ;D Nick very kindly left the belts slack for me.. ;D..so I was swiftly in and strapped up ready for the off. The engine fires up with no drama now...a far cry from when we first got involved with the car. We built up a bottom end earlier in the year to get Nick out on a semi-sponsored deal using Jon Wright's ex hillclimb bottom end with a freshen up and a bit of JMR re-engineering. .with Nick's old slick 50 head & Jon's old Newman 296 cam, this made 124hp at the wheels on AP Motorsport's rollers. Out on track in the wet, I forgot how bumpy Castle Coombe is!...or at least it was for now! The engine pulls strong to 7000, but it's best work is done by around 6,800...peak was 6,500 on the rollers but hanging on well to 7. After a fair few laps behind the wheel. .Tim's vids later will show all!...along with the fact I WAS in front the whole session...Eh Tim!....lol...I figured I better not either wear the engine out or park it in the barriers...it was slippery!...and brought the car back in...along with a plan to do something with the suspension. Whilst it was possible to put in consistent lap times, it was hard work. After working out where the damper settings were I took 2 clicks off the front & 3 off the rear...the springs looked fairly small in diameter so shouldn't be causing the twitching ride...and I remembered from deep in the old memory bank some of the slick 50 cars used to be set up with soft springs but firm dampers. Nick went back out on the revised settings and returned to pronounce "Im racing it like that at brands"!....it was much more drivable and predictable now. I also got a few laps in out in Tim's red rocket!...this is simply a great car!....good balance & compliance from the budget suspension, good brakes, and decent grunt from it's similar power to Nick's, all be it 1900 version. The power band felt the same in terms of speed on track, but the engine feels a bit gruntier. .helped no doubt by the bigger lung capacity & next step up cam....it's well worth the asking price too!...and will make a great trackday car for either a novice or an old hand...it just needs a JMR gearlinkage to make the package complete! It was a great day out, and for me shows how you can have some track enjoyment without 300hp. Nothing came past during my seat time...did it Tim!...and I could catch and pass everything on track, from road going Porsches to track based specials from Westfield & Radical. .yep...both pulled over and waved me through when they saw and old Mk1 Golf homing in on them!...even the current Castle Coombe saloon champ Peugeot 106 with 220hp and an awesome chassis (I know the guys well who engineered the car) succumbed to 8v Golf power! We've also had a bit of a result with a forest rally engine for Ian Godney's MK2. Based on the original ABF that was in the car when Ian bought it, piston failure from excess detonation brought it to our door with the original brief to find more flow/power from the head, and supply some better cams to improve upon the current rpm band that tailed off after 7k. Due to work commitments, Ian entrusted us to build the entire engine rather than build the block himself, along with fitting and all the dyno/rolling road work. I'm glad he did as there were a couple of engineering improvements possible over the previous spec. I like to build some tight squish into my engines as it helps suppress detonation in any spec engine...this engine has tight squish! Deeper cut out's were needed in the pistons to suit my cam choice I wanted to use. I had one of our cam partners, Piper, produce a pair of profiles to give Ian usable peak power but with with some decent punch to suit the forests and allow Ian to use a max of 8500 as requested. The cams are sub 300 duration but with strong valve acceleration which need a spring spec change to cope. The engine already had mechanical lifters with under-shim adjustment so that was ideal. I re-ported the head with due regard to it's intended use, keeping the ports & throats a sensible size to hold a high air speed and fitted a new set of R.E.C valves Ian supplied in the std sizes, and port matched the direct to head bodies which had'nt been done in the previous build I spec'd a custom long primary exhaust manifold with both length's & diameter to suit the powerband I wanted to achieve and had a new exhaust partner build it after Ian was messed around by a high profile company...they've done a fantastic job for him! I ditched the factory crank trigger wheel as these are prone to making a bid for freedom through the block at high RPM!...and made up one of my trigger kits to fit on the lower rear edge of the block and trigger off the front pulley. On the dyno it proved to be a smooth engine with good grunt from low RPM...124ib/ft @ 2,500, 150ib/ft @ 4k, 167ib/ft @ 6000...with peak power @ 8,300 making 249.4hp. I set the soft limiter at 8,650 so Ian can hit the required 8,500, with a hard cut @ 8,800 incase he gets carried away! The car felt good and strong up the road after I fitted the engine with my dyno man sat next to me on the laptop, and romped past 8k with ease in 2nd to 5th, and with 7k+ in 6th coming round, the knobbly rally tyre's floating on the road surface and my dyno man shouting OK OK! from the passenger seat, I believe Ian will find it usefull in the forest!
