Nurburg4Nowt.co.uk Mk2 Jetta Trackday Car

Abingdon track day review 15th June 07

This was our 1st UK track day and a great opportunity to see what we have learnt from our ring trips and allow ourselves a bit more freedom to push the Jetta with quite a bit less risk.



Arrived at the track nice and early. 1st to get noise tested, passed easily at only 88db at 4500rpm

The weather was forecast was rain (as usual whenever we are near a track!!) in the afternoon. With the morning looking quite sunny we wanted to make the best of the dry track







Rich doing a few dry laps to allow me to take some snaps. One thing about the airfield is you aren’t allowed very close to take photos. The official photographer is there all day but at 8 for a 9x6 colour print it seems a bit steep.

We got plenty of laps in before lunch at 1pm. Popped round the corner to tescos cafe for lunch.

Returned from lunch to very, very heavy rain



The rain did back off and the organisers opened the track. We went out and the track was surprisingly grippy. This was when we had a rather embarrassing moment........The bonnet was up for cooling before lunch, we dropped it down for lunch. When the track opened we jumped at the chance to get some laps without rain but didn’t put the pins back in

Half way round the lap at 70ish the bonnet flew up!!!! Bit of a shock but luckily no major damage to screen etc and we were able to carry on. The bonnet has a broken hinge and is worse for wear. This is after a bit of pushing out and the photo doesnt make it look that bad.



The shame is we have to get stickers made up again. Not sure what path to go with new one colour wise:

-Satin black (what it is now)
-Gloss black
-Red
-White

Any ideas what to go for?

Apart from that minor hiccup we had a great day. The Jetta really held its own in the twisties and wasn’t far off on the straights. Very happy with the car performance and the motorsport-events.com organisation. The track time available was superb shame the weather wasn’t also!

Adam & Rich

 

Update

After the trip and track day the jetta had been making some rather odd noises. We have always wanted a 2.0l conversion so when a 2.0l bottom end and some over parts cropped up at a good price we decide to get them and go for a new engine....again.

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Just started taking the front off and getting the old engine ready to come out today. The new bottom end and head still need building up but hopefully not too much work involved there.

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The dirty head bolt threads are proving hard to clean out, that seems the tricky bit right now.



Another upgrade that has been needed for a good while was the 16v brakes. Got the swap done at last. Proved very straight forward in the end. Have to wait for the new engine to test them now.

 

Sounds like you had fun on the track!

I will look forward to the next update!

 

Excellent thread well done you guys i am looking to do something similar with my 16valver.

 

This is the best thread I have read on the forum. Thank you for the inspiration as a fellow budget track car owner.

Thanks and keep this thread updated

Ian

 

Great work lads all done for a good cause! I love your car too! After removing the seat bracket in the rear i would suggest adding a rear upper strut brace to reduce the chassis twist should stiffen things up a bit if im not mistaken....!?

 

Thanks again for the positive comments.

We dont think the rear seat bracket added any strength at all, it was very flimsy.

Hawkesybaby your right a rear strut brace would be a really good idea. It is firmly on the to do list .

Little bit of work done....put the new head on the 2.0L bottom end. Building it up outside the car.


Also started stripping the old engine.


Hopefully full fitting coming very soon......

 

sorry but i posted the strut brace comment after the bit bout the seat thing comin out in a blind panic, but didnt read on lol!!! Sowwwy lmao!

 

Sorry its been so long since an update. The engine swap to a bit longer than planned due to a few complications....as usual! Its up and running okay now which is the main thing.

Here are a few pictures of whats been going on with the new engine and a few other areas.

Found a location for the new oil cooler. Made a scoop out of an old mk2 brake duct


Comparison between old and new lightened flywheel


After a little bit of fiddling the new engine was in quite quickly


Attached everything back together enough to get it in a state to attempt a start. A few goes and away it went Well happy.......except the ticking we had always had on the old engine was still there couldnt believe it. It had to be the down pipe or exhaust manifold as they were the only things carried over from the old engine that might make a noise in that area.
Did the standard procedure for any problem...a search on here!! After a lot of looking one post suggested a leaking exhaust manifold. Time to have a closer look.

Got under the car and spotted what looked like a big gap

It was so big we thought it just looked like a gap it couldnt be that big surely! Decided to look at the old engine for and signs.

