Nurburg4Nowt.co.uk Mk2 Jetta Trackday Car

Last update before we set off. Only about 5 hours now!

Main job for today was to get the alignment set up for track use. We went local to

Abell Tyres & Exhaust Ltd, Bellbrook Industrial Uckfield, East Sussex (01825 765944)

We had heard good things about the guys there and rightly so. They managed to fit us in at the last minute with no problems and did the set up as we requested. Top notch service and really nice guys to boot. Good to see places like this are still about and we will be going back for sure.

Below is the set up we went for





Loading the car up bit by bit



Quick snap of our basic sound set up to try and keep the motorway boredom at bay

 

Well we made it back form the ring!

Had a great trip. The bank holiday weather was really quite terrible meaning we didnt get half as many laps as we wanted but we still had a great time.

We arrived on Friday in time to see a good proportion of the 4hour BFGoodrich race which made very enjoyable viewing in the sunshine







The track was open for 2 hours after the race. It was so busy, even getting on track was tricky but we managed it and had some great first laps. It made all the work worth while feeling the huge improvements to the handling since last year.

Up early the next day and greeted by rain . We still headed to the track but decided to go around the museum instead of attempting wet laps. Recommend the museum if you have a free morning.







We left the museum to be greeted by fairly nice weather. Straight out to the track!!



Turns out we had some of our best laps over the whole trip

The track was still very busy and there were a few incidents happening but not too many.
Car parks were full as normal









The track closed a bit early due to an incident. We headed back to the hotel looking forward to a full days running tomorrow



Day 3 started well. Looked dark but most importantly dry....until about 4 km into the drive to the ring and then rain

With the hope it would clear up we thought we would do some viewing first.

 

The rain never really looked like stopping. It did nearly dry up around 3ish so we headed to the car park.

Just as we turned up we saw Nige in his Mk2 Golf pull in. We had met him a couple days ago and chatted to him on here

This is Niges car lapping



He said the track was pretty dry and offered a pax lap. Rich jumped in and we decided to follow each other for 1/2 lap each. I really enjoyed it and found it useful....want your extra speed too Nige Cheers for the lap.





When we finished that lap rich jumped in the jetta to try and get a dry lap but sadly the rain started again not even half way round. As it got wetter Rich had a bit of a moment so we decided we wouldnt do anymore laps now it was so wet. Sadly that was our last action as it was back to the ferry tomorrow.

Even with the bad weather we had a great time and continued learning more on each visit.

Thanks to all the people who sponsored us ( Should be over 1k in 2 trips now)
The guys we met out there, Nige, others
The companies that helped us.

The jetta did fantastically all trip. It leaked a bit in the wet mind you . The only issue popped up on the way home. As you let of the gas slowly but keep a bit of load on the engine sounds a bit like a diesel......any ideas?!? Performance seems unaffected.

Only big mods we fancy after the trip are lower the seats after sitting in Niges more racy position and maybe some better tyres.

Hopefully track day on the 15th this month....got the bug for sure!

Adam and Rich

 

Hi Guys,

Great to actually meet you in person, was really good to see the jetta in the flesh. I enjoyed our lap, hopefully we can do it again sometime and see how its improved...

Apart from me pulling away once we got into 4th & 5th, the jetta was about as quick as the golf, it was just the long fast sections where you struggled, but I do have more power and probably less weight.

Nige.

 

Looks like a great trip & some nice pics you took there.

Was it pinking?

 

I thought that to mike, i know when they had it dyno'd it was well below par on original timings so it was retarded off to get max BHP out of it (And did they ever), so i think it was probably Just pinking under low loaded revs as it sorts the fuel out.

 

Yeah Dans right.

After the rolling road it was still pinking a little but was flying and had a healthy bhp so we left it like that for the trip.

On and after the laps it was fine. The diesel noise started on the motorway coming home and is now pretty noisy all the time.

The tappets are bad but this seems a deeper noise....not sure if it may still be related?!

Thanks
Adam

 

If it has got weak bottom end then i spose retarding the timing off to get Max Power, Will show after time, it will increase the presure on the Bottom end as its Fireing as close to TDC as possible to get max power, tappets are easy sorted compare to a Big end or Con Rod, take it in and get it looked at as soon as you can, may be back to the guys who did the rolling road for you, i know you got a good feeling about there work and they are only down the road..............................................

 

Yeah I think thats a good plan. Im hoping it is tappet related. Ill go and see a mechanic that knows a fair bit about mk2s first. He is even closer than the rr place

If he reckons its not causing damage then wont be able to resist booking the trackday on the 15th

 

Saw our mechanic friend today. He reckons the car is ok to go on the track day. He seems to think it sounds like it maybe tappet related or a worn cam.

While on our ring trip during spells stuck hiding from the rain we discussed a few mods to do to the jetta when we got back.

Ive managed to get a few done in the last couple days.

Fitted brake cooling ducts for the deep splitter. 2 from the scrappy





We had a old broken oil pressure gauge glued into the top din space that was annoying us. Made it look a bit neater with a single mounting plate featuring the gauges and heater controls. Also relocated the cooling fan switch so its easy to put on after a few laps



Also done some removing.....the remaining floor, boot, door and tunnel sound deadening has now gone along with the metal rear seat bracket



This added up to 10kg a total of 14kg with the other bag of sound deadening

New look rear area....no leaving stuff in the on show boot now!





Finally can take a picture like you golf guys


Also fitted a net for helmets

 

cool

 

Won't removing the rear seat back and shelf have a negative effect on the rigidity of the shell, or are you adding a rear strut brace.

Still loving this thread BTW, keep doing stuff and telling us about it. I'm hooked.

 

Should'nt make to much difference tbh as the full cage makes the chassis alot more rigid from the offset but it probably would benefit from a rear strut brace.

 

Certainly does
But we're still thinking of a rear strut brace, or maybe just gettting a bar welded in?

 

Just weld a bar between the turrets as high as possible, it will be fine then spay it.

 

Fantastic thread! Well done. I think its so much more fun and a real challenge the way you have done it on a budget.

Would be easy to take it some where and shout throw a 20V Turbo lump in it. But thats not what its all about.

 

That is a fantastic build

 

Do you have a 'to do' list you can share with us?

 

The thing is that the "Done List" is so Damn Huge i dread to think whats on the "to do list" how bigger web space does the club have................................

 

Your exactly right. Apart from being a lot cheaper doing it yourself it also gives you a hobby and you learn alot. If we had just got some company to throw a big engine in and do the other bits then we would have probably got bored with the project by now. It seems to evolve quite well we you do it bit by bit.

Dan, your right but we try to fool ourselves that the todo list is nearly empty but stuff keeps getting added to it somehow!!

Rich is picking up a 2.0L bottom end tonight and we have bought a ported+polished head with kent cam kit (gs2h) from a member on here. After the trip the head area has been sounding a bit worse for wear so we have decided to build a bit more tuned 2.0l outside the car then just spend a few days swapping it over. This should allow us to still do the odd trackday if we fancy it.

The other soon todo item is larger front brakes. We have had toledo calipers sitting in the garge for a while so just need the bigger hubs to finish the brakes off.

Oh and an oil cooler kit is waiting to get used too All I can think of for the time being!