thanks Jason ... Some may say pics or it didn`t happen but I believe you lol ... just trying to recall / recognise the cars for myself ? Nick P ... Nickbashbosh ? Tim ... Mitlom, not sure I`ve seen `that red one`
The Red one Jason is referring to is the one on my sig below.....and as Jason has eluded to in his post I'm in the process of putting together the for sale ad for it! Some may question this as I've spent a lot of time and money in the last 6 months or so getting the car sorted and to what it is now.....the very simple answer is because I'm in the process of building another car and this was only ever going to be a stop gap Nick is Nick Penfold, Brands will be his first proper outing for 15yrs in the car after the engine let go at Combe of all places! There have been other priorities over the last 15yrs but he has now decided to get the car sorted and back out on track...hence the JMR involvement, Jason has put together the engine to replace the old deceased unit! [video=youtube_share;MA_qj8ablrs]http://youtu.be/MA_qj8ablrs[/video]
Cracking result on that valver engine - not many of these about that make proper power so very well done indeed. Looks like a very nice rally car and should go like stink! Whats he going to do for an airfilter or box? Cheers Rob
Tim / Jason, Thanks for the info & clarifications ... nosey old b....r me lol Jason, As Rob said ... that`s a cracking valver, thanks for sharing the details
Hi James, No problem I've hopefully managed to link a video in my above post....this was the only proper dry session we got before the heavens opened. I'll try and get some video up of the wet sessions over the next few days. Cheers, Tim
good work, I bet that engine is fantastic to drive with that torque curve just goes to show there's no 'magic bullet' or motor-sport secret to making good power, just good knowledge, experience and attention to detail! Just wish I could afford one now!
Jason, have you got any plots from Alvin's dyno of something fairly standard e.g. KR 16v after a KJet tune-up? This would backup the 249bhp figure
Back it up?....it's a calibrated engine dyno not a rolling road with guessstimated flywheel figures...lol...so we believe it's fairly accurate. No std VW engine's, but I plan a few tests soon with carb & injection on a std KR or ABF. My 1800 8v hillclimb engines make 190hp on this dyno, I've tested a 2ltr KR based engine making 192hp with tame cams, ported head, DTH Jenvey's, 2ltr Ford Pinto's making 202hp etc. Other race & championship winning engine builders use it to good effect too, and engines tested on other dyno's have always shown more power elsewhere after being run here. If I can get my videos to play off my phone with sound you'll hear it's not a run of the mill 16v with bolt on bits.
Thanks... It was'nt that bad...just save hard for a while! lol No there's no magic...just bolting bits together wont give results tho. Yeah it's grunty, but there's more possible.
lol...yr welcome. Thanks James...we'll be doing some more 16v development very soon with our own MK2...watch this space as they say...
Cheers Rob Blimmey Rob...how was the cryogenic freezing!....lol....dont answer that!.... True...they do need proper engineering like anything...then the results come. The car is very good...lots of good bits, drive's very well. It runs a deep foam filter.
Hows it attached to the dth trumpets? I like dth bodies but they dont make it easy to fit a filter, i have lost count of the number of versions i've tried over the years
I was thinking that 8.2k rpm is a border line for abf. Piston reaches speeds near 25m/s if I'm remember well.