Tell tale soot from the same area as the gap


We couldnt believe we had missed this while putting together 2 engines!
Went to the scrappy to pick up a cheap exhaust mani. Changed over ( a lot harder in the car than out!) and yes! ticking fixed. The new manifold isnt smoothed but probably much better by just not leaking! If you ever have ticking from that area most of the time bar full throttle check your manifold for sure.

Engine in, running pretty well and sounding good!


Oil cooler




While the car was in bits we did a few other mods

Lowered the seats on much better sub frames. The drivers is at the new lower height, passengers got done after this pic.


Battery relocated in the boot. 2 pug 306 battery box from scrappy. BMW cable also 2


BMW terminal in the engine bay


Tried to tidy a few gauge wires

 

Few exterior shots of new bonnet and bumpers back to blacked with linseed oil. Another top tip picked here on CGTI








Finally new CGTI sticker Still doesnt say paid member though.


The engine feels really quick compared to our old one. The 2.0 litre torque is much improved over the 1.8 and the new cam is fantastic, kicks in about 4-5k and really flys. Cant begin to imagine what some of you guys 1.8t cars must feel like! Rolling road on thursday to set it up properly. We will post the results.

Thanks for looking. Hopfully some bits might even be useful

Ad and Rich

 

Look's proper

 

great progress, really pleased you got the engine swapped. See you in November

Nige.

 

Thanks Nige. Got a few warm up trackdays before Cadwell to test performance and gain some skills. Took a little longer than expected so missed out on another Ring trip

 

You got like 50 ponys on a tune up on the dyno!! What, a remap? do tell. Mines a 8v and I have no idea what sort of power its putting out but 127.8 sounds pretty good.

 

this project just gets better and better!!!

incidently, was just wondering, you go to the ring, on a regular basis, i dont know if i'm looking properly, but i was trying to look for lap times throughout, to see how the cars progress was effecting its times!!! obviously the factor that your getting more experience is to be considered. but would be nice to see a development in car, over acheivements in times??? is this possible?? sorry to be a pain!!!

 

Thanks again for the positive comments.

Kev. The engine that got 128bhp had a few bits done to it...chip, smoothed inlet manifold, exhaust manifold, throttle body and the usual air filter exhaust. The main gain was probably just getting it set up well on the RR. We do think the read out maybe a little on the optimistic side also.

inoakgreen. We havent really accurately timed our ring laps as we thought it best not to get hung up on times. However the last year we were roughly doing 12ish minute lap times. Combination of taking it easy, being the first time and not a very quick car. This year we were in the 10 min bracket....high 10s probably. The car could do it quicker it is more our driving that is the limiting factor now. We feel the car is now sub 10s which is good progression from its first incarnation.

Todays Rolling Road results

Took a trip the Gerald Dale motorsports near Battle today. After a few spirited drives we know the car with its 2.0l bottom end and other mods definitely feels quicker than the 128bhp version. Not expecting the massive gains like last RR day as on that occasion its was running very poorly before.

The first run was very good 147.1 bhp and 148.4 lb ft better than expected after the fine tuning so a good start!

Gerald did a few more runs tweaking each time to find the optimal settings. The final results were excellent. Power at flywheel is 158.3 bhp and torque is 155.8 lb ft.
The print outs are below.







The power is a bit higher than expected judging by some of the results we have seen on here. The rolling road may be over reading a bit but it is the same one as the first 128bhp engine so at least we know our changes have produced 30bhp ish even if 158bhp maybe a bit above the actual figure.

Just to note this engine has a 2e bottom end, race power motorsport ported+polished head with kent cam kit (gs2h), lightened flywheel, polished inlet+exhaust manifold, air filter and full s/s system.

It sure does fly now . Cant wait for the 17th and the chance to put it through its paces at keevil track day. Anyone going?

Thanks for reading
Rich & Ad

 

Fantastic thread. I love what you've done to the car and 158 bhp is a great achievement.

 

yeah good stuff!!! i can see this car slowly developing into a 200bhp monster!!! you probably thinking "nah!!!!" but who knows!!!

 

this car is so awesome i wish my jetta was the same

 

ha ha definitely thinking nah at the moment like you say though half the time you just end up getting carried away. Especially if you start running out of things to do.

Thanks again for the comments